Sony A7RV + 50mm f/1.2 GM: Did It Fix My Medium Format Obsession?

Spoiler. Yes. The answer is yes. Partially. There is another way.

Fujifilm makes a strong case for itself with its impressive sale pricing recently. What am I on about? I am glad I imagined you asked. A 50mm-ish fast lens and high resolution body would be at the center of any photo system. For Sony, this would be the A7RV and 50mm f/1.2. For Fujifilm, this would be the GFX 50S II and 80mm f/1.7 (63.2mm f/1.34 full frame equivalent per mmcalc.com). Well, today I was wondering how much less the Sony pairing would cost compared to the Fujifilm setup and got quite the shock. Courtesy a $800 sale price the Fujifilm setup is less at the time of this post. $297.05 less, actually.

What?

Full disclosure. I had a GAS existential crisis moment. Was thinking of writing an article about how the A7RV and 50mm f/1.2 G Master I went with was comparable and arguably superior in some ways to and less expensive than the GFX 50S II and 80mm f/1.7 combination I had considered. It’s still true feature wise. But I did not expect the GFX rig to cost less.

Freaked out with a brief “Sell everything!” moment.

Trade the A7RV for the GFX S II and trade the A7C towards a used GFX 50R!

Then I looked at the cost of trying to replicate the lenses I have now (Impossible at any price. There are no alternatives with any brand to the so good you will have to pry it out of my co… Eh. That turned dark and extreme. Let’s just say I like the Tamron 35-150mm f/2-2.8 so much that I need Sony in my life presently.) and the features side by side more closely again (No phase detect AF, no 4K video, 3 fps, actually less MP with the 50 S II, etc.) and now I am good. That would have been a huge mistake. A fun mistake. But a mistake.

Why a mistake? Some would compare the two cameras feature for feature and deem the Sony as superior, and I would not disagree with that. But for me, it has more to do with options. Lens options mainly. There are few lenses that I can not use with the Sony. Even vintage Hasselblad medium format lenses are on the table.

If I do not mind focusing for myself, there are relatively inexpensive options that give me the look I am after.

And from there I still have access to the best of all worlds top-end glass mentioned above.

While we are here, I will say that the image above is largely why I no longer felt a need to go with medium format. Happened to have a digital medium format solution with me this same day, and to my surprise, I could not tell the difference between the images. That left me here:

What am I doing here?

Redundancy is not my goal. So soon after, I sold off my digital medium format solution. Not just because of the full frame, if I am honest. Also, I have the same mount analog solution, and I prefer using that in the end. Not only for the film aspect of things but access to a traditional 645 image capturing surface.

I waited a while to write this post. I was concerned that I would go back on my decision and go all in on digital medium format. But I am good. I am currently at peace with taking this path.

What did I mean about partially above? Easy. Neither the A7RV nor the 50mm f/1.2 are necessary either. The image of the door above taken with the A7C and 7Artisans 50mm f/1.1 meets my needs as well. In fact, the 7Artisans lens sees more use than any lens of mine at any price. The digital bridal photo above was taken with the A7III. So, in the end, I do not even need a spec as high as the top end Sony offerings to meet my needs.

Make no mistake. I fully get why someone would buy into digital medium format and would never second guess anyone else’s decision to do so. If that is what you want, it is what you want. And you will capture some amazing images.

In the end, it just went a different way for me.

Happy capturing.

-ELW