A6700 and 70-200/4G Macro - Dyxum (2024)

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The A6700 is released
I have the A6400 and like it. I wanted a few updates: better viewfinder, no AA-filter and less rolling shutter. It has less rolling shutter, I can't find information on the AA-filter and the viewfinder is similar to the A6400's. For €1700,- there is not enough improvement for me.

I'll wait for the ZV-E10 mark II with the same sensor next year to get more into video.

What do you think?

The FE 70-200/4G II Macro lens was also released.
Looks like a wonderful lens. The 1:2 macro is useful, the TC compatibility as well. It doesn't seem that small, but light it is. At €1999,- it really is expensive Gonna take a look at the Tamron 70-180/2.8 and the older 70-200/4G for half the prize.

Any thoughts?

Finally Sony released the ECM-M1 microphone that looks useful. Would pick it up for €299,- if I did more video, what about you?

A6700 - really disappointed
Single card slot, 1/4000s max shutter speed, 26mp while competition are 32mp and 40mp now, same old crappy 11fps which is probably just 8fps since at 11fps you get slideshow effect, I can go on forever....

pretty rubish upgrade

the main nice things is the forefinger dial (so there is hope A7CII will have it also), UHS-II card slot and new AF alogirthms which was a given

Its a real shame Sony is so behind on APS-C bodies compared to Canon and/or Fuji but they have some really nice lenses even canon and Fuji don't have access to - 10-20, 11mm, 15mm, 16-55mm/2.8, 70-350mm, sigma f1.4 trio, viltrox 75mm f1.2 etc.

Sony 70-200G2 macro - really amazing

Sony are doing a fantastic job on the lenses. I am as impressed with this lens as I am disappointed with A6700.
The older version wasn't great IMO. Tbh I'd rather buy tamron 70-180mm than the old 70-200mm/4. you are better off cropping with the tamron than shooting at 200mm with the sony.
This new lens changes all that with a really nice macro option too plus ability to ad TCs.

Once again its rather annoying that Sony have crippled 3rd parties to not having TC support just as they have done for adapted a-mount glass. The tamron 70-180mm is clearly designed to take TCs because the nikon rebaged version is compatible with thier TCs.

nandbytes wrote:

A6700 - really disappointed
Single card slot, 1/4000s max shutter speed, 26mp while competition are 32mp and 40mp now, same old crappy 11fps which is probably just 8fps since at 11fps you get slideshow effect, I can go on forever....

pretty rubish upgrade

the main nice things is the forefinger dial (so there is hope A7CII will have it also), UHS-II card slot and new AF alogirthms which was a given

I am so not interested in the A7c II.

1/4000s mechanical shutter was a given, not a disappointment. The 1/8000s e-shutter on the other hand...
26mp is fine, most full frame cameras are 24mp, Nikon's APS-C is 21mp. I don't want 40mp in a crop camera.
11fps is fine if you're not in sports.
Never missed the frontdial, but I am mostly in A-mode. Therefore YMMV.

The real disappointments are the screens, the rest is fine imho, though not exceptional. It is not a disappointment, but a bit lukewarm.

It is the price. If this was below €1000,- (even without IBIS) this would be really interesting, but as it is, it is more expensive then worthwhile. I stick with my A6400 that I love.

Edited by addy landzaat - 13 July 2023 at 11:33

addy landzaat wrote:

1/4000s mechanical shutter was a given, not a disappointment. The 1/8000s e-shutter on the other hand...
26mp is fine, most full frame cameras are 24mp, Nikon's APS-C is 21mp. I don't want 40mp in a crop camera.
11fps is fine if you're not in sports.

last decade most FF camera might have been 24mp. they are not anymore. There are just as many higher MP camera these days.
even Sony's own standard FF model i.e. the A7IV is 33mp. I imagine their A7CII will probably reuse the same sensor. I will be really surprised if we see any more 24mp FF cameras from Sony now.

Nikon APS-C is the only one behind sony. not really a good competition/improvement mindset if you are having to compare against something worst than you instead of the other two brands that are doing (considerably) better i.e. canon and Fuji.

but its not 11fps with liveview is it?
on A6400/6600 you only got live view at 8fps. once you bump it to 11fps you get a slideshow effect don't you?

Edit:
I just realised we've waited 4 years for this update. Makes is even worst.

Edited by nandbytes - 13 July 2023 at 16:22

Ja Sony went after CaNikon for "Pro" cameras = FullFrame, and suddenly they have "pivoted" to "Video Creator" cameras (ZV instead of RX), after screams about "abandoning APS-C" they threw this camera together...

It is quite a change to see where we are now, ten years ago there were more E mount cameras than E mount lenses LOL, now Sony has quite the lens catalog.

