10 Reasons Why a Pro Photographer Left Nikon and started shooting with Sony

[Jon_D]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wM_5nROeaw

i have to say sony is growing momentum even in my surroundings.

peope who had a DSLR in the past switching to the A7 and even more buying a A6000 or A5100.
i have A6000 myself and i can see why people love it.

it´s so much more fun walking and traveling with the small A6000.
since i have the A6000 my canon DSLRs stay at home for most short trips.

i guess sony will have a loyal customer in me and i will buy the A7000 too when it´s releaed.
giving the A6000 to my girlfriend.

 

[noncho]

Yeah right... I love people who shoot within the range 24 - 85mm to tell me how camera with NO dedicated small, reasonably bright primes over 55mm is great for all.

 

[Jon_D]

Yeah right... I love people who shoot within the range 24 - 85mm to tell me how camera with NO dedicated small, reasonably bright primes over 55mm is great for all.

i doubt he will tell birders that, for example, a sony A6000 is the best camera for them.
it´s usually fanboys who do silly assumptions and put words in other peoples mouth, not working professionals.

beside the A6000 kit lens i have bought the FF 24-70mm F4 OSS and ordered the FE 16-35mm F4.
they are fullframe so i can use them when i decide to buy a A7 too.

i am very satisfied with that kit for traveling.

i think hard about selling my old 7D and buying a sony A7.
that would bring me from 4 canon bodys in the past down to only one (5D MK3).

 

[Hjalmarg1]

Yeah right... I love people who shoot within the range 24 - 85mm to tell me how camera with NO dedicated small, reasonably bright primes over 55mm is great for all.

I have been waiting for Canon to deliver a mirrorless camera with decent AF and tired to wait I bought the a6000 and I am very satisfied, even though I cannot compare with my 5D3, it still offers a very good IQ in a very portable package that I use for travel. Most of my pictures (90%) are within the 24-70mm focal lenght so I use the available primes and planing to get the 16-70mm f4 as all-around lens.

 

[whothafunk]

juvenile video. A6000 and 11fps, ok. but doesn't have a state of the art AF to keep track of fast, erratic moving subjects like D4s and 1Dx have. not weather sealed, etc. and there are so many more reasons this video is just.. meh. especially the social media part and stealing thunder.. that part was just plain funny.

but as long as a6000 is enough for his needs, thats fine.

 

[noncho]

Yes, but he is trying to convince the audience that things like WiFi are dedicated to mirrorless and Sony.

Hello, I have WiFi in my 70D, better servo focus and much better ergonomics with lenses bigger than a coffee mug.

And the state that A6000 is so cheap... Why didn't he said anything about the lenses like 10-18 F4 for 850$?
The only few good reasonable priced Sony primes for crop are between 20 and 50mm(16 2.8 is NOT good for me).

P.S. I want interchangeable system for ultra-wide, very fast primes and good telephotos. Otherwise RX100 is totally enough.

 

[AcutancePhotography]

Yeah right... I love people who shoot within the range 24 - 85mm to tell me how camera with NO dedicated small, reasonably bright primes over 55mm is great for all.

Is that what this person said? Or did they say that it would be great for them?

 

[Maui5150]

A few thoughts.

1) The guy is a jackweed - Seems he gets mugged / robbed a lot, and I think I understand why

2) Half the features he talks about are available for Canon and Nikon - Plop in an Eye-Fi card and I can do remote shooting and change the settings from my phone or tablet with an App.

3) Remote tethered shooting can be great (getting camera in hard to reach places for interesting shots) but Wi-Fi gets overloaded quickly. Here is a test. Do a 3 second burst at 11 FPS with moving subjects from a tablet and wait to see how long it takes to get images transfered or get responsiveness back to your camera.

4) I actually PREFER the Eye-Fi route - why? Because TECHNOLOGY changes. Wi-Fi standards change over time and if you bake it into the camera, you are stuck. The next version of wi-fi is not something you will be able to change with a firmware update

5) Construction. Construction. Construction. The Sony is NOT weather sealed. Most of the heavier more rugged pro-DSLRs have some for of magnesium alloy body. I do notice a difference in range and strength of connection between my 5D MK III and my back up video t5i body.

6) I do like the Electric Viewfinder and can see some of the benefits.

7) I like "big" I find the size of the Canon's to be great as well as the layout of the controls to be superb where it is easy for me to adjust while still looking through the viewfinder. I find with smaller camera, the layout is more "awkward" at least for me to change several settings very quickly.

All and all I am glad some of these cameras are out there. Nice to have options, a decent travel backup, and have a feeling these will start pushing the bar on both Canon and Nikon. Survival instinct is a good thing.

