All in Sony

My Sony A6000 Import and Calibration Settings and Presets for Lightroom

My Sony A6000 Import and Calibration Settings and Presets for Lightroom

Thomas Fitzgerald
Sony

I’ve been using the little Sony A6000 now for almost a year and it’s a great little camera for the price. One of the things that had been frustrating me however is that I always found that I wasn’t quite satisfied with the look of the raw files when processed in Lightroom. To me, the colours never looked quite right, and so I set about doing something about it. Having shot lots of test shots on multiple cameras for comparison, I’ve developed two approaches to addressing my concerns. First, I tweaked the default white balances, and second, I tweaked the calibration settings in Lightroom to come up with what I believe is a more pleasing look.

Street Photography Diary - No.6. Black and White Edition

Street Photography Diary - No.6. Black and White Edition

Thomas Fitzgerald
Sony, Street

I've been kind of in a rut lately when it comes to shooting street photography. I've been doing the typical thing of blaming everything else. It's the weather (in fairness, it was) or it's the fact that there's roadworks everywhere in Dublin right now, but the truth of the matter is it's just me. Not one to be undeterred, I decided that to get my mojo back, I'd try something different. I do like black and white images, but lately I've been mostly shooting colour, so I decided to set my camera to black and white, and see what happens. 

Using the Sony A6000 with Canon Lenses via the Metabones Smart Adaptor

Using the Sony A6000 with Canon Lenses via the Metabones Smart Adaptor

Thomas Fitzgerald
Sony, Gear

I’ve previously tried using Nikon lenses with my Sony A6000 and I’ve been mostly pleased with the results. There were a few minor issues though. For one, the focus rings on the Nikon lenses that I own are really bad. There’s a significant lag between when you turn the ring and when it catches the mechanism underneath. This makes manually focussing a tad tricky. Secondly, you have to control the aperture with a ring on the adaptor which has no stops, so it makes setting a specific aperture quite difficult. Using the Metabones adaptor with my Canon lenses was a much better experience.

First Impressions and hands on with the Sony A7II Mirrorless Full Frame Camera

First Impressions and hands on with the Sony A7II Mirrorless Full Frame Camera

Thomas Fitzgerald
Gear, Sony

For the longest time I've wanted to try out one of Sony's A7 series of cameras, and I finally got the chance this weekend when a friend of mine let me borrow his A7II. I've been considering replacing my ageing Canon gear with a camera from the Sony A7 series (mostly for video), but I've had some reservations about it, and so it was a great opportunity to try out the system. I haven't spent that much time with it yet, so this isn't by any means a full review. Instead, consider this more of a hands on, first impressions kind of report. 

Thoughts on the Sony A7RII and where to get A7RII Sample Raw Files

Thoughts on the Sony A7RII and where to get A7RII Sample Raw Files

Thomas Fitzgerald
Gear, Sony

Now that the Sony A7RII is shipping to customers, there are lots of reports coming in about the camera. More importantly there are now raw files available online that you can download and check out, and Lightroom and ACR (along with Capture One) all now support the camera too. I've been reading a lot about this new Sony for a while now, and I am very interested in it, as it seems like Sony has really listened to its customers and created a very impressive camera. 

Summer Flowers - Sony A6000 with Nikon 24-120

Summer Flowers - Sony A6000 with Nikon 24-120

Thomas Fitzgerald
Sony

When I wrote recently about trying out Nikon lenses on the Sony A6000, I noted at what a difference it made compared to Sony lenses that I own. Well, as I have quite a bit of Nikon glass, I tried shooting again with one of my best Nikon lenses, the 24–120 f/4. The 24–120 is a great lens. Not only is it quite sharp, but it has great colour and light transmission, and images from it always look gorgeous. There are some really nice and unusual flowers in the local park here in Dublin, so I decided to try out the combination to see what kind of results I would get.

