I was looking reasonably solidly at getting a Nikon Z5ii, however @Grantmac has pointed me in the direction of Sony - and know absolutely less than nothing about Sony's cameras. I've taken a quick look at their range and on first glance there seems to be little logic as to price vs performance & features of Sony's range. The a7 V seems to be the closest to the Z5ii in price and seems to be the best Sony camera to compare to the N5ii - but I could be wrong.

I will be frank -- coming from 35mm film with a 30-odd year break - I have no idea what most of the terms in the specs even mean - which makes it very hard to understand the specs or compare a Z5ii to a Sony a7 V

Is anyone using a Sony a7 V?

1 hour ago, CCRphoto said:

I was looking reasonably solidly at getting a Nikon Z5ii, however @Grantmac has pointed me in the direction of Sony - and know absolutely less than nothing about Sony's cameras. I've taken a quick look at their range and on first glance there seems to be little logic as to price vs performance & features of Sony's range. The a7 V seems to be the closest to the Z5ii in price and seems to be the best Sony camera to compare to the N5ii - but I could be wrong.

I will be frank -- coming from 35mm film with a 30-odd year break - I have no idea what most of the terms in the specs even mean - which makes it very hard to understand the specs or compare a Z5ii to a Sony a7 V

Is anyone using a Sony a7 V?

I would suggest that these days there is little to pick between sensors in UW cameras you can either have a 20-30MP FF or a higher pixel count in the 45-60 MP range. Pick your poison in MP count then look rather to other features like flash sync speed, and the range of available lenses as well as housing support from various vendors. Also important is battery life, can it charge over USB through a bulkhead? what is flash trigger support like, all practical things that make life easier living with an UW housing.

If you are looking at Nikon vs Sony in Nauticam that means N120 ports for Nikon and N100 ports for Sony. Practically speaking the N120 port range is not as good as N120 and you can end up needing an N100-N120 adapter (not cheap for Nauticam - but then again neither are their N120 extension tubes these days. In Isotta they both use N120 ports. Personally I'm not a fan of the Sony flash hotshoe it's a known weak point with lots of fine contacts which give connection trouble periodically, there have been a few people on here having issues with their hotshoe as I recall.

Beware of paralysis by analysis though - just setup a costs spreadsheet to get what the lens types you want to use housed and UW and compare costs.

5 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

I would suggest that these days there is little to pick between sensors in UW cameras you can either have a 20-30MP FF or a higher pixel count in the 45-60 MP range. Pick your poison in MP count then look rather to other features like flash sync speed, and the range of available lenses as well as housing support from various vendors. Also important is battery life, can it charge over USB through a bulkhead? what is flash trigger support like, all practical things that make life easier living with an UW housing.

If you are looking at Nikon vs Sony in Nauticam that means N120 ports for Nikon and N100 ports for Sony. Practically speaking the N120 port range is not as good as N120 and you can end up needing an N100-N120 adapter (not cheap for Nauticam - but then again neither are their N120 extension tubes these days. In Isotta they both use N120 ports. Personally I'm not a fan of the Sony flash hotshoe it's a known weak point with lots of fine contacts which give connection trouble periodically, there have been a few people on here having issues with their hotshoe as I recall.

Beware of paralysis by analysis though - just setup a costs spreadsheet to get what the lens types you want to use housed and UW and compare costs.

Ugh N100 ports for Sony - that's a bit of a turn off - I've no idea why they can't build housings for Sony that take N120 ports directly. Will see waht the hotshoe and flash trigger situation is like for the A7V - hopefully they have resolved the hotshoe problem by now!

The Sony does seem to have a couple of advantages - Sony make their E-mount available to far more 3rd party lens manufacturers than Nikon (or Canon), and the battery life on the Sony is a lot better - which wouldn't be important for a lot of people but might be important if I get into doing a lot of focus stack macro.

10 hours ago, CCRphoto said:

I was looking reasonably solidly at getting a Nikon Z5ii, however @Grantmac has pointed me in the direction of Sony - and know absolutely less than nothing about Sony's cameras. I've taken a quick look at their range and on first glance there seems to be little logic as to price vs performance & features of Sony's range. The a7 V seems to be the closest to the Z5ii in price and seems to be the best Sony camera to compare to the N5ii - but I could be wrong.

I will be frank -- coming from 35mm film with a 30-odd year break - I have no idea what most of the terms in the specs even mean - which makes it very hard to understand the specs or compare a Z5ii to a Sony a7 V

Is anyone using a Sony a7 V?

The z5ii must be quite a bit cheaper (and a little smaller?) than the Sony. And I wouldn’t pitch those two at each other. The Nikon z5ii is foremost a still photography tool. The Sony is a hybrid, more similar to z6iii in the Nikon line-up. If video is something you might want to do, they make more sense inmo. If stills is what you want to work with, you might be spending on features that has no value to you.

Edited August 24Aug 24 by Christian K

6 hours ago, Christian K said:

The z5ii must be quite a bit cheaper (and a little smaller?) than the Sony. And I wouldn’t pitch those two at each other. The Nikon z5ii is foremost a still photography tool. The Sony is a hybrid, more similar to z6iii in the Nikon line-up. If video is something you might want to do, they make more sense inmo. If stills is what you want to work with, you might be spending on features that has no value to you.

The Nikon is certainly a bit cheaper, but not enough to rule out the Sony - especially with the $400 cashback and a few other bonuses. Dimensions - the Nikon is 134 x 100.5 x 72mm, the Sony is 130.3 x 96.4 x 72.3 - so sizewise they are much of a muchness.

