One of the tags that I have kept for myself in my various social media platforms is ‘photography’. Although I did some commercial work when I was a student and time permitted, I have never really considered photography as a “career”, but rather as a “hobby”. During the years I’ve been with photography, my equipment has changed from iPhone to Canon to Sony, from one camera with one lens to one camera with multiple lenses, and back to one camera with one lens.
The last piece of equipment I have in my hands is the Sony A7M3 with the Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 (G2), which is a well-received universal head. But even so, I still found that there were very few scenes that I had the desire to take out with me. Because of the weight and size of this camera and lens set, it’s hard to find a place for it in an everyday bag. Besides, even if it’s barely tucked in, it’s still a heavy burden to hang on your shoulder.
After two years of obsessing about changing to lighter gear, the A7C2 hit the market with even stronger performance than the previous generation A7C, hitting me hard in the heart.
Old vs. New
This section compares the A7M3 and the A7C2 in terms of appearance. To be honest, although the A7M3 has accompanied me through a lot of happy times and seen a lot of scenery, and at the time of purchase, it was already much smaller than my Canon but when put together with the A7C2, it is only possible to see how compact and portable the A7C2 can be now. For one thing, there is no warship head less a piece of volume; secondly, the camera’s holding part has also become smaller.
If you look at the back, you will be able to find that the location and number of buttons are actually more or less the same, and the only thing that makes me uncomfortable is that there are fewer multi-directional buttons, which is worthy of Sony, and the knife is precise. As for the folding screen, I think the A7C2 folding method is much more practical than the A7M3, can be applied to a wider range of scenarios, the main time, if there is a demand for selfies, then this flip screen can finally come in handy. The following difference is probably the most important one for professional users. It is the fact that the A7C2 has only a single card slot, which distinguishes it from the main difference between professional machines. But for me, who wants to simplify the photographic process again, this does not seem to be a problem. Another thing that Sony veterans find great is that the silicone cover for the Type C charging port has finally been replaced with a hard cover, which makes it a lot more practical and ‘premium’.
Perhaps because I switched from one of Sony’s older models to this new one, the overall improvement in the camera is still obvious. Whether it’s the sensor, the processor, or the focus and stabilization, the A7C2 is clearly a superior generation.
Menu and photo transfer
The menu is arguably the most intuitive update when looking at the operational level. The logic and interface is much better than the previous one. The “photo transfer” function is actually one of the most important requirements for a camera in this day and age. First of all, the ability to transfer photos wirelessly has been greatly improved. The “Creaters’ App” is much easier to use than the previous one, and you can basically connect to the camera by just operating it on your phone, instead of having to configure it back and forth between the camera and your phone. One thing to note here is that the default Wi-Fi band is 2.4 GHz, which is still slow to transfer photos, but if you change it to 5 GHz in the menu, the transfer speed will be qualitatively improved. Secondly, the A7C2 uses a Type-C connector, so it supports direct C-C transfers, and I can’t imagine how much fun it would be to transfer a large amount of photos. Since I haven’t replaced my iPhone 15 series phone yet, I can only use this feature on my iPad, which makes it easier to do some simple cropping and color grading of photos.
Creative Appearance Style
When it comes to filters, the hottest brand is probably Fuji. I did a lot of homework before choosing the A7C2, and the reason I didn’t go with Fuji was because the model I wanted was out of stock, and because I thought that Sony’s current in-camera filters were quite capable. And sure enough, these filters didn’t disappoint.
In the six months or so since I got the camera, I’ve been using the FL filter the most. Sony’s official description of this filter is:
Creates images with an atmospheric effect, applying strong contrasts to calm tones and adding striking colors of the sky and greenery.
I shot my own feeling, this filter in addition to the official statement is and the blue sky and greenery, sweeping the humanities is also very appropriate, there is a kind of analog film texture. In addition, recently began to try IN this filter, for this filter’s official description is: Creates an image that suppresses contrast and saturation, and has a matte texture. My feeling is that it is more suitable for shooting some indoor life records that don’t need particularly rich colors, and it is a filter with a strong literary flavor.
Lens Selection
As I said earlier, the Tamron 28-75 F2.8 (G2) is a great all-around head, but because of its size and weight, I basically never took it out after I changed cameras. And one of the most photographed lenses at the moment is my Sony 40mm F2.5G, for no other reason than portability. This fixed focal length lens is perfectly sized for a body like the A7C2. I used to be hesitant when choosing what lens to take with me when I was out and about, whether or not the lens I took would be enough for today’s shooting scenarios, but now it’s all about “lightness is king”.
40mm this focal length is not a standard fixed-focus lens, but from another perspective, it can also be said that it combines the advantages of 35mm and 50mm, closer to the eye than 35mm, more than 50mm can encompass more information, which determines that it can be a street photography, but also can shoot some small space with the environment of the close-up photos.
One of my deepest memories is when I bought my first Canon, and I lived in a small village in the Black Forest for my internship, where I spent the most beautiful fall and winter days. The happiest thing I did after work every day was to go to the mountains with my camera to take pictures. Come to think of it, at that time, photography really brought great joy to my life.
Later, I gradually lost myself in the hardware, equipment, parameters, heavier and heavier bodies and lenses, and more and more complicated photo processing. To shoot raw, to keep the margin for post-production; to have faster memory cards and hard disks, to be able to shorten the time of photo processing and transmission. But it is in this step-by-step process of ‘addition’ that the fun of photography seems to be lost.
I’m glad that after I changed my camera, I was able to “subtract” from photography. With the lightest equipment, I can go back to the streets and alleys again, without shooting raw or post-processing, and use my eyes to find the simplest joy of photography in the viewfinder again.
