Hello from RO!

[big0bum]

Hi,

I'm Cristi, a hobbyist photographer from Romania.

I've been a long time Canon shooter: 450D, 70D, 90D, 6Dmk1. I still have the 450D and use it as IR with a 10-18mm lens.
Then I switched to Fujifilm in 2022: X-T10, X-T30, X-T5, X-E3. I converted the X-T10 to IR, I kept my X-E3 with a pancake 27mm and sold my X-T5 last week for a Sony A7IV and a Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 G2. Got a great deal for the A7IV for 1800E and I pulled the trigger for it and the Tamron.

I also have some film cameras in my collection, but I'll tell you more about them if you want in another post.

My new camera should arrive this Monday, but it's not my first time I use this camera (even though I had it for only one day last spring).

[Olaf W.]

Welcome to our forum, Cristi!

[Cameratose]

Welcome aboard!

[big0bum]

Thanks! If you're interested in more about me, you're free to ask.

[Pieter]

Out of curiosity: why did you change camera(system) so often? What do you hope to find in the A7iv that the Fuji XT5 couldn't give you? Being invested heavily in Fuji X-mount, I can immagine such a decision is not taken lightly.

[big0bum]

I had Canon since 2009. I started with a 450D, upgraded to 70D, then 90D in 2019 or 2020. Canon sensor performance was not great compared to competitors and I wanted to go to mirrorless. Back then, Canon also did not have the greatest mirrorless cameras (see M-mount) and Fuji was the logical/emotional option for me.

I did not want to move to full-frame yet and Fuji had all that I wanted at that time: small, better sensor performance (at least better than the 90D), little gimmicks that I thought I would find cool (the dials, the shape of the camera, cool lenses, etc).
But it had also downsides: being small is not so ergonomic, IQ was OK-ish, on-par with Canon, better in low-loght but I had to be more careful when editing so I don't introduce Fuji worms (even though I always felt that Fuji did something strange with foliage).

The drop that filled the glass was Fuji autofocus... when I needed it, it wouldn't work as expected. Sometimes was better than my 90D, sometimes it did some weird stuff and I couldn't understand why it's behaving like that. This and the fact that I bought the X-T5 for 2000E, and I expect to work like a 2000E camera, not like a 200E one. Also some update borked even more the AF, then we had no response from Fuji for months, then we were being stuck with the same AF issue since march/april and then they were promising that they will fix it and that was not happening.

The decision was not taken lightly, but it was a logical one. Also keep in mind that I wanted my next upgrade to be full-frame
I researched a lot and I did not make the decision overnight. I took me about 6-8months to finish my research and I almost got back to Canon. I was this close to get a R6mk2, but I stopped. The fact that the RF mount is locked from 3rd parties, I did not have all the focal lenghts that I wanted and the lenses were a lot more expensive than I'd like, stopped me from buying Canon. R6mk2 is great from my research, and cheaper than Sony but I thought about the long run: being stuck with buying Canon RF and 24mpx vs 33mpx coming from 40mpx. (it doesn't matter that much for me, but if I can have more mpx, why not?)

I had great lenses for Fuji: 8-16mm f2.8, 18mm f1.4, 17-70mm f2.8, 23mm f1.4, 33mm f1.4, 70-300mm and a TC2x and I can find equivalents for Sony at almost the same price as Fuji. ( for example 8-16mm from Fuji is 2000E new, 12-24mm from Sony is 1800E SH, 70-300mm is about the same price as 50-400mm from Tamron, etc)

What I'm expecting: (I kind of know what to expect since I played with an A7IV of a friend of mine)
-better ergonomics, more weight, but at the same time better balance in hands. And I already had lenses for Fuji that had ~1kg, so that wasn't really a problem when taking this decision. If I want to travel light, I go with XE3 and 27mm.
-better autofocus ( or at least more consistency from it because with Fuji I could've lived with its quirks if they were constant)
-better low light ISO noise (33mpx on a FF sensor might help here, at least from my tests)
-the fact that I can slap a grip on it if I want to
-I expect some drop of IBIS performance
-10fps on Sony vs 15fps on Fuji, but for the airplane photos that I take it shouldn't matter that much
-battery should be the same, I cannot compare them and I won't be fair if I do so being a DSLR shooter for so much time