Pieter

It would help a lot if you could first identify the cause of the unsharpness without jumping to conclusions. 1. Are images produced by the camera sharp if you manually focus? If yes, the lens is fine and the camera is at least capable of producing sharp images. 2. If your subject is blurry when manually focussing, is some part of the picture in focus? If yes, at least the camera/lens combo is capable of producing sharp images. 3. If you use autofocus with spot focussing on your subject, is your subject sharp and in focus? If yes, nothing seems wrong with the camera. 4. If no under 3 above, is the plane of focus slightly in front or behind the subject? If yes, try tweaking a bit with AF Micro Adjustment: https://www.sony.com/electronics/support/articles/00018531 5. What aperture value are you using? Because you say that lighting is bad, likely you're using a large aperture. This gives a very thin depth of field, so only a very small part of your subject will be in focus. 6. Have you disabled steadyshot on your camera/lens? Since you're shooting off a tripod, you should disable steadyshot or it might cause some unwanted motion blur. 7. ... I'm sure others can chime in with more possible causes for your problem. Some general comments: Yes, could very well be, especially combined with poor lighting. See #5 above. Not at all, unless your A77ii is defective. Especially for online images, the A77ii should be plenty sharp. Thr A7R-line is overkill for your needs. Not at all. If anything, you should be using single spot focussing anyway. But why use autofocus? Your subject is still, your camera is still, perfect use case for manual focussing, where you have full control over the plane of focus. Not to sound condescending, but I'm quite confident there's a share of user error in your blurry photos. Definately first rule this out before making unneccesary purchases. Unless you're heavily invested in A-mount glass or you can get the A99ii very cheap, I would not invest in the (EOL) A-mount system. Better get a used A7iii if your budget is tight. Good luck!

@XKAES extensive experience with cameras and lenses dates back to the analogue age, so his advice is colored by that experience 😉 You are correct: turning the focus ring while autofocussing with this lens is no problem at all. There is no physical connection between the focus ring and the focussing mechanism.

@FunWithCameras already answered that quite nicely. Apparently, they save enough or the switch would have been in all models. Thing is, some regions have a lower MSRP than others. For the same reason, different regional models only include a select set of languages. Iirc, models intended for the Chinese market for example don't include English, to prevent market undercuts in America/Europe by grey market resellers.

They will work together. If you switch stabilization off on the lens, it will also be turned off on the camera.

Ok agreed, shutter sound arguably being useful at times. I don't have the luxury of an A9 or A1 so shutter sound is a given for me and can only disable it on occasion with big compromises. As for all the other bells and whistles: please turn them off, for the sake of everyone around you.

Good for you! The first thing anyone should do with a new camera is disable all sounds. Not only are the sounds completely unneccesary (why a beep if you also have a green focus confirmation box?) but most of all they are incredibly distracting to people and wildlife around you. Unless subjects looking awkwardly puzzled or slightly frowning with annoyance are part of your creative expression.

Have you checked both these settings? https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2320/v1/en/contents/0414D_silent_mode_setting.html Set silent mode --> [Off] https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2320/v1/en/contents/0414H_shutter_type.html Set shutter type --> [Mechanical Shutter]

If I remember correctly, the exposure depends on where you start the panorama (or actually, the scene where you initiate focus acquisition). After that, focus and exposure are locked. If the rest of the panoramic scene is darker, most of your panorama will be under-exposed. Best to half-press the shutter button in a scene with moderate lighting and object distance, then point the camera to the start of the panorama and full-press the shutter button. If you have a scene with high dynamic range, some of your panorama will be over-/underexposed. In such a case it might be better to stitch the panorama in post so you can utilize the exposure latitude of the RAW files.

Someone regularly operating in manual mode likely isn't in the market for an A1... But then again, apparently I wrongfully thought noone using a 28-300 lens was. As far as I know all Nikon to Sony adapters are compromised in one way or the other. But the value of the A1 far exceeds the valie of those lenses combined, so if you can get a good deal on the A1 (and assuming it's features aren't overkill for your needs), best sell the lenses and buy some new (or used) E-mount ones.

https://tweakers.net/pricewatch/1156435/sony-a7-iii-zwart.html

Noone knows when the A7Siv will be reseased, but based on experience it will hardly affect prices of the previous model. Have a look here at the price development of the A7iii in my country (Netherlands) when the A7iv was introduced on october 21 2021.

Another fact and the actual answer: the 70-350 doesn't take teleconverters so whatever you're considering is not a real option.

Small chance. Sony isn't exactly generous in its firmware updates, let alone facilitating the use of 3rd party hardware...

Yes, if aperture is set on the lens, that's the aperture that's being used. You can't override it with the aperture dial on the camera.

Fourth: if you want to get rid of the kit lens, you can sell it for pretty much the same as you payed for it in the bundle combo, as it is significantly discounted when bought as a bundle.

The sensor cover glass is ment to protect the sensor, but is not immune to abrasion. Your methods therefore sound sensible: gentle methods first, rigourous methods last. I also hold the camera with the mount pointed down while using the rocket blower, so any loose dust is more likely to fall out of the sensor chamber. Apart from the risk of scratching the glass, I expect there to be some sort of anti-reflective coating on the cover glass, which might also wear if cleaned too often. But we're talking weekly/monthly wet cleans for years on end here.

The Tamron 70-300 Di III RXD is a fullframe E-mount (FE) lens. All fullframe lenses also work on APS-C cameras with E-mount. The Tamron 70-300 will work just fine on your A7ii.

For middle zoom APS-C I'd say the Tamron 17-70 f/2.8. For wide angle, there aren't any good new stabilized APS-C lenses. If you really need optical stabilization, I guess your best bet would be the Sony 10-18 F/4, but that one is pretty dated.

If worried about camera shake with camera on tripod, I always use 2 sec timer. Touching the screen also causes shake.

Did you buy both FX3's at reputable dealers? To me it sounds one was bought at a grey market reseller or bought second hand. Unofficially imported cameras (as sold through grey market resellers) sometimes lack the option to switch between NTSC and PAL or to select different languages. Possibly because they're intended for regions with lower MSRP (explaining why grey market shops are so cheap). If this is the case, unfortunately you're out of luck. Similar case to the ones described here:

24p is an NTSC standard. Are both cameras set to NTSC? https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2035/v1/en/contents/TP1000267898.html

As with normal exposure, exposure compensation only works by (automatically) adjusting any of the three exposure parameters: aperture, shutter speed and ISO. In manual mode, aperture and shutter speed are locked by default. If you also manually set ISO, the exposure is entirely chosen manually and exposure compensation no longer works: the camera no longer has a parameter to use for automatic exposure compensation. Exposure compensation can't magically add or remove light, it has to follow the rules of the exposure triangle.

any adapter for (D)SLR lenses. Anyway, true as that may be, it's not uncommon that (cheap) adapters are built outside spec tolerances and thus make infinity focus impossible.

Was it a cheap adapter? Can you manually focus to infinity? If not, sounds like it's slightly too thick.

Why don't you use manual exposure? When not in manual mode, every time the camera takes a photo, it meters for correct exposure. Odds are high that it picks slightly different exposure parameters between shots. What you could also try is to map Auto Exposure Lock (AEL) to one of your custom buttons: https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2370/v1/en/contents/0406_ae_lock.html