Sony Week - Part One - Lifting the Lid

Opening the box on a new camera is like lifting the lid on either a treasure chest or a can of worms. Don't let that image put you off - it depends if you are fishing for compliments or bass.

This week's exploration is of a Sony mirrorless camera and two lenses. These were chosen from the Camera Electronic stocks to find out what the brand is like to handle and to see whether there is a real usable difference between the full-frame system and an APS-C system. To this end, lenses that would give a similar field of view were selected:

Sony Alpha 7 II and Fujifilm X-Pro1

Sony 50mm and Fujifilm 35mm

Sony 28mm and Fujifilm 18mm

The true believers of each brand are free to jump up and down, wave spec sheets, and berate each other as much as they like - the committee of the camera club needs to fill a hole in the year's entertainment roster and a fist fight will do nicely. I am jut going to play cameras in the studio and out in the field.

First comment, though, is one that Mr. Sony, Mr. Panasonic, and Mr Fujifilm may well like to heed. It is a biased comment, and a finicky one, but here goes; knock it off with the in-camera battery charging, guys.

It might look like a good idea, but it turns around and bites the photographer in the end. If the only way that the shooter can get electricity into a battery is to relinquish the use of the camera for the charging period, there is gong to come a time when the best shot of their life is happening and the camera is connected to a wall socket or a computer...

Oh, I know you can buy accessory charger blocks, and I know you can buy extra batteries - and I strongly suggest that anyone who gets a camera with no charger goes out and does exactly that - but think about the people who have not got this same amoiunt of foresight. Give them a charger block that they can leave back at the hotel charging their extra battery when they take the camera out. You can bank on the fact that they will eventually forget to pack it when they check out and have to buy another one. You'll score extra profit eventually. But give them that charger block to start with.

Note also to ALL makers: Memory cards are cheap as chips these days ( ...see what I did there...? ) and if you are a multi-billion Yen camera maker you can probably get a discount down at the local Bic Camera store in Tokyo - so you can afford to include a little 8 GB or 16 GB card in the basic camera box. It will save the thoughtless buyer from opening the thing on the Boeing and having no way to take pictures. If you brand out the cards as well, you'll encourage them to always buy your version in the future.

Now a word of praise to Sony. Their packaging designers have finally come up with a sales box that is neither too complex to be understood nor too sealed to be opened for inspection. Plus the external graphics now include a clear flag that the product is suitable for both the E - mount and the full frame format. Complex codes and numbers never help - clear labelling is a winner.

Interesting to see how many instruction books they put into the packaging. I counted 6 in the 50mm lens coping with Chinese, Japanese, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Greek, and what may possibly be Korean. Three of them seem to be addressed to the photographers and three to the photographers' lawyers. I suppose it is the way of the world...

That there is no leather case in there is a given these days. You have to step pretty far up in the market fto find someone who is prepared to include one - though there are plenty of bag manufacturers who have wonderful camera containers. You should pop this Sony into an Ona if you are stylish or a Think Tank if you are practical. I'm cheap - I used a hessian bag...

Note that as this camera is one of the wonderful WiFi ones, you may wish to consider a bag that has a compartment for your tablet or mobile phone - you are going to be using that WiFi facility to store and share on a regular basis.

Gimmee One'a Dem - Part Four - The Nikon D3400 Kit

When we ask people to go out and use mirror-less camera systems on the basis of small size and weight we are sometimes forgetting that if you choose wisely, you can get both small size and light weight in a DSLR. The trick, as with this Nikon D3400, is to choose an entry-level camera kit.

Frankly, My Dear, I do occasionally give a damn...particularly if I am hauling my metal-bodied mirror-less with a big-aperture zoom. The weight that I thought I was saving creeps back and my neck knows it at the end of the day. Custom straps help, but I still look at the littler Nikons with envy.

This is one of the new Nikons that feature the simple connection to mobile phones and tablets. Oh, I know that there are any number of mirror-less and DSLR cameras that do have WiFi, but the Nikon system is particularly easy to use. You pair up your phone or tablet with the camera once and it stays that way ever after. Older readers like myself who dread having to perform computer science every time they want to link a picture find this to be a blessing.

Okay, there is also another feature in this kit combo - the lens is a retractable one that allows you to store the front barrel back into the zoom ring when you are not taking pictures. The camera won't shoot until you extend the lens and tells you so in a notice on the back screen.. The screen isnt' a swinging one, and that may very well be a good thing.

Note that people used to using both hands to hold and control a camera may find the two-side configuration of the Nikon cameras a boon. There are still a fair number of pokey buttons on the right hand side but they could move four of the most heavily-used ones to the left  and clear the way somewhat.

One minus feature for the travellers will be the charger system that Nikon have included. The other two make similar-sized charger blocks with a standard figure-eight kettle cord connection to the mains electricity. Nikon have opted to make an adapter that clips onto the charger block easily ...to convert the two-blade Japanese plug to the Australian three-blade...but be aware that it does not unclip and pack away as easily. It's a space-user in the luggage.

No other downsides, however, and even the plastic lens mount with the rather exposed contact buttons is no problem as long as it is kept on the body. The lens is fast to deploy, focuses well, and is sharp.

Indeed , the performance of all three of the kit lenses is such as to bring into question whether an amateur user need change to other optics. In the price range and given the profile of the users, these kit lenses are superb value. The right job means that they pay for themselves within a hundred shots - and who amongst us us not prepared to shoot a hundred shots.