Sony Releases New Firmware for the A6000. Adds XAVC-S support

Sony Releases New Firmware for the A6000. Adds XAVC-S support

Thomas Fitzgerald
Gear, Sony

There was a nice little surprise for Sony A6000 owners yesterday when Sony announced a new firmware for the camera. Version 2 added one big new feature, and that is the XAVC-S codec. Up till now, if you were recording video on the A6000 you were stuck with the rather awful AVC-HD codec and a low bit rate, and frankly the quality wasn't the best. You could record uncompressed HD from the HDMI port on the camera, and having tried that in the past, the difference is remarkable. But adding an external recorder defeats the purpose of having a small camera. With the new firmware, Sony is adding a much better codec and the results are pretty great.

Opinion: Sony Knocks it Out of the Park with the A7RII

Opinion: Sony Knocks it Out of the Park with the A7RII

Thomas Fitzgerald
Gear, News, Sony

I'm a big fan of Sony Products, and anyone who follows this blog knows that I've a soft spot for their cameras. I currently have an A6000 and I've previously shot with a Nex 7. I've also been eagerly following the developments of the A7 line with great interest. I've said it before, but Sony are one of the few companies really innovating in the imaging space. Not only are their sensors used by pretty much every other major company now, but they're constantly pushing the envelope in the camera market. From the RX1 which brought a superb full frame sensor to the compact camera form factor, to the A7 Line which made full frame really affordable and small. The A7 line certainly isn't perfect, but with the recently announced A7 R Mark II Sony are getting pretty close to it.

Mirrorless cameras and being a glasses wearer

Mirrorless cameras and being a glasses wearer

Thomas Fitzgerald
Mirrorless, Editorial, Sony

As much as I love mirrorless cameras, there's one thing about the current designs that unfortunately is a bit of a problem for me. The issue is the viewfinder. My problem is not the electronic display itself, but rather the physical design of the viewfinder. Most of the mirrorless cameras that I've used are a real pain to use in bright light if you're a glasses wearer. 

Sony A6000 with Nikon Glass

Sony A6000 with Nikon Glass

Thomas Fitzgerald
Sony

When I was shooting a lot with my Sony NEX–7, before it died on me, I would occasionally use Nikon lenses on it, with a Novaflex adaptor. I really liked the results, but I didn’t do it that often, because personally, I found that the process of manual focussing was a little to awkward for my style of shooting. Even with the great focus peaking feature (which isn’t always accurate unfortunately), it just wasn’t worth it for the amount of times I wanted to do it. With my newer A6000, I had put off trying to shoot with Nikon lenses because of this, but I recently took the opportunity to try it out, and boy, what a difference.

A Black and White Journey on Dublin's Streets

A Black and White Journey on Dublin's Streets

Thomas Fitzgerald
Street, Sony

I'm not a huge black and white shooter. Don't get me wrong, I like black and white, but I rarely set out with the notion of shooting exclusively in the format. I used to in the past, but I haven't done it in ages, so when I was in the city centre here in Dublin the other day, I decided to try shooting some black and white images with my new(ish) Sony A6000. 

Recent Street Photography (with the Sony A6000)

Recent Street Photography (with the Sony A6000)

Thomas Fitzgerald
Ireland, Street, Sony

I've been shooting some more street photography recently, partly as part of my review of the A6000, which was a good excuse to get out there, despite the really cold weather we've been having lately. I've written my first impressions of the little Sony camera already, and I'll be doing a full, comprehensive review once I've been using it for a few weeks. 

Sony A6000 First Impressions

Sony A6000 First Impressions

Thomas Fitzgerald
Review, Sony

A couple of months ago my Sony NEX-7 stopped working. I was out shooting and the controls just stopped responding. I tried all sorts of things to get it back but to no avail. The camera was out of warranty and it was going to cost me €100 just to have it even looked at. I still haven't done anything with it yet, and I do intend to leave it in to be assessed at some point, but I'm just reluctant to spend several hundred euro to get it fixed when they're going for less than €400 now second hand. 

I had also been looking at the A6000 as a possible replacement. Over Christmas, there were some good deals at one of my local camera stores so in the end, one day when I felt like some retail therapy I decided to treat myself.

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