It’s been a while since I posted a review. Work has been busy, and I’ve barely had enough time for photography, let alone reviews. I have, however, had access to a couple of new toys, hence this review.
Sigma has been doing some amazing things in recent times. Gone are the days of big heavy, oversized monsters that required you to have a Sherpa with you at all times. Some of the bags taken up Mount Everest are smaller than the old Sigma ARTs.
This is a review I put together for shotkit.com
There are a few brands that have become synonymous with camera bags. ThinkTank is one of those brands. Founded nearly 15 years ago, they’ve built an established following due to the quality of the bags they produce.
I don’t think you’ll find many photographers who don’t currently own or haven’t previously owned a ThinkTank item of some sorts. It’s almost like a rite of passage for being Protogs. I have a couple in my quiver, some of which I forgot to tell my wife about. Continue reading “ThinkTank Streetwalker Pro v2.0 Review (Via Shotkit.com)”
This is a review I put together for shotkit.com As a sports shooter, telephoto lenses are bread and butter lenses. For most of my sports work, I prefer being in the water with a water-housing and a wide-angle, but there … Continue reading Sony 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM Review (via Shotkit)
I wanted to let people know that the kind people at http://www.shotkit.com offered me the opportunity to do some writing and reviews for them. It’s a great website run by photographers with a focus on gear so it’s great … Continue reading Writing for Shotkit.com
I’m a fan of battery grips. I’ve got big hands and they help balance out long lenses. I like the idea of being to put the grip on and off as required, as an example, when I am shooting events with long lenses, so grips appeal to me.
When I got the A7iii, a grip was always on the cards, it was just a case of when. With lenses like the 135mm ART and 100-400 in my bag, the grips help balance the camera and lens. Continue reading “Sony VG-C3EM Battery Grip review”
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”
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”
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”
I caught up with a good mate over the weekend. As a Fujifilm user, he had the latest X-T3, so we decided to swap cameras to allow us to play around and get our thoughts. He’s already penned his thoughts here so feel free to have a look at the different perspectives.
It was an excellent opportunity to see where the camera designs were going, and I put together my thoughts on the two. This isn’t a feature comparison, just some ideas comparing where the two cameras are in their life cycle.
Some of these photos are snapshots, the review wasn’t intended to showcase the best of these cameras, it was a casual outing with a friend and our kids in bright midday sunlight, not exactly ideal conditions, but I have thrown in some other samples as well.
My knowledge of shooting video is somewhere between zero and nothing, so please don’t expect any video related comparisons.
