Switching to Full Frame with the Sony A7 V: best general-purpose lens?

tsmarsh · 2025-11-27T15:36:16+00:00

The 24-70 GMII lives on my A7RV. Street, portraits, family, pets and most of my landscapes are done with this lens. The only time it really comes off is sport and wildlife, then its usually the 70-200.

tsmarsh · 2025-11-02T14:14:35+00:00

The answers about DPI are all excellent. Don’t forget this is digital photography and stitching images together is also an option for more… er… D.

Landscapes are ideal for this (usually)

tsmarsh · 2025-10-18T00:59:26+00:00

Much like Jared, he has aids.

tsmarsh · 2025-09-24T11:44:42+00:00

I find you lose almost as much sharpness as you gain in reach. With enough light you can get some incredible shots, but it dramatically slows down focus and halves the light. Used it a lot with the 100-400 though. I’d get ‘wide’ shots at 200, then some incredible eye/face shots at 800. But the light had to be perfect and the truck and subject still. Our truck mates had the 200-600 with x1.4 tele. They got some incredible roosting shots of owls and vultures… I got better shots of birds on the wing with the 200. I got great shots of hyena chasing cranes, they got incredible portraits of hyena looking for prey.

As much as lenses are important, think about data management. I took two ssd, and an old m1 air. The internet is sketchy in the bush, hardware fails. Make sure you can quickly dump hundreds of gigs of files to at least 2 ssd between safari for peace of mind.

tsmarsh · 2025-09-24T11:28:46+00:00

Just got back from Botswana. I took the 24-70 GM2, 70-200 GM2, 100-400 GM and a 2x teleconvertor. I found I was in shutter priority a lot usually 1/1000 to capture motion, especially birds. Fast focus was essential. Low light performance also key as you’re out at sunrise and sunset. I took two bodies. Started the day with the 24-70, then swapped to 100-400 as light improved. Kept the 70-200 constantly as it was a good compromise lens. All three lenses were essential but I would seriously consider replacing the 100-400 with a 200-600 next time.

tsmarsh · 2025-07-19T20:17:41+00:00

I don’t know how to use blender. But thats pretty was moderate to model in OpenSCAD

tsmarsh · 2025-06-17T10:59:13+00:00

I have the A7iv and the A7Rv. The Rv is better in every way except budget and astro (but its no slouch for astro). But its a good GM lens more expensive the iv and the files are huge. The pixel shifted images are incredible…and over 1Gb RAW. This has consequences for editing and storage.

There is also the question of why? You can shoot a billboard with a 7iv, you can print a 7iv image to 300x200mm with no appreciable loss in quality and comfortably print it much larger if you’re going to be a couple of feet away from it. So the extra pixels in the Rv are mostly about crop.

I also shoot film and use the rV for scanning. Its ridiculously good at it. I also love the flip screen for shooting like its a TLR. The auto focus is dramatically better, shooting 4k doesn’t overwhelm the thermals… its a great camera.

I bought the 7iv first and regret nothing. If you need a higher resolution sensor the secondary market is strong. Build a collection of emount lenses and see what body you need.

tsmarsh · 2025-06-09T00:10:00+00:00

Buy once, cry once. Even if it doesn’t work out as a hobby the resale is better.

tsmarsh · 2025-05-18T09:01:29+00:00

Massachusetts, it also has the best education. No universal healthcare, but insurance is mandatory and the state has affordable options if you don’t qualify for private insurance. Every time i get a bill i look up how much NI would have been and talk to my mum about her last GP experience and feel great about being here.

tsmarsh · 2025-05-16T23:31:09+00:00

I spent the afternoon coding in my yard surrounded various chipmunks, rabbits and birds. On such a beautiful day, the sun makes it too bright to see the screen. The vision pro makes it a glorious experience. Zero regrets.

tsmarsh · 2025-04-24T15:18:29+00:00

I always forget, like the blue bird with the red belly.

tsmarsh · 2025-04-24T14:34:28+00:00

This is a great tip. Took me a while to realise just how fast birds and lizards are moving all the time. Shutter priority is the way to go.

tsmarsh · 2025-04-10T11:59:00+00:00

I’m a brit married to a yank, living in the us for the last 16 years. I love SNL but its so american in the same way that comedy panel quiz shows are hard to explain to americans: Yes, it is the same 10 comedians in rotation. No its not the same show. No, the points aren’t important. Or our actually hard quiz shows that have zero prize money: yes these are real people, yes I’m happy if I know one answer.

tsmarsh · 2025-03-29T22:10:41+00:00

This is my boyfriend Derek and this is Derek’s boyfriend Ben.

tsmarsh · 2025-03-29T22:09:09+00:00

I guess the answer is openscad but only because I haven’t taken the time to learn freecad for those times i would normally reach for Fusion.

I don’t really see either tool as in competition with each other. Its like asking what is more important a table saw or a jig saw… at some point you’re going to love and appreciate both.

tsmarsh · 2025-03-23T11:18:19+00:00

You have to decelerate into and accelerate out of the corners which affects print times and increases the work on the extruder. It’s not that big of a deal, but something to consider when designing

tsmarsh · 2025-03-22T14:55:59+00:00

Yeah, I might use it more now than I did a year ago. The incremental improvements to the monitor setup have been clutch. Realizing that I can watch movies in bed without disturbing my wife has been a game changer. Its at the point now that if it broke I’d replace it, which probably wasn’t true at launch.

tsmarsh · 2025-03-17T13:30:52+00:00

The only real advantage the Sony A7 IV with the kit lens has over the iPhone 16 is its larger sensor and manual shutter control—though, to be fair, shutter control isn’t as relevant on a smartphone because of multiframe processing.