8) I am not a big fan of Wi-Fi built in. I have used it, and in so many cases, I notice it gets bogged down. Might be nice if instead of building it in, Canon and Nikon give the ability to add modules for it, main reason being standards change... for example, MU-MIMO will only really start coming into being next year. The new 802.ac standard is just really hitting the market in stride and while 802.ac is nice, 802.ax looks to be monster with 10+ GBps transfer - so to my point, as these new standards come out, new antennas and hardware are needed, I would rather pop in an Eye-Fi Mobi Xtreme (Made the Xtreme up) into my Canon 5D MK IV and take advantage of 802.ax than be sitting there waiting on 802.n.

Expandability is nice.

 

[iron-t]

Have you checked out the reviewer's photos? They are terrible. Busy, haphazard, schizoid compositions, along with some of the worst, ugliest, most distracting HDR over-processing I have ever seen. Beyond his obnoxious use of superlatives to describe the Sony bodies, his work does nothing to lend credibility to his statements.

That's not to say the Sony bodies aren't good--I have never used one--just that the reviewer is kind of a joke. Also the concept of posting unedited images straight from the camera onto social media makes me gag. I have trouble imagining a photographer who maintains any sort of pride in his work using that feature.

Note too that Jon_D's posts are almost always directly related to promoting Sony cameras. He's as much a Sony shill as Lanier is.

 

[sanj]

I appreciated most of what he said. All these features sound really nice.
I should get one.
But I will keep my 1dx and tele lenses for wildlife work.

 

[AprilForever]

A few thoughts.

1) The guy is a jackweed - Seems he gets mugged / robbed a lot, and I think I understand why

2) Half the features he talks about are available for Canon and Nikon - Plop in an Eye-Fi card and I can do remote shooting and change the settings from my phone or tablet with an App.

3) Remote tethered shooting can be great (getting camera in hard to reach places for interesting shots) but Wi-Fi gets overloaded quickly. Here is a test. Do a 3 second burst at 11 FPS with moving subjects from a tablet and wait to see how long it takes to get images transfered or get responsiveness back to your camera.

4) I actually PREFER the Eye-Fi route - why? Because TECHNOLOGY changes. Wi-Fi standards change over time and if you bake it into the camera, you are stuck. The next version of wi-fi is not something you will be able to change with a firmware update

5) Construction. Construction. Construction. The Sony is NOT weather sealed. Most of the heavier more rugged pro-DSLRs have some for of magnesium alloy body. I do notice a difference in range and strength of connection between my 5D MK III and my back up video t5i body.

6) I do like the Electric Viewfinder and can see some of the benefits.

7) I like "big" I find the size of the Canon's to be great as well as the layout of the controls to be superb where it is easy for me to adjust while still looking through the viewfinder. I find with smaller camera, the layout is more "awkward" at least for me to change several settings very quickly.

All and all I am glad some of these cameras are out there. Nice to have options, a decent travel backup, and have a feeling these will start pushing the bar on both Canon and Nikon. Survival instinct is a good thing.

8) I am not a big fan of Wi-Fi built in. I have used it, and in so many cases, I notice it gets bogged down. Might be nice if instead of building it in, Canon and Nikon give the ability to add modules for it, main reason being standards change... for example, MU-MIMO will only really start coming into being next year. The new 802.ac standard is just really hitting the market in stride and while 802.ac is nice, 802.ax looks to be monster with 10+ GBps transfer - so to my point, as these new standards come out, new antennas and hardware are needed, I would rather pop in an Eye-Fi Mobi Xtreme (Made the Xtreme up) into my Canon 5D MK IV and take advantage of 802.ax than be sitting there waiting on 802.n.

Expandability is nice.

Indeed!

 

[YuengLinger]

Getting a sense that the OP is campaigning.

Have no fear, Sony will fumble any success with cameras as they have with most other aspects of the conglomerate these past 15 years. TV's. Entertainment industry. MP3 players. Smartphones. Camcorders. Computers.

The company is breaking up, spinning off, and in very serious trouble:

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21618863-dismal-results-show-need-more-vigorous-restructuring-pouring-cold-water

As wonderful as their sensors might be, and even Sony branded bodies, what's the support infrastructure? Are they going to turn around a serious repair within a week?

 

[Maui5150]

Getting a sense that the OP is campaigning.

Have no fear, Sony will fumble any success with cameras as they have with most other aspects of the conglomerate these past 15 years. TV's. Entertainment industry. MP3 players. Smartphones. Camcorders. Computers.

The company is breaking up, spinning off, and in very serious trouble:

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21618863-dismal-results-show-need-more-vigorous-restructuring-pouring-cold-water

As wonderful as their sensors might be, and even Sony branded bodies, what's the support infrastructure? Are they going to turn around a serious repair within a week?

