After determining that the a7r5 had lousy AF for birding as well as too much pixel noise even in moderate light, I acknowledged to myself that megapixels were not the answer for more reach and that small apertures probably affect autofocus in anything but good light. So what was my next move? Even more pixel…

Out with the a7r5 and (it doesn’t matter which) lens the other day, I had a bird I’d never seen before right in front of me, about 20 meters away, in an open meadow. The shot below was what I got AFTER I managed to wake the camera, AFTER I managed to get focus to…

Out for a walk yesterday afternoon, I tried both the 70-200mm f2.8 GM II/2X at 140mm and R 28-90mm at 90mm on a hazy, backlit cityscape. Both were sharp to perfection. But the R glass, a small degree of flare its only known weakness, out-contrasted the zoom/TC, even without the benefit of any cooked corrections…

Not long ago, after a few back-and-forth sessions with the two teleconverters on the 70-200mm f2.8 GM II, it became apparent that a limitation with the 2X extender was autofocus on the a7r5. Unfortunately the problem appears to be most pronounced when the subject matter is birds. On landscapes and other static matter, the camera…

Eager to try some of my R glass on the a7r5, but with a few weeks before my next stop in the ant farm, I was very grateful that the better half didn’t mind bringing the 28-90mm when she joined me here yesterday. After a good bit of time outdoors today, even in very gloomy…

. . . a bunch of random stuff. Much as I have taken to the a7rV, even its sensor, I still miss the SL2 when it comes to manual focus lenses. The Sony has two levels of focus magnification that are not adjustable, unlike a couple of other previous alpha models, which had one adjustable…

After comparing 70-200mm f2.8 GM II shots taken with the two teleconverters, I decided to test both under slightly more controlled circumstances. After all, the combo using the 2X had served me well while I was shooting it on the a7cII. It’s not that the combo with the 2X was “bad” by any means. It’s…

. . . on me . . . On the road there’s little time to pixel-peep. When light and critters are abundant, I just shoot until the weather changes, the light changes, the critters go home, or I drop. Now with some downtime, it’s a bit easier to see where improvments (and changes) can be…

. . . and it’s almost out. Figuring the a7rV sensor couldn’t do any worse at middle ISO speeds than the a7cII, I added one to the arsenal a week or so ago. This was in spite of not liking the sensor in the a7rIV and a subsection thereof in the a6700. Although the tiniest…

As I’ve done for years with whatever wide lens happened to be in the arsenal, I headed to Asoke intersection this morning to photograph it, this time with a Sony 24mm f2.8 G lens. It can be stated with confidence that this lens, stopped down to f/5.6, is biting sharp all over the frame, rendering…