With a title like “The Truth about Sony”, I thought this video was just going to be more fanboy hate, but I was convinced to watch it and was quite surprised. Matt Granger is a pretty notorious Nikon die-hard, so you can understand my initial reaction. But in the video, he takes a good look at the issues that Sony has had over the years of its mirrorless camera development and how it’s overcome almost all of them.
Granger goes through seven topics covering the issues he says he’s experienced with Sony cameras over the past few years. To be fair, they’re not just his issues. Overheating, customer service and more have all been an issue for Sony users at some point. But Matt’s list looks a little something like this…
- “Shocking” battery life and overheating
- Lag, blackout and underperforming autofocus
- “The worst ergonomics on the market”
- Limited lens lineup
- Customer service and support
- The menus – enough said
- Social media approach and engagement
While many of these issues have now been fixed with better battery life and overheating issues going away, blackout-free 20fps shooting on bodies like the Sony A9, improved ergonomics and now a substantial Sony and 3rd party lens lineup with vastly improved speed and accuracy, not all of the issues have.
Their menu system still leaves a lot to be desired (as I was reminded when I borrowed a friend’s Sony over Christmas to shoot in the Scottish Highlands), and their attitude and approach to social media doesn’t appear to have been addressed at all in Granger’s eyes.
Sony’s ability to overcome many of their earlier problems, though, has caused many DSLR shooters to jump ship to mirrorless and specifically to Sony mirrorless. But compared to the other mirrorless offerings out there now from Nikon, Canon, Panasonic and Sigma, I personally feel they still need to address the video. They were once hailed as the kings of small camera video. Now they’re the only manufacturer out there still clinging on to only an 8-bit video option. Even others that only record 8-bit internally still offer 10-Bit or RAW over HDMI.
Are you still having issues with Sony? What are your biggest gripes? And what are you most pleased that they’ve fixed?
[via PetaPixel]
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