Author: The Overrated Photographer

I am a forty something year old Melbourne based photographer covering a broad range of genre’s from sports to portraits and travel. My introduction into photography started with doing some kitesurfing photos, but with the arrival of my first daughter, my focus shifted to family and the vast majority of my photos are either family or street. I still try to get extreme sports when I am not kitesurfing myself. My current non-personal photography work is confined to charity and not-for-profit engagements where I am engaged in photography for a number charity events to give back to the community and help support fund raising for these organisations. These include the homeless and cancer events. I do not currently do any paid commercial work as I run a successful non-photography business and this allows me to explore my personal creativity with photography.
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Dear Sony Users: Not everyone needs a $2000 Zeiss prime or G Master lens.

The Overrated Photographer

There is one thing I find amazing about Sony users: they seem to have bought into the Sony marketing pitch hook, line and sinker. In fact, I would go as far as to say they took the whole fishing rod.

Any time I see a question about a new lens on the facebook sites, the first responses back point to G master lenses or $2000 Zeiss lenses. It’s like every other lens in Sony mount has rabies. Beginner looking for a first lens: G Master. Intermediate looking for a new lens: G Master. Part-time macro user: G Master. Street lens? G Master. Portrait lens with a $300 budget. Save for longer and get a G Master or the Zeiss 50mm f/1.4. I even had someone try to argue with me that a complete beginner would progress more quickly with a G Master lens. They won’t even have their composition right but apparently, they can master DOF. Continue reading “Dear Sony Users: Not everyone needs a $2000 Zeiss prime or G Master lens.”

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Daedalus BMW R Nine T Tidy Tail Review

The Overrated Photographer

This review is only relevant to a small percentage of people, but it is the most awesome group of people…BMW R Nine T owners. If you don’t have an R Nine T, you should probably still read this to understand what the most awesome people are doing and how you can be also be awesome, or “rad” if you’re older than 40.

If you want to be awesome, you can follow these simple steps: Continue reading “Daedalus BMW R Nine T Tidy Tail Review”

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SmallRig L-Bracket for Sony A7iii/A7Riii Review

The Overrated Photographer

When Sony designed the Sony A7 and A9 series cameras, it seems like they designed it for hobbits or a group of people who have really small hands. I have this idea that they went to market and every photographer they found had hands the size of my 8-year-old daughter. I can’t see any other reason for the way they designed their cameras, or one of them would have identified that you couldn’t actually hold the camera properly.

I’m not sure why every mirrorless manufacturer thinks that all camera users want tiny cameras. Some of us just like mirrorless for being mirrorless, for the use of the EVF, and the WYSIWYG perspective of the world where you know the photo is going to look exactly the same as you saw through the viewfinder. And yet for some obscure reason, not one camera manufacturer has made a decent sized mirrorless. Continue reading “SmallRig L-Bracket for Sony A7iii/A7Riii Review”

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The era of the fanboys – are sony fanboys the worst?

The Overrated Photographer

You have to love the internet, it’s an incredible place where you find all sorts of people….and the fanboys. Lots of fanboys.

Yes, they love to hide around every corner justifying every issue their technology may have on the basis that the average consumer is either wrong, or the company in question put it there on purpose. Continue reading “The era of the fanboys – are sony fanboys the worst?”

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A7riii Settings Spreadsheet

The Overrated Photographer

You have to love the internet, it’s become a treasure trove of information and people create and share content all over the place that they have taken the time to create. The best part about it, is that the majority of this content is free, you just have to decipher between the bull#$%@ (like some of the youtubers who have absolutely no clue).

I can’t claim the credit for this, it came complements of someone by the name of Dennis from Florida (included a screenshot) from DPreview who has created a spread sheet which covers every single setting on the A7Riii along with links to the help files for the various settings, along with some links to videos from the likes of Mark Galer. File is downloadable. Continue reading “A7riii Settings Spreadsheet”

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How to carry a Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 or Sony 100-400mm (or any other brand for that matter)

The Overrated Photographer

I often cringe when I see the responses to a forum post on how to carry a Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 or Sony 100-400mm. People seem completely oblivious to the damage they are doing to the mounts on their cameras. Worst yet, they are happily advising other users to do the same.

How do you know whether to reconsider how you carry your camera/lens combination? If it comes with a lens collar that allows for attachment directly to the lens, the rule of thumb is to use the lens attachment as these lenses are likely to be heavier than the camera body. Continue reading “How to carry a Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 or Sony 100-400mm (or any other brand for that matter)”

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The Full Frame Myth – Mini Rant

The Overrated Photographer

This started as something of a:

Dear Full Frame users, stop saying you need Full Frame to “grow”, “take good photos” or whatever other crap you feed yourself at night to make yourself feel better.

Yes, to be clear…it’s a myth. You don’t need a full frame sensor to be producing professional world class photos. There are many, very good, professional photos who use APS-C, whether that is Sony, Fujifilm, Nikon or Canon. Continue reading “The Full Frame Myth – Mini Rant”

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Capture One 12 released…and then the upgrade/new price shock

The Overrated Photographer

Yeah, that’s right, if you were unfortunate enough to buy Capture One for Sony in the last month or two, you’re stuck with an upgrade headed your way along with a price to boot. Not only have the prices jumped substantially, but the upgrade cost is substantially higher than a normal purchase.

As a recent switcher to Capture One, I have to say I love the software, but honestly, what the hell were you guys thinking on the price? You would have a lot more luck if you came in with something close to Adobe’s pricing model on the subscription. Continue reading “Capture One 12 released…and then the upgrade/new price shock”

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Why I chose the A7iii over Canon and Nikon

The Overrated Photographer

With both Nikon and Canon having released systems recently, quite a few people have contacted me to find out why I went Sony, so I would put together was some reasons behind the selection of Sony as opposed to Nikon and Canon.

Just to be clear, from a brand perspective, I have nothing against Nikon and Canon, they have great camera gear. I left Nikon previously and my reasons related to mirrorless. If I was with them now, they might be the logical choice. I saw mirrorless as the future about 3 Years ago. Unfortunately Nikon wasn’t talking a thinking of mirrorless at the time. I was unhappy with their lack of transparency, not the gear.

So, if I considered both, where did they go wrong? Continue reading “Why I chose the A7iii over Canon and Nikon”