Simon's Blog

Milestones and anniversaries seem to be coming thick and fast for me at the moment.   Yesterday I celebrated my first 10k images taken with my Sony A7 Mk2.   Not much of a milestone I guess but not bad going since I bought the camera at the end of July this year.   Is 10,000 images a lot in this digital world?  An interesting thought that I might one day consider.

As for the camera and its trusty companion 24/105 zoom lens what can I say?   I guess the first answer to this question is to point out that since the end of July most of the images that I have posted on this blog have been taken with this combination so you can look back and judge for yourself.   As for me I think the camera is all I need.  I deliberately didn’t buy the much lauded A7 Mk3 because it had a shed load of features I just don’t need:  I only shot raw so the nonsense about Sony colour science doesn’t bother me; I don’t shot video so the insanity of S log 4:2:2 compression and 60 FPS 4k are just words and numbers that have little effect on my life and Image stabilisation is nice but I cut teeth using Kodachrome ASA 64 so you get used to holding the camera correctly pretty quickly in dull and soggy Britain!   The one thing that I have noticed though is that the huge RAW files this camera produces has encouraged me to  really release my inner kodachrome beast.    (Although I have also updated to the latest versions of Adobe’s Lightroom and Photoshop in this time as well as learning new post production techniques which no doubt has played a part in this colour explosion.)  Again you can be the judge whether this is a good thing of not.  I do.

As for the battery life that so many people seem to complain about well it’s manageable.   Yes it would be nice if it lasted a bit longer but it is what it is and I find I can get between 700 and 1000 images out one battery which compared to what other people on the internet are claiming i.e 300/400 images is significantly better.  The only thing I have gone is put the camera into airplane mode, ie switched the wifi off and used RAVpower batteries rather than the Sony.   I have tried using the camera with the rear screen switched off but this didn’t seem to make the battery last any longer and it started to become annoying.

So there we have it my review of the A7 Mk2.   A great camera with a great sensor and a great selection of G and G Master lens.   In fact if you are just a photographer all the camera you will ever need.  So if you want to buy the Mk3 then that is fine.  However, if you want to save half the price of the Mk3 and put that money towards a G lens then the Mk2 will deliver great images for you – well it has for me and in the end isn’t that what photography is supposed to be all about?