A little change to all the photos I took from under it :). It was actually lucky that I went to the bridge on last Friday, as it was a state holiday, so much fewer cars on the bridge, so much less shaking. Like that I even got longer exposures without any problems, which is usually quite hard from there.

This is another one from my recent trend of doing more panoramic shots. I didn’t even use a panoramic head. You actually don’t need one all the time. If what you are shooting is far enough, or you have a uniform area close to you (road, pavement) where it easily can be blended, you can just do a panorama without it. You don’t even have to be that exact :) Here on the side you can see how this photo looked like put together, before all the needed cropping and correction.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 2*3, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones Adapter ver. IV, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 16mm, Aperture: 9, Middle exposure time: 5.0s, ISO: 200, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.13725, 17.10951

I post a lot of behind the scenes shots, from taking photos and from editing, on my Facebook page. So if you like to see them, feel free to follow me there :)

I been really taking a lot more panoramas lately. This one was quite a funny one, as it was taken from a docked pontoon ship, while the Danube was crazy fast around it. Surprisingly, it was quite stable, and I only got shifts between the exposures, not so much in the exposures them-selfs. Also this was the first time I blended moving water together, and I hope no one will notice where the seam is :)

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 2*5, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones Adapter ver. IV, Lens: Canon 24-70mm F2.8, Focal length: 38mm, Aperture: 7.1, Middle exposure time: 8.0s, ISO: 200, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.13725, 17.10951

You may have noticed quite a few new photos form Bratislava recently (and even more if you follow me on Facebook). The reason is simple. I try to practice as much as I can with the new camera, so I get the basic controls into muscle memory, and can control them without even thinking about them. And for that one needs practice, more practice and even more practice :)

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 3, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones Adapter ver. IV, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 35mm, Aperture: 9, Middle exposure time: 15s, ISO: 200, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.15744, 17.14882

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

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