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Author Topic: Please add the Sony RX1R2 firmware to the A7 cameras! We want crop modes!  (Read 4992 times)

wallpaperviking

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Please Sony, add the features in the RX1R2 to the current A7 series of cameras in a firmware update!

We want a 5:4, 4:3 and 1:1 crop to our Sony A7 cameras!

I have had just had a chance to try the Sony RX1R2 in store and it has a great feature that is seriously lacking in the current A7 series of cameras.. That is, the ability to have the camera crop to a desired format (4:3 and 1:1) by blacking out the EVF. The whole sensor is then captured and these blacked out aspect ratios are shown up as grid lines in post processing, giving the user the ability to keep the initial blacked out crop or leave the original full sensor readout (or anything in between).... Awesome!

As far as I know this a very exclusive feature and needs to be shared amongst the entire Sony lineup!

The Nikon D810 has a similar feature with its 5:4 crop but even this does not give the user the ability to then revert back to the larger 3:2 full pixel readout of the sensor in post if required.... It records as the 5:4 crop viewed in the viewfinder and that is what you are stuck with..

Coming from a medium format and large format film background, this is an amazing feature! The Sony A7RII is seen by many as a Medium Format Digital competitor but is let down by the skinny 3:2 aspect ratio.. A 5:4 and 4:3 crop in the EVF would certainly bridge that gap!

Please Sony, add this feature of the Sony RX1R2 to the current lineup of Sony A7 series cameras!
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Rob C

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Re: Please add the Sony RX1R2 firmware to the A7 cameras! We want crop modes!
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2016, 08:24:32 am »

Without wishing to be controversial, isn't this the ultimate spoiled brat wish?

If you're going to lose that many pixels anyway, why not hedge your bets and just crop as you see the damned image on your monitor after the event? If the 'cropped' image was that hot before you shot it, then it shoud remain just as hot when you see it on your computer. If not, then perhaps you are better off having the option to make up your mind later on after all.

Strikes me a bit simliar to the idea of a black/white restricted camera - mention no marques!

Rob C

Telecaster

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Re: Please add the Sony RX1R2 firmware to the A7 cameras! We want crop modes!
« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2016, 03:47:53 pm »

Rob, I've gotta say I really like using my Sony in 16:9 mode. Makes me photograph differently. For Sony to add extra aspect ratios beyond 3:2 & 16:9 to the A cameras would be sub-trivial. I'll even bet the code is already there, just not enabled.

-Dave-
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Rob C

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Re: Please add the Sony RX1R2 firmware to the A7 cameras! We want crop modes!
« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2016, 04:07:22 pm »

Rob, I've gotta say I really like using my Sony in 16:9 mode. Makes me photograph differently. For Sony to add extra aspect ratios beyond 3:2 & 16:9 to the A cameras would be sub-trivial. I'll even bet the code is already there, just not enabled.

-Dave-

Dave, it would freak me out!

The constant thought would be about the wastage of real estate. However, though I never owned one, I'd have no such qualms about using a purpose-made 'long' camera on 120 film. Ditto Hassy XPan. It's not about extreme formats, just really about using already tiny formats and throwing away yet more space. Those purpose-made machines were wasting nothing: they used the full width (or hight, if you prefer) of the film. And then there's stricking one of those film backs onto a 4x5 body: again, I feel using the roll film back is fine, but not cropping down on a genuine 4x5 neg! It's the mind set I come with. It feels like one is doing a cheapie against oneself.

;-)

Rob

chez

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Re: Please add the Sony RX1R2 firmware to the A7 cameras! We want crop modes!
« Reply #4 on: September 04, 2016, 02:49:53 pm »

Dave, it would freak me out!

The constant thought would be about the wastage of real estate. However, though I never owned one, I'd have no such qualms about using a purpose-made 'long' camera on 120 film. Ditto Hassy XPan. It's not about extreme formats, just really about using already tiny formats and throwing away yet more space. Those purpose-made machines were wasting nothing: they used the full width (or hight, if you prefer) of the film. And then there's stricking one of those film backs onto a 4x5 body: again, I feel using the roll film back is fine, but not cropping down on a genuine 4x5 neg! It's the mind set I come with. It feels like one is doing a cheapie against oneself.

;-)

Rob

The beauty of an option is you don't have to use it. For some it might enable viewing with a different composition.
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Telecaster

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Re: Please add the Sony RX1R2 firmware to the A7 cameras! We want crop modes!
« Reply #5 on: September 04, 2016, 07:40:51 pm »

It's the mind set I come with. It feels like one is doing a cheapie against oneself.

;-)

I get that. I don't like using 16:9 with my little GX8, except for video, due to the loss of sensor real estate. But haven't you heard? "Full frame," formerly miniature, is now huge!

-Dave-
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Rob C

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Re: Please add the Sony RX1R2 firmware to the A7 cameras! We want crop modes!
« Reply #6 on: September 05, 2016, 03:57:48 am »

I get that. I don't like using 16:9 with my little GX8, except for video, due to the loss of sensor real estate. But haven't you heard? "Full frame," formerly miniature, is now huge!

-Dave-


;-) !

If there's one thing we have to learn in life it's that nothing should surprise us.

Rob

Hywel

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Re: Please add the Sony RX1R2 firmware to the A7 cameras! We want crop modes!
« Reply #7 on: September 05, 2016, 05:01:01 am »

I'd like this feature.

I like shooting with a 16:9 crop when I can compose that crop as I press the shutter button. But keeping the whole shot for a little tweaking in post sounds like a total win-win situation.

