Red Cathedral

Yes, photography can be extremely expensive. Cameras, lenses, lights, gimballs, drones,.. Some of us need cameras with certain features and sadly enough those machines are difficult to find if your budget is limited. A basic Sony A7IV body will set you back a good 2700€.. and that's just a basic camera, not a specialized tool like an A7RV, A7CR, A7SIII, FX3, A1 or A9III.. those go up to 7000€.  And don't get me started on medium format cameras from Fuji, Hasselblad, Leica or Phase One. Often it's said that it is even more important to invest in good glass , meaning: good lenses. Those can be crazy expensive.. however.. you don't use all your lenses as often.. so maybe for some you might consider a more budget friendly option? Used lenses. Vintage lenses with an adapter . And 3rd party brands are all logical possibilities. Over the following months I'll try to show you in this article some of those more budget-friendly options for Sony E-mount cameras which are worth

What if a title says it all? I'll quickly stroll through the menu of each camera and explain why I choose certain settings. If you're new to the Sony system, if you just bought this camera and you want to set it up, you want to know what's inside the tiny beast or you wonder in general what certain functions/abbreviations mean: this might help you.. a bit. Sony released in 2023 4 compact body cameras of their 5th generation mirrorless system ( and announced 1 "normal" sized camera body ): ▷ The full frame A7C R ( 61MP / 10fps / 60fps 4k /AI AF)       Sample photo gallery / A Youtube video ( Including hardcoded "Engrish"/English subtitles because some people seem to find it hard to activate subtitles on Youtube and my voice is.. what it is.. ) ▷ The full frame A7C II ( 33MP / 10fps / 60fps 4k /AI AF )     Sample photo gallery ****** Placeholder for YT video MID JANUARY 2024 *************  ▷ The APS-C A6700 ( 26MP / 11fps / 4k 120fps / AI AF

Normally I don't post much about the dayjob.. eventhough it's hardly only by day.. For this Sony video we dove into the night.. again. The 2nd time this week .. and it's only Wednesday. " The new A7CII camera is perfect for streetphotography ", Sony marketing said. So I invited someone with contagious enthousiasm, a very extravert style of streetphotography and an allround nice guy to GLOW, the festival of lights in Eindhoven.  . . We got lucky with the weather: it was the only dry evening of the week and by 9PM the terraces of the bars were so full you would think it was a Saturday evening in Summer instead of a November Wednesday. . With a filmcrew following his every move, it was not very easy to stealthily photograph people, so streetphotographer Brendan de Clercq changed his modus operandi and started using the contact he made with the people for street portraits instead of candid sniper portraits. . Quickly things got out of hand and entire

The ZV-E1 might seem like an odd little camera, sharing loads of features with A7SIII, FX3, A7RV, A6700, A7CII and looking a bit lost amongst the massive stream of paid influencer attention to the latter. But allow me to make a blunt statement about the ZV-E1 up front: the marketing rep who decided to put this camera in the market as a vlogging camera has definitely never used it for anything else than a statistic in their Excel-sheets. It is SO much more! Then who is it for? Link:  https://youtube.com/shorts/ZHDElV5-n6s That answered the question: Is the ZV-E1 a good camera for you? Why I answer yes to: Is the ZV-E1 a good camera? Can be found in this video below. Link: https://youtu.be/HFucLj4lT-0   Bonus notes not in the video: 1. No, why the 4k 100/120fps ( in movie + S&Q ) and FHD 200/240fps ( in S&Q only ) were added with a free license eludes me. Yes, it means it was from the beginning in the camera because no firmware needed updating. Maybe other li

