So… The Sony A7RVI: Great camera… I bought an outfit for my A7C II.
Short Version: Great Camera… But What I Have Is More Than I Need.
Let me get this out of the way first.
I am genuinely impressed by the Sony A7RVI.
But I do not need it.
As I used to say about my once beloved Sony A7III,…
…making such good cameras is no way to sell me a newer one. When the A7III was finally displaced…
…it was not out of need. I wanted to upgrade, but did not need to. The A7III was killing it right up to the end. Here are some pics from my last trip to NYC with it.
This is a camera that was released in… <checks notes> …2018. It was my workhorse for years.
So why am I prattling on about a 24MP camera I traded away years ago? To put focus on what should be the main point of making a decision to purchase a new camera.
Use case.
Not maximum specs available.
You may wonder why I upgraded to the A7RV? Welp. I was chasing… or running from medium format at that time. A companion camera at that time was the good old Pentax 645D.
My goal was to replicate the medium format look while gaining modern mirrorless perks with a fast lens and a high MP full frame body…
Spoiler alert. It did not work.
Don’t get me wrong. A great pairing.
But… not medium format. So I stopped it and leaned into full frame strengths instead of trying my make it something it is not. Medium format is medium format and full frame is full frame.
Anyhoo. Back to the task at hand. End result?
I have a 61MP full frame camera and I do not need 61MP. For my purposes 24MP was plenty enough detail to work with.
Exhibit A.
Original.
Crop.
But you know the drill. Now that I have 61MP it is not going anywhere. Plus I make use of this resolution as a zoom alternative. The longest zoom I have goes to 150mm. I recently went out to capture images at chorus young adult member’s baseball game.
I actually stopped by the camera shop and considered leasing a longer Sony zoom lens. But then I remembered something.
If I can crop the mess out of the pics or even use APS-C mode why do I need a longer zoom?
And I did not.
That is a partial crop and if I wanted to I could crop in much further. S0 61MP is more than enough, so 66MP is not necessary at all.
And after reading the specs and speed watching some reviews the major advantage was burst speed. And once again the A7RV did fine for my purposes. In this following sequence below I did not include all of the frames captured…
…so the burst rate I have access to is more than sufficient for my purposes.
Back to the resolution thing.
When I use the A7RV most of the time I export and deliver photos at 50%. And no one has noticed or complained. This happened because a customer asked for lower resolution pics. As a result my daily rig is its little brother.
At one point I considered its high resolution R sibling. The thinking was matched sensor and resolution. But I am glad I did not. 33MP is more than enough for a daily carry/main body back up camera.
So… As stated in the short version at the opening. What I have is already more than I need.
Have had a minor epiphany about the A7C II recently also. Similar to my trying to emulate medium format with full frame with the A7RV I spent some time trying to emulate an X100VI with the A7C II. Only come to a similar realization. An X100VI is an X100VI and an A7C II is an A7C II. Two different beasts.
So that freed me up to dress up the A7C II with a costume of its own. And I like this camera even more now.
Was going to cover these bits here, but I have gone on far too long already and these bits deserve their own post.
For now I will just say that it has made a great camera even better. I see why the A7C II is topping sales charts in Japan years after its release. It is a tweener camera in every way.
- Not a rangefinder, but rangefinder-ish enough.
- Not high resolution, but high enough.
- Near supernatural AF, especially after the AI subject detection firmware update.
- Solid without being heavy.
- Small without feeling insubstantial.
- A good looking rig in silver/black livery.
And with the grip and eyecup it looks and handles even better.
This new costume has triggered something in me that I have not quite sorted out yet.
I have set all other digital and analog image capturing aside and have used it exclusively recently. I am sure it will wear off, but for now this kit is doing it for me. Especially when paired with the far better than it has any business being Viltrox 50mm f/2 Air.
I can say that this kit definitely triggers my film SLR muscle memory. Looks good and feels good in hand…
Ok. I said I would stop and continue this in another post so let me stop.
Back to the A7RVI.
I am glad they made.
Kudos to those whose use case justifies the purchase.
Kudos to those who just plain want it even if they do not need. it. You are grown. Have at it.
I will say this however. If you do not need 30fps, no black out bursts, or a tally light you might be well server by an A7RV. I imagine quite a few will be on the used market shortly as folks upgrade to the newer model so you might catch a good deal.
Me? I am good.
Like I said at the top.
What I Have Is More Than I Need.
Happy capturing.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 