Significant Camera Upgrade

For the past few years, I've had a specific camera body in my "wishlist" at a used camera website where I purchase most of my cameras and lenses.  It has sat in this wishlist for a few years because this happens to be a very expensive camera that is well beyond my budget even if purchased on the used market.  A few times each week over the course of a few years, I would check the price in the hope that the price would finally hit an affordable range.  Fortunately, this used camera store had a big "Black Friday" sale a couple of weeks ago which allowed me to finally purchase this significantly upgraded camera for a ridiculously low price.

My primary camera is a Sony a7 but it is the first generation of the a7 series from 2013.  Since it was released back in 2013 and was the first full-frame mirrorless camera, consequently, it has some compromises when compared to other cameras released more recently.  I really love this camera though...  it is small and it captures beautiful images. 

Overall, this original Sony a7 is the best camera I've owned over five decades.  Ideally, I've always wished it could have been faster at tracking subjects (ie, sports, wildlife, and especially fast moving grandchildren) and I had always been left wanting to have a bit more resolution for when I use my smaller APS-C lenses (carrying around smaller lenses is better for travel especially considering my excruciating spinal injuries).  The third generation of the "R" model would effectively resolve my preferred conditions but price was always a limiting factor.

Since I did actually need faster tracking at times, I purchased the smaller Sony a6000 many years ago with its smaller APS-C sensor.  Because of the smaller sensor and better tracking algorithm, it was far better suited for faster tracking.  Unfortunately, this a6000 camera body doesn't produce images as beautiful as the full-frame a7 so I was always left wanting more especially when I compared the output of both cameras.  The slower a7 with its full-frame sensor was far nicer in my eyes...  better tonal quality, less noise, simply richer images. (On a sidenote as a comparison, I also have some micro four-thirds cameras and they don't even come close to the richness and tonal qualities of these Sony cameras...  although, admittedly, the Panasonic G9 is 'acceptable'...  not great but acceptable.)

I did use my a7 in APS-C mode with my smaller lenses when traveling and I loved the image quality but the images were rather small at only 10mp's each.  The tonal qualities were noticeably better than out of my 24mp Sony a6000 though.  Of course, if I needed a faster camera for sports, wildlife, or quick-moving toddlers, the Sony a7 was lacking and the Sony a6000 was better suited for this type of shooting.  

Over the past decade Sony has improved upon the a7 series of cameras significantly.  They are now selling a fifth generation line of a7 cameras!  Then again, almost 12 years have passed since the release of the original a7 camera.  Unfortunately, each new generation with more features and faster tracking has garnered higher prices.  There are now two new series of cameras that are more geared toward professionals with high end budgets...  the a9 and a1 series.

Naturally, the second generation of cameras was a bit faster than the first generation.  Then the third generation was far faster than the second generation.  For the past few years, the fourth and fifth generations have been available.  I have been willing to settle for the compromises of the third generation though...  when the price finally dropped into my budget range.  Regardless of the fact that it is not the newest and the best of the best, it would meet my needs and then some.

Alongside the a7 series has been the R series and the S series.  The R series has much higher resolution but it came at a compromise in tracking speed (in that first generation).  The S series has a much higher sensitivity so is far better in very low light situations especially for video but this came with a compromise in resolution.  (There is a C series now as well but is too small and consequently unusable for me while wearing eyeglasses...  the viewfinder is tiny...  and, honestly, I find the design of the camera to be absolutely boring...  uh, well, ugly.  It looks just like the a6000 series of cameras.)  Some people like the form factor though, however, I suspect those people don't wear eyeglasses and therefore have no issues with the tiny viewfinder.

So, I noticed that the a7rIII was on sale at about a third of it's cost when new.  I jumped on this and put it in my cart and checked out immediately before someone else would snap it up before I did.

When the camera arrived at my door a few days later, I immediately opened the package.  I had heard a lot of rumbling complaints about it being "bigger" than the original a7 but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised that the slightly larger size is hardly noticeable.  If I hadn't read about all the complaints I probably would never have noticed the slightly larger size.

If I had one complaint about its appearance it would be that the look of the camera no longer lived up to the class of the original first generation a7.  The metal top plate in gloss black on that first generation a7 looked sharp and was replaced on the newer generations with what appears to be matte composite, rough textured top plate.  I definitely prefer that sleek gloss black top plate.  

It is slightly heavier than the original a7 but part of this is due to a much needed larger battery so that was an easy compromise to accept.  The battery life between charges seems to be far better than on my original a7 so that is a big improvement coming at the cost of a bit more weight and size.  

Then I started shooting some test shots around our living room and I immediately noticed how fast this camera tracked objects.  There were far more tiny focus points than I was used to and they were dancing across the screen/viewfinder as my subject moved.  

