Photographers Ask Sony to Address the A7R Shutter Vibration Issue (Update)
Two “research and mitigation” links added to Photographers Ask Sony to Address the A7R Shutter Vibration Issue.
I’m currently shooting the Sony A7, which has an electronic first curtain shutter (EFC shutter) which avoids the shutter vibration issues (ditto for any leaf shutter camera like the Sony RX1R or Sigma DP Merrill or Leica X Vario, or DSLR with EFC, like the Canon 5D Mark III “mode II”).
For my needs in evaluating lenses, it is unacceptable to introduce a shutter shake variable into the equation—no lens evaluation can be valid with it, at least not under field conditions; see the damage this caused in the Red Barn example. Moreover, the majority of my shooting is precisely in the range of “dangerous” shutter speeds. So for my evaluation work the 36MP A7R is not an option; I’m settling for the 24-megapixel Sony A7 for the E-mount platform.
The increase in resolving power is 1.22X for 36 versus 24 megapixels (√(36/24), a clearly visible but not huge gain that requires ideal parameters: high lens performance, perfect focus and no shutter shake. For lens behaviors the difference is not meaningful; any issues can be detected at 24 megapixels, though certain interactive behaviors (ray angle) can be sensor specific.