Model(s) Fatigue - Any suggestions?

[sury]

My a900 has 60K+ clicks and A700 has about 30K clicks. They both still work very good.

What I am going through is a Model(s) fatigue. I read how the latest models have improved
so much in so many different areas and get tempted to upgrade but the sensible side kicks
in and tells me not to bother; since lacking all the touted improvements did not prevent me from
enjoying my cameras for my style of photography, which is shall we say shoot first and talk later style.
I am a perpetual amateur that likes to take photos of all kinds.

With the lenses and accessories that I have, I have no desire to switch mount. What I am struggling
with, is the ennui that comes with using the same gear for a long period of time.


Some recent temptations were: A7R, A6000, A99, and eve A7S.
Tried QX10 and HX50V as toys and use HX50Vas a travel companion.

Other than the obvious suggestion of buy a new body or lens any insight(s) or suggestion(s)
to mitigate my "existential angst" is/are most appreciated.

With best regards,
Sury

[Birma]

Hi Sury. Sounds like GAS The thing that both those camera lack that I would miss is Live View. But then, 90% of my pictures are taken of stationary subjects, on a tripod. If you are happy with the view finder then there is none better than the A900. Changing your camera body would get you the old little feature (e.g. GPS/Live View/Electronic Level) and may be a slight improvement in ISO improvement, and may be slightly better AF and shutter speed.

I think I would try to rent an A99 or A77II and see how you like them (BorrowLenses.com?). After a week/few days I think you'll know if you'd find the new bells and whistles a benefit or not.

Another reason to change would be to go for a smaller (and lighter) outfit (A7 or A6000) but this would require a re-investment in lenses to really take advantage of the smaller kit.

If you have GAS, and aren't that worried about a new body, then there must be some sparkly new glass you could try How about a 180mm macro lens for flower close-ups, or an 85/1.4 for portraits?

[the_hefay]

This suggestion is perhaps a little on the philosophical end of things. Find a young person that is interested in photography and buy him or her a camera and lens. Then you take this person out on photo excursions with you to experiment with photography and learn the capabilities of different gear. You'll have the pleasure of mentoring someone in a worthwhile past time along with building a lasting friendship. And best of all, there will be no guilt associated with the purchase. Who knows, you might even inspire the next Ansel Adams.

[pakodominguez]

My a900 has 60K+ clicks and A700 has about 30K clicks. They both still work very good.
...
Some recent temptations were: A7R, A6000, A99, and eve A7S.
Tried QX10 and HX50V as toys and use HX50Vas a travel companion.

Hi Sury,
A99 is 2.5+ years old. We will probably see its successor by the end of this summer. If you can wait...

[Dr. Harout]

I'll go for an a99 or it's successor (as Pako says).

[mikeriach]

Some good deals on the last A99s at the moment if you don't mind an older body. The replacement no doubt will be quite a bit more expensive but hopefully with better all round performance.

[sury]

Thank you Andy, Jeff, Pako, Doc and Mike for taking time to reply.
Andy, though I don't suffer from GAS as much anymore, the
LL (Lens Lust) has not diminished. Only thing that is keeping
me from acting on it is coterie of previous lens acquisitions that did
not see much light of the day (no pun intended), Rokinon 85/1.4,
CZ 24/2 and Tamron 60/f2, not mention 2 copies of Beercan, Minolta
28-105, 28-135 and Sigma 28-300 etc.

I certainly am looking forward to new & improved technologies
and have not found a reason so far to upgrade based on what I
read so far within the context of my photography skills and needs.

Pako, Doc and Mike,
The reason I brought up A99 was precisely the reason that Mike brought up.
Since new model of A99 is (trumored to be) coming soon, will the
A99II be significantly better than A99 to justify the price or A99 is a
good bargain? I will wait for A99II release and then make a call.

Jeff, regarding your suggestion about becoming a mentor, it is certainly
worth pursuing. That gave me an idea to join a local community college
to take some lessons for myself. It is very likely that I have gone from
a worse photographer to a bad photographer and hit a plateau. Learning
new perspectives and interacting with other photographers might be something
I could benefit from, in addition to all the valuable lessons I get on this forum.

Once again I thank you all for your time and insight.

With best regards,
Sury

[the_hefay]

I would be interested in taking a class in photography or post-processing myself, but the closest school is nearly 2 hours away and even if it was closer, I don't know that I would have the time with my rotating work schedule.

[mikeriach]

Surry,

I wouldn't say I've got much better as a photographer since my film days. But I look at my old slides and prints and think "why on earth did I keep that photo?".
The benefit we have today is ease of post capture editing. Simple things like crop and straighten make such a difference and then a tweak in levels and contrast. You can really transform a shot in 30 seconds flat.

