Sony My gear plan for professional action pet & portrait pet photography

[L0n3Gr3yW0lf]

Hello, I have hinted on this for some time on the forum here and there. I have been doing lots of research, started watching tutorials and guides to professional work and pet photography (and will continue to do so). In simple terms, by summer 2023, I want to offer action and portrait photography service for dogs and cats (possibly other pets), mostly locally as my travel distance is limited. Also I won't be giving up my day job so I will have to balance the time and effort I can put in.

My current gear is very limited for what I want to do. What I have as of now:
*Sony a7R II with Meike Battery Grip (and 4 batteries, the reputation of NP-FW50)
*Tamron 28-75mm f 2.8 Di III VXD G2 (the highest grade and quality lens I have ever owned)
*Tamron 150-500mm f 5-6.7 Di III VXD VC
*Samyang AF 35mm f 1.8 FE
*Tokina atx-m 85mm f 1.8 FE

The issues I have is autofocus reliability, responsiveness, accuracy and consistency. Most of it stems from the camera itself, it is 2nd generation of PDAF in Mirrorless form from Sony so it is old. I have tested AF-C with Single point (Small, Medium and Large), Area and Zone, with Lock on (on Small, Medium , Large points and Zone) and with all my lenses but none of them are acceptable.
What I have found is that even with my small dog, even at walking pace, in daylight, with clear background, I get 1 to 2 at most sharp pictures per burst until the buffer fills up at 5 FPS. And that's on a few out of dozens of tries.
Top that up with taking a long time to be able to review a pictures because the camera in unaccessible during file writing, 5 FPS shooting speed, no burst option using Electronic Shutter, 42 MP RAW files are killing my workflow on my laptop and slowing me down to where I am trading my time off work for mostly editing pictures, the Sony a7R II will not be able to do what I need it to do. (Some of these reasons are why I don't enjoy the process of making images as much as I used to, being frustrated quite often).

Now, I prefer buying 2nd hand (used) wherever possible, my budget being 2.500 £ (if I trade in my Sony a7R II, or 1.750 £ if I don't, but I probably will).
My first consideration was Sony a7 IV (currently at 2.400 £ but I get 300 £ Trade-in bonus on top of the value I get on my Sony a7R II, because of the 33 MP (more cropping then 24 MP and less painful then 42 MP), incredible DR (why does that matter? It matters immensely because dogs come in white but also extremely contrasty colours and high detail furs, they tend to have very dark eyes and shadow recovery is paramount to get the eyes to light up), Animal Eye AF in Real Time (best invention since sliced bread for what I want to do), limitless buffer with Type A CF Express card, 10 FPS is more then enough when AF-C is reliable, 120 Hz 3.6 Million Dots EVF.
The problem started after reading and finding out that there's a huge and variable problem with Eye AF on both human and animals accuracy where it tends to front or back focus. And I haven't found any conclusive evidence that it has been fixed. I could turn it off but then there's very little benefit to my 2nd option.

2nd option I started thinking about is the Sony a9, used it goes from 1.800 £ in good condition to 2.000 £ in like new condition. It still has the best AF capabilities with everything but Bird Eye AF (useful only for my personal interests and not the professional side), it shots 20 FPS (15 when I shot with all my lenses) with no blackouts so perfect for tracking running dogs, same EVF as a7 IV and an improvement over my current one, cheaper battery grip options. The problem or downside is it's a 5 year old camera with end of life for firmware updates and feature improvements, only one UHS-II card so backup will not be possible at the same buffer depth, DR is a lot less capable then a7 IV or even a7 III (which is important as I mentioned), High ISO is not as good as the a7 (R or none R), 24 MP means less cropping friendly (but still possible) and smaller prints (especially if cropped).

3rd option, and only if I have no other option is the Sony a7 III or a7C, they have most of the a9/a7 IV AF features but less reliability, it has the most limited buffer, the EVF and backscreen quality is not ideal BUT they are between 1.300 £ and 1.750 £.

For lenses I will use the ones I have for practice until the summer but I am thinking about trading in my Tamy 28-75 G2 and primes for the Tamron 35-150mm f 2-2.8 Di III VXD as the workhorse of everything I need. 35mm should be wise enough to avoid distortions and fast enough to blurr the background, 150mm should be long enough to get action and beautiful subject isolation but not to far to have to shout at the dog, and best of all no lens switching so I can work easier within the pet's unpredictability. If not I am considering the Tamron 70-180mm f 2.8 Di III VXD as the outdoor lens but the big zoom sounds and feels like a lot better option for what I need.
I might consider the Sony FE 85mm f 1.8 for low light (like forests paths) tracking but more towards the end of the year when light becomes more limited.

I am scouting areas around me where I can get good action shots and portraits for the dogs and it wouldn't be to exhausting for the dogs to walk to.

(I have thought about Fujifilm as a choice for this setup for the last few months but I don't feel confident that even the X-H2s has a reliable autofocus system to track dogs in action, and to many shooting speeds are locked with 1.29x crop to get Blackout Free shooting, making the 26 MP less then Sony a9's 24 MP.)

