4 Things to Consider When Switching to a Sony Alpha Camera
At this point Sony has almost completely left its competition in the dust when it comes to delivering an affordable feature packed prosumer camera. Over the past several years Sony has become the authority on low light, wide dynamic range, mirrorless full frame cameras capable of internal 4K. There are a lot of reasons to make the switch, but here are some things to consider before whipping out your credit card. I am by no means an expert photographer. I'm just a dude with a camera and 7 months of experience. Sooooo... here is a list of 4 things to consider when making the switch to Sony alpha cameras.
Thing 1: Buy an "EF to E mount" lens adapter. There are a lot of EF mount (Canon) lenses out there that are either more affordable or of better quality than what you might find in the Sony line up. Adapters can get pricey but there are a few that sell for as low as $100 US. I bought the Fotodiox Pro Fusion adapter (Pictured above). DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE! The camera froze while changing modes, froze while powering on and off, and oddly enough wouldn't even white balance. I'd have to disconnect the adapter and reattach to fix the problem. After talking to Fotodiox I found out it's a known issue with the profusion model. They sent me an older model, Fotodiox Pro EF - NEX Auto (pictured below) which appears to be discontinued. This works very well although the autofocus is relatively slow and doesn't always find it's mark. Also the autofocus feature doesn't work with all lenses (Canon 50 f1.8 II). I've rented the "Metabones T Smart Adapter Mark IV" ($399). This works well with all of my lenses but the autofocus is also sluggish.
BOTTOM LINE: Almost all adapters lack when it comes to autofocus. Not super important if you're a filmmaker but if you are a photographer this might be a deal breaker.
Thing 2: Buy an E-mount lens. After 6 months of messing around with canon lenses on a bad lens adapter I finally bought a Sony full frame E-mount lens.
What you need to know: As with Canon and Nikon, there are full frame (FE) lenses and crop sensor lenses (APS-c). There are Sony lenses made by Sony and Sony lenses made by Zeiss. Here is a link to everything you could ever want to know about that little partnership.
I purchased the Sony 24-240 FE 3.5-6.3 "Super Zoom" (pictured below).
Pros:
- Continuous autofocus (works really well)
- Practically every focal length you'll ever use
- Solid build
- Great image quality
- Comes with a lens hood
Cons:
- Weight: Sony a7s II with battery and memory card 627.10 g + Lens 780 g = 1407.1 g. That's about 3.1 lbs. The max load of the popular Zhiyun-Tech Crane 3-Axis Handheld Gimbal Stabilizer is 3.9lbs.
- Image Quality. I have no complaints with the images (Examples below) but if you're a "pixel peeper" you'll find minor problems at the extreme focal lengths and extremes of aperture like color fringing and minor distortion. Honestly I've seen worse.
- Not a fast lens. The lens has a max f-stop of 3.5 at its widest focal length and 6.3 at 240mm. Luckily you've got one of the worlds best low light cameras.
Some pictures I took at different focal lengths.
Thing 3: Buy extra batteries. The camera comes with two Sony NP-FW50 Lithium-Ion Rechargeable batteries. That should tell you something about the battery life. I bought the Watson 3rd party version to save on cash but noticed some issues. The battery doesn't fully charge with the Sony wall adapter. However, charging through the camera seems to work just fine. Also the battery meter on the camera does not accurately read battery life, sometimes underestimating by 50%.
Bottom Line: Stick with Sony batteries.
On that note...
Thing 4: Buy a portable power supply. The camera has a micro-usb port which allows charging without having to remove the NP-FW50 battery. I'm using a 15000 mAh Pocket Juice (Picture at the top of the page). It has enough power to charge an iphone up to 7 times which is more than enough to recharge your Sony batteries. These can range in price, but you can expect to pay around $30 US for a decent power supply.
There are a few other things to consider like fast memory cards and a computer to handle the footage but there are plenty of tutoarials out there on those subjects. If you're confused by my ramblings I made a list of 3 Youtubers / Vloggers with great tips and tutorials on all things Sony Alpha.
1) Harv Video / Audio stuff
These cameras are leaps and bounds beyond anything out their currently from Canon and Nikon in this price range. Prices have dropped over the past few months with the arrival of the new Sony A9. If you have a Canon or Nikon camera and are looking to upgrade to a full frame sensor with internal 4K and loads of other features then now is the time to make the switch.
