Re: 2022 - Moving to Sony Alpha and making NX line a backup, anyone else?
Onetwoshot wrote:
I was wondering, since it is not discussed a lot if big NX fans switch to another system or have done so... although the quietness on this board suggests not many are using the system so surely they left somewhere else... What have you moved on to?
Recent Black Friday deals have been so tempting. I have bought a Sony a7iii and a Lumix S5 with the intention of only keeping one. I will return the S5 but still not 100% on the a7iii (other than the fact that I got it for a really good deal - £1080 body only.)
I own 3 x NX1, 1 x NX500, 2 x GNX and almost all lenses in the NX system (bar 10, 20 and the older kit zooms) - some doubles. I have also added a Lumix gx80 for portability/ holiday shooter (love the evf that nx500 lacks and the ibis)
Bought a lot of my gear at really competitive prices and if I sell some doubles I get more than I paid for them so they end up paying for the Sony A7iii (this would mean that the A7iii would end up costing me £300)
Still, I do not want to sell all my NX gear, I want to keep and use them especially in good daylight and for video as the file sizes are smaller than Sony's.
On purchasing the a7iii ...why? - I want the low light ability and high ISO performance, fast zoom lenses or primes similar to S line on NX from third party suppliers (example Tamron 28-75 f2.8) are now more affordable and generally the feeling of slowly transitioning into a system that is supported and for which lenses selection offering is evergrowing. I also want to capture fast movements of my child who will shortly discover running and for the future will look into earning money from photography.
Why not sure? - The Sony shutter failure fear, the fear of GAS - so many lenses so many choices and sometimes this also makes it harder when chosing lenses, or the fact that it could render my NX gear useless or forgotten in the cupboard.
Has anyone else invested in another system alongside the NX? Was it a good move for you or do you feel that Full Frame is not worth the extra?
I still have my NX1 and S lenses but I bought the Sony A7III in 2018 mainly for the full frame look. I loved the rendering of the FF f/1.4 lenses, the low light performance in photo and video (big upgrade for high ISO in video) and the AF tracking.
However, I think the NX1 dynamic range is almost as good (more noise though), the NX colors are IMHO better with better brightness and uniformity, the NX1 sensor has really something magic ... And a big downside of the Sony A7 series is the IBIS. Yes the NX1 has no IBIS but the the Sony IBIS is really pretty bad, especially when compared with Panasonic or Canon. Also keep in mind if you buy the A7III and you're interested in video, you will only get 8bits and the full frame 4K at 25fps (30fps add a slight crop). The very bad IBIS along with the 24 or 25fps result in a very jerky image if you plan to use your camera without tripod or gimbal.
The NX1 is also sharper in video, there is a lot of talk about NX1 sharpness everywhere, I saw people said the NX1 was oversharpened and other said it was just resolution and not artificial sharpening. I used and tested a lot of cameras since several years and Im pretty sure the truth lies somewhere in-between. There is no doubt there is some sharpening added on the 6K image but I think it is added before downsampling and processed in a way to give the impression of extra resolution without a lot of moire, there is also a very agressive noise reduction fonction (sadly there is no way to turn it off) who give the image a very clean look. All of this with the still very good cpu inside the camera and the awesome colors (mainly blue and green) result in a very unique video image at lower ISO, subjects seem almost bigger on the screen than with other camera and really "pop" out of the picture. It is hard to replicate this effect with other camera because even 6K cameras use a different way of downsampling for their 4K modes. If you add more sharpening in video with these cameras, you will end with a very ugly picture, most of the time with false colors and moire. This is why the 4K video of the NX1 is still very special today.
The main selling point of Sony (IMO) is autofocus and lenses selection. I also have two Panasonic S FF cameras, the S1 and S5, and these camera are a joy to use compared to A7III and A7SIII. Focus is not as fast in video and the lenses choice is more limited but you get far better IBIS (a very important point for me), better noise reduction handling, better colors, better video log, high resolution mode, better ergonomic and more video modes like 6K and raw (the Sony A7SIII has 4K 60fps without crop and 4K 120fps though, but the price is higher and the sensor is only 12MP, the drop in resolution is noticeable even in video).
