Disappointment with Sony

I was going to do this blog post late last year, but I was hoping I was wrong. Sony has stopped development on its a7 series of cameras as far as I can tell. Late last year, I was concerned about the direction Sony’s camera line was heading (being geared toward vloggers) and feared there would never be a successor to the a7siii (that’s the alpha 7 line with an “s” for sensitivity and mark 3). But now I don’t know if there will be successors to the a7r (resolution line) or the base a7 line. Regardless, mirrorless camera development appears to have reached its apex in 2020.

Back in 2020 I needed a new camera. I researched for many months. Early in the research I decided on full frame and mirrorless. The next question was what system. There were really only two systems to choose from when it came down to it and those were Sony and Canon. Nikon was late to the game with modern full frame mirrorless cameras and I think only had one out at the time with very few lenses. Sony was the leader with lots of glass (lenses) and Canon had some nice looking cameras, but their glass lacked and then there was that much-discussed infamous overheating issue with a couple of their cameras.

I decided on the a7siii which may have turned out to be the best videocentric hybrid camera of all time. I was initially a bit hesitant with it given only a 12 megapixel sensor, but I looked at my old photos and decided it was fine – and it turned out to be perfect for my photos. I’m not a professional; I’m a dad with a camera trying to take some nice photos and video. As for video, it way exceeded my expectations. I’ve had several issues with the camera over the years, though:

• 1. The camera is touted as Sony’s most sensitive camera with an expanded iso up to 409600. What wasn’t touted is that it appears to be a dual-gain iso where a second pass at lessening the noise occurs at a higher iso. That starts at 12800. The problem is that the photos and videos become very muddy after 3200 until they’re cleaned up starting at 12800. For practical everyday run and gun use, 12800 is really only good in a certain low light and I rarely use this iso. This leaves the camera really only usable between 100 and 3200 iso.
• 2. The camera was touted as having animal eye autofocus in photo and video. It works great in photo mode; in video mode it doesn’t work at all despite the option being available in the menu system and the option being listed in the manual.
• 3. Semi-related to point 2, Sony does not provide a lot of firmware updates for their cameras and when they do, they’re nothing much. There are two camps of thought on this: 1) Sony should regularly add features to their cameras via firmware updates like a number of other manufacturers do, or 2) People who purchased the camera should have purchased it for the specs and features touted at release. I’m actually in camp 2. While I was thinking that Sony would release firmware updates, I wasn’t miffed when they weren’t. I was, however, thinking a firmware update would resolve the animal eye autofocus issue and no firmware update came for that.
• 4. Related to point 3, new cameras with newer features were released after the a7siii, most notably the a7iv and its feature set. When this camera came out in 2021, it was universally thought that some of the features of this lower cost camera would come to Sony’s flagship cameras, the a1 and a7siii. These features did not and I’m shocked Sony didn’t update the a1, which is their highest cost camera at nearly double the a7siii. Sony basically said fuck you to its customers that forked over the most money.
• 5. Hot pixels are a significant problem with this camera. When shooting photos or video for an extended period of time and the hot pixel problem starts up, the images can be ruined. This becomes especially true when doing time-lapse photography. There is a fairly easy resolution to this and that’s to perform a “pixel mapping,” which is buried in the menu system. But if you don’t know this, you don’t know this. It also requires a reboot so if the hot pixels become an issue and you’re in the middle of something, you’re shit out of luck. The camera also apparently does a pixel mapping once a month automatically which would be the reason why the hot pixel problem seems to come and go.
• 6. The camera’s sensor is 12 megapixels, but it turns out it’s a 48 megapixel sensor with three out of four pixels turned off when breakdowns were done on the camera. All of the supposed experts at the time of the camera release were saying the fact that it was 12 megapixels meant each individual pixel reader on the sensor was bigger and able to gather more light for its sensitivity. This was either a lie or misinformation based on a lie from Sony. This explains the camera’s noise problem (and maybe the hot pixel issue?).
• 7. The LCD screen. The EVF is great and that’s what I use all the time for photos and videos, but the LCD screen is shit. Years ago I saw a really funny comment on SonyAlphaRumors. It read something like “I know when I’m buying a fake cheap Sony knock-off camera because the LCD screen is better than a Sony.” It’s really funny because it’s true. High quality LCD screens have been around for over two decades now. Sony is still stuck in the mid-90s with theirs.

That last point is what has prompted me to draft this post. The LCD screen started to go bad from its already bad state late last year when a color-arc appeared on the right side of the screen. Hot pixels are becoming more common too, which indicates my camera is nearing end of life. There’s a problem with obtaining new hardware though with better features – Sony hasn’t released shit that comes close to the a7siii’s specs. So my choices are to go with another system or get another a7siii.

Starting last year, it was rumored or thought that Sony might end it’s a7s line given they came out with a cinema line of cameras based on the identical hardware shortly after the a7siii release. The thought is that the video is so good that it will just become a cinema line and they hybrid line will end. This very well could be true. A new line of thought has come up this year, from me, that Sony is ending its entire 7 series of cameras, what was their bread and butter. This is because no updates for their other 7 series have come and they’re due too – the a7r and base a7 series are due updates this year and there have been crickets.

The only thing to have come out the past year from Sony are the a9iii and today, the ZV-E10ii. The a9iii is a great advancement in camera technology with its global shutter, but it costs about 2k too much. The ZV-E10ii is an aps-c camera aimed at vloggers and its specs make it a laughable turd in the toilet. Literally the only thing it’s good for is recording yourself at a desk making youtube videos because taking it outside will cause it to overheat. And at a grand, it’s $200 too high in price and frankly, a $100 web cam would be fine for the use case scenario.

Sony’s focus the past couple of years has been putting out cameras for “content creators,” meaning vloggers. My response to that is that anyone who purchases a camera is a content creator, not just vloggers. Thus, I’m now looking at Nikon. That z6iii looks nice and someone makes an adapter for Sony’s e-mount lenses that includes autofocus. I’ll give Sony the remainder of the year, but after that I’m moving on.