So I did indeed rent the Sony A7iii this past weekend. As you may recall from my last post, I wondered if a weekend with the A7iii might put my mind at ease about which camera to keep moving forward - my Nikon Z6 or the Sony A7iii.
Do I now have the sense of clarity I need? Read on.
When it came to renting the camera, I wound up getting the “one day” weekend rental from Looking Glass Photo in Berkeley. While it costs $150 a day for the camera body and the lens, Looking Glass, like many good photography shops, will let you pick up the camera on a Friday and return it on Monday for the one day price.
One thing which immediately surprised me, and made my comparison to the Z6 tough, is that the rental came with f/2.8 24-70mm G Master lens. This is a faster, higher quality lens that what the Sony A7iii kit might come with (f/3.5-5.6 27-70mm OSS lens). So for sure the better glass is going to return better photos.
How good is the lens? Well, consider this G master lens runs $2,198 - while the camera body itself runs $1,998.
One of the major factors that originally drew me away from the Sony A7iii were its ergonomics. The camera “felt” more like a gadget than a traditional camera. And the grip is just a tad smaller than the Z6, making it difficult to find a “home” for your pinky. One can make up for this by purchasing the Sony $350 vertical grip, but I could not rent one for the weekend, unfortunately.
But the worst design element I found was the front and rear control dials which, among other things, control changes to the aperture and shutter speed. Instead of the big, substantial dials you find on the Z6, the Sony’s are thin, “Ritz-cracker-edged” dials that are functional, but not as obvious and easy to maneuver.
What’s worse, there’s an exposure compensation dial to the right of the rear control dial which is larger and more substantial than the rear control dials. They should have designed the control dials like this. And of course, I did indeed mistakenly change the exposure compensation when meaning to use the rear control dial.
OK enough about the bad ergonomics. What about my overall impressions?
Well, I couldn’t run the most scientific tests with the camera, so I shot it around the house and took it along for some errands over the weekend.
Pros
Fun to use. Indeed, despite the ergonomics, I did find the camera easy, and dare I say, fun to use. The camera was fast, responsive, and fairly intuitive.
Menu & Set Up. You’ll read that Sony’s menus are tedious or confusing. But I found them fairly intuitive, easy to scroll through, and once I set it up with Fro’s recommendations, didn’t need to bother much with the menu again.
Controls. And once I started using the camera, despite the ergonomics and poor dial design, I found it easy to control everything from aperture, shutter, ISO, release modes etc.
f2.8 24-70 GM lens. Obviously this was a great lens to take sharp photos. Of course it would be a big investment to get a pro lens like this, but the Z6 equivalent is actually $100 more than the Sony, so one will get what they (are willing to) pay for.
Eye auto focus. The Sony definitely shines here. Like everyone says, “it just works” - and works so well. It found my daughters eyes fast and maintained focus even as they moved around. It’s really remarkable. The Z6 can do eye auto focus, but not as fast and not as consistently.
Continuous shooting 10 frames per second. The Sony is impressively fast. I ran several tests where I had my daughter walking toward me and the Sony maintained focus for a majority the 30+ continuous shots. it just fires them off at a rate that seems significantly faster than the Nikon.
Sharp images. And of course, most importantly, the Sony shot great images. Were they less vibrant than what comes out of the Nikon raw? Perhaps, but that’s easily adjusted in post production.
Here are some photos shot at home, Whole Foods, and during lunch on Saturday with the Sony A7iii on the f2.8 24-70 G Master lens…
So what about the downsides?
Cons
Ergonomics. I already spoke about the ergonomics above. I believe the vertical grip addition would improve the feel, - and the dual batteries is a nice plus. But compared to the Nikon, the camera will never feel or look as good.
Dials. Again, the front and rear control dials and exposure control should be so much better. Get rid of the exposure control dial and make those control dials more substantial.
Input seals. I found the side input seals to feel cheap and flimsy compared to the Nikon. It’s a shame because if Sony could improve its overall ergonomics and get them right, I bet many Nikon users could be swayed over. And this is not an A7iii issue - the A7r and A9 are essentially the same body design. Don’t worry about saving on cost or being compact - just get the design right.
EVF & LCD. The electronic view finder and LCD screen are indeed not as nice as the Nikon, but I didn’t find that to be a deal breaker in and of itself. It would be nice if the LCD on the Sony was a touchscreen, but I didn’t find that to be a problem during the weekend. I think over time I am going to appreciate the touchscreen LCD of the Z6 even more.
What about video? Well, I found out the hard way that my existing SD card was not the right type for supporting 4K video (the Nikon uses the more obscure, but faster, sturdy, and more expensive XQD cards.)
I did shoot a short 1080p video on the Sony and I trust it can get the job done. I do like to shoot video quite a bit and I know the Nikon has excellent video capability - perhaps better than the Sony. So the video is not a deal breaker either way as both do quite well.
Decision
So….what am i going to do? Well, one thing I did do was go back and forth with the Sony and my Nikon to compare the auto focus capability and other functionality and feel. And while for sure the Sony is faster and more precise in its auto focus, the Nikon did OK on the whole to try to keep up.
I went back to re-read up some of the initial reviews on the Nikon Z6 (Jared Polin, Ditch Auto, Ditch Auto 2, Ken Rockwell) and then did some additional research on how to set up and use the camera (Ken Rockwell, Michael the Maven).
And by the end of the weekend, I am definitely leaning more towards keeping my Z6 and learning how to use it even better. There’s more to be learned about using it properly, more potential with better glass, and on the whole, more potential with my just learning to be a better photographer.
Was it worth renting the camera for the weekend? Absolutely! I do still have till the end of the month to make a final decision…