Solitude

After having temporarily fled Bear Woods for warmer ground(5 degrees vs. -3 degrees) I returned last night.  I am not a hermit or a recluse by any means but there is something to be said about solitude.  Evelyn and I talked last night about our fondest memories with each other.  All of them seemed to have the theme of peace and solitude away from the hustle and bustle of the city.  I remember one day before anyone lived on our street except maybe one person, it was December 31, 1999.  We decided to lay down in the middle of the road and stare at the stars and Milky Way above us.  We also secretly hoped we would see the complete failure of the power grid due to the whole Y2K thing.  That never happened of course.  We did see several shooting stars above our heads that evening and it truly made us feel that we were at the center of the universe, well our universe anyway.

This morning I took a short little stroll down to the creek behind the house to see how much ice was still there.  There was some and it brought out cool highlights on the creek that normally aren’t there.  The solitude that the stream offers on a crisp winter morning is sometimes just what the doctor ordered.  Solitude is not about being alone or lonely, to me it is about being one with yourself and with the land around you.  That is why Evelyn and I enjoy our time in Bear Woods, it offers the chance to be away from it all and not feel alone.  Wikipedia makes the distinction of solitude vs. loneliness as such: In this sense, these two words refer, respectively, to the joy and the pain of being alone.

Sony a7R with the Zeiss 35mm f2.8, Aperture Priority, f8, +0 stops of exposure compensation, ISO 50, resulting in a shutter speed of 1 second, Marumi Circular Polarizer, Vanguard Alta Pro tripod and BBH head, processed in Lightroom 5.

Amicalola Falls with the a7R

This was a section of Amicalola Falls on Wednesday.  I wanted to test how well the a7R did with flowing water and exposure.  The highlights can blow out easily if you are not careful.  The camera did really well!  I set the meter at +0 exposure compensation and it was right on.  The Nikon D-800 did the same scene at -1 stop, which is what I have gotten used to over the years but I can take +0 if it stays consistent.
Sony a7R with the Zeiss 35mm f2.8 lens, Aperture Priority, f11, +0 stops of exposure compensation, ISO 50, resulting in a shutter speed of .8 seconds, Marumi Circular Polarizer, Vanguard Abeo Plus 323CB tripod kit, processed in Lightroom 5.

A peaceful cascade

It was nice to finally get out and shoot the Sony a7r and D-800 in the “field” yesterday.  I took off the training wheels and took them for a spin.  While I was over at Amicalola Falls State Park, I wandered along the river for a little while shooting some nice cascades.  All the rain we have had put a nice flow in the river and falls.  This was just a nice peaceful spot that I wanted to see how the a7R would do with the greens and the shadows.  It did fantastic, as I expected it would.  The nice thing is what I do on the D-800 is about the same for the a7R, with minor differences.  Being pretty much the same sensor I don’t have to make lots of changes to how I shoot or expose a scene.  The Nikon does do a better job of metering, but they always have since the early 90s in my opinion.  I am pretty sure I know what cameras will be in my bag on a trip….for now anyway!
Sony a7R with the Zeiss 35mm f2.8, Aperture Priority, f11, -1 stop of exposure compensation, ISO 50, resulting in a shutter speed of 1.6 seconds, Marumi Circular Polarizer, Vanguard Abeo Plus tripod and BBH head, processed in Lightroom 5.

THE Camera Test!

This is going to be a long post with lots of photos!  I went out this morning to Amicalola Falls to do my camera test I have been wanting to do for a couple of weeks.  I tested the Nikon D-800, Nikon D-300s, Sony a7R, Sony NEX-7, Fuji X-E1 and the Olympus EM-5.  I used a lens that was native to the system I was shooting, in other words, one that mounted directly to the camera without the need for an adapter.  On the D-800 I used the Tamron SP 24-70 f2.8mm Di VC USD lens, the Nikon D-300s I used the Tamron 10-24mm, the Sony a7R I used the Zeiss 35mm f2.8 FE mount lens, the Sony NEX-7 I used the Tamron 18-200mm Di-III VC lens, the Fuji X-E1 I used the Fuji 18-55mm, and the Olympus I used the Zuiko 12-50mm lens.  Since the one lens was not a zoom, I set all of the zooms as close as I could estimate to be at 35mm.  With the APS-C sensor cameras that would be 24mm and the Olympus it was about 18mm.  I set each of the cameras on f11 and the focus was almost at infinity so depth of field was not an issue.  I also set the cameras on Auto White Balance.  I tried to get roughly the same exposure with each system by adjusting the ISOs to near 200 and I did use a circular polarizer on each system.  For the final print images I did set the processed WB to Cloudy or 6500k.

A couple of quick observations:  This is not a scientific test, I am conducting it as a nature photographer in the field.  I will state some conditions that should be considered but I also believe that a test should be without conditions but I know some folks will point out quickly the need for them.  The first one would be that if you are planning on making a print 16×20 or less, all of the systems will be great.  Bigger than that and the Full Frame cameras leap out in resolution and clarity.  All of the camera systems did pretty well in Auto WB but the Olympus was off more than the others, it read the scene at about 4500k.  The Nikons, especially the D-800, did by far the best job of metering the scene.  The D-800 and the a7R showed the best dynamic range with the Fuji X-E1 coming in close behind.  I determined that by how much I had to adjust for shadows and highlights in Lightroom to get similar histograms.

The first series of images are the full image but down sized for web viewing.  The second set is roughly the same area enlarged to show detail.  Please take a look and let me know what you think!  These are in no specific order.

The Fuji X-E1

The Nikon D-300s

The D-800

The Olympus EM-5

 

The Sony a7R

The Sony NEX-7

These are the cropped sections in the same order as above:  the Fuji X-E1, Nikon D-300s, Nikon D-800, Olympus EM-5, Sony a7R, and the Sony NEX-7

Well, there it is!  What do you think?

The Zeiss 35mm f2.8 FE mount lens on the Sony a7R

I wanted to have one native (made for the system) lens for the Sony a7R so I had ordered the Zeiss 35mm f2.8 to be that lens.  It is very sharp and focuses faster than I had expected it to do.  It will be a great lens to do some street shooting and to use when I am not doing macro, wide landscapes or telephoto images.  Then I will use the adapter and my Tamron glass.  Bailey, as you can see, is very excited about the new lens!

Zeiss 35mm f2.8 FE mount lens on the Sony a7R, Aperture Priority, f5.6, +0 stops of exposure compensation, ISO 640, resulting in a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second, processed in Lightroom 5.