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Why didn't I just get the a7riii in the first place!!!!

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nacho2710 said:
PhilthePhrame said:
nacho2710 said:
PhilthePhrame said:
I sold my a7R2 and a6300 to buy the a7R3. I kept the a6000. I'm happy with the a7R3, but wish I'd kept the a6300 - it's a great body. You've left yourself with a great kit. Enjoy!
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May I ask what are you missing about A6300? Weight and size or anything else?

Thanks in advance!
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What I am missing about the a6300 is its snappy focus and silent shutter, and it did feel nice in the hand. It also feels more refined.

I kept the a6000 because of its light weight for travel daily walk-about and because its the re-sell value is so low compared to its "value" I thought I may as well keep it.
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Oh, I see. Thanks and sorry. I understood that you were missing the snappy focus of the A6300 with your new A7RIII. I didn’t realize you kept the A6000, which is not like the A6300/A6500 and A7RIII in the AF deparment. I recently adquired the A9 and I’m trying to put to my taste. Anyway, I have a great deal in a brand new A7RIII from an authorized dealer so I’m trying to decide between get it and be done or not. I can’t test it or rent it so... But everybody seem quite happy with the A7RIiI AF. The same or very simliar to the A6300/6500 one. Can you confirm that point?

thanks in advance!
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I'm very pleased with the AF of the a7R3, but it is hard to compare with the a6300, as I sold it several weeks before getting the a7R3. If I had to say, I'd say the a6300 was slightly better. The only reason to get the a6300 would be if you do a lot of action wildlife and need to crop a lot, but there is a pretty lively debate about that here:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/60752434

Personally, I have the C1 button on the a7R3 programmed to toggle between Full Frame and aps-c, and that seems to work for me.
 
gary stepic said:
I will still keep the a6300. i always like to have two cameras when shooting sports, one with a wide lens and one with a longer lens. It is also a great travel camera for places where I may not want to take the a7riii. Even traveling I like to have two cameras.

My wife passed away last May so my decision making process was not that great last summer. Common advice is never make big decisions soon after something like that happens and I should have heeded that advice. i also bought a Canon 5DM4 which I am selling. After getting all my new Canon gear I remembered why I got rid of it a couple years earlier - the size and weight.

Part of my personal recovery was to get back into photography. She passed away from a serious stroke so my life basically came to a halt last couple of years. Originally I was not going to shoot anymore sports after over 10 years shooting them all for college and high school. Some friends of mine talked me into getting back into UNM Lobo basketball and posting my galleries in a sports fan internet site.

Gary
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Trust me, I have given that a lot of thought and i am really not trying to replace her loss with "things". The silver lining to her loss is I am much freer to travel and financially I was left in pretty good shape. If i were not to do any sports shooting the a7rii and a6300 would have been all I ever needed. I initially bought a Canon system thinking the 5DM4 could double duty as a sports camera along with the 80D. After getting all my gear it reminding me why I sold my dslr stuff a few years earlier - the size and weight.

I have never been able to give up a dream of doing landscape photography where i could produce decent sized prints. i am enjoying the sports shooting but have no intention of doing as much as i did before. i believe going from the a7rii to a7riii in the long run will save me money. I will have a couple of basketball games to shoot soon and if the a7riii/a6300 combo work well I can sell my 80D. If shooting at 4.0 with the a7riii can give me files as clean at high iso as the 80D then i can also sell my Canon 70-200 2.8 and Canon 24-70 2.8 (I just purchased the 24-105). I am thinking the FE70-200 4.0 can work really well for basketball games on the A7riii because when right under the basket it will not be as tight as using a 70-200 on a crop camera and if not tight enough from the corner I can use the crop mode.

Getting away from sports, traveling has always been something i have enjoyed. One of my projects will be to do a travel and photography blog (for just a travel blog the RX10iii probably is good enough). Part of my travel will be to National Parks and other great places to see in my area. I would never have to be concerned about being able to get high quality files with the a7riii. The only limitations would be my own artistic and technical abilities. Maybe i will never sell a large landscape print, but at least I know technically there are not limitations to the possibility.

To summarize I finally feel I can use photography to lift my spirits, knowing it will never be a substitute for replacing my wife. It will be a good part of the healing process.

Gary
 
You should do whatever makes you happy. When you ask for opinions in a forum people will want to jump on a pedestal and preach. At the end of the day, whatever brings you joy and helps you heal is all that matters as long as no one is getting hurt in the process.
 
gary stepic said:
Trust me, I have given that a lot of thought and i am really not trying to replace her loss with "things". The silver lining to her loss is I am much freer to travel and financially I was left in pretty good shape. If i were not to do any sports shooting the a7rii and a6300 would have been all I ever needed. I initially bought a Canon system thinking the 5DM4 could double duty as a sports camera along with the 80D. After getting all my gear it reminding me why I sold my dslr stuff a few years earlier - the size and weight.