After shooting a bunch of test photos, I decided to check to see if the firmware had been updated.  I noticed that the camera menu system was indicating that firmware 1.0 was loaded but I had remembered seeing that this model was now on version 3.something so I got online to look for updated firmware.

I tried installing the newest firmware for the a7rIII a number of times but the install app kept failing to even start the process.  The computer was recognizing the camera though so I knew that the jacks and cables were working as they should.  Then I went back to check the firmware version on the camera again and I noticed that the model was showing as "a7rIIIa" not "a7rIII".  I knew there was a newer "a" model but I didn't think I ordered that model.  That model had always been a bit more expensive so I wasn't tracking the price of that camera.  When I double checked the menu in the camera, sure enough, I now had the newer "a" model in my hands!  So, the firmware wouldn't install because it was the firmware for a different model of camera.  This newer camera has never had a newer firmware written so version 1.0 was the current version for the "a" model.  This was good news too!

So, first I'll list a few of my personal positives of the a7rIIIa vs the first generation a7...

- The a7rIIIa is significantly faster than the a7.  Tracking is actually better and far faster.   This includes animal tracking and eye tracking.  There are many more focus points to help with this tracking all across the frame.  

-  The a7rIIIa has a much higher resolution than the original a7 which means the resolution is much higher in APS-C mode when using smaller lenses.  This is a very welcomed change because it means I can use just the one camera body while traveling with some small APS-C lenses without sacrificing as much resolution as I did with the first generation a7.

- This "a" model of the a7rIII is a far newer body with a higher resolution LCD panel.  This better LCD panel (perhaps OLED panel?) is a nice upgrade but this camera model being so much newer is actually a bigger positive.  Newer is always better for longevity.

- Another positive, although not completely necessary, is that this newer generation a7rIIIa has image stabilization in the camera body which allows me to shoot static subjects at much lower/slower shutter speeds while still keeping the image sharp.  I grew up shooting film cameras with no stabilization so I don't find this feature to be a particularly "necessary" feature but it is handy to have at your disposal so I'll include this as a plus.

Surprisingly...  actually, I should say shockingly...  I also found that there are a few surprises that are a negative for me.  Although this newer a7rIIIa has a lot of additional features with the ability to adjust these features a bit more finely, Sony did drop some features that I used quite a bit which was a big disappointment...

- The first feature that I noticed was dropped from the more recent models is "Multi Shot Noise Reduction" as an ISO choice.  I often used this when traveling at night.  This multi-shot mode allowed me to shoot night landscape/cityscape scenes handheld and it worked exceptionally well.  The camera would quickly shoot and stack four images with a single depress of the shutter release button.  This was all done in the camera within a few short seconds so the resulting photo was ready for uploading instantly.  Stacking the four images and aligning them in the camera cancelled out all noise that was created due to the high ISO used for the dark night scene.  This feature was very useful while we were in Manhattan at night!  I have excellent photos from the top of the Empire State Building at night thanks solely to this feature.  For some reason, Sony dropped this feature and I was very disappointed to see it is missing.  (I could still shoot a burst of photos and then stack them on my computer but the previous in-camera feature was easier and faster to use for instant uploading.)

- The next feature that I noticed was missing on this new camera body was the "Soft Skin Effect".  On my a7, I always had this feature set to "Mid" range or sometimes "Low" range and it would slightly soften people's skin.  Let's be honest, every adult could use some mild skin softening.  The sharper these higher resolution cameras make someone's face, the more wrinkles, pores, and pockmarks are easily seen.  Actually, these unflattering facial features and imperfections jump right out at you when the image is very sharp!  This was another feature that worked very, very well and was so subdued that nobody noticed the skin was softened.  The image just looked more pleasing because it ever-so-slightly toned down the wrinkles, pores and pockmarks.  (This effect was not at all as heavy-handed as those phone apps that cartoonishly smooth/smear the skin.)  Now this lightly and effectively applied feature is gone.  (As with the previous missing feature, this feature can also be applied on my computer after upload to my computer but I preferred the in-camera approach for instant uploading to social media websites.)

- Another feature I was surprised to see missing was "Smile Detect" as a sub-heading under "Face Detect".  This Smile Detect was useful for easily triggering an automatic photo when I wanted to be in the photo too.  I could set the camera down, then get into the scene with everyone else...  then, when we smiled, the camera would recognize the smile(s) and capture the photo automatically.  It worked very, very well and there was no need for a timer or a wireless remote.  Of course, it was also handy for capturing a smile on a subject who doesn't often smile...  rather than trying to coax a smile and then time the capture perfectly, the camera did it for me.  I could live without this feature but I did find it to be useful on occasion so I was disappointed to see it missing on this newer generation of camera.

Sheila and I have a few trips planned in the next six months (three, I believe) so I'm looking forward to having this new a7rIIIa in my hands during these trips!

Now I have some new accessories to purchase...