I posted so many blue hour shots recently, so how about one taken in the middle of the day smile emoticon This one is taken in the middle of Cesky Krumlow, from this very nicely placed viewing area. You may wonder why I call this photo “Before the snow”. The reason is simple, around 1 hour after I took this, it started snowing like crazy, and the whole city got covered by snow.

This is a HDR from 4 exposures, created in Photoengine, finished in Photoshop. I used a polarizing filter while taking this photo.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 4, Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D mark II, Lens: Canon 24-70mm F2.8, Focal length: 24mm, Aperture: 11, Middle exposure time: 1/15s, ISO: 100, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.81081, 14.31720

Third reflection photo in a row :) This one is another one from the a7R. I’ve been playing around with it the last few days, and slowly I’m loosing the muscle memory I developed during the years with a Canon. With a remote in the other hand I already can get a HDR series quite quickly. Should only get better :)

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 5, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones Adapter ver. IV, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 20mm, Aperture: 11, Middle exposure time: 6s, ISO: 100, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.13704, 17.10491

I really like the photos I took of the John Frost bridge in Arnhem. The lights just make it looks so crazy at night, with all these crazy colors. And once the ships stop, the water gets so calm under it, that you have no problems getting an almost perfect reflection. It’s so nice.

This is a HDR from 4 exposures, created in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 5, Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D mark II, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 18mm, Aperture: 7.1, Middle exposure time: 12s, ISO: 320, Tripod used: yes, Location: 51.97484, 5.910451

I still have a lot of Amsterdam photos to share with you, so lets look at another one. I took this one the first evening there, while already returning to the ship, I arrived with. That evening I tried more to get a feel for the city, to see how it looks like, but of course I also took few shots. Btw. that’s not XXX on the ship, but it’s three white crosses, on a black and red background, which is the sign of the city :)

This is a HDR from 5 exposures, created in Oloneo Photoengine, finished in Photoshop. I also took one exposure at ISO 1600, to get the ship in the foreground without any movement. I then blended it into the HDR.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 5+1, Camera Model: Canon EOS 5D mark II, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 16mm, Aperture: 7.1, Middle exposure time: 12s, ISO: 200, Tripod used: yes, Location: 52.37177, 4.895504

Some thoughts on the Sony a7R

Some thoughts on the Sony a7R after the first week. Few pluses and few minuses of the camera:

+ great dynamic range
+ 36 mega-pixels are great for landscape photos
+ good color on automatic white balance
+ fast start
+ very nice, high-res display
+ custom buttons
+ 14 times zoom in live view (great for manual focus)
+ focus peak
+ great shutter sound (one hears it so many times, would be horrible if it was bad :))

– weak battery life
– takes long to charge the battery (but only if it’s empty)
– no external battery charger delivered with the camera
– the screen gets dirty very quickly (haven’t noticed it to this amount on other cameras)
– screen stays on during long exposures (it’s black, but still on) which just uses battery
– low screen refresh rate when in dark situations (makes manual focusing harder)
– camera randomly restarts and returns to some previously used settings (average once per hour of shooting)
– very few settings for exposure bracketing, and no possibility to take all with a self timer
– no time indication on the screen when doing a bulb exposure (the screen is on though)
– stupid placement of the menu and shutter buttons (especially don’t understand the shutter button placement)
– very slow auto-focus (but could only test it with canon lenses)

Will do a bigger article/review after more usage.

Blue hour city

I didn’t get any nice fireworks shots on Saturday, but I took few city shots with the a7r while I was there. I actually don’t remember ever having green trees in my blue hour shots from here. The Sony gives quite different colors than the Canon.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 4, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones Adapter ver. IV, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 35mm, Aperture: 6.3, Middle exposure time: 6s, ISO: 200, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.13704, 17.10491