Agree the price for the camera is puzzling, although Fuji was using the 26MP sensor for the XT etc so Sony is undercutting that a little. The lens is a "G" lens so price goes up accordingly, the macro is possibly phenomenal, all focal lengths of a tele zoom?!?!

Even Olympus is making bigger cameras, I don't know what happened to the nex5/pen sized mirrorless cameras, I thought that was the point! LOL Actually I do know, it is the heat from video, and heat from the extra CPU required for the fancy AF and all that Machine Learning mind control "Computational Photography" and all that.

I disagree with most camera manufacturer decisions, so I guess I'm not their market, oops!...

As for the microphone, it's a great idea, using multiple microphones similarly to the multiple cameras on super cell phones. But it's the MIS shoe, I've had connection problems with it, I can't stand it. Although I admit this morning I tried to use flash and it didn't work, I thought it was the shoe, but I finally figured out the problem was "no flash in Silent Shutter" so after a few minutes I noticed I had Silent Shutter on, turned it off, then the flash fired ... WITH NO MESSAGE ON THE SCREEN telling me what was going on. THANKS SONY ...

Which is my real problem with Sony, Sony makes "electronic devices", not CAMERAS. Fuji makes cameras, Olympus makes photographic equipment, CaNikon make "systems", Leica makes status symbols, Panasonic makes video cameras in the wrong form factor, Samsung was ahead of its time and missed out, Sigma does whatever it is they do ...

For the index finger dial, I use it on all cameras that have it, but I would much rather my shutter finger be free to press the shutter at any time, not diddling through menus. I still like the nex7 controls, especially with manual lenses, all my other fingers operate controls but my shutter finger is free to stay on the most important button on the camera. Mappable lens button good workaround for button layout.

I don't know where Blackout-free VF and Global Shutter are, I guess manufacturers are slow-rolling them to keep us buying the older cameras, especially since APS-C is lower priced. 4k 50/60p video with all the processing has to be more demanding on card writing than 20fps ... Olympus e-m5iii does 30fps, but with focus and exposure locked, limits on the a6700 seem more like a marketing decision rather than enginerring limitation.

Also amazing how after the fiasco of "is A mount dead" Sony has created the "is APS-C dead" fiasco, and the a6700 just reinforces that.

As addy said, the a7riv is the highest resolution APS-C camera Sony has, now the a7rv is, tied with the a6700 LOL. Since the 26MP was apparently a Fuji exclusive, in a year there might be a 40MP a6800 trickling down from Fuji's exclusive contract ending?... LOL

4paul wrote:

Which is my real problem with Sony, Sony makes "electronic devices", not CAMERAS. Fuji makes cameras, Olympus makes photographic equipment, CaNikon make "systems", Leica makes status symbols, Panasonic makes video cameras in the wrong form factor, Samsung was ahead of its time and missed out, Sigma does whatever it is they do ...

I would disagree with this sentiment. In recent times I have owned and used cameras from a number of other brands.

I find Sony cameras to be vey utilitarian and the lens system on the whole is really great. There isn't a single mirrorless system that is even close to Sony mirrorless system, not even canikons.

I have a Fuji camera now (X100V), its really clunky to use in comparison to recent Sony cameras. I like the asthetics and the user interface but that's not what makes a picture. Majority of the time I just point the camera at subjects and click. Sony does that the best i.e. gets the subject in focus, keeps it in focus if its moving and takes pictures, simples. Fuji just gets in my way of taking pictures. I have to customise it more, mess around with the AF settings more, the lenses aren't fast focusing half the time, its just painful. Perhaps the new XT5 and XH2s are better in this regard (that still doesn't fix their slow primes), I haven't used them yet. My experiance is with previous gen.

Olympus cameras are super nice, its a shame they only make M43 cameras. If the OM1 wasn't FF priced, I would probably own one.

4paul wrote:

Since the 26MP was apparently a Fuji exclusive, in a year there might be a 40MP a6800 trickling down from Fuji's exclusive contract ending?... LOL

Well it took Sony 5 years to put out the 26mp, so we'll be waiting more like 5 years.

Edited by nandbytes - 13 July 2023 at 21:06

4paul wrote:

Since the 26MP was apparently a Fuji exclusive, in a year there might be a 40MP a6800 trickling down from Fuji's exclusive contract ending?... LOL

The A6700 has a new sensor, as I understand it the read speed of the sensor is faster then the Fuji one.

Re. size, the ZV-E10 is smaller then the A6x00 cameras.

