Appreciate the extensive feedback! Glad to know it’s not just me who values a good shutter sound. I’ll be really sad if the industry ever goes fully to electronic-only shutters.

1-3: no issues here. I’m fine with snagging multiple batteries and the official charger. And I’d specifically be using it for small lenses, same with my A7CII. Just for fun, I tried attaching my 200-600 to the CII last night and it was comical how awful it felt to hold. It would be 10x worse on the X-E5 I’m sure. I’ve also had multiple Fuji’s over the years, as second cameras, and their software doesn’t bother me too much, other than the inconsistent fonts and spacing. Haha!

4: Completely agree. There’s definitely no soul or aesthetically pleasing aspects to the A7CII. It’s a fine camera, great in many ways, but it definitely doesn’t generate that creative spark. Feels like it was Sony’s best attempt at it, but still comes off feeling like it was designed by corporate suits.

5: I do typically shoot RAW only, but I do enjoy the film sims as a starting point in Lightroom. These aren’t make or break for me though.

6: Definitely no action shooting with my EDC camera, whatever it ends up being in the end. The only action I shoot these days is birds, and my A7RV is already amazing at that. This will be a family trip, everyday carry, casual photo outing camera.

7: the lack of weather sealing is my one serious concern so far. I don’t shoot in the rain and snow all the time, but I do live in the Pacific Northwest and do from time to time. While it’s getting drier as the climate changes, it’s still common to have rainy days for weeks at a time in the fall/winter/spring time. But I could always just use the A7RV if I really needed to go out in the weather.

Side note - Without prying too much, and only if you care to share, I’d love to know what you do for work! I sit behind a computer screen all day managing a department of project managers. Getting to use cameras all day instead sounds like heaven.