I have never been able to give up a dream of doing landscape photography where i could produce decent sized prints. i am enjoying the sports shooting but have no intention of doing as much as i did before. i believe going from the a7rii to a7riii in the long run will save me money. I will have a couple of basketball games to shoot soon and if the a7riii/a6300 combo work well I can sell my 80D. If shooting at 4.0 with the a7riii can give me files as clean at high iso as the 80D then i can also sell my Canon 70-200 2.8 and Canon 24-70 2.8 (I just purchased the 24-105). I am thinking the FE70-200 4.0 can work really well for basketball games on the A7riii because when right under the basket it will not be as tight as using a 70-200 on a crop camera and if not tight enough from the corner I can use the crop mode.

Getting away from sports, traveling has always been something i have enjoyed. One of my projects will be to do a travel and photography blog (for just a travel blog the RX10iii probably is good enough). Part of my travel will be to National Parks and other great places to see in my area. I would never have to be concerned about being able to get high quality files with the a7riii. The only limitations would be my own artistic and technical abilities. Maybe i will never sell a large landscape print, but at least I know technically there are not limitations to the possibility.

To summarize I finally feel I can use photography to lift my spirits, knowing it will never be a substitute for replacing my wife. It will be a good part of the healing process.

Gary
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No apology needed, and I am aware people do rely on things to make them happy which is often a mistake.

I do understand your point and i have thought the a6300 could be enough for the reasons you stated. I do like having two cameras when I travel so I can minimize changing lenses (that is why I still like my RX10 iii). i think I have finally settled on what I really want with some minor adjustments to be made. By the time I sell my Canon 5DM4. 80D, 70-200 2.8, 24-70 2.8, 16-35 4.0, Fuji XT20 with 18-55, Pany FZ1000, and Sony a7rii that I just bought I can afford the a7riii!

Then I can keep things fairly simple. For walking around cities and towns I could have the RX10 iii with the 10-18 on the a6300 for ultra wide shots. If I need a higher quality file I would also take the 16-70. That is a small versatile kit more than enough for posting on the internet and I can get files for nice sized prints.

When I visit National Parks or other really scenic places I like the idea of the larger files even though as you stated in all reality the a6300 could be good enough. Other lenses I will take are the Voightlander 15mm and Canon 100-400. I am toying with the idea of replacing the 100-400 with the smaller Sony FE 70-300. I will be spending a couple nights in the Grand Canyon village in a few weeks so will get a good idea if I want to keep the longer lens.

I am intrigued by the dynamic range of the a7riii, another reason I want to have the dual purpose of sports and landscapes with this camera. The arena I shoot in has some lighting issues where better dynamic range could make for a nicer file (I will soon find out).

Gary
 
PhilthePhrame said:
nacho2710 said:
PhilthePhrame said:
nacho2710 said:
PhilthePhrame said:
I sold my a7R2 and a6300 to buy the a7R3. I kept the a6000. I'm happy with the a7R3, but wish I'd kept the a6300 - it's a great body. You've left yourself with a great kit. Enjoy!
Click to expand...
May I ask what are you missing about A6300? Weight and size or anything else?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
What I am missing about the a6300 is its snappy focus and silent shutter, and it did feel nice in the hand. It also feels more refined.

I kept the a6000 because of its light weight for travel daily walk-about and because its the re-sell value is so low compared to its "value" I thought I may as well keep it.
Click to expand...
Oh, I see. Thanks and sorry. I understood that you were missing the snappy focus of the A6300 with your new A7RIII. I didn’t realize you kept the A6000, which is not like the A6300/A6500 and A7RIII in the AF deparment. I recently adquired the A9 and I’m trying to put to my taste. Anyway, I have a great deal in a brand new A7RIII from an authorized dealer so I’m trying to decide between get it and be done or not. I can’t test it or rent it so... But everybody seem quite happy with the A7RIiI AF. The same or very simliar to the A6300/6500 one. Can you confirm that point?

thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
I'm very pleased with the AF of the a7R3, but it is hard to compare with the a6300, as I sold it several weeks before getting the a7R3. If I had to say, I'd say the a6300 was slightly better. The only reason to get the a6300 would be if you do a lot of action wildlife and need to crop a lot, but there is a pretty lively debate about that here:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/60752434

Personally, I have the C1 button on the a7R3 programmed to toggle between Full Frame and aps-c, and that seems to work for me.
Click to expand...
it’s strange because the A7RIII can focus down to -3 EV and the A6300 can do it at -1 EV. Anyway, the PDAF points of the A6300 cover much on the frame so maybe that’s the explanation. And everybody seem happy with the AF in these cameras.
 
The 7r3 is an incredible camera. You won't be disappointed. AF and general speed is a big step up from the 7r2, and the ISO performance seems a touch better too. And dual cards.
 
I just upgraded to an A7riii a few days ago along with replacing my 70-200 F4 with a new 70-200 F2.8. I've only shot one basketball game so far with the new setup in a very dark gymnasium. I am impressed, the focus speed and performance seems to be significantly improved.

As for the Gmaster lens I don't think I could ever go back to the F4, it's that much better, in challenging conditions at least. Prior to getting the 2.8 version I defaulted to my 85mm Batis for many of the games, just to keep the shutter speeds up and noise down. The beauty of the A7rii was that I could crop the pictures and still end up with excellent results. Something that isn't as easy to do with the smaller APS-C cameras. IMO they don't compare to the new Full-Frames when pushing the sensor hard.
 
