SONY ILCE-7R (35mm, f/9, 1/60 sec, ISO100)
The Joshua Tree. A great album by U2 and also a fantastic place to visit. This time we only drove through it on our way to the coast.
We are back in the year 2015. My “lost” vacation. The one were I traveled with 4 different cameras from 3 different camera brands. Sounds problematic and it was. I almost gave up on post processing the images to make them look alike. The Raw files I got from the Canon 6D, the Sony A7R, the Fuji X-T1 and the Sony A6000 were just too different. So the images never made it to this blog until I got my Apple M1 Mac mini and also some time because of the travel restrictions caused by Covid.
SONY ILCE-7R (18mm, f/9, 1/125 sec, ISO100)
SONY ILCE-7R (18mm, f/9, 1/100 sec, ISO100)
Before the vacation I considered a Canon APS-C DSLR as a second body but last minute decided to get a Sony A7R which was heavily discounted back then. My first true high resolution camera. I got a Metabones adapter and shot it mostly with the great Canon 4/16-35 IS L. This was a manual focus setup but I didn’t mind at all. My Canon 6D I shot with the fantastic 2.8/24-70 II L and the 2.8/70-200 II IS L. My wife shot the Sony A6000 and when in towns or in the evening I shot with my Fuji X-T1.
While the completely different handling cameras were I nice training for my brain the resulting images were a night mare because they looked very different right out of the camera. The Sony had this typical yellow/brownish cast, Canon usually was on the warmer side but the red was stronger and more pleasing over all. Auto white balance was much better too. I think I changed the Sony to cloudy on default during the trip. The Fuji was the slightly cooler than the Canon but usually spot on especially indoors or in the evenings. The Sony A6000 white balance was a total mess, it was all over the place. Those Sony cameras were true mkI – cameras back then.
But the resolution and the dynamic range of the A7R was excellent and I really enjoyed to look at the files.
Meanwhile I sold all of the camera that I have used during this vacation. Spring 2016 the Fuji X-Pro2 came out and I completely switched to Fuji after I have used Fuji cameras on parallel for about 3 years. In 2016 we traveled to the USA again. My camera gear was much lighter and smaller and Fuji only. What a relief! All files looked the same right out of the camera which made post processing a breeze. A lesson learned.
SONY ILCE-7R (20mm, f/9, 1/125 sec, ISO100)
SONY ILCE-7R (35mm, f/9, 1/60 sec, ISO100)
Canon EOS 6D (125mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO160)
This autumn we plan to return to the USA again for the first time since 2019. I don’t know where we will go but I already know what camera I will bring. Well, not exactly. I intrigued to get a X-T5 to have a true high res camera again for those epic land scape shots. Of course I don’t really need more pixels but if I would have bought only the photo gear I really need I could have stopped a long time ago. But where is the fun in that?
A funny snake encounter. I remember that this snake was chasing me. I think it confused my old travel sandals with some rotting road kill. On my next vacation I got a pair of new sandals. Problem solved! 😉
Canon EOS 6D (200mm, f/2.8, 1/160 sec, ISO1600)