Hi

Yes it has been a while since i last posted on my Blog. I have given myself a kick up the ass and will now commit to a least 1 blog a week.

I wanted to kick this promise off with places to go.

Living in the UK, there are plenty of amazing places to do photography. Sometimes it just takes some willpower to get up early and get to the destination.

My choice this time is Corfe Castle in Dorset.

It was a 3 hour Drive in freezing crazy foggy weather. I started at 4am. I got to Corfe by 7am. I parked in the carport nearest to the castle. But unfortunately, it was so foggy, i had no idea which way to go. I could see nothing. Luckily for me i bumped into a fellow photographer who was happy to lead me through the dense fog, throughout a small lane and then up a treacherous slippery foggy hill.

Once up onto of the hill, and above the fog, there was the most amazing view of..well a sea of fog. It was like being on the edge of an abyss. And of course once at the top i was in the company of other crazy dedicated photographers.

The amazing thing about Corfe castle is that its on the middle of three hills. So you have the option of taking images of it with the sun inferno or behind it. You just need to keep warm and wait for the fog to drop and the castle to pop out and say hello. 

I

Here is a list of blogs i am working on for the new week.

Review of the Zeiss Batis 85mm

Review of the Sony 85mm G master.

Comparison between the Sony GM and Batis 85mm lenses

A fun 35mm shoot out between the Sony 24-70GM and the Loxia 35mm.

Hi

I thought i’d have some fun as I have both the 24-70mm GM and the 70-300mm G Lenses.

So, how do they both perform on the same Camera and same settings at 70mm?

Obviously the GM can stop down to F2.8. So to keep it fair. I have set this shootout to be at 70mm F4.5.

Now i know people will ask why i am doing this. Because both lenses are different and used for different things. But my reasons are simple. Its a chance to compare a new G to a GM at 70mm and because… i can! 🙂 Oh and i have not seen anyone else stupid enough to do it.

I am working on a Review of the Sony 70-300mm G F/4.5 and hope to post it by tomorrow.

So my test is simple: I will focus on Sharpness and colour rendition. I have tried to keep the images as similar as possible and neither of them have had any post processing.

I picked some flowers from the garden, as they show lots of sparkle and detail.

So heres is the G to start things off.

My initial observation is that it is a lovely sharp image. For a 70-300 zoom lens. There is no mistaking it is bloody sharp.

And here it is cropped, to see the detail. As you can see. Lovely and sharp, great detail and colour. A little soft in transition around the petals. But all in all, not much to complain at. And better / sharper that the Sony FE 70-200 G F4 lens.

Ok now for the 24-70 Gmaster.

Going by this first image, it was hard to tell them apart. The GM had the edge when it came to vignetting. And it rendered the colours better, especially the yellows. But all in all. It’s very close. Bokeh on the G showed a shallower DOF.

Cropping the image i could see that the sharpness is better on the GM, and the way it transitioned separation. Much more defined edges, better colours and more detail. But not worlds apart, unless you pixel peak.

Now here is the real difference. With the G70-300, i could not get very close to the subject due to its closest focus point. With the GM, i could use it like a 70mm macro and get very close. Getting love detail. This image is also at F/4.5. I just wanted to show the extra agility of the GM.

This GM is such a sweet lens. Worth every penny!  Its so damn good in so many ways. Landscape, portrait, a little macro…and all lovely and sharp.

Now, i’m going to throw a spanner in the works! Is it fair that i showed the diversity of the GM at 70mm. Yes, i think it is as its a test of both lenses at 70mm. And i did not even go into the F/2.8 advantage, Bokeh and DOF.

But to be fair, i will break the rules and show although the 70-300 G can’t focus very close. It can zoom in at 300mm :-). And its a very sharp 300mm lens at that:

So as you can see, there is more than one way to skin a cat 🙂

Exclaimer

(No Cats were skinned in the process of writing this blog!)

Thanks for reading and please feel free to comment. Or suggest the settings for my Shootout part 2.

http://www.sonyalphaforum.com/topic/4057-big-news-nik-collection-now-available-for-free/

I sense a Kung Fu Panda theme this week! But bare with me.. We took the boys to see the 3rd one this weekend and even though it is a children’s movie I can’t but help being inspired by it. If…

Source: Lets step out of our comfort zone

London is a popular place for photographers. The biggest challenge these days  is finding something new. A new location, or a new spin on something well photographed. But sometimes its nice to take a popular image, even an iconic one and make it your own. That Sometimes means creating the individuality digitally. Personally i think photography is art. Which means your imagination is the limit. HDR, Composite…Its all fair game depending on what your vision is.

So excuses aside 😉 to justify this image. I saw it done 5 years ago and have been meaning to have a go ever since.

One spin on things can be a new lens. This image was taken with the Zeiss Loxia 21mm F2.8. It handles the low light fantastically.

I’ve had very specific images of mine copied and i really enjoy seeing what other people do. So i think anyone who is copied, should take it as a compliment and enjoy other photographers take on it.

One thing i always try to do is add people in and create a story.

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Click on the link below to get yours!

http://esupport.sony.com/US/p/model-home.pl?mdl=ILCE7RM2&template_id=1&region_id=1&tab=download#/downloadTab

Once updated, just go into the menu and you can modify the setting to turn it on. Its in the first Camera settings menu, page 1 called Raw file type. The setting will be compressed by default. So just click on it and choose Uncompressed and Voila!

I’m not sure what the benefits are part from solving the issue of some very rare artifacts. I don’t seem to be getting much more from post processing.

Whats the bad news?

85mb image files compared to 45mb compressed. Time to invest in some more storage.

The images took a noticeable longer time to write to my SD card. And i have a very good PNY SDXC U3 100mb’s per sec SD card.

Issues to report:

HDR 9 shots definitely took longer to write to my SDXC card.

I had to re-install my in Camera Time-lapse application. But the others were fine.

I’ve been testing the Sony A7RII with the Sigma ART A Lens. And getting some fantastic results. So far, this is an amazing 35mm Prime lens. Especially cheap considering in is F1.4 prime. Yes you need a A mount lens adapter. But it’s very sharp and vibrant.

But my first initial comments.

Focusing is pretty fast. The Lens is very sharp from f1.4 to F22. It has a very nice quality. Very little vignetting. But enough to give it some personality. Sharper at the edges that i thought it would be.  For the quality, this is a very cheap F1.4 35mm lens.

The lens is big and heavy, and not a match for the Sony FE 35mm F1.4 Distagon. But for half the price. Its great value for the money. And if you don’t mind a non native lens, this is a fantastic Fantastic lens. Gorgeous Bokeh, lovely DOF. And a great fast wide lens.

Even just a little walk can give some nice perspectives!