A7Riv to complement pair of A9ii’s

I switched to Sony a few months ago with a pair of lightly used A9II’s for my professional work. I made the switch because I now work on film sets and a stacked sensor is preferable with mandatory silent shutter to best deal with rolling shutter and flicker banding. A matching pair of bodies is needed too.

24mp is ideal for this work and a pair of A1’s was out of the question! Especially as I paid a total of £4500 for a pair of A9II’s in like new condition from MPB in the UK!

I also bought 5 lenses brand new to make a complete kit for my needs: 24-70mm and 70-200mm 2.8 GM2 for my workhorse zooms. Plus 20mm 1.8G, 35mm 1.4 GM and Sigma 85mm 1.4 DG DN for my primes.

I don’t feel the need for any other lenses anytime soon!

Aside from film sets I also shoot studio professionally , plus street, urban and travel.

90% of the time 24mp is fine, but I do miss the 45mp of my previous Nikon Z7 more often than I thought. Partly for cropping and also for the detail you get with high resolution sensors without AA filters.

So, for my studio and personal photography I’m thinking about adding a third body … a lightly used A7riv with 4000 clicks and 6 months warranty for £1800.

Yes the latest and greatest would be an A7rv, but that’s £4000 and out of my price range.

But I can swing £1800 for the used A7riv. Benefits would be same body, grips, menu etc.

My question is, given my pair of A9 II’s and lens set, would a A7riv at £1800 be a worthwhile and sensible addition to my kit?

I think I might know who are. 😀

The A7RIV is an excellent camera and use it with the 200-600 which is something you would probably never use. The silent shutter as you know is not suitable for those work subjects, but out taking shots of slower moving subjects it will work.

After a conversation with someone in a very long thread at DPR, I tried silent shutter on the A7RIV with swallows in fight, really fast subjects and out of around 130 shots, only 2 had rolling shutter effects with the wing motion. With backgrounds with verticals ...... well you already know the answer. So out and about on the street I don't see a real issue. Mechanical Shutter would also make no real difference if that's what you decide. The Mechanical shutter is not that loud anyway with EFCS and solves the issue with vertical lines in the background.

The 60mp sensor, it's a good one and if you put it in crop mode, you still end up with 26mp APSC. That's my thoughts on it anyway.

Danny.

Hi Danny good to see you here and yes I think you worked out who I am haha!

Thanks for your input!

I don't shoot BIF and the like, but if I ever got the urge I'd have the A9II's anyway.

The A7riv would be for single shot/ short burst street and travel using a mixture of silent and mechanical shutter, plus my main studio camera too.

Yes that was quite a thread 😉 but you did exactly the right thing. I love it when people do their homework well. Besides it was for work as well and I don't think some got that beyond what they use.

The A7RIV would be excellent for what you want IMO. Darn nice compliment to the A9s. I imagine you would just love the 60meg files, or 120meg in uncompressed. Yes nice to see you here as well 😀 glad it's working out for you.

Danny.

Not gonna lie, the file sizes on the A7riv are a pain, my previous Nikons and the A7rv have lossless compressed. I'd probably shoot uncompressed raw and swallow the 120mb file sizes. But hey I'm a judicious culler and hard drives are cheap haha!

I use compressed on the A7RIV and honestly can't tell the difference between that and uncompressed. Tried it a few times now and see no difference and I'm looking at fine feathering details. Try it for sure though if you go for camera.

Good to know, hopefully I'll pick up the A7riv tomorrow. It's £1800 used from a dealer with 6 months warranty and only 4000 clicks. Great bang for the buck really!

Really? No pain at all for me. It’s why I bought the camera, with no regrets.

Hi Danny,
How do you like your 200-600? I have one but have never used it due to my back. I do have a heavy built carbon fiber tripod and long lens gimbal. So I could manage if I wanted to. I’m also in a wheelchair.

If I needed to I would find a way to mount a gimbal type frame to a wheelchair if needed. That would be a must if something happened this end Terry. So yes do it for sure.

I only use tele lenses Terry and they were always primes. What drew me to the Sony was a simple one, internal zoom, that was a must if I was ever going to go with a zoom. Enter the 200-600.

Excellent it is Terry, fast AF and accurate once you decide on the settings needed for your particular camera. What body do you have Terry?

Main folder with the 200-600 on the A7RIV is this one: www.birdsinaction.com/Sony-A7RIV

Just Swallows in flight is this folder: www.birdsinaction.com/Swallows-on-the-wing

Very happy with the results Terry. If you have fairly good upper strength then hand holding for a short burst is fine, if I plan on staying in one spot for awhile (which is often) then a monopod gets used a fair bit. The Gimbal goes on the monopod BTW and it works very well.

All the best Terry and if I can help, just let me know.

Danny.