Month: August 2023

Sony FE 24mm F2.8 G

To kick things off: this lens is my absolute favourite for both daily use and travel.

I acquired this lens on June 22, 2023, and my affection for it has only grown since it became a permanent fixture on my camera. Its compact and lightweight design complements my Sony α7R III perfectly. Thanks to its diminutive size, it swiftly emerges from my Peak Design Everyday Sling 6L when needed, and it seamlessly slips back in just as easily.

While I do occasionally swap it out for my Sony FE 55mm F1.8, most of the time, it’s the trusty 24mm lens that graces my camera.

One of the initial photos I captured after mounting the lens on my Sony α7R III features the streets of Copenhagen on a summer morning at 8:09 am. The shot was taken at an aperture of f/2.8 and later edited in Lightroom.

summer 2023 marked my planned week-long trip to Ibiza, and throughout the journey, this wide lens remained my absolute favorite. Reiterating what I mentioned in the previous paragraph, its compact profile and lightweight design were truly invaluable. This lens’s discreet form factor meant that it didn’t protrude conspicuously from my camera, allowing me to blend in effortlessly without appearing like a tourist carrying a bulky, professional-looking camera with long, oversized lenses. It proved to be the perfect companion whether I was dining at a restaurant, lounging on the beach, or simply strolling through the streets.

A full-body portrait set against the backdrop of a vibrant Ibiza street. The lens’s wide perspective allowed me to encompass the surroundings while maintaining a sharp focus on the primary subject. Shot at an aperture of f/2.8 and post-processed using Lightroom.

There’s a minor aspect I’ve noticed about this focal length that doesn’t quite align with my preferences. At 24mm, the field of view is a bit too wide when shooting up-close subjects. While this lens proves versatile for capturing food photographs during vacations, under the right conditions, I find a 35mm lens to be more preferable. This is particularly true for half-body portraits, as the 24mm tends to exaggerate objects in the foreground due to its perspective distortion.

Nevertheless, when I combine this lens with the Sony α7 IV and employ the SteadyShot stabilization feature set to Active mode, which introduces a crop factor of approximately 1.14, it effectively transforms into an almost 28mm equivalent. This offers a balance between width and tightness that I find quite pleasing. The video below was captured handheld from a moving truck (albeit at a slow pace) using Active SteadyShot, and in my opinion, the outcome was well worth preserving as a cherished memory!

This lens not only boasts a compact design and excellent ergonomics but also features a physical aperture ring on its body. Personally, I have a strong affinity for this ring because it enables me to swiftly and precisely set the desired aperture value, a conscious choice I prefer over using the scrolling wheel on the camera body.

During non-holiday periods and when I have leisurely moments to spare, the trusty 24mm lens remains my go-to choice for attaching to the camera. However, when it comes to portrait photography, I still favor the 55mm. For capturing general subjects such as flowers or documenting objects, my preference continues to lean towards the 35mm lens. This is because, in certain scenarios, I do find the 24mm to be a tad too wide for my liking.

This selfie was captured from approximately one meter away in a confined office space. In this particular scenario, the wide 24mm lens proved to be exceptionally handy, allowing me to encompass as much of the room as possible. With an aperture set at F2.8, the bokeh and subject-background separation achieved were just about right.

In conclusion, this lens is a superb all-around choice thanks to its compact size and lightweight build, making it ideal for discreet and versatile photography. It excels in confined spaces, such as when dining at a restaurant or during train journeys. While it can perform adequately in the limited space of an airplane seat, I would have favored a 20mm lens in that scenario. When traveling for holidays, I lean towards keeping this lens mounted on my camera due to its adaptability across various environments, be it for landscape, street, or food photography.

Eriksvej, Roskilde.

TimeLapse of a Nocturnal Bloom

In 2019, I planted this night-blooming cereus into two pots. This is the third time this plant flowered in my apartment. It is the second time this year but the first time for the second pot. When flowering, this plant, Epiphyllum oxypetalum takes around 3 to 4 weeks to grow from a tiny bud to around 20cm in length. As the name suggests, it blossoms at night. As quickly as everything starts, it ends very quickly as well.

