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.