I'm more inclined to try something because I can fiddle with it in the computer and it costs me nothing other than a count down to impending shutter failure hopefully many years away. With film I can only remember a handful of occasions where I had a selective hand print made.

I enjoy "playing" although it drives my wife and dog mad when we are out for a walk and I keep stopping to snap something.

I still have GAS, both for camera equipment and from my digestive system!!!

Mike

[mikeriach]

Surry,

Just an additional point to note.
The A99 currently is on offer in the UK at around £1500 (opened at around £2200), bear in mind that this is 3 years old or thereabouts. It is however a VERY good camera with a few niggles.
The new Nikon D750 is around £1700 (opened at around £1800) and will no doubt drop over the coming year. I think I'd probably say the same about it to be honest. It may not be a significant advance over the A99 but to my mind it is like a mildly updated A99 with an OVF.

I think Sony need to carefully rethink their pricing strategy as an opening gambit of at least £400 above a similar body is not a good starting point.
I'm keen to see what comes next but to be honest I'm not interested in headlining pixel count. I'm after more precise focus, bigger focus sensor area, significantly better battery life, bigger burst buffer (I often run into the stop when doing action shots in RAW only) and better SSS with long lenses. I DON'T need super sophisticated video, 12fps (between 6-8 is fine), 50mp, endless scrolling menus or WiFi but I concede I'm probably alone on several of these thoughts.

The A77 Mk2 seems to get some things right with a good focus sensor array but then took out the GPS which I would have wanted. Still it is somewhat of a bargain compared to the Canon 7D Mk2 £750 vs £1500!!

So in the end I'll be looking at the new full frame offering but bearing in mind if it doesn't do at least some of what I want, I'll be looking to slowly transition to another mount. I really covet a long reach lens (zooms such as Sigma or Tamron 150-600) for the A99 but none of the offerings have built in VC/OS as they are removed from the Sony versions yet cost the same. I wait with baited breath for the next evolution.

[pakodominguez]

Pako, Doc and Mike,
The reason I brought up A99 was precisely the reason that Mike brought up.
Since new model of A99 is (rumored to be) coming soon, will the
A99II be significantly better than A99 to justify the price or A99 is a
good bargain? I will wait for A99II release and then make a call.

I have no idea of what the A99 successor will look like. I can tell you that there is a difference between the A900 and A99 files. And the A7R files are even better, the Sensor+processor team is doing a great job.
I think that you must buy the best camera you can justify AND afford. Specially because Tech become old quite fast, so in order to really take advantage of a camera is by been an early adopter.

[sury]

Jeff, Mike and Pako,
Thank you for the additional insight.
Pako, if I were to understand correctly, you think A99 is better than A900 and A7R is
better than both. Am I correct?
I haven't had a new camera in 5 years dear wife - How is that for justification?
Kidding aside, fortunately affordability is not factor (within reason - that's why that
500/f4 lens is not in my arsenal ).

I am inferring (perhaps justifying to self ) that an upgrade to A900 is not a bad idea.
With that premise as basis, it is now a question of when - timing wise and what - based on availability
at the time of purchase.

Thank you all for helping me resolve my ambivalence. At the least I no longer grapple with "Should I?"
question.

With best regards,
Sury

[pakodominguez]

Jeff, Mike and Pako,
Thank you for the additional insight.
Pako, if I were to understand correctly, you think A99 is better than A900 and A7R is
better than both. Am I correct?

Image quality wise, yes, the A7R is "better".
Now, the A900 have a beautiful OVF, the A99 shoot video and both A900 and A99 have a much better AF than the A7R, that have one of the best image quality in the market... so by "better" you need to decide what's more important for you.
As I told you before, I would probably wait, unless your camera broke and you really "need" a new one.

[Dusty]

Sury,
it's a bit more complicated than in the old days! I held on to my manual focus Minoltas forever because the newer models didn't offer me any 'real' improvements. In those days it was all down to lenses, type of film and technique. An SRT 101 could produce as good a photo as the fanciest Nikon. The only way to improve was larger film, or better lenses.

Now, or 'film' is fixed in the form of that camera sensor that comes with the camera we buy. Newer generations DO produce better results. But we're getting to the point of diminishing returns, and while they seem to be pushing high ISO's and pixel counts into the stratosphere, dynamic range is still a bit wanting.

Ultimately, you have to decide if the tradeoff in $ spent, re-learning an new interface, and losing an OVF are worth the newer features.

As always, I'm willing to pay the shipping cost for you to send your old 'junk' to Dusty's Camera Recycling Center!

Dusty

[sury]

Pako,
Fortunately, I have no "urgent" need since my a900 is behaving fine after a bit of a scare few months ago.
Certainly time is on my side. Patience - another story.

Dusty,
Good points. BTW, I have you on top of the list of "recyclers" to contact.

Sury