This morning I took the plunge and bought a new mirrorless Sony A7iii series camera. The old Sony A7 was getting long in the tooth and was wearing out, much like it's owner!
I used the liquid Hive built up over the last 6 weeks or so to fund it. I've started to look at Hive a little differently where my activity on the blockchain can actually self fund my hobby / obsession.
The old faithful Sony A7 Mk 1 has been dropped, repaired, dropped in mud, cleaned, dropped again and the lens mount was getting dangerously loose. Probably loose because of the lens swapping I've done whilst out lightpainting in the dark.
I had considered waiting and hanging on to get the A7iv but it's literally another £900 and doesn't do so much more to justify the extra expense. The A7iii won.
I took old faithful to the camera store to see if I'd get anything in part ex. Turns out that old faithful was so knackered that they didn't want it! I now have a spare camera body for when I drop the new one!
This evening I went for a walkabout around Sheffield city centre to test out the hand held low light ISO ability. My first impressions are good; I was shooting upwards of ISO1600 and the results are hundreds of miles better than the old Sony. I wouldn't have dared shoot with ISO's that high with the old camera; I'd have used a tripod!
Sheffield, the sign
One of the first images out of the blocks; Sheffield city centre still has the Christmas decorations up. There were construction crews dismantling it all this evening. This was shot at ISO 1600 with a Tamron 17-28mm f2.8 lens at f5.6.
Browns
This bar has fascinated me over the years. Back in the 90's it used to be an Army and Navy store selling all sorts of camping gear and militaria. Now it's a trendy wine bar with drinks I'd need a second mortgage for!
Another shot at ridiculously high ISO of 1600 and I can still see details where the old Sony would have fell over and died!
That sign again
I shot this at a high ISO again and in Adobe Camera RAW I pulled up the shadows to reveal details that were otherwise invisible. Amazing! Pixel peepers would probably spot problems but I'll never be printing these images at 6 feet across so no problem.
Crazy random
I set up for a long exposure and low ISO image on a little mini tripod I had in my pocket. As I was shooting the 20 second exposure, a group of people came bounding around the corner. Not wanting to ruin and wreck my new toy, I quickly picked up the camera and waved it at the surrounding Christmas lights for a spot of random lightpainting. No lightpainting awards here for me....
There's that sign again!
I should stop taking pictures of signs!
Grab Shot
This was a quick grab shot as these two suspect looking characters walked by. This image was shot at ISO1250, still plenty of detail.
Some of the things I learned this evening about the new camera was the menu system takes a bit of getitng used to. I spent ages stood in the middle of the street looking for the grid setting. Still haven't found it yet.
I quite like the new joystick control to change the focus position. There's a whole load of new features in the focussing that the old faithful never had.
And the big thing was this camera has a tight lens ring with no wobble on the lenses. My old camera was so loose!
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in urbex and artistic model photography. I'm always on the lookout for someone to collaborate with; please don't hesitate to get in touch if you'd like to create art.
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