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More Of What I Want
In a camera it’s not just more bells and whistles that I look
for but substance which is why I have put off upgrading from by Canon 7D for
several years waiting for new technology. I was not just looking for more pixels
as camera’s such as the Canon EOS 5DS Series has a much larger 50mp and that
was only what you got. It lacked a wider dynamic range and sharper low light
image capability required when shooting places like the dark forests of Redwood National Park
or the slot canyon's of the Colorado Plateau. The Sony’s A7R was much better rated but it too
lacked other important features after I field tested one. The Sony A7r Mark II received
many positive reviews on its dynamic range, sharpness and other important
developments such as faster autofocus, a feature lacking in the A7R, that I
took the $3,200 plunge then I headed out on for my winter photo road trip. The results did not disappoint me!
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| Dusk on the "Trillium Trail" Redwoods National Park, California |
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The Sony Model A7RII, also known as the ILCE-7RM2, is a full
feature full frame mirrorless camera. It features a new breakthrough technology
design known as “Back-Illuminated” sensor. Instead of just making a larger
sensor like that of the 5DS series, Sony redesigned the sensor to hold more
pixels in the same space and moved the light collecting photodiode layer closer
to the surface of each lens. It now mimicks the same principle as that of a
wide angle lens design collects more light. Conversely, a standard sensor photodiode
is positioned at the back of the sensor acts much like a long telephoto lens. Light
now travels a longer distance which inherently causes it to lose more light. In
order to combat this, the outer lens element must be made much wider to collect
more light which makes for a beast of a lens. Sony’s compact light collecting design
makes even the darkest section of the image lacks noise when compared to the
noise found in the standard sensor. You can now shoot at higher speeds or smaller
apertures and black shadows are just that- Black! The compacted design of the Sony
sensor allows for a more enhanced copper electrical back that increases faster data
transfer rates by 3.5. This becomes a noticeable difference when shooting extremely large
sized images at 5 frames per second.
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| Hoh Rain Forest, Olympic National Park, Washington |
I could get into other features that make this camera a better
choice, like how the world’s highest viewfinder magnification at
0.78x is over an optical viewfinder, or how much better a digital viewfinder is
in a low light situation, or that it has 399 autofocus points, or how a
mirrorless shutter improves camera shake but why repeat those when there are many good reviews that
cover them. I would rather post the results. I would like to point out one last thing, since it is a metal cast mirrorless
digital camera, its compact size is a joy to hold and operate compared to its bulkier professional cousins on the market.
Remember, it’s the image quality that counts. The bells or
whistles are just the frosting on this camera body- so on to the images!
No more HDR!
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| Upper Saint Marys Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana |
The above image is HDR and Grad Filter free. It took a while
to get used to the digital viewfinder image as a properly exposed for most
situation of extreme contrast. The image in the viewfinder can look ugly as both
the highlight and shadow clip warnings blink- I guess the software has not kept
up the sensor’s capabilities. This Sony, the A7RII, has the widest dynamic range
of all camera’s available at the time that I bought it. As I slide both the
Highlight and Shadows Adjusters I was floored! It was like I opened a door to a
new world. I could even equalize some high contrast scenes. That was something
I never expected. Now I can shoot those high contrast images I always dreamt
of. In the above scene, the images holds sharp detail especially within dark
areas. In it, the darkest shadows are black with no noise and its color is the
closest to the natural scene than any other sensor now on the market I’ve read
in reviews.
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| Badlands National Park, South Dakota |
The first images I shot were
under exposed as the sky’s highlights were being clipped and of course if it
was my canon, the clipping meant the sky would be washed out. Not on the Sony. This
I did not know it until they were imported into Bridge. So to properly expose
the above badlands scene, I had to open up the f-stop so just some warnings of
Highlight appeared on in the brightest sections of the scene in the viewfinder.
If I had adjusted them to remove the clip warning my image will appear too
dark. This scene also had no shadowed area so concern for clipping was not a
factor but if this was one that had dark shadows a properly exposed image would
show both clipping in both the highlights and shadows. As I said earlier, it
does look ugly in the viewfinder.
The image below was shot without
grads produced nice details and color retention throughout the dynamic range.
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| Volcanic Plateau, Fishtrap Lake Recreation Area, BLM, Eastern Washington |
I now look forward to print
cropped details of an image or supply stock that need to be cropped as the
large image file gives you more than enough information that little or no
interpolation is needed for editorial or to create sharp enlargement prints!
The Sony gives you a large enough
image size to work with as most images run about 241.3mb @ 16bit uncompressed
so now you can crop out details with little to no interpolation for most
editorial work!
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| Vernal Pool, Volcanic Plateau, Eastern Washington |
One of my signature trademarks is
shooting into the sunrise or sunset as with the image below. With a 3 stop
grad, I can now record the whole dynamic light range of shadow to highlight to
create truly amazing work. Whereas before and even with my 4X5 field view
camera, I had to compromise the shadows to properly expose the highlights. Now
there’s room to open up the shadows and stop down on the highlights. If I shoot
moving subjects such as the flowers waving with the wind, I can make use of the
higher ISO settings like ISO800 in the below image.
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| Columbia River Gorge, Oregon |
As you can expect, I am very
pleased with the landscape aspects of this camera from the results of this
western trip. It is a pleasure I have not felt since discovering the large view
camera format many years ago. Now I have something that can truly complement it
in a compact dSLR camera!