I'd use it to shoot people in 4:3 on my A7Rii *constantly*, and I'd like 'scope (2:35:1 or thereabouts) for landscape as well.

Cheers, Hywel




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wallpaperviking

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Re: Please add the Sony RX1R2 firmware to the A7 cameras! We want crop modes!
« Reply #8 on: September 18, 2016, 12:34:22 am »

Not sure about the "spoilt brat" concept at all but each to their own I guess...

For me, it is about consistency of a "look" that is in keeping with other formats I shoot (Mamiya 7 and Large Format).  The way my eye sees, I struggle to "crop in the viewfinder" when looking at a 3:2 ratio. 

I would be happy to have a straight 5:4 view, as found in the Nikon D810, even better is what is found in the Sony RX1R2 which enables the view of 4:3 and 1:1 but still leaves all the data there for the user to crop in post... Awesome! 

As for the concept of "wasted real estate", this is often done anyway as a lot of printed formats are not made to accommodate a 3:2 aspect ratio.  You don't see many magazines in this format.  Even the standard cheap prints i get at my local camera store want to chop off the ends of the image...

I have added this request to the Sony Community Forum in the hope that somebody sees it :)

https://community.sony.com/t5/Alpha-NEX-Cameras/Please-add-the-Sony-RX1R2-firmware-to-the-A7-series-of-cameras/m-p/590154


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wallpaperviking

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Re: Please add the Sony RX1R2 firmware to the A7 cameras! We want crop modes!
« Reply #9 on: September 18, 2016, 12:37:28 am »

Square Crop
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wallpaperviking

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Re: Please add the Sony RX1R2 firmware to the A7 cameras! We want crop modes!
« Reply #10 on: September 18, 2016, 12:39:16 am »

Square Crop with 3:2 overlay
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wallpaperviking

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Re: Please add the Sony RX1R2 firmware to the A7 cameras! We want crop modes!
« Reply #11 on: September 18, 2016, 12:41:22 am »

3:2 whole image area
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Rob C

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Re: Please add the Sony RX1R2 firmware to the A7 cameras! We want crop modes!
« Reply #12 on: September 18, 2016, 04:52:36 am »

Not sure about the "spoilt brat" concept at all but each to their own I guess...

For me, it is about consistency of a "look" that is in keeping with other formats I shoot (Mamiya 7 and Large Format).  The way my eye sees, I struggle to "crop in the viewfinder" when looking at a 3:2 ratio. 

I would be happy to have a straight 5:4 view, as found in the Nikon D810, even better is what is found in the Sony RX1R2 which enables the view of 4:3 and 1:1 but still leaves all the data there for the user to crop in post... Awesome! 

 As for the concept of "wasted real estate", this is often done anyway as a lot of printed formats are not made to accommodate a 3:2 aspect ratio.  You don't see many magazines in this format.  Even the standard cheap prints i get at my local camera store want to chop off the ends of the image...

I have added this request to the Sony Community Forum in the hope that somebody sees it :)

https://community.sony.com/t5/Alpha-NEX-Cameras/Please-add-the-Sony-RX1R2-firmware-to-the-A7-series-of-cameras/m-p/590154



My magazine years are long behind me - as are the calendar ones. For the calendars, as I produced them for my clients, the designs were always based around either 3 x 2 or square, enabling me to shoot exclusively with either Nikon or Hasselblad. I wasted no 'real estate' to cropping in either case.

For the magazine stuff, vertical 135 was almost always wasted top and bottom, but the best part of the optics got used - small cosolation - but sometimes the whole frame would be used with space left on one side of the page for advertorial use. Something has to pay for the publication!

For amateur use, it really doesn't matter a damn either way because absolutely nobody else but the shooter gives a hoot. Could just as well use a cellphone and be done with all the hassle and robbery bait.

Designing relatively expensive cameras to suit the lowest common denominator of dime store processing seems, to me at least, slightly perverse!

Rob C

FabienP

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Re: Please add the Sony RX1R2 firmware to the A7 cameras! We want crop modes!
« Reply #13 on: September 19, 2016, 03:26:44 pm »

I could definitely use a feature like this. The ability to visualise different frames at the time of capture is appealing. Add my favourite 24:65 format to the list, while we are at it!

The thing is, this feature has already been programmed for a recent camera and integrating it to another one (assuming they use the same operating system, EVF and have a similar processor) should not be a huge deal or result in more costs for those who do not need this feature.

It seems to me that camera manufacturers have not fully used the potential of customisation that could be done by the user, considering the flexibility offered by EVFs.

For instance, in a Sony A7x camera, it is not possible to display the two axis level indicator and the luminance histogram at the same time. It is either one or the other. We can also have one on the EVF and the other one on the external LCD screen. I wonder what prevents them from displaying both on the EVF?

Cheers,

Fabien
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wallpaperviking

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Re: Please add the Sony RX1R2 firmware to the A7 cameras! We want crop modes!
« Reply #14 on: October 01, 2016, 09:39:23 pm »

Received this from the Sony community site...

Hi
wallpaperviking

Thanks for your quick reply!

Let me relate this information to our relevant team. Will let you know again if we need to further clarify with you.

Appreciate your feedback always!

Thanks!

Regards
Ann


Not sure how much influence this site has but if anybody else would like to see this feature implemented, would be really helpful to join and add your thoughts

http://community.sony.com/t5/Alpha-N...p/594648#M7864



Thanks!
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