This is rather curious. So a company that employs smart and sophisticated marketing is to be despised for employing good business practices? Do you have problems with Canon and Nikon providing free loaners to Pros at major sporting events? Frankly, I wish all companies would employ these practices. Sony makes damn good gear as does Canon and Nikon. If the cameras were bad, then the attempts to curry favor with influencers would backfire when YTubers get frustrating with cameras that just don't perform on par with the competition (hint: Nikon, this comment is for you). Maybe if that class action lawsuit is successful, I'll change my opinion, but I'm not seeing a lot of reports of Sony cameras failing or being more unreliable than other brands despite their lesser level of weather sealing.
Criticize the brand for poor performance or lack of desired features, but disliking a brand for trying to get information out to the public just doesn't make sense to me.
I have no problem with smart and sophisticated marketing. I do have a problem with fake reviews and the well organized troll network that Sony has. Yes, I have no idea if Sony is involved in any way, but it is odd that there seems to be no equivalent Nikon troll or Canon troll network, immediately rushing out video reviews and other online content - often using the exact same phrasing and text. That aside, having owned (briefly) both the A7 and the A7 II, they were definitely poor performers despite their industry leading specs. Both cameras badly underexposed by a stop or more. The viewfinders (which I'm sure had class leading specs) were dark and below par compared to the competition. The ergonomics (as many have noted) were very poor, in my opinion.
I think that Sony's problems with sensor dust have been widely documented. Some well respected photographers have made some interesting observations. Ming Thein, in his review of the Sony A7 II says: "
I’ve already got stubborn dust spots on mine that cannot be dislodged with blower or shaker. It will have to be wet cleaned, but the sensor suspension mechanism is delicate and this makes me very nervous. Note: in four years of multiple Olympus bodies and over 100,000 images plus lens changes with no heed for ambient dust, I’ve
never had to wet clean a sensor. Or even use a blower, for that matter.
From Graham Lloyd's blog:
Today, I used Sony’s clean sensor feature, which vibrates like heck for a second or so, then requires you to turn off the camera. Of all the visible dust, not a single speck budged in spite of doing so 10 times. This is not stuck-on dust as dabbing with a micro fiber cloth proves.
Other camera vendors use ultrasonic cleaning, and that works pretty well. Not Sony—it’s a total joke, a placebo checklist useless feature. Shame on Sony for such worthless tech.
Those are older reviews, but if you think that the problem has now been solved. Photoblogger says this in an article from Aug. 2, 2021:
There are lots of fantastic things about Sony cameras. But one of the biggest flaws they all have is build quality. Do they work in the rain? Sure. Do they get dusty? Oh yeah. Unfortunately, it’s a problem with lots of Sony cameras. We just got done reviewing a few lenses on Sony bodies, and we ran into lots of dust issues. And guess what? Those issues seldom happen with other camera systems.
And…
This, of course, has lead our team to believe that there’s an inherent fault with the mount. This hasn’t happened with Canon, Panasonic, Leica, or Nikon cameras when using weather-sealed lenses.
If I thought Sony cameras were made as well as Canon or Olympus (the two brands I have used for years) I would be glad to say so, even if I have a dislike for their trolling activity. But I don't believe they even come particularly close when it comes to quality.