Via Sony Alpha Rumors, we learned that White House staff photographer Pete Souza is shooting with the Sony A7RII. On the White House Flickr page for the latest photo, the EXIF indicates the photograph was taken with an a7R II and a Sony Sonnar T* FE 55mm f/1.8 ZA lens. That’s incidentally what I’m shooting with mostly, except when I’m using the 35MM or old glass. Interestingly, you can also see the spike in A7RII users on Flickr since it’s release. It’s number 13 of all Sony camera, with the top 5 being camera phones. The first-gen A7 is ranked 6th.
Mr. Souza hasn’t shared why he choose to use a Sony for the shoot, but likely the same reason all the other switchers have: lightweight, focus, and incredible image quality. While many photographers have switched including us, the majority of shooters are brand loyal to their SLRs, for a few reasons David Schloss wrote about for Digital Photo Pro.
- They have a very large investment in bodies and glass.
- Despite the new lenses for Sony there are still vastly more lenses available for Nikon and Canon. Go try to find a fast autofocus 14-24mm sony lens, doesn’t exist.
- There are some things slr still does better, like buffer clearing and burst shooting and shooting speed.
For us, those reasons didn’t hinder our decision to switch (it was mostly the weight), but it’s understandable still why others haven’t.
…My daily shooter is Sony A1 with a vertical grip and various Sony lenses attached like the FE 20mm F1.8. Find more gear recommendations in our shop. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.