The bud after a week, around 2cm.
The plant in this second pot blossomed for the first time after it has been planted four years ago.

I set two cameras to capture the entire process, Sony ZV-1 and GoPro Hero 11. On the former, I used interval shooting (10-second interval) and on the latter, I used time-lapse function (5-second interval).

Learning from the past, this time, I set the white balance manually using a grey card. By doing so, I don’t have to edit and correct the white balance and colour for the entire JPEG file.

I used two sets of Neewer Bi-colour 660 LEDs that produce 3,300 lux on both sides, set at different heights. I also used a black background to accentuate the flower. The shooting “started” an hour early, at around 8 pm to give me time and “ended” at 6 am the next morning.

Sony ZV-1 and GoPro Hero 11 were hooked to the power source. Sony ɑ7 IV was used to take still photos.

Sony ZV-1 produces 3,000 JPEG files. Using Adobe Premiere Pro, I merged these files to produce a 2 minutes clip which was exported at a resolution of 5472×3648 (5.4K). After that, I edited the exported clip in Final Cut Pro by speeding the time to 200%, slicing some parts from the beginning and removing parts from the ending, adding music and exporting it into a 4K video.

Night-blooming cereus is also known as “Queen of the Night” and in Malaysia, it is known as “bakawali”.


Eriksvej, Roskilde
8 August 2023

Sony α7 IV

I have been using Sony α7R III since November 2020 and Sony ZV-1 since March 2021. Sony ZV-1 has been used for videography for the majority of the time. Sony α7R III is a beast in terms of resolution and sharpness. Its autofocus is just spot-on but Sony has upgraded the autofocus algorithms for newer cameras.

When recording videos, GoPro and Sony ZV-1 are the cameras I utilised the most. The stabilisation on GoPro is unmatched! But of course, Sony ZV-1 has sharper video and better colour compared to GoPro. In April this year, I recorded an Easter procession using Sony α7R III. It was dark and I bumped the ISO to 2000. They look fantastic, so clear and sharp. The colours were rendered nicely when GoPro struggles with its tiny sensor. In addition to that, the depth of field separates the objects very well from the background.

Sony ZV-E1 vs. Sony α6700

So, I was contemplating getting a camera for “video” in mind (as Sony α7R III is a “photo first”). What I meant by this is that a camera records a video that allows me to colour grade, something like 10-bit colour and retain high-quality data from the sensor. Sony α7R III only does 8-bit and line-skipping on the sensor.

The plan was upgrading to Sony ZV-E1 as it is a full-frame camera. Surely, the depth-of-field are going to look awesome. It has an insane Digital Active Stabilisation (DAS) and claims to produce hand-held stabilisation close to GoPro. I was sold at this point. But reading further, that DAS is cropping out 30% from the sensor, meaning that it upscales from 2.8K to 4K. Some YouTubers claimed that the videos still look sharp. The loss while not perceivable, is a loss nonetheless. It also has a drawback. As it is a video-first camera, it only produces 12MP photos.

I was weighing between Sony ZV-E1 and Sony α6700. They both can record 4K 120fps. Not that I need to use this function every day, but definitely nice when slowing down footage. But the latter is an APS-C camera. The sensor is smaller and my lenses are all full-frame. Yes, these lenses work for APS-C. But my favourite 24mm F2.8 lens by the 1.5 crop factor is going to be 36mm F4.2!

I was just very hesitant to go and get any of these two despite they are both now available.

Undecided? Look for an alternative!

I was divided at this point. In the morning, my mind would go for Sony ZV-E1 and in the evening, it swayed toward the Sony α6700. Then, from the YouTube algorithm, I was suggested a video by Mark Bennett where he compared Sony ZV-E1 vs Sony α7 IV.

