While I have long been an avid proponent of the simple control layout on most of Leica’s cameras, there’s also an upside to having a few extra buttons/dials that can be used for different functions at different times, customized, and either linked to or unlinked from other functions.

I never had the problems with Sony menus that others complain about, likely for two reasons: I’ve been navigating Sony’s menus for fifteen years already; and my shooting preferences are probably simpler than those of the average shooter. Sony’s response to user complaints over the years has resulted in a couple of tweaks to their menu system which, at first glance, appear to make it even more complex.

But whatever complexities may exist during setup quickly vanish when one heads to the field and starts shooting. On the a7cII, access to the exposure triangle on lenses without an aperture ring is the easiest of any camera I’ve ever used. While lacking a third dial, the a6700 can be set up in a way that’s almost as easy.

A frequent reviewer complaint on both bodies is that neither has a joystick for setting the focus point. I wonder whether any of those reviewers actually shot with the camera, because the directional dial can be used to do just that, to my touch more reliably tactile than a joystick. Further, a press in the center of the dial fixes the spot so that it doesn’t “wander” in case the dial gets bumped.

Curious to see if the stable EVF image I got the other day while using the R 180/2X combo would translate to stabilized images at slower shutter speeds, I got critically sharp shots at 1/60, which is as slow as I’d ever shoot the combo anyway. So much for the “experts” who claim that IBIS is ineffective with longer lenses.

Still, my chosen image profile in the camera, which appears to be applied to raw files, is not applied when a non-native lens is attached. So R glass might not be as useful as I’d hoped. But if the L-mount alliance brings a compact full-frame body to the market in the future, I’ll have a full set resting in the dry cabinet just waiting for it.

As for Sony glass, well, some of it, especially wides released in recent years, leaves a lot to be desired. To my taste, anyway. While software correction of most kinds of optical flaws is much appreciated in modern photography, I’ve never been a fan of the results I’ve seen when it’s used to correct heinous distortion, going back to the SL 24-90mm, which has almost 5% uncorrected barrel distortion at 24mm.

Sony’s more recent wides make the SL zoom look almost rectilinear with their 8-10% barrel distortion! It may take me a while to be a believer in Sony’s ability to implement relatively lossless correction. And until then, I’m content to go with some of their older glass which, of course, is fraught with other limitations, but at least ones that I’m used to dealing with. Old, am I? No denying it!

So what’s not to like about the compact, lightweight bodies? Well, being a left-eyed shooter, I’ve never liked the offset finder. But being on the road again soon, I can deal with it for the packability of the form factor and the combined one-pound weight reduction over the centered EVF models. Oh, yeah, I’d love to have some of their resolution, too, but . . .

So nothing’s perfect. But when the autofocus is so good that I sometimes feel like I’m cheating, it’s time to shut up and shoot!

a7cII/FE 85mm f1.8 . . .