Detour back to the dark side

[jrp]

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I came to the SL system from Sony (A7R2) via the M240.

Having broken a collar bone, I went back to Sony because of the weight (reduction), at least for the time being.

In top line terms, the differences between the systems are well known:

* The Sony (A1) has far superior auto focus capabilities if you are photoing something living.  While its focus tracking is great (and useful for almost any type of shooting) the joystick doesn't seem to be as simple to use as the SL/SL2's.  

*  The Leica / Panasonic IBIS is much better than Sony's

* The Leica Summicron's are a cut above the Sony lenses, but Sony's latest lenses are pretty good while remaining relatively light.  That said, while the 50mm SL Summilux is probably, objectively a poorer performer than the Sony 50mm f1.2 GM, which is less bulky, it has a unique rendering which makes its results more appealing.  The choice of lenses, even within the Sony line, is, of course, more extensive.  The choice of wide angle lenses is much greater, for example.  Similarly for long lenses.  The latest Sony lenses seem to resist flare better than older lenses.

* Sony's camera control / GPS app works flawlessly, unlike Leica's

* The Sony A1 has about 3 times the menu settings of my SL2, most of which I wouldn't alter.  (I don't shoot video.)

* The Sony system is much lighter than the Leica equivalent, but the Leica systems feels better made. This is deceptive.  A couple of my Summicrons are not really able to focus manually (at least without a lot of grinding and squeaking) while my slightly plastic feeling, slack focusing Sony lenses produce great results.

* The improvement in high ISO capability is there, in the A1, but not as great as you might expect.  Maybe a stop, at the very most.

* The SL2 seems to be prone to burning out bright parts of the image, something that I haven't experience to the same extent with the A1.  

* The A1 uses an electronic shutter most of the time.  (It seems to use processors that are a generation ahead of those in other cameras, perhaps at the expense of paying Arm a license fee that is reflected in the A1's price).  

So, the upshot my provisional conclusions are that (a) the lenses make the biggest difference, but they have to exist (b) if you shoot moving things, the Sony system will make it easier (c) weight may not matter much for the young things, but it wins over "build quality" if you have to carry the gear.  (c) Superior IBIS lets me take pictures with Summicrons that would need faster lenses in Sony; (d) the SL2 and A1 are both satisfying to use, but in different ways for different shooting scenarios (simplifying static v moving subjects).

I'll add to this log as my experience expands but, suffice it to say that my reversion to Sony was not as retrograde a step as I had expected.

[Photoworks]

I think the Sony system is very valid for many people, and the proof is that Sony has a big market share.

I have a7R3 and a7R4 with many lenses. Few evening ago I had the Sony A1 in my hand with the 50 1.2.

I have been using the Leica SL2 since December 2019 for my work and sometime after I have added a send body as a backup.

I must say Sony lenses are getting better and I wanted to try the 50 1.2 for some time. this are my first impression coming from the snob Leica view.

1. Wow the grip is made for small hands, I forgot how small the body is, I usually never used my cameras that way, I always had a base place or vertical grip on them.

2. Everybody like to complain about the menu. On the A1 the menu has changed and improved. I think if you use it everyday you can get use to it. But like before it is still disturbing to me what you have to flip true to get started. It is welcome that it has a touch screen . Still don't like it and saving most use settings to a FAV menu can help, but me having other Sony and they all have different menu from another drives me crazy. The never update the menu layout to the current. This is a big win for Leica in the separate menu for photo and video.

3. Adding a profoto trigger for Sony to the A1 very frustrating as it was not working.  the usual suspects didn't work, shutter mechanic, silent off. as it turns out there is a Manu to activate wireless function on the camera, this will activate flash on the camera. WTF

4. My biggest complain is the poor electronic Viewfinder of the flagship A1. I was hoping it would have improved over the a7R4, but you are still looking at over-sharpend pixel image with high contrast. so disappointing 
I think for this point the SL2 is luxuries. You can see the image clean and focusing M lenses is excellent .

To end this I give you 2 pix, one is the A1 with the 50 1.2 and the other is the M11 with 50 1.4

PS the darker skin tone is still orange on the A1 even after editing, it would need more work.

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[RBB]

On 9/18/2022 at 12:55 AM, jrp said:

* The SL2 seems to be prone to burning out bright parts of the image, something that I haven't experience to the same extent with the A1.  

Yes that's true, I had learn to deal with it, using the histogram is a second nature and recovering the shadow is actually pretty good.