I agree that the A7V isn't a great comparison to the Z5ii - unfortunately it was best that I could find as Sony's current range doesn't seem to have any natural order or ascendancy - it just seems like a whole bunch of cameras that were designed were each designed by a separate committee - that never communicated with each other... but if you can know of a Sony model that is a better comparison I would be keen to know!

The battery life is I think going to be important to me if I get right into the focus stacking - using the CIPA standard the Z5ii will run for 330/380 images, however the Sony will run for 630/750 images - which could be important as my favourite local shore dive is a 600 metre swim out to it - and I'm getting too old to swim out all that way, run just 5 or 6 focus stacks before running out of battery...

4 hours ago, CCRphoto said:

The Nikon is certainly a bit cheaper, but not enough to rule out the Sony - especially with the $400 cashback and a few other bonuses. Dimensions - the Nikon is 134 x 100.5 x 72mm, the Sony is 130.3 x 96.4 x 72.3 - so sizewise they are much of a muchness.

I agree that the A7V isn't a great comparison to the Z5ii - unfortunately it was best that I could find as Sony's current range doesn't seem to have any natural order or ascendancy - it just seems like a whole bunch of cameras that were designed were each designed by a separate committee - that never communicated with each other... but if you can know of a Sony model that is a better comparison I would be keen to know!

The battery life is I think going to be important to me if I get right into the focus stacking - using the CIPA standard the Z5ii will run for 330/380 images, however the Sony will run for 630/750 images - which could be important as my favourite local shore dive is a 600 metre swim out to it - and I'm getting too old to swim out all that way, run just 5 or 6 focus stacks before running out of battery...

Ok, over here the Sony is roughly twice the price of a z5ii. Not really on top of the Sony line-up. They might or might not have something similar to the z5ii?

Edited August 25Aug 25 by Christian K

42 minutes ago, Christian K said:

Ok, over here the Sony is roughly twice the price of a z5ii. Not really on top of the Sony line-up. They might or might not have something similar to the z5ii?

Their whole lineup is so all over the place that their cheapest 24MP camera is three times the price of a Z5ii - but it is designed for Pro sports photography. They have four less expensive full frame cameras - one of which is the A7V at 33MP, and the other three cheaper cameras are all 61MP cameras - there just seems to be no logical progression to their lineup at all!

1 hour ago, CCRphoto said:

Their whole lineup is so all over the place that their cheapest 24MP camera is three times the price of a Z5ii - but it is designed for Pro sports photography. They have four less expensive full frame cameras - one of which is the A7V at 33MP, and the other three cheaper cameras are all 61MP cameras - there just seems to be no logical progression to their lineup at all!

Here is the assortment of different camera types that Sony offers, it seems pretty logical to me:

#1.: Entry-level model class, very capable and universal: A7

Five generations exist at present, from original to mark 5 (A7V)

#2.: Highest resolution and IQ, totally photocentric, not so good for video and fast action/sports: A7R

At present in its sixth generation (A7RVI, which made a leap towards video and action, but still not the best for this purpose)

#3.: High end allround model, high IQ for photo, fast action (e.g. birding) and good for video: A1

At present in its second generation (A1II)

#4.: Specialized model series for fast action/sports: A9

Currently in its third generation, A9III, that has even global shutter (=zero rolling shutter and no limit to flash sync. speed)

#5.: Compact series: A7C and A7CR

Providing similar features as #1 (A7CII) and #2 (A7CR) in a compact camera body

In addition they offer different types of camera bodies that are designed for videographers...

4 hours ago, Architeuthis said:

Here is the assortment of different camera types that Sony offers, it seems pretty logical to me:

#1.: Entry-level model class, very capable and universal: A7

Five generations exist at present, from original to mark 5 (A7V)

#2.: Highest resolution and IQ, totally photocentric, not so good for video and fast action/sports: A7R

At present in its sixth generation (A7RVI, which made a leap towards video and action, but still not the best for this purpose)

#3.: High end allround model, high IQ for photo, fast action (e.g. birding) and good for video: A1

At present in its second generation (A1II)

#4.: Specialized model series for fast action/sports: A9

Currently in its third generation, A9III, that has even global shutter (=zero rolling shutter and no limit to flash sync. speed)

#5.: Compact series: A7C and A7CR

Providing similar features as #1 (A7CII) and #2 (A7CR) in a compact camera body

In addition they offer different types of camera bodies that are designed for videographers...

I'm glad that Sony's model naming conventions are pretty logical to someone...

The A7 V is a hybrid camera, but the A7R VI is a high end stills camera - surely it would make more sense to give the high end stills cameras their own number line like A3 VI instead of mixing them in with the A7 hybrids and hoping that everyone somehow figures out that an A7 without the R is a hybrid and with an R is a stills camera with nearly twice the MP? Gen Z must be totally confused as they usually have absolutely no knowledge of Roman numerals!

At the moment I am waiting to be approved to join a A forum so as I can ask a couple of really indepth questions.

On 8/24/2026 at 11:20 PM, CCRphoto said:

hopefully they have resolved the hotshoe problem by now!

Don't believe so, this is hotshoe, there are 21 tiny contacts across the shoe, google probelms with Sony hotshoe and you'll get lots of hits.

2 hours ago, Chris Ross said:

Don't believe so, this is hotshoe, there are 21 tiny contacts across the shoe, google probelms with Sony hotshoe and you'll get lots of hits.

Cheers - will do! I would have thought that they would have resolved the problem with newer cameras to avoid warranty claims and reputation damage but maybe not...