OK, you may not like this, but sooner or later you will find out anyway. I’ve been cheating lately. Yes, I admit it.
On a more serious note. We needed a camera for video work and I wanted it to work flawlessly with my Leica lenses. Since the video mode on the M240 is not really usable for professional work, I decided to get the Sony A7s. And now that I have this camera, I have started to use it for my weddings as well. Not as my first camera, but as my ‘really, really low light camera’. We’re talking ISO 12800 1/125th f0.95 work. And man, it shines in that job! These are circumstances where focussing is no longer limited by the narrow depth of field, but by the fact you can’t see anything through the viewfinder. And that’s where an EVF comes in very, very handy.
I’ll talk about this more later, but for now I’ll summarize my first experiences with the A7s as follows:
- It is a joy to use a camera-lens combination that doesn’t suffer from back-focus, focus shifting, calibration issues and other mechanical misery. In focus is in focus. Period. Having troubles with your Noctilux? This is the camera you want.
- Even though the EVF on the A7s is already outdated compared to the A7R2, it is light years ahead of the M240 EVF system. It is snappy, non-laggy and very usable for most of my work. Still, a rangefinder is easier and faster to focus in general.
- The ISO capabilities are superb! The highest settings are complete rubbish, but I care a lot more for the noise free ISO 6400 and still very good ISO 25600. Last night I’ve been using my 28/2.8 on a very dark dance floor on a wedding.
- The Sony A7s is NOT sexy. It looks like a playstation, but it handles pretty well. I don’t like buttons, but you don’t have to use them if you don’t want too.