So you have not used the FE 70-200 4.0 with the new a7riii? I am guessing it is the camera making the difference or do you think the GM focuses better than the 4.0 FE?

I shot my first game last night with the a7riii and 70-200 4.0 and at first struggled. I thought it was because I was right by the basket and the 70-200 range was a little too close because did not seem to lock on quickly. From the corner no problem with the lens.
 
gary stepic said:
So you have not used the FE 70-200 4.0 with the new a7riii? I am guessing it is the camera making the difference or do you think the GM focuses better than the 4.0 FE?

I shot my first game last night with the a7riii and 70-200 4.0 and at first struggled. I thought it was because I was right by the basket and the 70-200 range was a little too close because did not seem to lock on quickly. From the corner no problem with the lens.

--
http://www.thetruthresource.org
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I own FE 70-200G/4.0 OSS. It's a very good lens but not AF very fast in low light. Recently I bought FE 70-200 GM, a quite different story, AF very fast in low light on A9. F/4 version is for traveling while f2.8 version is for sport, action, event, portrait and wildlife. Personally I didn't upgrade to A7r III yet from A7r II as I also own A9 and I carry two cameras into trips. If sport is your main shooting area, then A9 is a better choice that complements your A7r II well, that is my experience.

From my understanding, the reason GM version AF is faster is not just one-stop aperture but on dual AF motor implementation similar to FE 100-400 GM.

--
https://www.flickr.com/photos/55485085@N04/albums
 
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I did not get the opportunity to use the 70-200 f4 with the new camera so my experience is certainly limited in that aspect. I do think the enhanced focussing is attributable to the camera body. I would attribute the increased performance to the extra stop, keeping the ISO just that much lower, or the shutter speed high enough to really stop the action. The GM glass seems to be top notch as well albeit I've only had the lens a few days...

Can't say I'm that happy with how much the lens cost though :-D
 
Oh, almost forgot it is heavy. The F4 is certainly more pleasurable to carry around.
 
Ckrappraisal said:
I just upgraded to an A7riii a few days ago along with replacing my 70-200 F4 with a new 70-200 F2.8. I've only shot one basketball game so far with the new setup in a very dark gymnasium. I am impressed, the focus speed and performance seems to be significantly improved.

As for the Gmaster lens I don't think I could ever go back to the F4, it's that much better, in challenging conditions at least. Prior to getting the 2.8 version I defaulted to my 85mm Batis for many of the games, just to keep the shutter speeds up and noise down. The beauty of the A7rii was that I could crop the pictures and still end up with excellent results. Something that isn't as easy to do with the smaller APS-C cameras. IMO they don't compare to the new Full-Frames when pushing the sensor hard.
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I actually pulled the trigger on the A7RIII yesterday. Can't wait to get my hands on it. I do love Fuji quality and design concepts, but I'm looking forward to the greater flexibility of the Sony.
 
gary stepic said:
I am aware of what the a9 can do but my first priority was a landscape camera. I can now travel more than i ever have before and want to start visiting National parks.

I will not make any money shooting sports and never really needed to "machine gun" shoot.

Something that I have never seen discussed when comparing a9 to a7riii when shooting sports is the dynamic range difference. For me, because of the situation I described in this thread is improved dynamic range may be a bigger deal than a faster shoot rate. Maybe in the real world no difference but I will soon find out.

Gary
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I am going to just have to live with the crappy lighting of our arena. Here is a gallery of some shots I took a couple days ago -

Loading…

garystepic.zenfolio.com

I really struggle in post because if I do my post in the evening photos look bright and in the daytime they look dark. In a lot of arenas there is a row of lights a little behind the baseline pointing inward to the court (but not our arena) and it makes a huge difference. I often have to use highlight and shadow adjustments because the players faces will be bright and bodies dark. I manually expose for the games which gives best results overall but not always. I really had to light the cheerleader photo as she was standing on the court but close to the baseline.

I still had to lighten the ISO 4000 files some but I can get away with the Sony FE 4.0 70-200 lens. I did struggle a little with getting focused shots close to me, not sure if it was the lens or just me. Normally not a problem with the 80D and Canon 70-200.
 
Photos look great 👍

What focus settings are working best for you?
 
Flexible spot medium, High Continuous autofocus, AFC balanced emphasis, AF track 3. I normally set the kelvin to 3900 but used auto white balance and was pleased how well it did. Big improvement from years past when you would never trust auto white balance for indoor lighting.

I shot raw and the sd card was a SanDisk extreme 90 mb/s card. I just got my Sony G card today. I did not think the card had any effect since I rarely machine gun shots.

i am tempted to shoot a men's game tomorrow and a fast burst (probably where faster card will make a difference) could come in handy when someone comes in for a dunk. If not tomorrow I will be shooting at least one men's game the week after next during our conference tournament.

Gary

--
http://www.thetruthresource.org
 
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