Sony a7R III FW update

For you early adopters of the new Sony a7r III, there is a new FW version (1.01) available which addresses a few minor bugs in the FW the camera originally shipped with.  As always, I recommend you wait 7 days before doing this FW update to make sure that it isn't pulled due to some new bug.

Also note that Sony still does not support High Sierra so you would need either a Windows Machine or an older version of OSX to perform the update.

Here is a tip for birds. Some of us Canon shooters would bring a crop body, like a 7d, along with the 1d's to use as a teleconverter when looking for a longer lens. You can even put one on a lens with a t/c to get really long.

With the Sony full frame bodies you can put their crop lenses on and they automatically adjust the image to the crop of the lens. With Canon you can put the full frame lenses on the crop bodies but not vice versa.

So, with the A7R3, if you select the APS-C/Super 35mm menu item (I put it on the function button screen) and turn it on, you will get a cropped image on a full frame lens, kind of like the Canon scenario above. The beauty of it is you still get a 20mb file. Since there is no long native glass for Sony yet, this tip gives you more effective "reach".
Obviously, you could shoot full frame and crop in post, but I have found it easier to track and compose when the viewfinder has the "already cropped" image.

It also works with the A9 but you only get a 10mb file.

Mike

^

Great Idea Mike. Simple and easy enough, agree it helps with composition.

There is always a debate on IQ comparison and focal length reach between 'APS-C sensors' vs 'cropping into full frame image' vs 'full frame + TC'.

My understanding is that if the FF sensor has high enough resolution, then the best option is to use the same lens without TC on the FF body and crop into the image to match the FL reach of the cropped sensor camera. Have not yet tested this myself. However, from past experience, I found the images from my 1DX to be  better than my 7D2, there is something in the FF sensor, at least in the 1DX it seemed to be.

Now with the Sony I have the option of using either the A7R3 or the a6500 for wildlife work where I want extra reach. I am limited to the 100-400 or the 70-200 2.8 with the 2X TC. My own testing of the a6500 showed that it is nowhere near as good at AF as the A9 is. Have not yet compared it to the A7R3, it probably would be a bit better. It does have a higher fps as well.

A bit of a dilemma.

Pradeep

As you said, you can just put a normal lens on and select the crop mode in the camera. Only Canon has a different mount for their crop lenses. All others allow you to use their crop lenses on the full bodies and you can set the cameras up to automatically crop the sensor.

BTW, when in crop mode, you have Phase detect AF sensors covering the entire area of the sensor...

None of this has anything to do with the firmware upgrade though.