I’ve been spending a few months questioning my decision to move back to a DSLR camera for shooting events and I’m being put off by the weight of the camera and lens, the lens I’ve been looking at is the Sigma 85mm F1.4 art series and the combined weight of this with the D800e would be over 2,100g which is just to much weight for me to carry.
So what other options are there, well there’s Sony and the A7 III which is only 640[g] so not much heavier than my Fuji X-T3 and the 85mm G master lens which isn’t that much heavier than the 56mm that I already use, the weight of both the A7 III and 85mm lens will be half of the Nikon and that’s a big difference. I know the full-frame sensor will be better in low light but a few things are making me question the Sony.
The first is the fact that I know the menu is a nightmare to navigate, but once everything is set I know that I won’t need to go back into the menu so that’s not that much of a problem. The big ones for me are the fact the camera has 5 axis image stabilisation and I’ve never gotten on with a camera that has this, but again from everything I’ve read, photographers swear by it saying it this best stabilisation on the market so I’m willing to give this a go. The other thing I’m not sure I can live with is the back screen, which doesn’t pull out in portrait mode this is something I use every day with the Fujifilm and I’m not sure how I’d get on losing that, however, the Nikon D800e which I was going to purchase doesn’t have articulated screen so again I’m I making excuses.
I guess these are just small things that over time I’d just get used to.
I was watching the latest video from Omar (The Visually Impaired Photographer) and in this video, he talks briefly about how much he can really on the fast and accurate autofocus on the Sony, Omar is a photographer whose opinion I trust and after watching this video I’ve made the decision to switch to the Sony A7 III.
I’ve also been looking at the Sony A7c as an alternative to the Ricoh GRII, moving from the APSC sensor to full-frame would give me better lowlight performance and better auto-focus while shooting events. Even if I decided to get an A7c I won’t sell my Ricoh as I love using the camera on the streets and I’m more than happy with the images I get from shooting on days with harsh light, also I know I couldn’t live without the snap focus, the GR is one of the best cameras on the market and perfect for shooting on the busy streets.
I’m hoping that moving to a new camera will relight the spark I need in my work, something fresh and we all need this at some point in our creative life’s.
Photo from smphone.info