Tag Archive for: review

Sony RX100 MKIII review part I

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One of the most fun things to do is test new cameras, and although the RX100 MKIII has been on the market for some months it never caught my eye. Let me first explain why…

 

I’m very happy with my Sony A7r, in fact it’s the best camera I ever used, it’s small and it delivers a stunning quality. However there are always situations where you don’t want to bring a camera but you do want to take pictures sometimes, normally I will use my iPhone and although the images are great (for a phone) it’s exactly as I said, they are ok for a phone….. And yeah I know there are some amazing shots online made by iPhones and I can pull that off too… if the situation is 100% right, but in most cases it simply is not the case, so you will need a “little” bit more power. Because the last few months we’ve been traveling around a lot the idea of a small iPhone alternative camera grew and grew and during Photokina I did start “shopping around”. I always loved the Fuji cameras so the X30 would have been a good option, however I’m also very much in love with the dynamic range and looks of the Sony cameras and thats when I found the RX100 MKIII, of course I knew they were there but I never held one, and it was a bit of a shock to see how small they are….

 

Here you see it next to Annewieks iPhone with Mophie case.
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Leaf Credo 50 user review

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One of the things I absolutely love to do is testing new gear, especially when it gives the photographer totally new options which were not possible before.

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As you probably know I’m shooting different systems.
I always tell people that I will use DSLRs for when I don’t really can control the lighting, or if I need higher ISOs and Medium Format when I can use strobes or if there is more then enough ambient light. The simple reason for this is that Medium Format (although a superior format) is not really usable above ISO400 (some even ISO200). But this has now all changed.

 

Sony makes some amazing sensors and since a while they also have a 50MP semi Medium Format sensor, I say semi Medium Format because in reality it’s a crop sensor for Medium Format, now is this a bad thing? no not really but personally I love to use a full frame sensor, that being said….. man does this sensor rock.

 

When Leaf asked me to test this back the idea was that I could use it for a few days during a session and had to send it back, however I got so attached to the back that I kept sending them images and they let me keep the back for a much longer time, actually ALL the images you saw appearing online from our trip through Denmark were all shot with this back and that’s something that I would not be able to do with my Credo60 for the simple reason that I would also need a DSLR for the higher ISO material and traveling with 2 cameras is… well just a bit awkward sometimes so I often opt for the DSLR, however seeing that I can now easily shoot up to ISO3200 and even ISO6400 makes a HUGE difference.

 

Now there will be many reviews about the technical stuff and the specs so I thought “let’s make a much simpler user based review”, I will do this from both the viewpoint of a DSLR user and a MF user.

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Which RAW software DxO vs Capture One vs Lr

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I think that on software this is probably one of the most asked questions “Frank which RAW convertor do you use and which one do you advise?”

 

Well let me start with saying that there is no 100% best solution, in this blogpost I can only tell you what my experiences are and my results, the problem is that all three convertors are strong in certain areas and less strong in others but none is the strongest in all. So in this post I will tell you my opinion and how I use them, this might differ from yours of course.

 

The contenders :
DxO optics 9.5
Lightroom 5.x
Capture One

 

First lets look at my opinion on them and when/why/how I use them.

 

Lightroom
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I think it’s no secret that Adobe is a huge company and their products are among the best photographers use, in fact it’s the standard for most professional workflows. Adobe has several software packages I use including Premiere for video, Lightroom and Photoshop of course, and I have to be honest I LOVE all their products, and probably that’s also the reason that they are the standard in the industry for so many people.

 

Lightroom is where all my files “life”, it’s my hub where I keep everything combined, make smart albums, label and keyword my images, and yeah I’m even using their GPS map module. In short Lightroom is what is on my computer screen a lot and when I search the archives it’s actually the only software I use.

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Toughtech duo backup solution

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We’re on the road a lot and one thing that always worries me (well there are a lot of things that worry me but that’s another story) is my data. In the past I travelled with 2 separate harddrives with USB3 connections that made pretty fast backups, but I have to be honest it’s not the perfect solution.

 

So I was looking for a small Raid1 system where I did not have to think about backupping but where it would just happen. In other words, write everything to one drive and the enclosure automatically writes it also to the second (as Raid1 works).

 

During a tradeshow in the UK my buddy Glyn Dewis showed me his Toughtech Duo setup and I was sold. This review I’m writing after working with the system on the road.

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