camera Archives - Page 3 of 5

A quick tip about light and the car

September 28, 2015/in Visions and technique/by Frank Doorhof

You must have at one point heard the expression :
“always carry your camera because it’s so fricking difficult to make a picture when you don’t have it”
And this is 100% true.
Even when we travel I always have my camera close by and I make no joke when I tell you that some of the most interesting shots were actually taken through the windshield of our car, it’s a totally different view than you’re actually used to, and sometimes the cars windshield actually helps in the lighting by adding some “funky” stuff. Now don’t get me wrong, a lot of these images end up in the pile “I love them but nobody is allowed to see them” but sometimes I really like a shot that much that it ends up in my portfolio.

While driving back to the Mandalay in Vegas we had to stop for a traffic light and the sun just hit the hotel (which has a very distinct golden hue) and the women wanting to cross the street. Now for some this might just be a picture/snap shot but I just loved the overal look and golden glow plus the added backlighting. If you don’t like the shot, no problem but remember that there can always be something that’s fricking awesome and you better have your camera handy……because otherwise you miss the shot.

Now how do you set the camera?
When driving I often have it set on auto ISO with a minimum shutter speed of 1/500 this way I know that if the car is moving you can always get something interesting…now do remember I don’t tell you to shoot while driving (blink blink) but it could happen, of course this is stupid and dumb…. but then again if you’re careful enough you could take some cool shots…. but just to make sure that you understand, this is DANGEROUS not only for yourself but most of all for the people around you so when doing this make 100% sure you do it safe, NO picture is worth hurting yourself or others.

Sony A7RII review video

August 21, 2015/2 Comments/in blog, Visions and technique/by Frank Doorhof

When I switched from Canon to Sony at the release of the A99 I did a small prediction…. “In 10 years Sony could be the new number 1, if they keep doing what they are doing”, little did I know about what would happen in only 2 years.
At the moment you must be living under a rock to not take Sony serious.
In Medium format they are the “unknown” number 1, meaning every manufacturer is now using their sensor from Hasselblad, Phase One, Mamiya/Leaf to Pentax and to be honest, I tested the Credo50 just before release and it was breathtaking what the Sony sensor does. But also Nikon uses a lot of their sensors. The reason is very simple, their sensors are just the best in dynamic range, color and noise performance, I actually hoped that also Canon would switch to Sony sensors (I still love Canon).

Sony A7RII review Part III

August 7, 2015/2 Comments/in blog, Reviews/by Frank Doorhof

In todays part of the review series on the Sony A7RII the simple question….
Do we still need HDR?

The answer you may give yourself, but let me first tell you my opinion.
When I shot with Canon I often shot HDR in difficult situations (lighting wise), always 2,1,0,1,2 and I edited those with mostly NIK, when I switched to Sony I found that I actually didn’t need the HDR shots anymore, there is so much detail recoverable in the files that I found myself more and more shooting non HDR and “fixing” it in DxO optics or Capture One (or even Lightroom).

Now with the A7R shooting HDR was not perfect, the camera was not as fast as the Canon and I decided to just forget about it. With the A7RII we have a new chance, shooting 5 frames a second and this combined with the new Lightroom HDR merge option you can actually work very fast (and very good) with HDRs so I decided to test this out, but ….. I needed a scene were it would make sense, and we indeed ended up in such a location today. Muir woods.

Let me start by showing the HDRs.
All were shot handheld in the order 2,1,0,1,2
Editing was done in Lightroom and tinting in DxO Filmpack 5
I tried to stay away from doing HDR like Highly Destructive Retouching, but I do like some detail 😀

Now these were the HDRs, now let’s look at some images I shot under the same circumstances but now used Lightroom (DxO doesn’t support the files yet and I wanted to keep everything in Lightroom) to get some HDR like looks.

Now a lot will be taste of course, but I have to be honest…. I think the Sony A7RII does pretty well without shooting HDR. The HDRs look smoother without a doubt, and it’s very fast to do with the new HDR option in Lightroom, and it will in the end give you slightly better files, but it will also take up 5x as much space on your harddrive.

For me it’s a matter of that I will shoot it more than with the A7R for the simple reason it’s so much faster and as mentioned before with Lightroom you put the HDRs together in seconds, but if we really need it….. I think the dynamic range is pretty “sick” 😀

Sony A7RII a first look Part II

August 6, 2015/in blog, Reviews/by Frank Doorhof

Today part II in my review on the new Sony A7RII.

The first time I really pushed the Sony A7RII was actually the first day we were in San Francisco. During that day we visited several areas that are perfect for street photography. For me street photography is something I really love to do but also demands a lot from the camera I use, so let me tell you how the A7RII performed during the day.

I will divide the review in topics and tell you my personal opinion, in the end you will see a rather expansive album from that day with the images shot with the A7RII. All images are tinted like I normally do.

Colors
Colors are like I’m used from Sony, the AWB (Auto White Balance) works very good and the colors are very nice, no surprises here.

