So i stop whining and brought my Sony A7S to the States!

So in my previous post i was GASing for the Fuji X70 because of its small compact kinda size compare to my Sony A7S for this trip to Washington DC.... in the end i did not buy it because i'm being wise and saved me $700USD at the same time. haha..Although i keep checking B&H photo and lensrental websites for great deals. There was a used X70 for $500 but in the end since i already brought my Sony, why would i buy the X70.... So i just stop whining and brought my A7S. My argument was hand carrying my Sony A7S for these 2+8+14 hours of flying not including layover. My lowepro fastpack seems to be a great travelling backpack although i hate using backpacks since it would sweat my back more.  Overview of the trip was i didnt get to shoot the milkyway (the original plan) because of lack of tripod and the distance of my hotel from the Washington DC Mall is quite far.

P/S Shopping and taking photographs for me cannot coexist lol. So in the end i think the best camera is still my iphone because its either you got your picture or you dont.

But here are some shots from my A7S....

reminds me of the Shining....pity who stayed at the end....long walk to the elevator 

Although its a bitch to carry this Sony A7S but i love the output id get out of it...

Manual PANO with Sony A7S

Testing out manually panorama stitching with photoshop. not really manual. auto stitch intelligently by photoshop. photoshop is a genius! no banding. this is before i realised that my Sony A7S has a panorama feature built in...duh! *facepalm!*

Milky Way Hunting!

This is my first time trying to capture the milky way.... i've done stars photography before but i never capture the milky way...somehow it slips off my mind...

So last Sunday i went with a friend who's also a photographer so lucky me he wont be bored to death! Our mission is to capture Milky Way or at least locate it. The night skies were quite clear when we grabbed our coffee but it was kinda cloudy when we reached our location. Patches of clouds which kinda ruined some photos....but oh well.... this is my first time at capturing Milky Way, but it was fun, in the dark, trying to find the darkest place away from the light pollution... i think we found a place but there are still light pollutions from the oil rigs and ports. We are at a beach. Kinda.

I've downloaded an app called Sky Guide for IOS, it $2.99 i think its worth the price, just face your iphone into the sky and it will show you where the milky way is..... technology nowadays....fascinating!!! i dont have to put a stick into the ground and look at the stars anymore...but i think thats for direction kinda compass thing?? oh well whatevs....

I also wanted to test the capabilities of my Sony A7S, and i started to appreciate its size...i think i sunk in to the thought that its not any bigger than a Fujifilm i might say.... but the 24-70 f4 is still kinda huge....it got front heavy as i fitted it to the camera body, the camera moves from its locked position on the tripod.... but i needed the wide angle FOV and that lens covers.... slight heavy vignetting though surprisingly...

The live view of the SOny A7S also went bonkers...i dunno why, maybe its a bug or maybe i mess up with some settings it just didnt work that night.....dang!! i had to guess the focus old skool style and bunch of trial and errors.... my friend with an olympus em10 can easily auto focus with a touch of the LCD. AUTO FOCUS!! yes...damn!! AUTO FOCUS the frikking night sky!! WTF!

So anyway my Live View didnt work when i wanted to but when i showed off the other night it works impeccably! Maybe next time no showing off....

Anyway, we're off at about 11pm,  grabbed our lattes and mochas at Coffee Bean and reached our first destination at almost midnight. the skies were clear but some patch of clouds visible. Its not the darkest of places as well as the restaurant opposite road has blaring spotlight least to say.... So we went to the second destination wher emost of my photos are taken....its quite dark and scary if alone... but thats what you do for photography right???

I set my IQ to RAW+JPEGS....face my iphone to the skies, fitted the 24mm and shoot away.... my shutter, ISO varies...aperture at its widest in this case at f4.... and thank god for RAW....i was able to process and slightly able to see the milkyway despite covered in patches of clouds.....

Would be great to have more of the tree as the foreground...

 One of those moments when i misfocus...too bad!! Grrrr!!

Light pollution can be seen on the clouds

During shooting i also have a problem with condensation on the lens... its from the airconditioning of my car....so it took a while for it to normalize? with room temperature.....

