Jumped to a (new to me) Sony A7

[eggboy]

Sold the Canon 5D classic in November for US$550 (bought used 4 years ago for US$1100) and used the proceeds towards a new to me A7...which can be had for under $US850 or so if one is patient up on the 'Bay....I sold a Zenitar 16mm, 20 various MF to EF adapters, my Canon F-1 and some other flotsam to make up the difference....ouch, but it was time.

Immediately after winning the auction, ordered some extra batteries and a charger, and a raft of adapters from RainbowImaging and pigo-shop, also on the 'Bay...I try to order NOT the cheapest...and the ULATA adapters sold by pigo-shop are quite nice with good blacking on the inside etc.

All got here yesterday right before the snow hit (Western Massachusetts, US..) but couldn't play enough due to work!

The camera is everything I've heard: confounding in certain interface choices, more painful to hold than a classic Canon F1 with sharpened edges, loud.

But fabulous image quality, and a nice tidy package....I've attached my little BlackRapid strap and off I go.

I figured I'd put a Primoplan or Biotar on it first, but no:

[duckrider]

Ah, I love that Canon 35 and it's warm tone!
Nice cam that A7, but I suggest to ad the separate battery grip if using MF lenses on the A7: much more comfortable to use and thoses batterys are very fast empty, two are better than one! Camera empties first one batt, than changing to the second, they are not both in use at the same time, good idea this.
Get the original Sony pack, they got cheaper in the last time!
Have fun
Thomas

[cyrano]

The grip definitely helps at the cost of increased size. I agree about the interface, it's a bit muddled but once you've got your basic settings its good to use. It could do with a button lock facility though as I find it easy to adjust settings without meaning to, but other cameras are like that.
Note to manufacturers, aperture,shutter speed,ISO make exposures, add a WB option and leave the tea making to the home PC.
Rant over.

[eggboy]

cyrano and duckrider,

Agree on the battery pack...just setting up the menus uses almost 20% of the battery...overall, I really do like....shutter sound is about the same as the old 5D, but the overall feel is nicer.

The A7II looks to have had a proper camera designer: this first generation A7 designer, was, I bet, more of an industrial designer....the original LOOKS better.

One thing I will say about Canon (and Nikon too, but I don't know them as well..) is the endless iterations of basically the same camera form factor has a benefit in having the whole UX thoroughly sorted....

[padam]

Adding a soft button (Gariz) helped quite a bit with accessing and pressing the shutter button.