Moving to full frame...

the_director · 22 Aug 2015 at 23:02

Thinking of moving from my Sony A6000 to either the Sony A7 or A7 mk2 as they seem good value at the moment - £599 and £999 respectively.

I mainly do nature photography so I guess I like the extra length the 1.5x crop factor gives you, but I only shoot legacy glass and would love to use lenses at their true focal lengths - wides and compact primes etc. The IBIS of the A7ii would be great for this.

I have 300 2.8 and 400 f4 lenses, but they'll feel short on full frame now.

Any thoughts from people who shoot full frame?

the_director · 23 Aug 2015 at 15:51

You can find the A7 at most good camera shops for £799 and Sony are offering double cashback at the moment, giving you £200 back on the A7 and A7ii.

I only shoot manual lenses, which gives me the choice of Canon FD 500mm f4.5L or Nikon's various 600mm lenses. The Canon FD 800mm f5.6L isn't that expensive. I also have the matching 1.4x TC for the Tamron 400mm f4, making it a 560mm f5.6 lens.

I've had a long think about this and will probably stick with the A6000 for now. I think, eventually, I would like a full frame body purely for using my old wide angle lense with, I'd keep the A6000 for the extra reach.

the_director · 24 Aug 2015 at 21:00

Some interesting thoughts. From what I'm reading elsewhere in most circumstances you can't tell much difference in image quality between full frame and crop. I would like my wider manual lenses to be there actual focal lengths, the original A7 is good value, maybe two bodies is the solution here.

the_director · 2 Sep 2015 at 17:47

Picked up an A7ii and decided to keep the A6000 for wildlife for the time being and use the A7ii with my wide lenses for everything else.

the_director · 3 Sep 2015 at 19:03

Very happy with the A7ii so far, it does remind me how good the A6000 is, image quality wise. Lovely to have the true focal length of old lenses though.

The only issue so far - and it seems to be a common one - is that several of my lens adapters do not fit on the A7ii mount, but fit my A6000 fine. SOmething to do with slight change of tolerance on the lens mount i hear.

I'll need to try and find adapters sold as compatible with the A7ii now. luckily my FD adapter works and I can use that with my Adaptall lenses and FD lenses, however, my 28mm f1.9 Vivitar is OM, so all out of luck with that for the time being.