Canon EOS 6D (61mm, f/14, 1/125 sec, ISO100)
Almost 7 years ago we returned from our fourth vacation in the USA and I posted a first report about all the gear I used.
Seven years and another three vacations in the USA later I still haven’t posted the images of this trip for two reasons.
- at that time I was traveling a lot for business so I never managed to keep up with the posts but the real reason was
- that I shot with four cameras from three different manufacturers so a lot of post processing was required to make them match. Especially the files from the Sony cameras needed a lot post processing.
Before the vacation I planned to get a second Canon DSLR so that I could use the wide angle zoom or standard zoom on one camera and the tele zoom on the other camera. I planned to get a APS-C sensor DSLR for the tele lens. But at the end I got a Sony A7R and a Metabones adapter that I shot with the Canon 16-35/4 IS and used the Canon 24-70/2.8 II and the Canon 70-200/2.8 IS on my Canon 6D. In addition I shot the Fuji X-T1 mostly in cities or in the evenings and used the Sony A6000 plus the 18-200 as a bridge camera.
Canon EOS 6D (70mm, f/9, 1/100 sec, ISO100)
SONY ILCE-7R (16mm, f/8, 1/125 sec, ISO100)
I figured out already during the vacation that it s not a good idea to shoot with three completely different cameras with different user interfaces. The Sony A7R with the adapted Canon lenses was the worst regarding handling. AF was so slow that I decided to focus manually.
Another big problem was the wonky Auto-WB of the Sony. When I shot in Bryce Canon I could see how the Sony changed the red rocks into grey on the screen while focusing. I took a shot with the Canon 6D and the rocks were red. At the end I changed to manual WB (cloudy) to have at least a constant result. I used to shoot with WB set to cloudy on my Nikon D1 all the time but that was a digital camera from 1999. Digital cameras have improved since then but it seemed that the Sony wasn’t one of them.
Don’t get me wrong I love the details of the files. A sensor with 36MP is really something different. I never had a camera with such a high resolution before. I just didn’t like the picture talking process and the additional time I needed to post process the files to get the colours I like.
The Canon 6D was different. Easy to handle, Auto-WB worked and the files were good to go right out of the camera. The Fuji X-T1 was just the same. Easy to handle though the EVF was rather poor compared to the OVF of the Canon and too dim and hard to see in bright light.
SONY ILCE-7R (20mm, f/16, 1/60 sec, ISO100)
Canon EOS 6D (123mm, f/4, 1/1000 sec, ISO100)
SONY ILCE-7R (16mm, f/9, 1/160 sec, ISO100)
Of course I don’t remember every single day of the vacation but I remember that it was very hot. We traveled in June so the days were long. In the Arches NP we went for a long hike at the end of the day. It was a truly magic hike. Because it was so hot we took a lot of water. I unloaded my camera bag and filled it with water bottles instead of camera gear. I chose to take only the Sony A7R with the Canon 16-35/4IS with me. In the desert you need water not another lens. On the whole hike there was no creek or any other source o water.
On our way back to the parking lot we saw small rabbits but there was no way to take a meaningful picture of them because I only had a wide angle lens with me. I took the shot below instead which shows the beautiful scenery. Just imagine to walk in this scene and add small rabbits. It felt like being in a scene from the Wizard of Oz. Amazing!
SONY ILCE-7R (20mm, f/8, 1/60 sec, ISO100)
SONY ILCE-6000 (25mm, f/9, 1/400 sec, ISO100)
SONY ILCE-7R (24mm, f/8, 1/60 sec, ISO640)
It always bothered me that I never managed to put the images of this trip into blog posts. At the end this blog is also a kind of travel diary for me. That way I can remember my vacations and my many business trips.
So even though we made this trip a long time ago I will now finally start to post my favourite shots. It was a great road trip and since it was our fourth trip to the South West of the USA we could leave out some locations in order to see something new.
For the second time we started and end our trip in Las Vegas. Las Vegas is nothing special but it has a couple of advantages to start from there. First the airport is literally beside the strip so you don’t have to get your rental car right after you landed. It far more comfortable to simply take a taxi to your hotel and another taxi to the rental station the next morning. The second of course is that you have an abundance of excellent hotels at cheap prices (if you avoid the weekends) to chose from.
FUJIFILM X-T1 (14mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec, ISO250)
Canon EOS 6D (200mm, f/2.8, 1/80 sec, ISO125)
This was also the last vacation where I brought a tripod. I used it on two occasions to take a “selfie” of us but that was it. Today there is no point to travel with a tripod unless you are really passionate about night photography or if you want to blur water until it looks like mist.
In the past I always traveled with a big tripod but that was before digital when my film of choice was a Fuji Velvia with a real sensitivity of 40 ASA. Back then there was no OIS in lenses or IBIS in cameras and no high ISO so there was no chance to take critical sharp images with longer focal lengths in anything less than broad daylight.
Thanks to my new fast desktop that I got last year (Apple mini M1) and thanks to the never ending pandemic I finally managed to work on those files. I finally colour corrected the Sony images and managed to get a somewhat consistent look no matter which camera produced the image.
A fantastic trip and learning process. Today I travel without tripods and one or two cameras from Fuji. The result is a great shooting experience and practically zero post processing. Sometimes you have to learn the hard way.
FUJIFILM X-T1 (14mm, f/2.8, 1/80 sec, ISO1600)