Eric, yes, I was glad that I had waited until the Nikon Z series actually came out and was in users' hands as well as reviewers' hands, and it became very apparent to me that the original promises Nikon made in its PR about how customers could use all their F-mount lenses with the FTZ adapter and the Z body were not exactly true. Some older lenses were not compatible with the FTZ adapter at all and other lenses, as I mentioned, would have been usable only as manual focus lenses even though they actually were autofocus. I'll happily manually focus a macro lens where I'm up close and personal with the subject and can see what I'm doing, but using it on a longer lens just wasn't going to cut the mustard. When I looked at the list of native lenses that were being offered with the initial launch, I saw no macro lenses at all, and when I looked at their "roadmap" projection and saw still no macro lenses that pretty much was the end of Nikon for me. I was ready to go mirrorless and Nikon had missed the boat as far as I was concerned. I turned my attention to Sony.... I'm glad I did! Only NOW, two years later, are my Nikon friends finally able to buy a couple of macro lenses. In the meantime I've been loving and enjoying my Sony ones all that time.....
One reason I knew that I wanted the A7R III over the A7III, which is where I'd started out in my thinking process, was indeed the potential for more detail and croppability. I have found that particularly with wildlife that I do need to crop fairly frequently. A duck will be swimming along doing something really cool and just as I hit the shutter button another duck gets himself halfway into the frame. In PP, easy enough to simply crop out that extra unwanted duck and no harm done to the overall impact of the image. When the A7R IV was announced, I gawked at the amazing 61 MP and said, "WOW!" Believe me, it has made a difference a few times when I otherwise would have had to discard an image. Being able to crop fairly extensively is pretty nice. The A1 gives me the best of both worlds: loads of croppability with its 51 MP and yet fast speed and good ISO as well -- basically a combo of the best features of the A9 and A7R IV. I absolutely love my "saucy" A1!
Cmaier, I also loved that NEX-7 -- a dandy little camera and some years ago my introduction to mirrorless. It was tempting to keep it, actually. However, at the time I was making the big switch I decided to trade it in, too, as by that time it was rather long in the tooth and I had the feeling I'd be leaving it in a bag somewhere while I happily played with the A7R IV anyway, and also I traded in the three lenses I had with it, since they were all APS-C. Since I was buying a full-frame body anyway, I wanted to put all my resources into going with a good new kit right from the start, including full frame lenses. The 135mm GM was actually an impulse purchase. I had already decided on the two macro lenses right from the get-go and had also thought that the 24-105mm would be an excellent and useful third lens with which to start out. So I'm standing in the store waiting as the store staff sorted through my Nikon gear. The box with the A7R IV was on the counter, and so were the two boxes with the macro lenses and the box with the 24-105. I kept looking up at the store shelves, where I could see a 135mm GM and it was singing a siren song to me.... After we'd gotten finished with the final agreement on the trade-in amount and the sales person was about to start ringing up things, all of a sudden I blurted, "actually.....I'd like the 135mm GM. I'll get the 24-105 another time." She smiled and quickly swapped out boxes and I gently touched the box containing the 135mm GM as the siren song turned into a quiet, happy purrrr.....
I still haven't bought the 24-105mm! Other lenses have taken priority for one reason or another as I've been finding a need and specific purpose for each. LOL! At the rate I'm going I probably never will have one and really I don't need it with the nice range of focal lengths and such that I've been gradually developing over the past two years.
Citypix, I love the RX!00! I've been using them for several years and Its primary role is as my travel camera, my stick-in-my-purse camera. The quality of the images is outstanding. That's a great idea to put an O-ring on the lug; right now I've got a couple of Peak Design thingies connected to the extra connectors that Sony provides in the box since the PD thread or whatever you call it is too thick to fit through the lugs in my RX100 VII. That way I can either use a PD wrist strap or the "leash" strap with the camera, depending upon the situation. Since I haven't traveled much over the past couple of years and only recently have started using PD straps, a trip I'm planning in December will be the first real tryout of that system.
Earlier this afternoon I spent a happy hour or so outside shooting around the lake -- the temperature was just right, the air was nice and clear, the light was great -- one of those wonderful photography days we get every now and then. Only problem is that thanks to too-heavy a finger on the shutter release, I once again managed to zip through two 80 GB CF Express Type A cards! Silent shutter and that fast 20 fps are great but it's just too easy to fire off too many shots in sequence. With wildlife, though, it does pay off in the end. Fortunately I had a third 80 GB CFExpress Type A card, along with a spare battery, in the little pouch that I carry in my pocket for just such an occasion. After I thought about things for a short time, I got online and paid a visit to B&H. I have now ordered an additional card, this time a 160GB.....
So, basically I went from being first an all-Nikon household to a mixed household with Nikon and Sony to now an all-Sony household. I'm more than happy with Sony and the quality of their gear.
