I am selling all my Sony cameras

[rpcrowe]

I presently own three Sony cameras (A7iii, A6400 and A6600). I no longer desire to carry multiple cameras because of my failing physical condition. I have decided to sell the three cameras and replace them with one camera, the new Sony A6700.

I am quite happy with a crop sensor camera and the new 6700 has some neat new bells and whistles. I can more than pay for this camera with the proceeds from selling the other three Sony cameras. In fact, I will have some cash left over.

[Cantab]

Hi Richard, I'm not familiar with Sony cameras but assume and hope that your existing lenses, etc., will work happily on your new camera.

[Manfred M]

Hmm. I must be doing something wrong.

The last digital camera I bought for myself was over 9 years ago (March 2014) and that was my Panasonic GX7. It's a surprise I'm getting any decent images at all...

[DanK]

Hmm. I must be doing something wrong.

The last digital camera I bought for myself was over 9 years ago (March 2014) and that was my Panasonic GX7. It's a surprise I'm getting any decent images at all...

We've been meaning to talk with you about that....

[Manfred M]

We've been meaning to talk with you about that....

I have a long habit of sticking with the same camera. I bought a Leica R3 in the early 1980s and shot with it until 2010. I need a really good reason to switch my camera bodies...

[DanK]

I have a long habit of sticking with the same camera. I bought a Leica R3 in the early 1980s and shot with it until 2010. I need a really good reason to switch my camera bodies...

In the film days, camera bodies changed VERY slowly. (I shot with only two: a Mamiya Sekor until it broke, and a Canon FTb until I stopped shooting film.) That's no longer true.

I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that I'm on my 5th digital MILC, not counting an inexpensive refurb I bought for bug macros. Most of these upgrades were only modest improvements, to be frank, and one (5D III to 5D IV) was probably in retrospect more of a splurge than anything else. However, the change from an excellent DSLR (5D IV) to a roughly equivalent mirrorless (R6 II) has been a huge improvement. The list of big improvements is long. To pick just a few examples, the AF is light years better, the 5-stop IBIS (which is in addition to the image stabilization in the lens) has allowed me to work without a tripod in many cases, the built in focus bracketing of raw files is helpful, and the ability to turn on an RGB histogram in the viewfinder is also useful. It all depends on what you shoot, of course. The better AF would be worthless for a landscape photographer, for example, and most people have no need of focus bracketing. But for my uses, this change is an order of magnitude more helpful than any previous upgrade.

[escape]

If they were mine, I would give them away. I prefer to find someone who can use what I no longer want and give it away. There are lots of advantages to giving it away over selling. For example, no one will return it, which is a plus, or complain about surface scratches and minor defects, the transactions are quick, and there is no need to haggle or negotiate a price. It is the easiest and best way to go. If you decide to take this route, put me down for one camera.

[DanK]

I certainly don't disagree about giving things away, but the things you say you avoid by doing so you also avoid by selling to a reputable dealer. That's why I sell stuff to KEH. The process is simple:

1. You go online and list what you want to sell. Using their description, you say what condition you think it's in.
2. The system gives you a price.
3. If you accept it, they send you a free-shipping label.
4. A week or so after they get it, they email you with their decision about the condition and price. If you accept it, they send you the money. If you decline, they ship the gear back to you at their expense.

I've had only one disagreement with them in the several times I've sold them stuff. When I sent them my 5D IV and 24-105 L, I listed it as the best of their conditions, LN-. It really was in mint condition. Their estimate was one step lower. I emailed them to tell them that for the first time I disagreed with them. They reviewed the gear again and agreed with my estimate.

I've had some luck selling on eBay, but it's a roll of the dice, both in terms of price and in terms of whether things go smoothly. Not worth the hassle, in my opinion, so I now rarely do that.

[escape]

Dang, Dank. It was meant to be humorous.

[rpcrowe]

My reason for switching cameras is not that I "need" a new camera in order to shoot good imagery, it is that newer cameras often have tweaks that make my shooting experience more enjoyable. Funny, I tend to keep my automobiles for much longer periods and only switch when I have to. With fishing tackle, I'd find rigs that I really liked using and fish with these rigs for years and years.

Some of the tweaks I especially enjoyed when switching from Canon DSLR (6D Mk2) to Sony Mirrorless (A6400 ad A6600) were animal eye auto focus and the ability to use legacy lenses with adapters.

I suspect that the improved AF capabilities of the A6700 would make my shooting more enjoyable and I know that accessing the memory card from the side of the camera would be more enjoyable than needing to remove the camera from a tripod to switch memory cards. There are probably other tweaks that I would enjoy...

The nice thing about Sony is that they have not changed the e-mount and I can use any Sony e-mount lens (or legacy lens with adapter) with any Sony mirrorless camera. This includes using lenses on both full frame and crop frame cameras.

It's not like I am spending any more cash - I am just converting some of my present assets to future assets.

[rpcrowe]

I purchased a pair of Canon FTb cameras in Japan (Nikon was out of stock) both the Canon cameras crapped out when used in the dusty and grimy areas of Vietnam - like Dong Ha. My associate's Nikons went on shooting merrily.

[JDW in Oz]

Hm... As much as I dislike anything from Sony, for personal reasons I won't bore everyone here by woofing on about, I will hasten to say, don't be too quick to sell all your Sony gear, or to leap from FX to DX.

As a firm believer in, and as I like to think also a practitioner of minimalism in all to do with my photography, I've been down this slippery slope, and I quickly came to realize the error of my ways.

Two years ago during the depths of Covid lockdown in Australia, I impulsively decided to downsize my Nikon gear and go Fuji. Which I did, initially with an XT1, which I didn't take to, then an XT2, and eventually an XE2, the latter offered privately to me for such a low price that I couldn't resist it (The XTs came from a reputable secondhand dealer in Melbourne.)

To raise funds for this change, I sold two Nikon D700s (did I say minimalist?) and one Nikon D800 which had been gathering dust on my shelves for some time.

Fortunately, I didn't cgo totally bonkers and sell my Nikon lenses. Wisely as it turned out, I kept these. Which will give you a clue as to what will follow in this epic saga...

The Fuji lenses I found were superb, but I didn't really take to the ergonomics of the XTs. After a year of trying to force the dynamic range in tones and mid-tones that I could previously so easily get from my Nikons,and the total rejection of 100 images from the XT2 I sent to a publisher in Germany, a client who had bought imany Nikon mages from me, (the reason stated were the wide variances in contrast and tones in the Fuji images, all taken on the same day and in the same light conditions) I gave up and got rid of the XT2. I kept the XE2 and the Fujinon lenses which I now and then use mostly for black and white, at which I've found it quite excels.

Recently I acquired a Nikon Z6ii with the Nikon D adapter and lens, the (more or less kit) Z 16-50. The adapter allows me to use my range of wonderful Nikon D lenses, which I have in the range from 20 to 300, nine in all. I can live with the lack of autofocus and the metering is okay, so it's win-win for me.

My little gear game-playing in chopping and changing systems cost me - well, I admit I'm too timid to calculate it, but certainly thousands.

Lesson learned on my behalf.

If I give the OP any advice, it would be to hang on for a while, use what cameras he still has, work out the issues he may be having with his gear (or with his image-making, which was certainly my issue rather than with the cameras) and eventually make an informed decision, to change or not to change.

Spending money on new equipment, as I flearned, is surely not the way to improve anything in photography Not for me, anyway.

Caveat emptor and all that...

DANN