Welcome to my article on choosing your Sony Alpha Camera. Taking the next step in your photography can be exciting, whether you're upgrading from your mobile phone camera, a DSLR or a Sony camera - the latest Sony Digital Imaging range is at the forefront of imaging technology.
As a professional photographer and owner of a media business EP Group - we require our equipment to be high quality, reliable and to deliver best in class results. We recognised the innovation that Sony globally has invested in Digital Imaging and have been shooting on the Alpha platform for many years.
Why Sony? Whilst you can find many reasons to switch or upgrade in Alpha, I have listed my top reasons below:
- Sony is the world's largest sensor manufacturer. Sony sensors are used all over the world, in mobile phones, cameras, security devices, drones... Sony have some incredible technologies like EXMOR RS - to enhance the quality and performance of Sony sensors to deliver well above the competition.
- Sony A6000, A7 and A9 series provide users with a mirrorless system. Mirrorless systems have digital viewfinders, and "what you see, is what you get". You can see real time your exposure changes and even your video feed in the viewfinder.- Sony consistently have launched modern, high performance lenses that outperform competitors. This is achieved through some incredible lens design, but also some unique manufacturing technologues like XA.
Now to help you choose!
Should I buy Full Frame (A7 or A9 Series) or Crop Sensor (A6000 series)?
Full Frame cameras have larger sensors than Crop Sensor Cameras. The advantage of having a larger sensor means that there is a larger physical surface area for pixels, which usually means higher quality images and less image noise (unwanted artefacts). However, Full Frame cameras often cost more than Crop Sensor cameras. Work out your budget and choose the platform your comfortable with! You can always upgrade later. Another consideration is that full frame lenses often do cost more, but are higher quality (sharper and sometimes let more light in).
In this article we are going to focus on full frame options.
A7S series, A7R series, A7 series or A9 series?
To help you decrypt the designations: A7 series is the standard 'all rounder' A7. A7S series is focused for 'sensitivity' - it has a lower megapixel count, but better low light and video performance. A7R series is designed for resolution - bringing high megapixel count, but priorises photo qualiry over video.
A9 is designed to be the flagship camera - with a fast continious frame rate and an incredible autofucs system. This camera is very popular for sports and wedding shooters that demand the durable build quality, and state of the art reliability.
Sony have so far released three generations of most of these cameras above. We have listed some of the key changes below:
A7, A7S, A7R - Generation One
A7II, A7SII, A7RII - Generation Two - Bigger grip, In body sensor stablisation, autofocus improvements, improved video codecs on some models, improved digital viewfinder, more durable construction, higher image quality.
A7III, A7RIII - Generation Three - Bigger body and battery (approx 2x the capacity), improved autofocus systems, improved EYE-AF, improved image quality and viewfinder, dual SD card slots.
We would also recommend a screen protector, a fast and high quality SD card. Happy shooting!
For more information contact your local Sony retailer or get in touch with our photography team at EP Group at info@epgroup.co
