Decision Time - Decision Taken!!!

I'm a big fan of the 4:3 ratio for my images. I've kept my eM1 with several nice primes, the 14-140 Lumix and an old four thirds Zuiko 70-300.

Hi Kelly - thanks for the positive post and you really haven't lost me at all - I will still be on here! As for the A6xxx series, I did look at those but they really are too thin and lacking the 'feel' of a camera for me; I couldn't imagine me at brands hatch trying to pan with one of those if I'm honest.

And anyway - I still have the a77ii and a couple of gem lenses to use so it's not all bad news.

Take care and best regards, Neil.

Dear All,

You may recall I posted this thread asking for feedback on choices to upgrade my camera a few weeks ago. The final outcome was that the 'no brainer' was the A7 RV for all sorts of reasons.

However - that also brought with it a change in lenses and/or the addition of the LEA-5 adapter as well to enable me to continue using my A-mount favourites. I spent a long, long time thinking about this as the main reason - as I mentioned - was weight. Julie - my wife - had started to notice that the day after spending all day out with my camera gear I was very tired and that she also thought the weight was becoming excessive (she wouldn't carry it!) so that was an important factor in all this as well. After my 'issue' with the leg infection from 2022 I've been left with much less stamina than I used to have so I needed to consider this aspect as well. And photography should be fun as a pastime!

I then bumped into a friend from work who I hadn't seen for years and he had gone through the same process; assessments, reviews, debate - then made a choice for much the same reasons as I - too old and too heavy (the gear; not me I hasten to add!) meant a big decision. He had his camera and a set of lenses with him - plus I had seen the results he could get - and the difference was revelatory in weight alone. A visit to a local camera store to compare and contrast set the decision. So.... what have I done?

Well - before the 'reveal' I will say that it is a change in system BUT I have not walked away from the A-Mount. In fact, I have kept the a77ii; the Sony 135/1.8 ZA, the Sigma 70-200/2.8 EX DG HSM, the re-mounted and 'chipped' Minolta-Rokkor 58mm/1.2 and a couple of other, minor lenses, as there will be specific circumstances (like the Hole Park thread I posted recently) where they will be the 'go to' choice for Garden photography (Julie described my 'affair' with those three lenses as 'irrational' but there you go...), so I will still be posting on here and, hopefully, be considered as still being an active part of the community. But I have had to move on.... so what to?

Well, I have gone in a completely different direction and taken on one of the new OM OM-1 D Mk II systems, complete with a range of lenses covering almost all my normal needs (12 - 40/2.8 PRO II; 40 - 150/2.8 PRO II and an OM ED 100-400/f 5 - 6.3).

I weighed the a77ii and the 135/1,8 when I was getting the gear together to trade in and those two alone weighed nearly 2.5 Kg; the OM-1 and the two smaller lenses combined barely weigh above that. A bit of a no-brainer really.

When I called a couple of retailers they were very positive about both systems but the clincher was also the file size of the A7 RV - yes; I know I could 'down size' the capture but that didn't seem sensible given that it is sold with a 60Mp native sensor?. It would also have meant the outlay on a whole new PC in the home as well - and I wasn't - at this moment - prepared to go and do that.

So. That is the deed. I will be learning a whole new system in the coming weeks but, as I mentioned. still happily posting and commenting on here in support of you all and, hopefully, will continue to be warmly welcomed. It is such a great site and source of information way beyond just cameras and lenses - and I've learned a lot over the years - that we need to continue supporting it. I hope that you all understand and accept this 'move'.

Oh - and I've already been out with the system - here's a few from last week at Goodnestone Park in East Kent:

1. Foxglove and Greenhouse



2. Spikey



3. Flint wall Garden



4. The Long View



5. Busy Bee


This is an almost 100% crop from the 12-40/2.8 which I find quite impressive!

6. Blue isolation



7. 'Game Of Thrones Tree Trunk'



8. Church Pew



The last two were with the 40 - 150/2.8 PRO II lens - a rather nice, compact (and light!) lens which seems to work pretty well.

Lots to learn but please, I won't be ignoring Dyxum any time soon!

Thanks for the attention and very best regards, Neil.

Ah, Hezu, I am an aggressive culler of photos.
A few hours at the beach, taking bursts of photos when the waves look interesting, can add up to 1000+ images very easily. I just select the best handful, and delete the rest.

I have the goal of keeping my photo collection to less than 2TB.

I was using an Alienware R15 laptop (2015)- with 16G RAM- to process a7Riii photos in Capture One until last year.
It was fine for that. Getting a good machine does 'future proof' things for many years.

I'm now using an M1 Max Studio with 32G RAM. Apple's Silicon (M-generation) chips are optimised to work with a lot of the software we use. So it's a bit like having "twice the RAM". I imagine an M3 chip with 16G RAM should be pretty efficient for photo editing for years to come. I only went with the specs I have, for video editing where the extra cores and RAM are very useful.

owenn01 wrote: Now - if Sony produced a camera with al lthe specs of the high-end items but no video -well; that would indeed be interesting....

In my book, they did -- the a900 & a850.

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestion - greatly appreciated.

There is also one very big 'elephant in the room' around the A7R V running at 'full capability' - and that is file size.

I am resigned to having to upgrade my processing hardware anyway as my current MacBook pro is starting to feel it's age (all it really needs is a memory upgrade - but Apple, in their infinite wisdom, barred that possibility with these models a long time ago and modern software is so memory hungry), so I will be going through an upgrade path shortly anyway - but will get something with more memory than seems necessary! I'm currently considering an iMac with an M3 chip but with additional memory (16Gb unified memory) to try and make it as 'future proof' as I think I will need.

I think the phrase I'm looking for is 'consequential cost of ownership'

Best regards, Neil.