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.
Articles5 Comments

From Fujifilm to Sony – How my glass changed

The Overrated Photographer
Glass is glass, or at least that’s what you normally think. To a large degree, you would expect the focal lengths to at least stay static, but that’s not always the case has my recent move from Fujifilm to Sony shows.
There are the obvious items, like the availability of lenses in specific focal lengths, If it’s not available, it’s not available, but that played less of a factor than I expected.

Continue reading “From Fujifilm to Sony – How my glass changed”

ArticlesLeave a comment

Sony has no intention of notifying you what is in their camera updates

The Overrated Photographer

I followed up with Sony after some question marks on the battery warnings they “hid” in their firmware updates. My issues were simple:

  1. If this was to help users identify fake batteries, why is there no option to turn it off? There are plenty of after market batteries that are affected by this.
  2. If Sony were honest about helping users, why haven’t they notified users of the functionality change in their firmware description? After all, this was an “honest” attempt to help users.

Whilst I  do have an issue with manufacturers limiting third-party batteries as a whole, I have a bigger issue when they add the functionality through updates because what has worked perfectly is essentially handicapped by firmware. I also have an issue when they secretly embed this in an update, which can’t be reversed and don’t include the information in the firmware. That strikes me as pretty underhanded. Continue reading “Sony has no intention of notifying you what is in their camera updates”

Reviews3 Comments

Sigma 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art Lens for Sony E mount Review

The Overrated Photographer

When I lived in Fujiland, the Fujifilm 90mm (APS-C) quickly became favourite from a focal length perspective. I didn’t have a particular affiliation with the 135mm focal length, I think I originally picked up the 90mm because the AF speed on the Fujifilm 56mm was terrible for kids, but I fell in love with focal length and the compression after that.

With my move to Sony, I started with the Zeiss Batis 85 which is amazing, but after a while buying a 135mm seemed was a foregone conclusion, it was just a question of which one. The Zeiss Batis 135mm F2.8 would have been the logical choice, small and light, but us humans aren’t known for logical choices. This is how the bigger and heavier Sigma 135mm f1.8 ART found it way into my collection. I had a light portrait lens with my Zeiss 85mm Batis so I thought for this one I was going to purchase the beast, and a beast it is…beauty and a beast all in one. Continue reading “Sigma 135mm f/1.8 DG HSM Art Lens for Sony E mount Review”

Articles2 Comments

Nikon sets a dangerous precedent

The Overrated Photographer

I  was reading the luminious landscape comments on the Nikon Z7 release and some items in the article raised major red flags for me.

I’ve copied a paragraph from the article to give you some context of what I am talking about:

“It seems that a long time ago, Nikon fell out of grace with Luminous-Landscape — or should I say, Luminous-Landscape fell out of the graces of Nikon. From what I heard, it was due to something Michael had said. Those of you who knew Michael know that he called it as he saw it, and I suppose he said something that Nikon didn’t like. I also wrote a story about Saying Goodbye to My Nikon when I made the switch to mirrorless years ago. Since then, we never hear from Nikon.”

Continue reading “Nikon sets a dangerous precedent”

ArticlesLeave a comment

Lens aesthetics and third party brands

The Overrated Photographer

There is one thing that has always confused me about third-party manufacturers and that is their inability to apply lens aesthetics to each brand. Let me be clear, I’m not talking drastic redesigns here, I’m not talking about creating a retro looking lens for some brands and more modern for others, I’m talking simple colours. Continue reading “Lens aesthetics and third party brands”

ArticlesLeave a comment

Sony vs Fujifilm – Let’s get real about it

The Overrated Photographer

I’ve had quite a few people email me in response to the article I wrote on the A7iii vs X-T3 because of my recent switch from Fujifilm to Sony. The types of questions coming through were akin to:

  1. Should they switch to Sony if it’s better?
  2. How could I have been happy with Fujifilm and now say Sony is better?
  3. If I knew what I know today would I have gone to Sony earlier?
  4. What would I buy today?

Let’s answer those in simple terms: Continue reading “Sony vs Fujifilm – Let’s get real about it”

Reviews3 Comments

Sony A7iii Review

The Overrated Photographer

In some respects its a little easier reviewing cameras when you are switching systems. You are not as tied to a legacy way of thinking so it’s a little easier to grip on a problem and think of it as a negative or positive. With using a different system, you tend to think: “This is the way I work and I’m not going to change” which creates a problem with a camera. If you are switching you think: “This is the way I am used to working, could I work this way in future?”

My background? Non-commercial photographer. I have long since accepted that I do photography because I enjoy it and doing it commercially wouldn’t work for me because I like doing it the way I want, with the things I want, when I want. I make enough money from my normal career to fund photographic toys. Shot Nikon, switched to Fujifilm for mirrorless years ago, then onto Sony for reasons I won’t go into, except to say I do actually like the Fujifilm gear so it has nothing to do with that. Continue reading “Sony A7iii Review”

ArticlesLeave a comment

Are we overreacting about Railway Shoots?

The Overrated Photographer

I noticed in a Facebook group the other day that track (railway) shoot photos are now banned. Not illegal track shoots, not shoots conducted on live tracks…ALL track photos. I have no issue with the Facebook admins taking this approach, it is their group and their rules, but I do have to question whether we are overreacting and bowing down to safety nazi’s when we stop the posting of perfectly legal and safe photos because of a few idiots who do so illegally and unsafely, or because we believe people may try to mimic photos, which they will ultimately try do with any kind of photo. Continue reading “Are we overreacting about Railway Shoots?”

Reviews2 Comments

Magmod Magbox Review

The Overrated Photographer

When the local distributor (Radbitz) for MagMod let me know that he had one of 5 MagBox prototypes in the world and I could take it out for a test, it’s not the sort of opportunity you turn down.

“Sure, just drop it off with me for a month or sixty and I’ll give it a test” after all, I am a completely unknown photographer with no reputation, and a dismal 1500 followers. What could go wrong?

Sadly, my sneaky ruse to get a free MagBox failed before it started. It seems there are so few of these little babies in the real world that people are prepared to beg, borrow or steal to get their hands on one. As a result, Adam Kopf wasn’t prepared to let it out of his sight. Continue reading “Magmod Magbox Review”

ArticlesLeave a comment

Sony and Fujifilm? What’s your battery story?

The Overrated Photographer

Fujifilm and Sony have both embarked down a path which concerns me. For the first time we are seeing camera manufacturers warning users not to use third-party batteries in their cameras with a nice little warning message popping up on their cameras.

Now I have no issue if there are legitimate concerns, but excuse me if I have a health dose of scepticism when it comes to believing them for a couple of reasons: Continue reading “Sony and Fujifilm? What’s your battery story?”