Sony a7C One Year Later! User Experience Review 2021

Thank you, PPA, for sponsoring a portion of this video. OK, how should I start this? The main thing is I don't love it. I just really, really, really, really, really, really like it. I enjoy using it, and I think it represents what's about to come. Yeah, that's how I'm going to lead this video. What's going on, Hybrid Shooters? It's Jason Vong officially back in the United States, and I've been using the Sony a7C for the last six months now, and it's been with me on many prominent trips. I brought it with me to Yosemite National Park, California. I photographed the Las Vegas strip up in a helicopter. Flex. And most recently, I brought it with me to Seoul, South Korea, and I almost exclusively use it as my primary photography camera. So in that aspect, I really love this camera a lot. Now, before we begin, just a couple of things to keep in mind as we progress throughout this video. This video is solely focused on the user experience of the a7C. There will be no comparisons to the a7 III or the a6600. If there is, it's probably just for context sake. I've already done similar types of videos regarding this already, so you can find them on the playlist either up here or in the description box below. And number three, be sure to use the time codes in the playback right here to help you navigate through the video if you need to know something specific. OK, so let's start off with who's this camera for? I think casual photographers, especially casual photographers with a little bit of a spending money, a6000, APS-C shooters who are looking to move on to a full frame setup, pro photographers who just wants to be lazy, who are looking for something small to carry around on their day trip, not necessarily for a job. Although this would make a nice second or third backup camera content created at produce online video content for YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, especially those who shoot a lot of vertical formatted videos. This is going to be perfect for that as well. And longtime photographers with aging back problems like me. I think if you fall into either of those categories, you should keep on listening. I said you should keep on listening in case there are photographers with hearing problems. Got you covered too. So I can't stress enough how much of a joy it is to use this camera when you pair it with compact lenses. Think about it. Full frame sensor, tiny lenses, lightweight and portable and possibly the best quality in imaging because it's a full frame sensor. I think it's obvious that the C on the A7C stands for compact, but I also think it represents casual like, you know, keep it cool, keep it cash. And that's how I've been approaching this camera. And surprisingly, I ended up with a lot of photos. The mobile and nimble form factor just takes the weight off my mind and literally off my body so I can focus on getting the shot and focus on being C creative to my APS-C shooters. You know what I'm talking about? If you're coming from a teeny tiny prime lenses, you're going to feel right at home when you pair compact full frame lenses on the A7C or technically you can still use your APS-C glass on the A7C. Right now I have the Zeiss 24 1.8, which is designed for crop sensor. And it works great. But we'll talk about the advantages and disadvantages of using APS-C lenses on a full frame camera later. But you'll be coming in at a great time because we have lots of options. If you're looking for a lightweight, versatile zoom lens, Tamron has been killing it in the last several years. Most notably, their 28-75 and their 17-28 F2.8, both of which are incredibly affordable and both of which I have a review on. Not with the A7C, unfortunately, but it's going to be a testimony to their glass and performance quality. And Sigma themselves have recently launched their own versatile mid range zoom lens. Their own 20-70 F2.8, which is also really good at a really great price. Both brands have their own respectable compact prime lenses as well, though I've only experienced the Sigma ones and they're pretty solid. Quite literally. And Sony, who already have compact mirrorless lenses, actually just launched more. Their newest compact set of G lenses, which are slightly higher quality because of the G symbol, but incredibly light and probably has the best video autofocus performance in control. Now, I'm not going to get into which is a better buy or which of these lenses are the sharpest. Those are going to be very different videos, but this is just to let you know you have options. So just really quickly, these are my top picks for lenses for the A7C. The 20mm F1.8G, the 24mm F2.8G, the 35mm F1.8, the Zeiss 55mm F1.8 and the Sony 85mm F1.8. These types of small lenses strikes a balance between quality and comfort. Now, the 24mm and the 35mm GM would be great matches, too, although we'll be pushing it at that point. That's definitely going to be the limit there in terms of lens and body balance. If we move on to the 50mm G Master or any of the zoom G Masters, it's just going to be a very unbalanced setup for mid range zoom lenses. Again, I highly recommend the Tamron or the Sigma 20-70. Both have a constant aperture of F2.8 that won't strain your wrist like the 24-70 G Master. I guess I'll add that to the list, too. Photographers with carpal tunnel syndrome like me. Moving on to ergonomics. If you have big, meaty claws. What did you say, punk? Big, meaty claws! You might struggle with this. I don't know. I just think it's funny people actually complain about the grip size on the earlier Sony mirrorless cameras, which, by the way, were initially designed to be small and compact as an appealing and selling point versus getting a heavy, chonky DSLR. I don't know. I guess enough reviewers and people complain. That's why