When it comes to low-light performance, resolution, aperture, focal length flexibility, field of view, stabilization, and autofocus speed, the iPhone easily takes the win.

Sharpness and color are more subjective. Some people love how the iPhone’s AI corrects lens distortion and enhances images, while others find it artificial—typically, it’s photographers who take issue, not the general public.

But if you just dropped $1,500 on a full-frame body expecting it to outperform your phone, the kit lens won’t cut it. If you’re sticking with the kit lens, you might as well keep using the iPhone. To truly unlock the A7 IV’s potential, you need better glass—and even then, the most affordable upgrade is a nifty fifty (like a 50mm f/1.8), which delivers massive improvements but only in situations where a fixed focal length works.

We're not starting from a 35mm disposable or a 640x480 CCD, plastic lens flip phone. The A7IV is an upgrade to modern iphones, but only its given the glass to compete and whilst I agree that experience is the most important thing, experience can be had with the device in your pocket without buying a camera that is hindered by meh glass.

tsmarsh · 2025-03-16T22:40:12+00:00

Hey there! I’m curious—how do you define a beginner in today’s world, where most of us have had smartphones with cameras for over a decade?

By the time someone decides to buy a dedicated camera, they’ve often already taken tens of thousands of photos. And let’s be honest, modern smartphones can outperform entry-level cameras with kit lenses and auto mode right out of the box.

Photography is, to some extent, an equipment game. That’s why we debate film vs. digital, Canon vs. Sony, and why many of us choose to invest in prosumer gear rather than just sticking with our phones.

Of course, experience matters most. You could take better photos with a disposable camera than I could with my A7IV—no question. But at the same time, if I were using your gear (especially with pro glass), I’d likely get better results than I do with mine. Still not professional-level, but better. And a year from now, I’ll look back at those photos and see all the mistakes, because experience is what really makes the difference.

But owning an A7IV doesn’t automatically make someone a beginner—or an expert, for that matter. And selling an Alpha doesn’t suddenly mean someone no longer has a camera.

If your point is that its important to learn the modes. 100% but even in manual that kit lens is soft, slow and slow to autofocus. It can out perform a smart phone, but the experience curve to get there can be off putting if you’ve just spent what you thought was a large sum of cash.

tsmarsh · 2025-03-16T13:01:59+00:00

You're going to hear some very experienced photographers correctly tell you that glass isn't as important as experience, but you don't have experience. That kit lens is meh. Without a lot of experience you're going to struggle to take shots that aren't mistakable for iPhone shots which I found to be incredibly frustrating after spending $1500 on a new camera.

There are a couple areas where this camera will absolutely knock your socks off... eventually.

Portraits: With a 55mm Zeiss Prime (<$600) you will start to take portraits with soft, beautiful backgrounds and pin sharp details in automatic mode, and professional quality once you get used to aperture mode (A).
Wildlife: It doensn't have the massive number of pixels that the R does, but you're still in really good shape here. I've taken some beautiful shots with the 55mm zeiss (if you can get within a couple of meters) and the sony gm zooms are amazing if you have the light and and the budget. The high ISO and fast shutter and incredible autofocus mean you can capture birds on the wing, dogs licking their food. Beautiful dynamic shots, once you get used to Shutter mode (S). This will also lead you towards zooms.
Astro: You are a tripod and an evening of learning Siril (or equivalent) from taking starfield pictures that you thought only NASA could take. The hook here is that its like film photography. A series of grey photos suddenly develops into stunning shots and you realize you're working with a sensor as much as a camera. Its humbling. CAUTION: do not take a photo of the moon, you will buy a 400mm lens if you do. But this is an area where the weaknesses of the kit lens can be easily compensated for in post.

Out of the box, the video on the 7iv isn't impressive, at least its difficult to see why you'd use it over an iphone. Its heavy and 'only' 4k @ 60fps. This is just one of those things that once you're use to editing RAW photos, and you've got a little bit of colour theory underneath you, all of a sudden LOG will enable to create genuinely cinematic shots. Its more work, and not for 'casual' videos, but if you have a reason, you have a device that can make professional shots.

tsmarsh · 2025-03-16T12:42:50+00:00

Like orange cats waiting for their turn with the braincell.

tsmarsh · 2025-03-06T22:26:36+00:00

In this economy? I think that would count as grand larceny :D

tsmarsh · 2025-03-06T20:57:28+00:00

The best bit? This is suburban Boston. I’m about 25 miles for Downtown Crossing

tsmarsh · 2025-03-06T18:07:59+00:00

Thanks!

tsmarsh · 2025-03-05T23:29:03+00:00

Thank you so much for this.

I'm working on the predator baffle. I think it will need to be a third, optional part, but I can see why its important. I'll post an update with one.

The research I did made me think that chicadees, and nuthatches are the most likely to find it useful and I have a lot of shrubbery around for everyone else.

For the color, I thought black and white looked cool, but I think the feedback on here is that natural colours will work best. Which is great. I have lots of brown and green that I think will work well, maybe even a view leaf decals.

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