Battery wise for a shoot that took about an hour plus is quite ok....i think i still have about 40% juice...but i have spares! So make sure to have spare batteries....

Its been fun! 

Cant wait for the next milky way hunt!

My Sony Cameras Gear Porn

My Sony A7S and my A6000 with a bunch of lenses. To be honest i dont need to have any other camera brands, my Sony is almost complete, i would like to add a 28mm f2 and maybe the 85mm 1.8. My Sony line is almost complete...why do i still GASing for Fuji??!!

My Camera Porn: Sony A6000

I love camera porn. Thats one of the reason i would buy a camera. Aesthetic first function second, call me nuts but thats just how i roll...... lol. Thats why i'm so drawn to Fuji....i love retro cameras, retro looks, i would buy a Zenith just for its looks, but shooting film?? Just too much work for me, hassle, i did shoot with an Olympus OM10 a couple years back and i have yet to develop the rolls, i think i lost the rolls too!! FUdge me!

Even though i love Fuji looks, Sony does have an appealing look too! Except after i owned it hahaha... GAS syndrome! Especially when fitted with vintage lens/Leica lens... oh baby *drools* but the only vintage lens i can afford is voigtlander, maybe not anymore hahah after spending 1.5k on Sony A7S....no more "investment" for now...

Anyway lets see some porn shall we, here is my Sony A6000, shot with Sony A7S. Natural light from window on my left. I love what one can achieve with one light. Boy, sure is dusty the A6000.

 This is my favourite shot of them all... it looked like it came straight from the brochure! haha...  its a little underexpose but i liked it....

Here's another shot with another light coming from the heavens up above aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh

Sony A7S vs A6000 Indoor low light test UPDATED!

So i screwed up my previous comparison where i compare A7S HIGH ISO NR set to LOW and A6000 HIGH ISO NR set to OFF. Thats just plain stupid. bwahahaha. thats what happen when you do a rush job. By you i meant me!  😂

Anyway, i did another quick test aka rush job, the same settings like previous, A7S fitted with 55mm f1.8, A6000 fitted with 35mm f2.8 aka FF equivalent 52mm. I set the shutter speed to 1/60, aperture at 2.8, ISO varies depends on comparison. Now for both cameras i set the HIGH ISO NR to LOW. And these are JPEGS OOC except for ISO6400 i brighten in post at 2 stops and ISO128000 brighten in post at 1 stop.

 A6000 ISO6400, brighten in post 2 stops.

A7S ISO6400 brighten in post 2 stops

 A6000 ISO128000, brighten in post 1 stop

A7S ISO128000 brighten in post 1 stop

 A6000 ISO256000 OOC Untouched

A7S ISO256000 OOC Untouched

A7S still comes out better as expected. I like the grain structure of the A7S. Both cameras have color noise but its worst on the A6000 and the A6000 is smudgy as well. 

I blog more when i have time now i gotta go. duty calls!

ciao

Sony A7S vs A6000 Indoor low light test

*UPDATE*
"Apparently i had the Sony A6000 High ISO NR to OFF but the A7S is on LOW! Thats not a fair fight!! Instead of editing this post i'll just make a new post"

I am getting way ahead of myself.

Actually i wanted to do a quick first impression of my brand newly own Sony A7S... but to satisfy my pixel peeping OCDness, and to convince myself that the A7S is truly the king of low light as many netizens called it....i did a non scientific comparisons between Sony A7S and the Sony A6000..... fuck science. You wanna shoot charts n bricks go ahead....not gonna find it here.... bahahaha.

Anyway, long story short, after owning the A7S, there's a side of me keep telling me that Fuji can also take great pictures in low light, i mean of course they do duh, then whats the advantage of my Sony? why did i bought the A7S? Should have stayed the idea on buying Fuji. Reading reviews on countless blogs didnt help. Steve Huff compared it with Olympus EM1 mark ii and the results were kinda astounding for a micro four third sensor! Its almost on par. Then why the hell did i go with Sony?? Or is this just GAS talk? just because i already have the A7S, now i want the Fuji....fuck sakes GAS...