If you tell me that you don't use AI then I believe you.  However I do use it. It's incorporated in the latest generation of Sony cameras, in photo editing software like Photoshop, Topaz Labs, Luminar, Lightroom,.. Video editors like Runway use it. It's in your phone, your car, your house, your browser and it's evolving faster than any scifi author could have imagined 10 years ago.  AI is everywhere and just like the climatic abberations humanity has caused: it's here to stay and to change our lives. The cyberpunk dystopia that was imagined in the last decennia of the 20th century is our present.. and so is all the corporate/religious/state control, the fear-mongering, the lack of common sense, the self-destructive behaviour for short term wins/profits, the dumbing down, the fear/hate for the unknown, the lack of schooling that opens the mind instead of turning bright young people into worker ants who only believe those who yell the hardest, the black/white thinki

Normally all your photos will be named " DSC123 " and your videos " C123 ". But that's the best way to loose oversight, to overwrite and to forget what was shot when/with which camera. There are solutions for this in the new and newest Sony Alpha / FX / ZV / RX - cameras PHOTO FILES You should give your photo files personalized names instead of that generic ”Dsc” prefix. This is possible on the current Alpha, Rx, Zv, and FX‐cameras from Sony. I give mine the prefix of the used camera because I work with several cameras. But you might just as well use something more personal like something that points to your name or your company / brand name. Or even change the name temporarily if you have a big project. Why? A few of the many reasons: 1. I own and work with several cameras ( during events normally 2 main + 1 BTS ) So it's important while editing/sorting to immediately see which camera made what. 2. We often work in teams during large events. This way w

  You can copy the content of a memory card onto another card in camera. SD and/or CF Express A can be mixed depending on the camera you use. Every double cardslot Sony camera has this hidden function. Don't wait years before using it.. like I did. Because it might save you when you forgot cables, cardreaders, have to transfer photos/videos between Mac/PC or you don't want to travel extremely light. A link to the video on Youtube: https://youtu.be/K3Kug8nkvDY A link to this video on Clapper: Without subtitles This video has English subtitles on Youtube. To change the language of the subtitles to your language: Settings > subtitles (a service from Google translate) All steps in a readable version: Insert the target card in slot 1. Insert the source card in slot 2. Then open the menu.  Cameras with the new menu system: Blue/play > Edit > Copy Cameras with the classic menu system: Play > Tab 2 > Copy Don’t forget to give each camera personalized file names becaus

Follow these 3 steps that will avoid you getting lost the Sony menu structure. Step 1 Program all functionalities you need to do on the fly and while your eye is at the EVF to a button. Your muscle memory will quickly learn what is where. (This video has subtitles.. use them. These are in English . For other languagues use ► settings ► subtitles ► automatic translation) Step 2 Set up the fn or function menu with everything you use all the time and you need to change in 2 clicks. In the latest cameras like the A7RV, ZV‐1F and FX30 you can activate this menu by swiping up on the led-screen. You can choose for the buttons and fn menu completely different functions depending whether you are in stills, video or play mode. Step 3 Fill the star or favorites menu with everything you find useful This can be from formatting your cards or creating new folders, over minimum shutterspeed and face registration to all flash settings and even the anti dust functions. You can even sort those

The Sony Cinema line ILME-FX30, as it is called in full, is a Super35 ( = APS-C ) cine camera that can be easily mistaken for it's full frame brethren, the FX3. This video has 3 MAIN topics: 1. Focus breathing compensation for video focus transitions without any change to the viewing angle. 2. Auto focus assist allows you to manually override continuous autofocus and let the camera do the final finetuning. Sounds complex? Actually it's super useful. 3. How to activate S-log mode? Yes, there's a difference between FX-cinema line cameras & Alpha mirrorless cameras. 4. BONUS: Quick tips on the extra record button, the cooling, the tally lights, Focus mapping, Clear Image Zoom, Photo capture, streaming, the stills function,.. A link to the video on Youtube .  Sample images ( stills ) made with the FX30 PS. If you want to know everything about the different S-log modes + the Exposure Index ( Flexible ISO, Cine EI & Cine EI Quick ) and you have 15 more minutes to spare