Sony have been making their head honcho alpha cameras beefier and beefier, which is not a bad thing. They listen to their customer base and offer a variety of different body sizes in case you do have big, meaty claws. Well, these claws ain't for just attracting mates. But it's a compact camera, and I think people who value the smaller size and the smaller form factor would really appreciate it, especially to my fellow Asian brethren with small claws like me. It's not about the size. It's about how you use it. Yes, we're still talking about taking pictures here. Calm down. Buttons. I think one of the more common questions that I receive about this camera is how do I deal with the lack of buttons and wheels? If you're coming from a different Sony camera, you're going to notice we only have one custom button on the A7C, which is the same as the trash can button. Don't worry. The trash can only trashes things in playback, not while you're shooting. But half the things I shoot are trash anyway. So what do I know? Actually, technically, two custom buttons. You can actually reprogram the red record button to do something else. But to answer the earlier question, I just do. But I can see why there are small complaints about the lack of notches, especially compared to the a6600, the current and arguably the best APS-C camera right beneath the A7C in terms of hierarchy and separation between small sensor and big sensor. But personally, I set a lot of my most used features on the quick function menu. Things like picture profile, super 35 mode, autofocus settings, white balance, mic level, etc. And you can have different sets of quick function menus depending if you're shooting in photo mode or video mode. Look and view, by the way, is fantastic. You have two color choices, full black or silver top. I personally got the silver top because, hey, why not? It's different. Midlife crisis. Other people get Lambos. I get a silver top A7C. All right, so let's go ahead and talk about the screen now. This is the third Sony camera to implement the mystical flip out screen, something that was sorely missing for years since the popularity rose for Sony Alpha cameras in the last six years. These cameras notoriously have the best face and eye autofocus, especially for video in the market. But for vloggers, kind of hard to frame themselves when the screen is on the back. The first one to finally introduce the flip out screen was the pocket vlogging camera, the ZV-1. We'll say we'll go ahead and say that's entry level. And the second one being the mighty A7S III. We'll put that at the pro level. The A7C was swiftly announced right after those two cameras, putting it right in the middle of the two spectrum with a flip out screen. Ah, so much better now that we can see ourselves when we vlog. Great. But personally, I like the flip up style screen from the latest A6000 and the RX100 series cameras, but a majority of the users prefer a flip out screen style. And you might prefer that, too. But there are more uses for a flip out screen than just selfie style vlogging. Cue vertical shooting. Previously, we have the tilt only style screens like the one on the A7III, which makes vertical or portrait orientation difficult to shoot, depending on the angle that you're shooting from. Straight on, no problem. Up angle or down angle? Not impossible, just slightly more difficult. Many photographers have made it work for years now, but there's no denying that this style of flip out screen makes it so much easier to frame vertical shots, which may be a huge pro to your checklist if you're someone who regularly produces content on the phone like Instagram stories, IG reels, TikTok, YouTube shorts. So just a quick tip, if you are planning on using a camera strap with the A7C, I highly recommend the Peak Design Strap. Not a sponsor for this video, by the way, but a huge Peak Design geek, if you know me and you've been following me for years now. What you want to do is attach the anchor on the right side right here and one on the bottom. That way, when you flip out, ah, OK, not that kind of flip out, but when you flip out the screen, the strap will actually get in the way of your photography. I didn't do that when I was photographing out of the helicopter. So when I have this strap on both sides of the camera, whenever I open my screen, this would get dangled right here and I can't close it and I can't flip it and it just keeps getting in my way. So definitely put the anchor here on the bottom. Now, you might have heard the resolution on the LCD to be not very good on the A7C, slightly exaggerated. But I can see where that point is valid. But after months of using both cameras simultaneously, I mean, when you compare it to the screen of the A7S3, oh yeah, night and day difference. On the S3, the photos and videos, I can tell immediately if I'm in focus or not. But then again, I do have 20-20 vision. My eyesight hasn't left me yet. Thankfully, I don't know about you. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. But it has a lot of clarity. The colors and playbacks are just so nice. With the A7C, on the other hand, it's really not that bad. I feel like it wasn't that much different compared to what I was using before, like the A6000, A7R II, A7 III. And I typically punch in to review my focus on an image, which is a standard thing to do anyway. So you can tell right away once you punch in if the image that you've just taken is sharp or not. So if that's what you worry about, don't. It's fine. Or look through your viewfinder. It's definitely much more crispier in through here. Yeah. But otherwise, it's not a big deal as it's blown out to be. If you have a local camera shop you can visit or an electronic shop like Best Buy, definitely stop in and take a look for yourself. All right. We're going to take a quick break to thank PPA for sponsoring a portion of this video. In the last couple of months, you probably heard me talk about their extensive library of educational resources, along with benefits for photographers. This month, they wanted me to remind you about their $15,000 worth of gear insurance included in that membership. PPA recently updated those benefits. So now you can get full replacement coverage with a flat $350 deductible or get your gear repaired with a flat $50 deductible. Not only that, but they've also expanded their coverage to videographers as well. Oh, thank goodness. And it's a good thing that I have this membership along with this insurance coverage, because as you saw from my last video, I traveled to Korea with a little too much gear. To learn more about the gear insurance, check out the link in description box below. And you can use the same link to save $25 off your PPA membership when you sign up. Thanks for listening. Now back to the video. So answering the big question, why did I relegate this to be mainly a photography camera than a video camera? Well, first off, I do want to say this is a fantastic hybrid camera. I just have my own particular use case for it. And really, it just comes down to personal preference. I mean, if I really think about it, the quality, both photo and videos are the same as the a7 III, 24 megapixel, 4K sampling, yada, yada, yada. I shot a bunch of videos with the a7 III between 2018 and 2020, and I love them and I still do. But once you move on to the upper echelon of peak alpha dominance of the a7S III, 4K, 120, 10-bit 422, there is no going back. Anyways, seriously, I mentioned this in my intro video for the a7C last summer. I would have loved to have seen a 4K60 at the very least in this camera. I've owned both of these cameras around the same time. At any time we need to shoot videos, I would exclusively pull the a7S III. The 4K60P has been a tremendous upgrade to our workflow. It just makes me feel better that I capture something at the best quality possible and the clarity on the screen right here. Super incredibly amazing. But I do wish that the a7S III was this size. On my casual and lazy days, I don't need two card slots or a full size HDMI or that great of a clarity of the screen or even that insane low light capability. Wait, hold on, wait, hold on. What am I talking about? Of course, I would like that insane low light capability. But one day, it's not a matter of if anymore, it's the matter of when. When they release something like an a7S III in an a7C body. Oh, it would be heaven. But until then, photo, video. But that's just a personal wishlist. Both of these cameras are fantastic hybrid cameras. And yes, even the a7S III is a great photography camera, despite it being only 12 megapixels, which I will have my one year review of the a7S III coming out later this year. OK, video quality, 4K up to 30 frames per second, 1080p up to 120. You know, I'm not going to focus too much on this. The 4K is great, 1080p is good, and it's going to be good enough for a lot of people. Not everybody needs 4K 60, not everyone can handle 4K 60. But it'd be nice to have, you know. By the way, hot tip for any of you guys who are still shooting slow motion in 1080p, either 60 or 120, I highly recommend using a telephoto lens. I would say 85 millimeter and up, high quality telephoto lenses will definitely make slow motion shots look better, and it would mix well with your 4K footage. Oh, OK, so I got to talk about APS-C mode because I briefly touched up on it earlier, and now I kind of have to awkwardly squeeze this in. Yeah, one of the advantages of using full frame Sony cameras, especially for video, is the ability to shoot in super 35 mode. It allows you to squeeze in some extra distance with your lens. It crops in one and a half times without detail loss, so it's going to feel like you're shooting videos with an APS-C camera. So, for example, if you're using the 55 millimeter lens on your A7C and you put into super 35 mode, that's going to give you roughly an 85 millimeter focal length. Or if you're shooting with a 24 to 70 and you put into super 35 mode, that's going to become like a 35 to 105 equivalent. Again, when you're shooting videos, it's just really nice to have. And again, at no detail lost. So earlier we mentioned you can still use your APS-C lenses if you're coming from an A5000 or 6000 series camera. You can put into super 35 mode and it'll get rid of that heavy vignetting. So it'll fill the frame again at no quality loss if you're shooting videos. However, for photos, you will suffer that megapixel drop down from 24 to 10, which is not entirely a bad thing. But just know that you aren't taking advantage, full advantage of the full frame available megapixel. So if you do a lot of heavy cropping in the past and you're trying to do heavy cropping in super 35 mode for your photos at 10 megapixels, just know that you don't have that much of a wiggle room. So my advice, if you're planning on taking advantage of super 35 mode is to add it to your quick function menu and definitely watch out for this symbol here on the top. If you see it, that means you're in a super 35 mode. The reason why I'm pointing this out is because sometimes you may not want to be in super 35 mode. But hey, memories going back actually forgot to get out of it. So you definitely don't want to end up with a tighter framing for your video or 10 megapixel photos. OK, autofocus. So face and eye autofocus is available in both photo and video mode. Incredibly reliable. Animal eye autofocus is only available in photo mode, and it works great for casual pet and zoo photography. But if you're doing wildlife in the safari, you don't need me to tell you, man. Get the A1, bro. Touch tracking autofocus. Now, this is something that the A7III does not have, and it works