Any thoughts or ideas you could share, maybe something I didn't think about or I have it wrong?

 

[Brownie]

I think you're missing one of the main A9 features. It was designed as a sports and action camera and has a very fast sensor readout. It's the only one on your list with a stacked sensor and would be the fastest of the bunch, so if bursts are your goal that would be the first choice.

A feature of the 7M4 that I am just coming to appreciate is the Lossless Compressed RAW. Sony has managed to compress their RAW files with zero loss of quality, and of the cameras on your list it's the only one that has this feature. It turns an 80MB file into 40MB+/- so it helps with storage and transfer time. I tried to use it earlier, but Affinity Photo didn't recognize it until their release of Affinity V2 a week or so ago. Darktable won't open the files either, but I'm a couple of versions behind and suspect the newer releases will handle it just fine.

Regarding the focus issues on the 7M4, I've heard very few complaints on Sony forums. Personally, I have not experienced it at all. The biggest issue seemed to be that the camera would focus on an eyebrow instead of an eye but only under certain lighting. Sony has issued three or four firmware updates since the camera was introduced that supposedly fixed this and a few other glitches, the last one only a week or so ago. I have not updated mine at all because I haven't experienced any problems. I've used the feature on birds, people, and animals. It even works with the old Minolta A-Mounts.

If it ain't broke...

None of the cameras on your list are a bad choice. Any of them will have better AF than the 7M2. Not being a fan of rangefinder style bodies I'd avoid the 7C, but it's a great camera and that comes down to personal choice. From a cost standpoint, a good used 7M3 would probably give you the most bang for the buck.

That Tamron 35-150/2-2.8 is a beast of a lens. I'd love to have one but since I already have all of the FL's covered it's more of a wish list item for me. It's expensive and hard to come by, supposedly being manufactured only in limited quantities per round. BH has had it on backorder on and off since its introduction.

 

[L0n3Gr3yW0lf]

I think you're missing one of the main A9 features. It was designed as a sports and action camera and has a very fast sensor readout. It's the only one on your list with a stacked sensor and would be the fastest of the bunch, so if bursts are your goal that would be the first choice.

A feature of the 7M4 that I am just coming to appreciate is the Lossless Compressed RAW. Sony has managed to compress their RAW files with zero loss of quality, and of the cameras on your list it's the only one that has this feature. It turns an 80MB file into 40MB+/- so it helps with storage and transfer time. I tried to use it earlier, but Affinity Photo didn't recognize it until their release of Affinity V2 a week or so ago. Darktable won't open the files either, but I'm a couple of versions behind and suspect the newer releases will handle it just fine.

Regarding the focus issues on the 7M4, I've heard very few complaints on Sony forums. Personally, I have not experienced it at all. The biggest issue seemed to be that the camera would focus on an eyebrow instead of an eye but only under certain lighting. Sony has issued three or four firmware updates since the camera was introduced that supposedly fixed this and a few other glitches, the last one only a week or so ago. I have not updated mine at all because I haven't experienced any problems. I've used the feature on birds, people, and animals. It even works with the old Minolta A-Mounts.

If it ain't broke...

None of the cameras on your list are a bad choice. Any of them will have better AF than the 7M2. Not being a fan of rangefinder style bodies I'd avoid the 7C, but it's a great camera and that comes down to personal choice. From a cost standpoint, a good used 7M3 would probably give you the most bang for the buck.

That Tamron 35-150/2-2.8 is a beast of a lens. I'd love to have one but since I already have all of the FL's covered it's more of a wish list item for me. It's expensive and hard to come by, supposedly being manufactured only in limited quantities per round. BH has had it on backorder on and off since its introduction.

Thanks. I haven't missed the a9's fast readout speed, 1/160th sensor readout for the electronic shutter, making it most useful for what I need. The Sony a7 III, IV and a7C have 1/20th sensor readout, making the electronic shutter very much a no go for fast moving subjects. I remember when I had the a7C for a very short time that shooting burst in electronic shutter would distort my dog quite significantly from one frame to another, so I would rely on mechanical shutter more for that.

I don't mind using Compressed RAW, I haven't pushed the RAW files hard enough to notice a significant IQ loss at ISO lower then 3.200
But at ISO 3.200 and above I do notice a significant increase in noise (especially colour noise, basically looks like Skittles spread all over) in the shadows, even on my a7R II.
To bad that Loveless Compressed RAW doesn't improve the speed or buffer of shooting burst with the Sony a7 IV, but that's an artificial limitation to segment their camera line and stay in line only where they absolutely need to with the competition.

It's a very difficult choice between the a9 and a7 IV because I love the speed of the a9 but I love the features, improvement and lack of AA filter on the a7 IV. And the a7 IV has the potential to improve more with time but Sony has slowed down the firmware updates, the Sony a7S III and a1 lacks some features that the a7 IV has for no other reason then Sony no bringing them via firmware updates. Strange.