Apparently this is not a APS-C flagship, so, maybe that will be more impressive? Don't know. No need to upgrade my A6400 atm. But the ZV-E10 mark II might be more interesting

I am rather disappointed in the new 4/70-200. Maybe relieved since I bought the old one, and I was also happy to sell the Tamron 70-180 VXD. would much prefer another internal zoom. This new lens is now much longer at the 200mm setting which is how I mostly use these. If they could have kept the fully extended length the same as the old lens, then the ability to contract might have been a small benefit. As it is, this is the longest E-mount 200mm lens--it is longer than the GM zooms.

The variable minimum focus distances suggests it is still a varifocal design like the old lens and all the Tamrons. I wouldn't be surprised if this was designed by Tamron. The old one probably was.

It looks more cheaply made than the old lens, which was a fairly weak design already. It has even more hard-to-use buttons. Maybe buyers are stuck in the excesses of the 1990's--when products could sell by the number of push buttons and features they had. At least it doesn't have an aperture control--so many mentions of that in so-called reviews.

The MTFs don't look particularly better than the old lens.

Edited by QuietOC - 14 July 2023 at 03:21

I've had a look at the a6700 and I think it's gone in a direction to satisfy video shooters more than stills. The improvements to a stills photographer aren't impressive.

It has however, ported over most of the FX30's video features. It records at 4K at a higher fps than the a6600, it allows you to 'bake in' LUTs you've preloaded into the camera, it allows for 10 bit recording, adds Cinetone colours etc.

I haven't looked at the new 70-200mm lens as I'm just not in the market for one.

The microphone also does not interest me. It's size is really only suitable for interviews and voice overs. This makes it of limited use. The apparent AI voice isolation will be good for this, but my video editor (FCPX) already has an AI vice isolation feature.

Its small size means capturing sound at a distance will still be near impossible, and I just don't like the proprietary MI shoe. You can't use the microphone off the camera. I guess it will be an advantage to someone who wants to throw a microphone into their kitbag, not bother with cables, and get some good interview footage. But it seems t be an expensive option for this.

Edited by Wētāpunga - 14 July 2023 at 09:21

Don't know where I can find the MTF's - all reviews say the 70-200/4G II Macro is sharp across the range and the ones who compare the two think the new one is better then the original.

If you want an internal zoom 70-200 you can get the GM-lens. This is a do-it-all travel friendly zoom. Internal zoom would make the lens less pocketable for hiking and travel. I just think it is a bit expensive.

I was watching some more (hand-on) reviews and the A6700 is better then we think. It indeed is less photo specific, but still. It has a new shutter (but then, why not 1/6000 or 1/8000?), the viewfinder is improved (but still really small). Like one reviewer wrote: "Unfortunately, though, despite its many improvements, A6700 still left me a little cold."

Just wait for the A6200 (for price conscious buyers) or the A7000 (for those who want a baby A1).

addy landzaat wrote:

Just wait for the A6200 (for price conscious buyers) or the A7000 (for those who want a baby A1).

I think they'll make a A6200 eventually but I have no hopes of a A7000.

I'm considering moving systems now tbh.

addy landzaat wrote:

Don't know where I can find the MTF's - all reviews say the 70-200/4G II Macro is sharp across the range and the ones who compare the two think the new one is better then the original.

At least one review I watched showed their copy was not very sharp at 200mm.

Sony has posted the MTF charts for the new lens:

https://electronics.sony.com/imaging/lenses/all-e-mount/p/sel70200g2

The database here has the MTF charts for the old lens. Sony has changed the way they present those. This Sony website still has them too:

https://www.sony.com/za/electronics/camera-lenses/sel70200g

The old version like other old Sony lenses wasn't made very well. Or maybe the design was too difficult to make well enough. It has electromagnetic linear motors, and those seem a problem for manufacturing. The new version has twice as many of those for focusing, but perhaps Sony has gotten better. I will note that the simpler Canon EF 70-200 F4 L USM I had had some misalignment too.

It is likely that manufacturers are more careful with the products they send out for review than those they send to dealers. Those people then compare those with whatever they obtain with the least expense to themselves. So every new item is the best ever.

The old lens has many issues and had been obsolete since the original F2.8 GM version was released.

Edited by QuietOC - 14 July 2023 at 12:54

QuietOC wrote:

The old lens has many issues and had been obsolete since the original F2.8 GM version was released.

Thnx for the links! Looks like the new one is better in the corners.

Opinion on the old one was divided. Some thought it great others less so. But we also know that there was a lot of sample variation.
I was hoping the new one was around €1500,- but alas.

nandbytes wrote:

I'm considering moving systems now tbh.

I understand you're disappointed but that is a bit radical. Tony Northrop says the Canon R7 is a better wildlife camera, but if you're in the Sony eco system the A6700 is perfectly fine. And it seems the AF-system is a real update from the A6400/A6600.