Funny side story - I once was walking out in the wetlands when I heard a distant droning buzz - before I could even react or figure out what it was, I noticed a huge dark cloud coming straight at me, less than 10 feet away with nothing I could do but stand there quite stunned. A swarm of bees flew right through me - hundreds of thousands of them, that took probably 5-6 seconds in total to pass by - they were in front, above, behind, and all around me, and I just tucked in my arms and lowered my neck, closed my eyes, and waited to start hurting really badly...then, they were past. I watched the swarm fly off east, and after a little tremor freak out through my body, realized I was never touched by a single one. When I started walking again, another photog who was walking towards me saw me disappear in the swarm and said even he was freaking out just watching...he said I was about as white as anyone he had seen - I probably stayed that way for about an hour!
It was certainly possible. Rumors I hear around here is some 40% of wild bee hives you run into south of Lake O are killers. I definitely don't want to get close enough to find out...they can be prone to attack moving animals coming within 50 feet of their hive, and they attack quite relentlessly, following for up to a mile. I was on a narrow trail through a heavily wooded area when I came around a corner and was staring right at this hive, about 25 feet away. I took a few very quick shots, then moved very quietly and quickly past and down the trail...making sure there were no bees flying through the trail ahead that might trigger on my movement and alert the hive. The hive itself was quite large - it looked like a child's one-person pup tent strung upside down by the branch...except it was all bees.
Funny side story - I once was walking out in the wetlands when I heard a distant droning buzz - before I could even react or figure out what it was, I noticed a huge dark cloud coming straight at me, less than 10 feet away with nothing I could do but stand there quite stunned. A swarm of bees flew right through me - hundreds of thousands of them, that took probably 5-6 seconds in total to pass by - they were in front, above, behind, and all around me, and I just tucked in my arms and lowered my neck, closed my eyes, and waited to start hurting really badly...then, they were past. I watched the swarm fly off east, and after a little tremor freak out through my body, realized I was never touched by a single one. When I started walking again, another photog who was walking towards me saw me disappear in the swarm and said even he was freaking out just watching...he said I was about as white as anyone he had seen - I probably stayed that way for about an hour!
The new FE lenses Sony is rolling out look great. The first look at the 90mm macro is showing amazing sharpness and Steve Huff is going ga-ga over the 35mm 1.4.
"For me, it actually is meeting or beating the Leica 35 Summilux FLE for overall IQ and color performance (A $5500 Lens). Of course, the Leica is TINY in comparison, as is the new Zeiss Loxia 35 f/2 (that I also have on hand), but this lens offers Auto focus, click or clickless aperture and a way of producing images that will make you say “WOW”. For me, this is TRULY the 1st native “WOW” lens for the Sony full frame FE system. It easily surpasses the 55 1.8 for me as well as the 35 2.8 that I have been using since the launch of the A7 system, and those are both beautiful lenses when it comes to image quality. The 35 1.4 has such a beautiful character and rich rendering."
I'm getting closer to moving up to an A7ii.
Looks like a much improved camera over the a7. And finally getting enough lenses to really build a system.
On the downside... Physics is starting to catch up to Sony -- the great lenses are getting bigger, the a7ii is bigger.
The size advantage is being exposed for what it really is -- the removal of the mirror box, which saves you a tiny bit. But not a game changing size advantage once you start using great glass. And while the a7 cameras are competitively priced, the native lenses are $$$
The A7ii is bigger because of the added IBIS. The only other FF with IBIS is the A99 which is 50% bigger than the A7ii.
Yes, the modern AF lenses are big, due to the mechanics and physics. But again, you can go smaller with the 35mm 2.8 and the Loxia line of lenses. I have that option which I wouldn't have with a DSLR.
The issue for me is that I won't go back to an OVF. I also don't want to go to m4/3. Additionally, I enjoy manual focusing and using Legacy lenses. This narrows my options to Sony or Fuji and if I want to go FF then Sony is my only option. Having IBIS is also very appealing especially with using older lenses. I enjoy shooting entirely manual with focus peaking. Not to say I don't use and appreciate AF from time to time.
If I get the A7ii I can use all my legacy lenses, the Minolta 200mm and my Aps-c emount lenses ( in crop mode ) and keep my Nex-7 as a smaller option.
Amazingly, there is only one camera in the world that gives me a FF sensor, EVF,
IBIS and the ability to adapt almost every lens ever made and that is the A7ii.
I'm just amused that the compact size was such a big selling point for early mirrorless.... and there is still the perception that mirrorless is smaller. And it IS smaller. But as you get into full frame, as you get premium lenses, the size difference become much less significant.
While obviously each person needs to decide their own 'goldilocks' size, the fact is that there are more than just 'large' and 'small' cameras, and the gamut runs from fixed-lens systems to mirrorless to larger mirrorless to mini-DSLR-like mirrorless to compact DSLR to regular DSLR to large full-body full-frame DSLR. What each person needs to do is pick out the one that fits them just right. Too often, the arguments on the forums come down to some measurement - camera x is only 3% lighter than camera y...but that doesn't take into consideration what that specific buyer was looking for - maybe camera y was just about 3% too large for that person, and camera x fits right in to their comfort level. I for one am glad to have so many variable sizes and shapes of camera to choose from - even when mirrorless hadn't debuted yet, I struggled to get comfortable with some DSLRs, and found others quite comfortable...grip sizes, weights, balance, control placement, and so on can make a huge difference to one's happiness ergonomically, and one person may love one model's design and weight while another hates the very same.
The other factor that I can't stress enough when it comes to judging sizes and weights and overall compactness of a system is 'bulk' - the oft-ignored statistic. While weights may be very close when a lens is added to a system, and while body weights might only be different by 10-20%, I have yet to see a full frame DSLR that comes anywhere near the slim body design of the full frame mirrorless - and ditto the slim designs of many APS-C mirrorless cams vs DSLRs with the same sensor size. And when it comes to packing the camera for a trip, you can really notice how much 'smaller' the mirrorless system can feel with 3-5 lenses packed in a bag, compared to a DSLR with the same number of lenses. That super-slim body design, without the bulk of the mirrorbox and usually slimmer upper body hump due to not requiring pentaprism, makes the mirrorless bodies like the A7, or the APS-C equivalents, simply pack into a bag with barely more space needed than the lenses themselves require...the DSLR body alone, with its fat bulk, requires as much or more space than one of the lenses...the mirrorless slim body can squeeze in on top or alongside lenses in much less space.
That specific factor - bulk - is what has made my A6000 so much nicer to travel with than my DSLR, even when considering that some of the lenses I have for it are no smaller than their DSLR equivalents. I can bring my 35mm F1.8, my 10-18mm, my 18-55mm kit, and even my FE70-200mm F4, in a small to medium shoulder bag, with chargers, extra batteries, filters, cleaning gear, etc - that very same bag can only accommodate my DSLR body and two lenses - 18-50mm kit and either 18-250mm, 30mm F1.4, or 10-24mm. Despite the lenses being close in size and weight, the A6000 kit remains eminently more packable due to the compact and non-bulky body size.
Just something to consider. Small differences in weights or a few specific body dimensions can sometimes make for bigger differences than you would think, and sometimes just enough to be worth it for someone.