jb

Consider the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 DG DN Macro Art. I am not a fan of the sliding clutch style focus ring on the Sony. The Sigma is a much cleaner design and a pleasure to use. Optical and build quality is superb as usual for the "Art" line. The de-clickable aperture ring also make the Sigma useful for video.

The Nikon Z 400mm f/4.5 VR S is a brilliant design. The size and weight of a 70-200. I'd be first in line for an E-mount version.

Visualizing and utilizing studio strobes was a skill I did not invest enough time and effort into early on. I learned studio techniques using continuous lighting. That was fine for a fixed studio location, but severely limited location lighting options. I got a crash course in strobes from a generous mentor I assisted. Strobes are invaluable tools in many situations. The latest TTL radio triggering tools have made strobes more accessible and somewhat more plug-and-play. The foundation of strobe knowledge I got many years ago is as relevant today as ever.

Compatibility Information for the older a9 and a7 III cameras shows they are "Compatible, but with restrictions" related to newer lenses like the FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II and FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS. What exactly does that mean? There were firmware updates for those cameras related to "Aperture Drive in AF" and OSS "Mode 3". Are the cameras completely compatible with those new lens features as long as they have the firmware updates? Or are there still some limitations?

I have not upgraded (yet). My understanding is that you can select lower resolution full frame raw files on the a7RM5. Is that correct? If so, I am very interested in that option. For sports, 60mp is usually way to much and slows down shooting and editing. Capturing full frame raw 26mp files would be great for high speed bursts.

Above should read "I have not seen the issue again". (I cannot edit the previous post)

The cards were brand new when I first reported this. The scan utility only works with Sony branded card, not Sabrent. I have seen the issue again after many uses in this and other cameras.

The FE 50mm f2.8 Macro is fantastic. Super sharp. No distortion. It's great for products and portraits. Only downside is the antiquated and noisy AF. I wish Sony would update this little jewel.

Sure, I'd like to have high quality native E-mount T/S lenses. I'd be fine with fully manual aperture and focus as long as EXIF data was communicated to the camera. Do I think Sony will do this? No. The market niche is so small there's little incentive for Sony. Existing Canon TS-E lenses are readily adapted to E-mount bodies so we do have access to lenses. I'm surprised none of the third party manufacturers have filled this niche. Laowa has a couple wide shift lenses. Samyang is the only one to make a tilt plus shift lens. None of them are good optically or mechanically. None were designed for a mirrorless register. A complete lineup of short flange T/S focal lengths would be great. Off-axis tilt movements cannot be replicated by software. On-axis tilt to increase DoF can be emulated with focus stacking methods. Oddly, Sony has only recently added that feature into a camera for the first time. That points towards a future more reliant on computational processing rather than optical solutions. Shift movements are more easily emulated by cropping ultra wide angle views. There are some tricks you cannot duplicate without camera movements. Software, ultra wide lenses and high res sensors offer enough for most photographers to accomplish what they need to.

I've had great results from adorama's printique for years.

Usually I favor zooms. But all the ultra wide zooms are very large and heavy to me. The 14mm GM is relatively small and very lightweight by comparison. I had never considered it until I noticed it only weighed 460g! That's less than the already lightweight 12-24 f4 and nearly half that of the 12-24 f2.8 GM. If you have the opportunity to try the 14mm you will absolutely enjoy it. It is easy to carry and the images are stunning.

Yes, knowing your sport is critically important. Be prepared and expect when the critical moments will happen. If you are asked to cover an event which you are not familiar with, do your best to research ahead of time to get a feeling for how the game flows and locations where key action usually occurs. I was not a baseball fan when I first started shooting games. So I shot everything at first. I ended up with thousands of images to cull and few keepers. As I learned the game my total volume of shots taken per game dramatically decreased while my keeper rate increased. Learn to anticipate events rather than react to them.

Check out Mark Galer's superb explanation of DMF . I use his technique of combining a custom hold and custom button. To me, the only disadvantage of DMF is the time it takes to get in to and back out of the mode. Mark's method fixes that problem. While pressing your assigned custom button (I use AEL), DMF along with multiple other optimized settings are activated while you manually focus. Upon releasing your custom button, you immediately return back to whatever mode your were previously using.

Sony's history with firmware updates is mixed. Do not expect any feature updates to the a7RM4. The only firmware updates I expect there would be those required to fix a bug or compatibility issues with future lenses. Once a new model is released, Sony typically stops any further feature updates on existing cameras. As Drew noted, this can be due to hardware limitations but not always. The only camera to receive any significant number of firmware enhancements was the original a9. Those updates stopped soon after the release of the a9M2. I certainly wish Sony would provide more ongoing support to existing camera models. But they have not up to now. So it is important to have a clear understanding of their approach. Don't buy into the Sony ecosystem expecting major new feature enhancements via firmware. New features go into new cameras.

