. . . in no particular order . . .

In my first night shots with the a6700, it appeared to be cleaner at ISO 3200 than the CL and SL2. I have yet to try it beyond that. One of the more aesthetically disturbing characteristics of Sony’s previous APS-C cameras was how it rendered foliage, especially grass, in the background of images. The a6700 has no such issue.

Assuming that the sensor is a subsection of the 61mp sensor Sony’s been using for a while now, it looks as though they put some effort into improving image texture, so that fine details previously rendered with fuzzy edges (sometimes blamed on the lens) are now crisp and clear. To my eyes, it has the best APS-C IQ I’ve seen so far, and not by a small margin, either.

And with Fuji doing well with their APS-C line, and Canon out with a couple of really spectacular crop sensor models, it appears that the format is capturing the interest of handphone upgraders and making a bit of a comeback. Too bad Leica didn’t foresee that when they axed their TL gear.

Speaking of which, since the departure of the SL2-S, and with the SL2’s charger back in the ant farm, I’ve resorted to USB-C charging on the SL2 for the last few cycles. Yesterday afternoon, as a gust of sea breeze swirled sand around me, I noticed that the rubber cover for the USB-C port had fallen open—again. It’s not the first sign I’ve seen that the robustness for which Leica has long been known is apparently of little concern to the current ownership/management coalition.

And with Leica’s uncharacteristic price drop on the SL2 and -S, one wonders if yet another product line is about to get the axe, or at least be shifted to Panasonic (not a bad idea) to manufacture gear for Leica to re-badge. Of course, it would be interesting to see how many diehards would be willing to fork over $8k for a camera with “made in china” printed on it.

I’ll hang on to my SL2 if for no other reason than its current next-to-nothing resale value. But it appears that a FF Sony is in the tea leaves for the near future as a travel companion for the a6700, which has proven its AF prowess magnificently in addition to churning out some great-looking raw files. Lenses? Well, that’ll be the fun part . . .

a6700/ZA 16-70mm . . .