Anyway, enough crap talk, lets get to the comparison. Lets compare apples vs apples. No one apple is the same right? 😂 I did this comparison because,

1) i have pixel peeping OCD
2) To convince me that the A7S is truly great in low light
3) and because i happen to have two Sony bodies, namely the A7S and the A6000.

Lens fitted on A7S is 55mm 1.8 (I FRIKKIN LOVE THIS LENS) and on A6000 is 35mm 2.8 (I USED TO LOVE BUT AFTER 55mm NOT SO MUCH) , so FF equivalent is roughly the same focal length about 52mm. I set the aperture of both lens to f2.8 and shutter speed at 1/60. ISO varies depends on comparison. Everything OOC JPEGS. Noise Reduction LOW.

*UPDATE* (A7S HIGH ISO NR LOW vs A6000 OFF) Sorry this is what happen when i do a rush job!!

This is the level of darkness the eyes see. Not pitch black dark but still pretty dark for general photography.

 First the A6000, using ISO 25600 (Max ISO). Color noise is partying!

Here is the Sony A7S, same ISO 25600, Hmmm pretty darn impressive! There's noise of course but looks pretty clean (Useable). I think i satisfied my OCD. Yes A7S has that low light advantage.

But lets get real, normally people would stop at max ISO6400. For nowadays-camera this is the max usable highest ISO for a clean image.

Here's A6000, i brighten it in post by 2 stops to get the optimum exposure. Hmmmmm...

Here's Sony A7S. I brighten it 2 stops just like the A6000. Its definitely better than the A6000.

Here's for fun, Sony A7S ISO51200,

Thats still usable right? Yeah sure there's noise but look at the wordings on the lens, still look kinda sharp.

And a word about AF, i think both camera are pretty much the same speed. I didn't noticed who, what or which is slower or faster. They do hunt initially but once they locked focus, afterwards its just quick AF....(thats As Fuck) bahahahahahahah.... i meant Auto Focus....... or both. 😂

And that concludes my non scientific comparison.....

Ciao...

I caved in........

In the end i caved in. its just an offer i cant refuse. i bought the used Sony A7S facebook deal. At $1500USD thats a great deal. It includes the body and 2 lenses, 55m f1.8 and 24-70 f4. But there is one catch though. But obviously its not a deal breaker. cos i bought it?? 😂

Shots taken with iphone7plus. VSCOed to death!

Here is the catch.......

The rubber near the card slot peeled off. But everything else work perfectly.

In operation wise, the rubber didn't really get in the way, its just annoying looking at it because i like my cameras to be smart/neat, no dangling rubber. but for the price, its a fuckin great deal.

"So far so good" - Joshua Faraday

I am so happy with my purchase.

But honestly afterwards, i was reading the X100F review! bahahaha 😂

Talk about GAS!
GAS wins everytime.

Trying out the Cinematic Stills

I was reading someone's blog when he mentioned about doing a cine stills. Basically its a photo that looks like its been taken from a movie. i do dig that kinda look. So here goes some rush shit job color grading in lightroom. Just some random photos i took with my brand new camera. Uh Oh did i tell you that? Yes! I got a new camera!

I need to work more with the color grading or spent more time on it. These pictures are rush jobs, just how i like to be. i hate too much time spending on post processing. i really love using presets! And also i had to do a quick refresher on using photoshop...boy i was rusty! Thanks Gods fors youtubes ands googles!

Or i could tell you that these are stills from a local drama??

Convinced yet?

GAS happens!