Battery life
I get a lot of questions about this.
I’m using a grip with 2 batteries (the camera is delivered with 2 batteries), the reason I use the grip is mostly due to the size, I like a bit more “beef” on my camera. During the day I used the camera a lot and also did some reviews, left the camera on during walking etc. still I got app 650 images out of the 2 batteries and ended with 20% in the last one (after which I switched both batteries), if you like to walk around a lot and shoot a lot I would advise 2 extra batteries, I can’t imagine someone needing more for photography. Normally I would never shoot 650 images during a day, but in this case we tested a lot and there was a LOT to shoot actually.

Noise on high-ISO
VERY VERY impressive. Noise is very good under control, up to ISO6400 I would use now without any reservations, even up to 12800 is no problem at all for nice A4 prints, after that it starts to get a bit more noisy, but as soon as DxO optics supports the files and you can use their awesome PRIME noise settings I would not be surprised if you can use it all the way up to the maximum ISO. Do remember you’re looking at 42.5 MP on 1:1 on your screen and that is “ridiculous” to judge noise, you can make billboards with an iPhone6 (we see these a lot now in SF) and that’s only 8MP, so noise on a 42.5 MP image…… don’t worry too much just shoot and you will be surprised.

You can see difference on lighting of course, with tungsten or fluorescent you will get a bit more noise than outside but again overall I’m not afraid to push the A7RII all the way up and still have some images that can be printed on A4 size without a problem.

Speed of AF
AWESOME, the A7RII is snappy and fast, I hardly missed any shots, and of course you can make it “hunt” with the SLT mirror inside (I use a convertor with SLT mirror for my A glass) I’m still using the contrast AF setting but also that is faster than the A7RII, seeing the fact that most improvements can be expected in the Phase detection AF (convertor without SLT mirror) I can’t wait to test this out, but at the moment I’m already more than happy with the response of the A7RII with the SLT convertor.

On the street I would love a camera that focusses instantly, sometimes you literally only have less of a second to take your shot and with the A7R I have to be honest… I missed some shots because the AF was just a bit too slow, the A7RII was a champ today, it snapped into focus, never hunted on the street and the images are RAZOR sharp. Of course you can make it hunt… like any camera that is… just point towards something with HEAVY sun light straight into the lens or an object without any detail… but that are extreme circumstances and I don’t know any camera that will focus correctly under these circumstances, but where it SHOULD focus…. well dude it focussed VERY fast.

Look of the files
I still don’t know what it exactly is, but when I shoot with Medium format there is a certain “magic” to the files, call it depth, or microdetail but the images are simply put “rounder” more 3D, in my review of the A7r I already mentioned that the A7r did this very well and I’m very happy to say that the A7RII takes another step in that direction, below two images that really hit the spot for me in this “look”.

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Panorama mode
Yes I use this quite often, I know it’s just a JPG but man it’s so easy and fast and the results are very good.
With the A7r you needed a very fast card to make this work flawless (especially on wide) so I was a bit worried for the A7RII but the speed on the sensor read out seems to work wonders here too, just sweep the camera and the panorama is done (nice). I do have to add I’m using a 64GB SD card type 3, so these are pretty fast cards.

Auto ISO
AWESOME, finally Sony implemented the minimum shutter speed and man that makes a HUGE difference, it was one of the things I really missed from the Canons and I never understood why Sony didn’t include it, but now we have it. I programmed one of the custom buttons to jump straight into the menu of the shutter speed so I can change it very quickly.

Overall speed
The camera not only feels faster but it is also faster, with 5 frames a second I got some images I couldn’t get with the A7R, and ok it’s not a speed monster with 12-14 frames per second but seeing the fact you’re shooting a 42.5 MP camera I’m more than impressed with it.

Dynamic Range
The camera is using a new type sensor (backlit) and this COULD of course have an influence on the dynamic range, but as we are used from Sony, the dynamic range is again “sick” I never ever owned a camera that could pull so much details out of a file like the Sony cameras (sensors). Some people actually comment on my files that they look to “HDR” “Dynamic” and that that would be a reason to not buy the camera…. do remember that you can ALWAYS limit your dynamic range, but you can’t add dynamic range to a camera (unless you shoot HDR), when the files come out of the camera they don’t look much different than what I got from my Canon cameras ( a bit more dynamic), but when you start pushing and pulling the files that’s when the “magic” happens.

We will have to wait for DxO labs when they test the camera, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this is one of the most dynamic cameras out there at the moment.

First “careful” conclusion
Absolutely happy, very impressed with the ISO and speed (both handling and AF) and I just LOVE something in the look of this camera. For our next outing I will couple some Leica R glass with the Sony and see how well it handles manual focus on the street.

Is it the best camera in the world?…. at the moment for me I’m afraid it actually is, the combination of speed, resolution and dynamic range is something I really love, add into the mix that you can mount every lens on it (ever build) and have in camera image stabilization, insane high ISO and the “new” body all adds to a pile of things I already liked about the A7r….

More soon.
For now enjoy the album, click on one of the files for the gallery view, and… sorry for the overload on images.