Wait. Heard Sony is relaunching the Walkman.

 

[NancyP]

Sony A7r and A7s have unique specialty uses. A7r is currently the only way to use Canon glass on a Sony Exmor 36 MP sensor. Also, HCam/ Hartblei has the coolest idea ever for landscape/architecture shooters: a Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8 mounted on a tilt/shift adapter that fits onto the Sony E mount (A7 series). Drool. http://www.hartblei.de/en/whatsnew.htm

A7s is superior for extreme low light work, though of course one pays in terms of resolution, it has 12 MP.

 

[distant.star]

.
Couple of thoughts...

1. Moderators should take note. This is the third thread I've seen on this topic. I made the mistake of originating one after one had already been done. Now we have a third -- that I know of. Combine these three?

2. When your first sentence is an ad hominem attack (jackweed? what kind of thing is that to say about a professional photographer?) I have no interest in anything else you have to say. If you can't be reasonable and courteous, at least you should protect your own credibility.

3. Whether or not you like his opinions on what equipment works best for him, he's a guy who bothered to travel to Ethiopia to make a video like this:

http://youtu.be/Py8-bUSrG-k

 

[jdramirez]

I watched the video... I think he was a little overzealous about some of his points, 1.5 crop factor being better than a 1.6 because the sensor is bigger...

But I didn't hate all of his points. I have my mkiii that I'm very happy with, but I use it personally as well as semi professionally...

I'd like to be able to let the wife send a photo from an Easter egg hunt, Halloween, etc... it would make it easier rather than getting home, waiting a few days for me to edit the images, and then finally post them to Facebook... 3 days late... But if it really was an issue, I'd just Dave ajpg to a micro sd slot and have her send them that way....

So basically I'm saying, it would be nice, but I don't care.

 

[AcutancePhotography]

.

2. When your first sentence is an ad hominem attack (jackweed? what kind of thing is that to say about a professional photographer?) I have no interest in anything else you have to say. If you can't be reasonable and courteous, at least you should protect your own credibility.

Not only is this the Internets Tubes, but Canonrumors specifically. Ad hominem attacks is, unfortunatly, a common response to someone with a different opinion.

 

[drjlo]

it´s so much more fun walking and traveling with the small A6000.
since i have the A6000 my canon DSLRs stay at home for most short trips.

Watched the video, and while many things are true, some things are just misleading for novices looking to purchase.

1. Fails to mention his beloved A7S is only 12 MP vs. 36 MP of the Nikons. 12 MP FF files have their place but still far from best for everything.

2. Misrepresents cross-compatibility by putting on a Nikon flash on the Sony and firing without mentioning there will be no iTTL metering, all manual adjustment only. He makes it sound like you can put any flash from Nikon, Canon, and others and they will all work the same way as they do on native bodies.

P.S. Also forgets to mention that for those who want their flash to iTTL, Sony's current flagship flash HVL-F60M has a huge overheating/shutting-down problem that Sony refuses to even acknowledge as a problem but a "feature."

3. Completly glosses over the lack of native Sony lenses over CaNikon choices. Some people like Autofocus.

4. In over-glorifying the Sony EVF, completes forgets to mention EVF lag, cartoonish colors, noise in low light, etc. Yes I tried the Sony A7 EVF; it ain't no OVF.

 

[aj1575]

The grass is always greener on the other side, and it is still greener on the other side after you changed the sides:
http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/30/technology/sony/index.html?iid=TL_Popular

There is not everything better with another camera system or manufacturer; Sony also has its problems.

 

[Maui5150]

The grass is always greener on the other side, and it is still greener on the other side after you changed the sides:
http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/30/technology/sony/index.html?iid=TL_Popular

There is not everything better with another camera system or manufacturer; Sony also has its problems.

+100

I think Sony makes some very nice products. I have had a hard time buying most of them because I find them over priced. When Sony was ruling the TVs I still had a hard time paying for some of their sets when I would look them side by side to a Toshiba or Mitsubishi that was $400 less and I liked the picture better.

Problem for companies like Sony is what Alvin Tofler referred to as "Future Shock" Tech is accelerating. If you are a large company like Sony, you have to keep up compared to a company that is specialized. Sony can lead in key areas, but they have already been dicing up the company because they can't accelerate in all areas at same time.

I don't think Sony has enough to thrive and survive in the Camera arena outside of niche adopters. I do think they make a great sensor and perhaps their calling is innovating the sensor area for other bodies.

Who knows. Remember, Betamax technically was superior to VHS but lost out because of their licensing/control. I can see Sonys camera being the same, superior low light and DR but not enough adopters, lenses.

As the DSLr market tightens, I think Sony will have a hard time being profitable in this market