Well, im definitely on GAS.
One minute i was about to purchase the Sony A7ii, and then the next i was leaning towards Fuji X-T20.... and i forget all about the Sony, its Fuji all over. Sigh.... And then i saw my old Fuji X100T pictures, i really like the X100 series but i think its time to try a different X model but i still want the latest X100F.....and i like the 35mm FOV and they have converters too 28mm n 50mm. Nice. But maybe next time. And then i saw a great deal on Facebook, a used Sony A7S with 55mm 1.8 plus 24-70mm f4 at a jaw dropping price USD$1500!!! Da Fuq! At that price, anywhere in the world it is body only price but this guy, he sells it with 2 $1k lens each.... *gasp emoji here*

Im the type of guy who are unable to resist a good offer like Don Corleone said "Make him an offer he cant refuse" or in my case its "Dont refuse a good offer"... i am terrible with that kind of deals, i just cant control myself.... it messed up my mind... just like that, i forget Fuji, i'm back to Sony. I always wanted to try the Sony A7S, too bad we dont have camera rentals here, it would be a big help to my GAS problems....

Why i like A7S??
- high iso capabilities.
- low light performance.

actually those 2 points are the same. I tend to shoot a lot indoors, so it would be great to not have to worry about high ISOs. ISOLESS they say. Back in the days, but not so long ago, i would worry about blurry pictures when shooting indoors or at night, Ur up on your highest ISO but the shutter is still slow to get the right exposure or at least a decent exposure, most of the times i would just shoot underexpose so i can brighten it in post.....just like how i do it on my Leica M8...sigh...my favourite Leica, sold it though, and also how i did it on Fuji X100 series, shoot underexpose and brighten in post, so far so good, i got keepers........ now that i think about it, actually i dont need this A7S, but but included a $2k worth of lenses? Man, i cant resist.

Here are some pictures that i brighten in post.

Leica M8. One of the tricks is to convert it to black and white, so grains would look good...GAH! The shot is underexpose, i brighten up in post. 

Color works too!

All shots above are Leica M8 shots...it is a bit underexposed, but i liked it, it gave some atmosphere, feel, vibe, i dunno how to explain it....

Shit, now i'm GASing for Leica M8. 

Off now heading to Ebay. Bahahah

Ciao.

I'm in dilemma new gear GAS want need mode!

I'm in dilemma.
I guess i hate money.
Shudup n take mah money.
I think i need/want a proper camera.
At the moment i have a Sony RX100m3 which i love for its size and great IQ but it is still a 1inch sensor. I love Fuji APS-C sensor.
And i still have my dinosaur Leica M8 which max out at usable ISO 640, black to magenta issues and i cant afford a fucking leica lens.
I dunno if i'm still in love with the M8, she's still hot but i dont really have that thrill using it. Not much love.
I need new thrill, new love, new lust. I want a new camera!!
That feeling when you unbox and play with the new cam. Love booming, blossoming. i need that. I want that.
I want WIFI in my camera and Auto Focus, my Leica fails that test.
I put it up on sale but nobody's buying it, only get likes in Facebook...the most famous book in the world. not even Harry Potter beats that book.
I want a proper camera, by proper i meant bokeh. i love bokeh. i need fast lens. so bokeh is achieved.
My Leica can give me bokeh but i cant transfer the pics over Wifi because it didnt have that feature. and i dont want to deal with the IR issues anymore. I want CLASSIC CHROME. out of the camera.

So why dilemma?
Because i have choices. i had to choose. and i hate choices. i wish i only have one choice so i dun have trouble making choices.
I love cameras. Cameras nowadays are beautiful. and i love retro. except for Lumix cameras, their looks suck but got great features.
So what choices do i have?
Olympus PEN-F is out of the pic. bcos i think im done with micro four thirds. with the newly announced X-pro2 with new sensor i think it'll kill the micro 4/3 for IQ.
Choices are Fuji X70, X100T, X-T10 or Sony A7S.
Of all the bunch the Sony is the most expensive. but i love low light. i want to shoot without thinking which ISO to choose. Fuji is also great in low light but skins can get waxy in HIGH ISO JPGs n i only shoot JPGs.
X70 is the newest but its still not available here.
X-T10 with 35mm is a bokeh dream.
I just love the X100 series.

