Using Sony A7 cameras to shoot weddings

I’ve been using Sony A7 cameras for over 12 months at weddings now, alongside other mirrorless cameras for many years as I always enjoy new technology and seeing what it can bring and offer my clients to help capture their wedding.

First a little bit of background. I’ve been a wedding photographer many years and started my career photographing weddings with the Canon cameras, making the transition to canon digital bodies. I then slowly moved to Nikon after some new cameras made some big improvements in my ability to capture low light scenes which are super useful at weddings. It was with this in mind that I started flirting with mirrorless cameras. I have used Panasonic, Sony and Fuji.. I discounted olympus because I found their controls overly complex and preferred panasonic. When Sony announced their A7 cameras i wasn’t too interested until the A7s.. this offers great video options (I offer video services alongside my stills work) and also unbelievable sounding high-iso options in a small compact package.

sony cameras and lenses

Thoughts on A7s and A7 system

So I bought a A7s and 55/1.8 prime to start with. I then added some manual focus Canon FD lenses and a Nikon adapter. Canon FD lenses are ace.. cheap on ebay, optically very simple which although means that you need to correct for some colour fringing sometimes the lack of elements gives virtually no renditional distortion. This translates into lovely looking images. Combined with focus peaking and focus magnification and zebras it means that it’s so much easier to get the right exposure in camera saving me time in editing. This also translated into great looking images and cleaner high iso images in low light. I call this a win-win. I then added an A7-ii to the setup – this has phase detect AF and adds stabilisation to the sensor meaning all lenses are now stabilised! This is incredible. The one weakness of this camera is the sensor. That is only relative to the A7s and A7r2 though. It’s similar to the Canon 5d3 just not quite as nice as my nikons or the other sony cameras. It is however much cheaper so gets some leeway with this. Finally there is the king Sony A7R2. This is so hyped a camera it needs no introduction. I’d say it was a mistake to hype it so much. It’s probably the best all round camera avaiable, but, compared to previous A7 cameras it’s expensive and was billed as being something that would blow everything else away. If i was to pick one camera then the A7R2 would be it. 4K video, 399 phase detect points, ability to AF canon lenses, great AF with native lenses, superb image quality. It really is good. The ability to mount any glass at all and use it is a great feature and is very liberating photographically.

sony lenses

So thats how I ended up with the Sony A7 cameras.. now how do I find them? Well watch the video 🙂 But in a word they’re great. Not quite as instant as a dSLR, but, the ability to have a silent shutter has meant that I can get images that the priest/vicar wouldn’t ordinarily allow. I also believe you’re more ninja like with a smaller camera, though this is more a mindset of the photographer than a function of the camera. The beauty of this system is that you don’t have to give up image quality at all in order to use the Sony system, in fact you can even use your existing lenses!

Here’s a list of pro’s and con’s of using the a7 cameras for weddings (and also commercial / any photographic work). I have used my sony’s to photograph my childrens sports day for the school.. no problems at all.

Pro’s of using a7 series for weddings

Lighter weight
Great quality lens options
EVF is amazing and helps in so many situations
Focus Peaking makes using manual glass very realistic
Great video quality and options
Fast accurate focussing… no more calibration of lenses!
Face and Eye AF is like magic.. no more need to move focus points around (if face is detected)
superb image quality with class leading high-iso and resolution. A7R2 is probably the best all round camera available
Great ergonomics.. once you train your brain.
IS/VR in latest gen. of cameras is amazing
Tilting Screen saves you getting dirty/handy for short people.

Cons of using a7 series for weddings

Battery life still isn’t dslr like.
Lens choice isn’t as great as dSLR (adapters help)
No dual card slots – not a dealbreaker for me as i’ll typically shoot multiple cameras and forensic data recovery would be able to recover most cards.
No 2.8 zooms as of yet (depends how much you need 2.8 zooms I don’t think this is an issue – see video 🙂 )
Menus need some learning
If you shoot a large burst the camera won’t let you review images till everything is written
relatively slow card write speed 45MB/s

Here’s a video on my thoughts of the Sony A7 system. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Real life images from weddings using Sony A7s, a7r2 and a7ii

Here’s a selection of images captured at weddings using the Sony cameras.. sometimes with silent shutter modes where i’d not have been able to take the picture at all otherwise!