Sony has got nothing going on up top — and that's why I went back to Nikon
I started as a Nikon shooter and currently I'm a Nikon shooter. Between both of those times, I shot with a Sony. I had the super A-Mount A99 / A99II (which had zero firmware updates) and an A7R II, A9, A7 II mirrorless cameras. I even worked for Sony for a short while too, so I don’t want to hear that I'm biased one way or another.
However I never really got into the whole Sony mirrorless thing for a few reasons. The cameras felt too small and delicate, I hated the button layout, and the way Sony decided the A99/A99II’s absolutely amazing screen wasn't needed for the E-Mount series, for me was a facepalm moment of epic proportions. The A-Mount cameras would work in ANY position and even fold back onto themselves; the default state of rest for my A-Mounts. Sadly A-Mount was quietly killed off and I'm still not ok with that.
Moving on, there is another feature that's still missing from Sony mirrorless cameras which infuriated me so much, that it made me throw them all back to B&H in New York in exchange for two shirt buttons and a 3M post-it note. (Well, OK, perhaps a little more.)
That feature? In nearly every camera since the digital watch it has been very easy to see which settings were active on your camera thanks to the arrival of an LCD display on top. I can see my aperture, ISO, shutter mode, frames left on my film memory card etc. etc. and – guess what – even in the dark. Yes, some brands even illuminate their LCD display so you can see in the dark — whooooah, high tech. So high-tech tech it's been on cameras in some form since the Pentax Super-A in 1983.
Why am I complaining about this feature anyway, I mean I could just look at the dials, or flip the color screen out and view it using its very limited flex. Hmm... maybe... but there is so much data that's missing from the top of a Sony compared to almost every other brand available today, for shooting with the camera low on a tripod I have to squint and try and see what's going on in the rear LCD when the top one would be enough, and it's less power consuming to use a top LCD display, surely.
The dials only go so far, too. For working with post-production HDR for example I needed to go beyond the +/- 3 EV on the wheel located on the top of a Sony. Again nearly every camera since the invention of sliced bread had the ability to press a button and move a wheel to +/- 5 EV. Yes I know you're saying this is small potatoes but when you are using these features regularly it becomes a royal pain in the backside.
For all the changes Sony has made to its cameras between generations of professional E-Mount – made them bigger, improving the menus, excellent image quality, great glass, firmware updates, AF tracking to name a few – they should be celebrated for it. The improvements are great. Has Sony added an illuminated button to the back of the cameras yet, or made an A99II-type rear screen? Maybe, but I don’t really care now – they've already lost me.