So whats the problem here?
like i said...choices.
of all the camera if i want to buy based on looks, i'd definitely go for the X100T but its a 2 year old camera now. its not like its stop being a good camera, its just..... a X200 might be around the corner.
Like i mentioned in my previous post, i'm just gonna get the X70 but there's not a lot of review on it yet, i want to see how portraits would look like with 28mm 2.8 lens look like and sumhow i love peeking into an EVF which the X70 do not have. OVF is different. i want to see the actual shot/pic even before i take it which is what the EVF is for.
The X-T10 is third on the list just because its bulkier than the rest of the mentioned Fuji. but i have the flexibility to change lenses. I can bokeh all i want as long as i am able to purchase those Fuji lenses.
But if i am rich i just buy the A7S.
A7S with my prefer angle 28mm and fast f2.0 lens would be my ultimate camera. but it cost double than the Fujis. I could buy 2 Fujis with the cost of A7S.

In the end camera is just a tool right? Pictures will always be pictures.
Looking back at my X100S pics do make me miss the X100 series. i still keep hold of my WCL in case i bought the T but years passed and the T is getting old. unless it gets a new firmware making it as fast as X-T10 then im sure i'd buy the X100T. but is new firware coming??? Even X-E2 seems a good choice now a new firmware is out but i just cant get to like them X-E series looks.

So okay let me list down things i like n dislike from each camera for my amusement......

Fujifilm X70

likes:-
- newest and greatest which means AF is faster than X100T
- tilt screen
- selfie tilt screen is a plus.
- compact but im not sure if it is as compact as the Sony RX100iii
- touch screen! woohoo a first for Fuji.
- classic chrome

dislikes:-
- no EVF... I love me an EVF. I love peeking into it. it makes me feel professional. although i must admit i dont always really use it. and when i do street photography i almost not using it because i just want to be stealthier.
- looks is just ok compare to X100T.
- still not available here (Waiting game hurts)

X70 accessorized looks awesome.

Fujifilm X100T

likes:-
- my favorite series, FUN camera
- looks is killer
- faster lens, more bokeh albeit narrower than 28mm
- better performance than my X100S (from what i read online)
- Got EVF
- Classic Chrome
- leaf shutter
- built in ND filter
- Conversion lens available
- available and in stock (GASPS!!!)

dislikes:-
- bigger
- almost 2 years old which means a successor is in the wings
- no tilt screen
- Even bulkier if i need 28mm and 50mm
- From what i read performance is not as fast as the newer X-T10/X70
- but most of all it is getting old, the sole reason i press the brakes on buying this. but i still want to push the GAS! pun intended.

The thing about X100T...you dont need accessories to make it sexy. it already sexy as fuck as it is.

Fujifilm X-T10

likes:-
- Can change lenses
- Bokeh all i want with those fast lenses
- Not bad looking retro camera
- Faster performance
- Classic Chrome
- Tilt screen
- Got EVF
- available and in stock (gasps!)

dislikes:-
- not pretty as X100T
- bulkier depends on lens
- No selfie tilt screen although not a deal breaker
- not travel friendly camera (for me). Even i hate the X100S for travelling. that tells you much. Ha Ha but better than those DSLRs.

X-T10 looks hot. Better with square hoods. i love me square hoods. couldnt find a pic online

Sony A7S

likes:-
- With vintage lens it looks good
- King of the low light
- Performance on par with FUjifilm (from what i read online)
- Full frame (not sure if this is an issue anymore)
- tilt screen
- Got EVF
- Better video performance
- Since i like to shoot in low light this could be the ultimate camera!

dislikes:-
- With native lens it looks MEH..
- Super expensive
- bad rolling shutter effects (not sure if it affects with my kind of photography)
- bulkier/ more or less the same size as X-T10... maybe....... i never hold one in flesh/plastic
- lens also crazy expensive
- SOle reason not to get this is expensive!!
- No Classic Chrome

Anything with Vintage lens will always make the camera looks good

So the question IS actually what do i want this camera for.....
1) Travel????? Or
2) Professional Bokeh Monster pictures of my kids???? (which means the camera is okay to stay on the shelf)

let me sit in one corner and think about it.

One can never have just one camera for all.
But that is always GAS talking