Small walk with the A7RIV and Lensbaby

/in /by

It’s no secret I absolutely love the lensbaby series of lenses.
Because I got my Sony A7RIV this weekend I thought it would be fun to drive to Kampen and Zwolle to shoot some quick images with the Lensbaby Composer and the Sweet 35 lens.

These are just some snapshots to share with you guys, so don’t expect any spectacular, it’s more to test the lensbaby on the new A7RIV, but I still like the outcome and for people not familiar with the Lensbaby system you can see what happens when I push the system a bit to the more “extreme” settings for focus.

Freezing motion explained

/in , /by

When freezing motion always remember that it’s not the shutterspeed that freezes the model, but the flash duration. Just make sure there is no available light in the studio.

You can check this by shooting an image without the strobe. If it’s almost black you’re fine.

Do realize that the choice of strobes is vital.
You need the fastest flash duration at half to full power. Strobes with insane flash durations that are located in the lower power settings are less effective.

Aim for at least a t.05 value of 1/2500 and preferably 1/3500 and up.

Aim for f11 or f16 to make sure you have enough dof. And now just time it 😉 and coach the model

Would be nice to see your shots.

wat doen stagiaires bij Studio FD

/in , /by

In 2019 hadden we een stagiaire die zicht specialiseerde in animatie. Natuurlijk heeft hij hier ook veel andere dingen gedaan. Want een stage bij ons is elke dag anders.

Ben jij de volgende stagiaire?

Meer info https://www.studiofd.eu/site/stage/

Sony A7rIV change this first and first impression

/in , , , /by

Images shot with my phone so don’t mind the quality please.

Since I’ve got the A7rIV people have been asking me why it doesn’t tether…. Of course it does but Sony changed the location for the settings a bit.

Make sure you always read the manual of course, bit for all you guys like me 😉

Go to

Now you can change a few settings that are important and pretty cool

First of course set it to PC remote and USB if you are using USB

One often heard complaint about for example capture one was that you can’t shoot to both the card and PC/Mac.

However a few firmwares ago Sony already added this option to for example the a7rIII. You can now set if you want to send images just to the receiver or also on the card.

But there is more

You can also opt for smaller files to be send to the receiver and the raws on the card. This is very handy with for example wireless transfers.

Now of course you also want to know how I like the camera ?

Well it’s very early to tell (I got my camera this weekend) but the files are very detailed and have a nice “roundness” megapixels is fun (I love a lot of mps) but not something that impresses me that much. I’m used to MF cameras and 60-100MP so that isn’t the thing that gets me.

That being said…. This camera is FAST and I really mean fast… I didn’t even load my fastest card and could shoot 60 RAW files before the buffer filled up on high+. That’s insane realizing you are shooting 60MP. Sony really did some magic here. The a7rIII was already fast but this is… Well insane is the only expression I can think off.

Also the evf is very nice and people that still claim evfs are not as good…… Try this one. I honestly would never ever wanted to go back to an ovf.

Also I love the fact that Sony gives you a lot of freedom with customization. You can program almost every button, create a favorite menu and even create your own version of the Fn menu (quick menu) for both video and photography (finally)

Does it beat MF?

NO and it will never ever, and any reviewer that tells you this doesn’t know his stuff.

MF is a different sensor size. Nothing more nothing less. However that being said, MF cameras have (thanks to that sensor size) a totally different look and feel to the images.

This camera is build for kick ass image quality with loads of detail, speed and portability and it beats MF in all those departments.

Let’s talk about lenses. Where MF is very dominant with prime lenses or 2-3x zoom lenses, the 35mm and crop series have a lot more options for zoom lenses and even a very nice 24-240 from sony (high on my wish list after testing one in SA and the USA)

So no the A7rIV is not beating MF on sensor size but it does make the reason to go for MF smaller and smaller. For a lot of work where in the past you needed MF now a 60MP Sony will do just fine. But if you’re a lover of that large medium format look and love the way the system feels MF still is a valid option.

But in all honesty…… Sony really does make it very very hard to warrant an investment of 10k+ in the step in crop MF world. Let alone full frame MF which will set you back a lot more.

The A7rIV is the kind of camera where other brands probably have nightmares off. And it is here. Where other brands only talk about whats to come. Sony just delivers.

Highly recommended