really well. Just make sure you enable it in your menu. Now, this is going to be super helpful when you're tracking a moving subject in both photo and video mode. And you can also set the speed and sensitivity by steps, unlike the A7III, which makes it really vague, like slow, medium, fast. Like, what the hell? But now you have numbers. I personally have it on three and three. So the hot shoe on the A7III uses the upgraded multi interface hot shoe. So you can use certain Sony mics like the B1M Shotgun mic or the new Bluetooth loft mic set that just came out. Those are capable of using digital signal for audio input. So you don't actually have to plug in a three and a half millimeter cable to the mic jack. The A7III does not have this upgrade because it was released one generation before it got implemented. Now, personally, for me, I love using the B1M Shotgun mic with a 20 millimeter GF 1.8 with the Sony control Bluetooth tripod for my casual vloggy days. OK, gyro, gyro, OK, gyro metadata. Honestly, it's nice, but it's not something that I am very reliant on. Basically, when you're recording video, it can record gyro movement metadata so you can actually get better stabilization if your footage is too shaky. So with this gyro metadata, when you load up the video on the software Callus Browse, it can actually read the handheld movement and stabilize it based on that data and give you back some really nice results. Unlike warp stabilizer and some of the editing software, those are interpreting the frames and trying to stabilize it based on the frame movements. This actually reads the data of the movement, the handheld movement of your camera. But the thing is, you have to make sure your settings are right. You have to remember to turn off stabilization in camera and you have to crank up your shutter speed. And then after that, there's just a lot of process in between where you have to load up Callus Browse, load up the footage, let it crunch through and read the data and spit you back a slightly lower quality file. But it works amazingly well. It's just, again, a lot of extra steps in between. That's not really worth it, in my opinion. If I pre-plan ahead of time, knowing that I will take advantage of the gyro, I'll do it. But if I'm on the spot sweating, I'm not even going to bother with it. I'm just going to roll my dices with warp stabilization and pray to God. And no, to answer your question, if you're wondering if there's any NLE editing software like Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve that can actually read the gyro metadata of the Sony video files. Again, to my knowledge, I don't think so. No, not anything that I've heard of yet. But I'm praying one day that they can and we don't have to throw it into Callus Browse and extra software just to do that type of post stabilization. OK, miscellaneous stuff and minor quirks that may or may not be a big deal to you. Because it's often get asked. I'm just going to address it really quickly. Overheating. I'm just going to say unless you're shooting in an area that even you would overheat, I would say don't worry about it too much. Just make sure to set the auto power off temperature in your menu setting to high. If you're doing any sort of long form video recording. But again, nothing too major to worry about. Next thing is no IPS. And I think it's because there wouldn't be enough clearance between it and the flip out screen to open. So they probably omitted that for that reason. But again, not a big deal to me, but it kind of does hurt my eyeball a little bit when I poke into my eye and trying to review my shots. Oh, no battery charger, as in it does not come with one. Not a big deal to me because my A7S3 did come with one. And I have a couple of extra based on the years of me shooting with the Sony cameras. But if you don't pick one up, you're just going to have a charging camera via USB-C. But I would advise picking one up. Now, in case you're wondering, one battery will last you all day for photography, even some light video work. But if you do do both or more video, I would say bring at least one extra battery with you. I personally generally carry at least two just in case. Oh, and no new menu system, despite the fact that the A7C technically got announced right after the A7S3 and the A7S3 did introduce a new menu system. You know, I thought it would bother me using two different cameras with two different menu systems. But honestly, it really didn't bother me at all. When you get things set up on both cameras, you will find that you don't have to dig through the menu as much. So if you're like me and you're using two of these cameras, just really take the time to set up the buttons, the quick function menu, and even take advantage of the my menu settings in the back end of your menu page. Oh, and I highly recommend getting a screen protector for the A7C just because when you have it right here on your chest, when you have a strap on or on the side right here, I'd rather not keep it closed because when I need to take a shot, the last thing that I want to do is to fumble and open my screen and then take a shot. I'd rather much have it as ready to go, take my shot and be on my way. So to wrap things up here, I think if you're considering this camera for photography and content creation and 4K60 is not a huge concern for you. I mean, there's no debate. I really love the A7C in that regards, a more photo oriented camera mixed with some light video work. But to me personally, this A7C just makes me excited for the A7C Mark II. If I already love this form factor so much for photography and when it gets the video features I love so much from the A7S III in the next iteration, I'm going to be opening up wide. My wallet, that is. So if you can wait, just wait. But if you can't wait, you got this one waiting for you.