For those who have received their Sony A7RV camera and are new to the Sony ecosystem or who want to find some of the new features hidden in the menu of this 61MP-behemoth with it's extra AI Autofocussing processor ( yes, that makes 3 processors inside 1 camera ) I'm doing a walkthough. There will be some real-life samples with cats, cows, fighterjets & horses, some things you probably already know and best of all: 40 minutes of my hoarse bronchitis-stricken voice. Enjoy . The Youtube video : Some of the items touched in this video: Auto ISO minimum shutter speed, different AF options, setting up the Fn/favorites menu & buttons, 1 button tracking, 1 button APS-C/Super35 mode, Clear image zoom, saving your camera settings, using your cellphone as a remote, .. Sample images made with A7RV ( mostly made before there was any RAW-support )

All modern cameras show you during shooting perfectly where you are focusing. But I don't remember this of every picture during/after an event or at the end of a shoot. And sometimes you have to be sure the focus was on the right object/person/animal before going to the next view, or shot or part of the event. We've all made pictures of which during replay we wondered where the hell the focus point had been. In landscape pictures it happens sometimes. When photographing groups of people you might have to check them all to see who's eyes you had locked on.   In the Sony A7IV, A1 and A7SIII ( and all full frame Alpha cameras coming after these ) there is a solution called: In English: Focus Frame Display ("Foc Frame Disp Sel." to be more precise) In Dutch: Schrpst.kad.wrgv In French:  Aff cadre m.au pt  Sony engineers & translators really enjoy inventing strange abbreviations. In this video you see how to activate this option in the Sony A7IV:  And if you'

The Youtube video is embedded below or: https://youtu.be/6ZUNffYzWKc It is actually very easy to do a firmware update on a Sony camera .. you just put the firmware on an SD-card and insert it in your camera.. Go into the Menu > Yellow > 12/Setup option > Version > Update software > Scroll through+Accept conditions > .. Ow-no.. that only works on the A7IV, FX30, ZV-E1 & A7RV. For the other ( read: the previou s) cameras it's a bit more work. Let us go through all the different steps: 1. Surf to your local Sony site ( in Dutch or in French or in English ) 2. Choose the camera or lens you want to update ( Note : different Sony sites have sometimes different old items listed. For example on the UK-site you can still find A6300/A6500 ) 3. For this example I choose the eternal oldie: A6000 .     3.1 Search for a small tab " Support & Product registration "     3.2 Click on " Downloads "     3.3 Click on the latest firmware available ( fo

A few days ago I got my private Sony A7IV after thoroughly testing a pre-production model from work. You can find those 1st pictures on Flickr . Fun fact: This home-coming of the A7IV was my very first video on Clapper ( look for Red Cathedral )  There are some quirks in the A7IV like cropped 4K 60p ( just like Nikon's Z6II ), it heats faster than the A7SIII ( I might you some tricks to minimise heating while filming in a later article ) and eats through batteries at the same speed as the A1 and A7SIII . ( You wanted more power than the A7III , you've got more power.. but that has a price ). However, for events this is an allround powerhouse.. at least: once I'll be doing events again.  For once a I did a complete video walk through of my changes and settings in the menu. It's in English but at the end I quickly show some  important parts in French & in Dutch. Some samples & experiments are already on Flickr (including lowlight, APS-C lens,.. why APS-C?

No, I have not started hibernation. In fact I have made plenty of pictures.. eventhough I've had little time to process them so that's lagging. Been testing a pre-production Sony A7IV for over a month and today I bought one.. so yes, that happened. Let me entertain you with some Autumn portraits while I process more pictures, think of even more to make and film some tutorials for the A7IV.  . Yes plenty more images are waiting to get processed. And there is something video-ish on Clapper . More is on Flickr as always And then this happened.. standing on the organising side & the model's side & the director's side & the presenting side of a webinar. Too many hats to wear at once.. but so much fun to do. A small bonus for those crazies who scrolled till here?? .