About Hans Kruse's comment:
I appreciate Michael's reviews and I'm sure he does them honestly.
And I do especially appreciate that he actually uses (some) camera to take actual pictures.
That's not what most reviewers do.
The point for me is: Michael, you change camera once or twice a year!
As you said, you just "date" your camera.
On my side, I'd like to change only every 5 or so years.
It's not just a matter of money (well, it is too), it's also that learning a new tool takes time
and when you're not a pro it take months to get the maximum out of it.
That was my point with my previous comment (and the reason I asked Michael for a feedback):
You have the technology -which is brilliant and evolves through fixing some issues which each new model (why not all?)- and then you have the day to day usability and reliability.
Utlimately, I need BOTH technology, usability and reliability to rely on a camera, to be comfortable enough I can rely on it, and then to use for my day to day use.
The few issues I listed are the kind of issues that don't make me feel comfortable.
And this gives me a mixed feeling about the A7R, and Sony camera in general.
There will still be a long way, in my opinion, before Sony will be able to build that confidence.
It's not a matter of technology only, it's a matter of company mindset.
This mindset leads to techological choices, marketing choices (No battery loader in the box? Come on! And, as Hans said: why to Replace model every year without bother to fix issues on previous model at all?) and organisation (/support) choices.
I'm afraid Sony still has a long way to go. If I wanted to be rude, I'd say they look still too much "Tech snob oriented" for my taste.
(You may count me as one "tech snob" somehow. I like new techs. But this is not enough a reason by itself for compromises when I choose a tool for day to day usage.)
Yes I appreciate the technological advances in those camera.
And, yes, I'm also convinced that EVF is the way for the future.
But at the end, I prefer to buy a Canon (or a Nikon, that's not the point) where I know by experience that -except in case of an accident- it will not let me down in the next 3 years.
Even if it's bigger, heavier, has no electronic viewfinder with focus magnification in, can't mount my older (Canon FD) lenses and, for Canon, has less dynamic range (yes, that's a true limitation for me).
And yes, that's frustrating.
For sure, this is based on my own experience only. And I'm in no way a pro photographer.
Just somebody shooting pictures regularly since 35 years.
But is that only me?
What to do to convince Sony to change mindset and to propose products that actually inspire prise AND confidence?
(Or maybe that's me who should change mindset, and accept that I have to switch to a "smartphone-like" mindset, where we replace a camera each 2 years, because the battery is dead and there is no way to replace it. Is it where the hi-end camera market is going ?)
