Sony has no intention of notifying you what is in their camera updates

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I followed up with Sony after some question marks on the battery warnings they “hid” in their firmware updates. My issues were simple:

  1. If this was to help users identify fake batteries, why is there no option to turn it off? There are plenty of after market batteries that are affected by this.
  2. If Sony were honest about helping users, why haven’t they notified users of the functionality change in their firmware description? After all, this was an “honest” attempt to help users.

Whilst I  do have an issue with manufacturers limiting third-party batteries as a whole, I have a bigger issue when they add the functionality through updates because what has worked perfectly is essentially handicapped by firmware. I also have an issue when they secretly embed this in an update, which can’t be reversed and don’t include the information in the firmware. That strikes me as pretty underhanded.

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Sigma 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art Lens for Sony E mount Review

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Introduction

When I lived in Fujiland, the Fujifilm 90mm (APS-C) quickly became favourite from a focal length perspective. I didn’t have a particular affiliation with the 135mm focal length, I think I originally picked up the 90mm because the AF speed on the Fujifilm 56mm was terrible for kids, but I fell in love with focal length and the compression after that.

With my move to Sony, I started with the Zeiss Batis 85 which is amazing, but after a while buying a 135mm seemed was a foregone conclusion, it was just a question of which one. The Zeiss Batis 135mm F2.8 would have been the logical choice, small and light, but us humans aren’t known for logical choices. This is how the bigger and heavier Sigma 135mm f1.8 ART found it way into my collection. I had a light portrait lens with my Zeiss 85mm Batis so I thought for this one I was going to purchase the beast, and a beast it is…beauty and a beast all in one.

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Nikon sets a dangerous precedent

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I  was reading the luminious landscape comments on the Nikon Z7 release and some items in the article raised major red flags for me.

I’ve copied a paragraph from the article to give you some context of what I am talking about:

“It seems that a long time ago, Nikon fell out of grace with Luminous-Landscape — or should I say, Luminous-Landscape fell out of the graces of Nikon. From what I heard, it was due to something Michael had said. Those of you who knew Michael know that he called it as he saw it, and I suppose he said something that Nikon didn’t like. I also wrote a story about Saying Goodbye to My Nikon when I made the switch to mirrorless years ago. Since then, we never hear from Nikon.”

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Lens aesthetics and third party brands

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There is one thing that has always confused me about third-party manufacturers and that is their inability to apply lens aesthetics to each brand. Let me be clear, I’m not talking drastic redesigns here, I’m not talking about creating a retro looking lens for some brands and more modern for others, I’m talking simple colours.

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Sony vs Fujifilm – Let’s get real about it

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I’ve had quite a few people email me in response to the article I wrote on the A7iii vs X-T3 because of my recent switch from Fujifilm to Sony. The types of questions coming through were akin to:

  1. Should they switch to Sony if it’s better?
  2. How could I have been happy with Fujifilm and now say Sony is better?
  3. If I knew what I know today would I have gone to Sony earlier?
  4. What would I buy today?

Let’s answer those in simple terms:

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Sony A7iii Review

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Introduction

In some respects its a little easier reviewing cameras when you are switching systems. You are not as tied to a legacy way of thinking so it’s a little easier to grip on a problem and think of it as a negative or positive. With using a different system, you tend to think: “This is the way I work and I’m not going to change” which creates a problem with a camera. If you are switching you think: “This is the way I am used to working, could I work this way in future?”

My background? Non-commercial photographer. I have long since accepted that I do photography because I enjoy it and doing it commercially wouldn’t work for me because I like doing it the way I want, with the things I want, when I want. I make enough money from my normal career to fund photographic toys. Shot Nikon, switched to Fujifilm for mirrorless years ago, then onto Sony for reasons I won’t go into, except to say I do actually like the Fujifilm gear so it has nothing to do with that.

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