The full-frame sensor and 10-bit video function in Sony ZV-E1 are complemented nicely in Sony α7 IV, minus that 4K 120fps. Whilst the latter has no AI chip for the autofocus but it shoots 33MP photos. Way better than the two cameras that I was considering prior. These are the things that I like about Sony α7 IV:

  • Produces crisper 4K videos as it downscales from 7K full readout from its sensor without line skipping.
  • 10-bit 4:2:2 videos gives more flexibility during colour grading.
  • 15 stops of dynamic range.
  • Dual native ISO (for S-Log3: 800/3200)
  • Uncompressed RAW.
  • Manual setting for the ISO range, so you won’t get below or past certain values. This complemented the rotating wheel as it adjusts the ISO up and down, so no more accidental increases to overly high ISOs.
  • HEIF in 10-bit.
  • Touchscreen to switch focus from point to track. I find that tracking works well when you need to recompose before pressing the shutter button.
  • A focus map is especially useful when recording using macro lenses.
  • When recording, it has the Active SteadyShot (crop 14%).
  • A knob to switch between photo and video mode.
  • “Setup > Operation Customize > Different Set for Still/Mv” lets me separate shutter speed, ISO, picture profiles and several other settings between still photos and videos.
  • Tilted monitor for selfies 😁😉

When recording at 50fps, the lens crops at a factor of 1.5. It somewhat bothers me, but, how often do I record at 50fps anyway? Despite having HEIF, I only use JPEG as I also shoot RAW, hence JPEG files are only seen during triage. The editing is on the RAW files.

It was less than an hour after I watched Mark Bennet’s YouTube video (above), I found a seller in the secondary market. He is selling well below the market price. The camera was well taken care of and without any scratches at all. Also persuaded after getting a good recommendation from a fellow photographer on Instagram, Kim Frederiksen. Less than 10 hours later, I held the camera in my hand!

Separate settings for photo and video

The knob to switch between photo and video mode is really useful in my case, as for video recording, I’d like to apply Picture Profile HLG-3 and I do not want it to spill over to the still photos. The use case is when using manual settings for aperture and speed. Flip the knob and be ready to record a video using the manual settings with HLG-3 applied and flip again, it is for photo mode.

I found that if it is on the dial “M”, then settings are shared by both modes. So, in order to achieve this, I have to save the settings to Memory Recall. For three separate Memory Recalls, I set the first one for “Manual”; the second for “Aperture” priority; the third is also for “Manual” but with the 50fps video setting.

Playing around and some tests

I played around and made tests based on what I usually use my camera for and what I want to use it for. The results? I was left in awe!

For portrait, it latches on the eyes on 69 out of 70 photos.
24mm F2.8 G, ISO 100 1/50 sec. f/2.8
Stacked from two photos, one focused on the flowers in the foreground and the other on the building. It was during the Danish mid-summer at the end of July from the field opposite my student’s apartment.
24mm F2.8 G, ISO 160 1/1250 sec. f/2.8
An apple hanging on a branch after the summer rain.
35mm F1.4 GM, ISO 100 1/500 sec. f/4

4K 60fps

“Unfortunately”, when recording at 60fps (Europe: 50fps) it crops by a factor of 1.5 that affects the region on the sensor, effective focal length (hence the field of view) as well as the aperture.

Instead of 7K, the region is then getting smaller to 4.67K which is still good when oversampled to 4K. If using a 24mm f/2.8 the effective focal length is then equivalent to 36mm at f/4.2 which is still fine.

This clip was recorded in 4K 50fps. After editing it was exported in 4K 25fps. The lens, at 40mm f/2.5 was effectively 60mm f/3.75.

Closing

To sum up, after being back and forth between Sony ZV-E1 and Sony α6700 for several weeks, I found that these two are not for me. Sony α7 IV has video capability and also photo capability, a total hybrid. It took me a single day to make a decision and went straight for it. Not even 24 hours in, I was already in love with Sony α7 IV despite only having 33MP (against 42MP on Sony α7R III), as the focus was snapped on and focusing a macro lens was also quicker.