ISO Setting: ISO AUTO Min. SS This feature alone is one of the main reasons I use Sony. It is so simple yet no other camera systems I have used offer an equivalent. There are many times when the old "1/focal length" rule is not optimal. Being able to dial the shutter speed to focal length ratio up or down is supremely useful. For wide angle landscape work I'll set it down to "slow" which is ~1 stop slower than standard. With IBIS/OIS at wide angles I can easily hand hold slower shutter speeds to get a lower, cleaner ISO. With long lenses for action, I dial it up to "fastest" because I am willing to live with some high ISO noise to get crisply frozen action with a shutter speed 4x the "standard".

The magical "auto" setting is intended to be a problem solver. Unfortunately, it can create more problems then it solves. I have all my cameras set for back button AF. The auto mode does not revert back to shutter=AF-On. Handing a camera set to back button AF to an inexperienced user who expects to simply "press the shutter button" to take a photo is not going to work. I've been in that situation before and ended up just having the other person use a phone to take a picture. It was simpler than changing my BBAF settings or trying to teach them how to push two buttons at once. Since the memory recall modes don't store the shutter+AF setting, you cannot use one of those as a "custom" auto mode either. The "auto" mode is really only designed to work on a camera that has all other settings in default. That makes it really useless for more advanced users wanting a quick "just press here" mode when handing off a camera. "Auto" really should either be removed or enhanced to set custom button and dial options back to defaults too.

What are you struggling with specifically? Removing metadata? I use Lightroom for most culling, editing and exporting. You can create export templates and choose what (if any) metadata to include in the exported images. Takes time to initially setup. But then it's a simple click to export according to whatever parameters you've set. Culling is an art onto itself. Of course it depends on you own habits and subjects. It takes practice and discipline to quickly see a "pick" versus a "reject". But you do need to become comfortable rejecting images. Do you really want or need 10 or 20 nearly identical images from a burst or variations on a portrait? Once you've made your pick, stand by your decision. Hit the delete key.

My first ɑ was the 7RM3. I was so impressed I immediately got another and switched entirely to Sony as my primary system. For years I had constantly switched camera systems and often used multiple systems in parallel: Canon (EF and RF), Fuji, mFT (both Lumix and Oly). After my first shoot using Sony I felt like I had finally found exactly what I had been looking for. Everything just worked. I stuck with those ɑ7RM3's longer than I had stayed with any single camera in years. Only gave up the ɑ7RM3 to upgrade to an ɑ7RM4 and ɑ9M2.

The designers know what the load capacity of the mount is. Lenses which exceed that limit have strap attachment point. Otherwise just use the camera. The 600 f4 needs its own strap. A 70-200 does not. If you simply want or prefer the strap on the lens, there are several aftermarket arca style plate and replacement feet which have strap loops or a QD socket. Leofoto and Hejnar both offer feet for the 70-200 with QD ports. Use a single point QD sling.

Tape. Lots of tape. Gaff tape. Duct tape. Masking tape.

I realize the camera is supposed to stay on and not enter "power saving mode" while [bluetooth Rmt Ctrl] is set to [On]. But I'm finding that just having (Network) → [bluetooth Settings] → [bluetooth Function] → [On] causes the camera to stay awake even if [bluetooth Rmt Ctrl] is set to [Off]. Is this the expected behavior? The help guide doesn't specifically say anything about [bluetooth Function] and power saving mode.

Sabrent may be new to SD cards but they are a well know memory brand. I have several of their enclosures and SSD's which all work perfectly. The cards were brand new and freshly formatted when the strange slowness occurred. I've tested the Sabrent cards using a computer and they perform as advertised. Of course it is possible one of them had or still has a problem. I just have not been able to reproduce it. I have used the Sabrent cards in other cameras with no issues.

Yes, everything is up to date. I have not been able to reproduce the behavior nor has it happened again in the field using any of my cards. I appreciate your response.

Nikon AF protocols and lens designs have been far less consistent than the Canon EF mount over the years. This makes adapting Sony to Canon EF lenses much easier compared to Nikon. There is no adapter available which offers universal Nikon compatibility. The few Sony to Nikon AF adapters that exist have very limited compatibility with very specific Nikkor lenses. Those Nikon lenses that do work on the Sony E-mount AF adapters simply do not perform as reliably as they did on a Nikon body. Given the breadth of E-mount lenses available, you can find equivalent native mount lenses to replace nearly anything from Nikon. You've invested in a powerful camera. Take full advantage of it by pairing it with native mount glass.

E-mount lens quality and selection. I've used nearly every other competitive camera system and all are excellent. None have a comparable selection of native lenses compared to Sony. That's due both to Sony's own lenses and third party options like Sigma and Tamron. I actually prefer some other cameras over Sony's due to some specific features. But I can't get the lenses I want to use with those other cameras. So I think of myself as using E-mount lenses with whatever cameras happen to be compatible.