Oh. I wasn't sure how widespread the Eye AF issues are with the Sony a7 IV but reading the DPReview, Facebook Group and Reddit Group it seemed more common then it actually is? Or is the issue so specific to conditions that's rarely an issue for the average Joe? It would still be a very frustrating problem for a 2.400 £ product.

 

[Brownie]

Having never experienced it, I can only tell you that I talk to other 7M4 owners and the only complaints I've heard were related to the human eyebrow problem. That doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist, but I feel like if it was a big problem there'd be more talk about it.

The 7M4 has a ridiculous buffer, hundreds of images. I've never had it lock up due to writing files. While shooting my grandson's karate tournament a few weeks ago I was letting the camera run for 30+ frames, far more than the 5 or 6 I usually do. No problem. I've never tried to push it to its limit, so no idea where that is. I am using mid-speed SDII cards, you can supposedly shoot non-stop using a CF Express, but they're still so expensive I'm sticking with SD. On the other hand, my 7RM3 freezes up all the time. A quick burst of 4 or 5 images and I'm dead in the water until in finishes writing. That's more processor related than MP related, I think. But I'm kind of surprised at how much more cumbersome the difference between 33 and 42 MP is all the way down the line. Longer to upload, more storage requirements, etc. etc.. However, the ability to crop is crazy. I would love to try a 7RM4 once just to see what it's like, but I think my sweet spot is the 30-40ish area.

One thing I noticed when shooting that tournament was that the burst rate of 6FPS was a lot slower than I would've liked to have. I could've switched to compressed RAW and got to 10FPS, but I've never experimented with it and didn't want to risk IQ. I suppose for these family memory type images the lossy version would be fine.

I can understand Sony slowing down the firmware updates for their old bodies, if they keep doing them there'd be little reason for we gearheads to buy a new one. As it is, I think they leave their old cameras on the market for too long. However, I don't think the A1 is lacking anything the 7M4 has, they did the focus firmware upgrade after the 7M4 was released. The A1 is like the 7R4, 74, and 9II had a threesome!

 

[Brownie]

I just went and poked around looking for the AF issue. The DPR thread specifically asks people who aren't experiencing problems to not post, so you're only seeing one side. Also, it's the same 8 or so people over and over.

It appears that most of the complaints stopped in February or March, the last post was in June. Sony issued the first Firmware update for AF (1.01) in March, and another one (1.10) in August. So far there have been 1.01, 1.05, 1.10, and most recently 1.11.

CORRECTION! If you end up going 7M4, one note: You must connect the camera to a computer for V 1.01 and 1.05. After that, you can use an SD card. However, you must install 1.05 or the more recent ones won't work. (I think) the only thing 1.05 does is switch the camera to SD card updates.
Added: You can update to V1.05 using the card, then directly to 1.11 with the card. No need to connect to a computer unless you only update to 1.01.

While reading I did note something that V 1.10 fixed that I've experienced, the EVF doesn't return to ambient light and stays dark (not black, just very dark) for a few seconds, so maybe I'll update after all.

 

[L0n3Gr3yW0lf]

I just went and poked around looking for the AF issue. The DPR thread specifically asks people who aren't experiencing problems to not post, so you're only seeing one side. Also, it's the same 8 or so people over and over.

It appears that most of the complaints stopped in February or March, the last post was in June. Sony issued the first Firmware update for AF (1.01) in March, and another one (1.10) in August. So far there have been 1.01, 1.05, 1.10, and most recently 1.11.

If you end up going 7M4, one note: You must connect the camera to a computer for V 1.01 and 1.05. After that, you can use an SD card. However, you must install 1.05 or the more recent ones won't work. (I think) the only thing 1.05 does is switch the camera to SD card updates.

While reading I did note something that V 1.10 fixed that I've experienced, the EVF doesn't return to ambient light and stays dark (not black, just very dark) for a few seconds, so maybe I'll update after all.

Thank you,that's very reassuring and makes me think of Sony a7 IV again.
I do hope that Focus Bracketing, introduced with the new Sony a7R V will be brought down the camera stack to A7 IV, possibly a9?

 

[Brownie]

Thank you,that's very reassuring and makes me think of Sony a7 IV again.
I do hope that Focus Bracketing, introduced with the new Sony a7R V will be brought down the camera stack to A7 IV, possibly a9?

I doubt it. I suspect the A9M3 will have it, (which is supposed to be released in early 2023) as will the A1M2.

It's a crazy feature, you can pre-choose hundreds of focus intervals and the camera takes the shots, but you have to upload to a computer to stack. I was surprised that it wasn't done as an in-camera until someone pointed out that stacking hundreds of 60MP images takes a lot of juice, probably more than the camera can provide.

Getting ready to enter the wonderful world of Sony firmware updates. Whish me luck...

 

[Brownie]

Done, 1.05 and 1.11, 15 minutes.

 

[Herman]

Good luck @Brownie