Holiday Preperations

To badly misquote the Chinese philosopher Laozi.

'Even a journey of a thousand miles begins with deciding what camera to take'

We are off to the Greek island of Symi for two weeks, to the same apartments we stayed in last summer. Then I took my Nikon D700 and five primes and as I was away for only a week no computer. I borrowed some extra memory cards so I was fine.

This year I am planning on taking this set of gear.

Very light! 

On the left is a Nikon D40x with a 18-55mm zoom the other camera is a D70 converted to shoot IR images. The other lens is a 55-200mm VR. 

I will also have my laptop so don't need a large number of cards. 

I loose some capabilities with this set up. The lenses are slow f3.5- f5.6 and the D40x is only usable up to 800iso at a push, also I won't have my fisheye lens. 

But I will gain in other areas. My primes top out at a focal length of 105mm but the telephoto zoom will give me 300mm(e) angle of view. It also has VR so easier to handhold.

The big saving is that it light. The D40x and 2 lenses weigh no more than the D700 and a lens. 

Both cameras have an the same size sensor so I have the same angle of view for both cameras. 

Also like last year I won't have a tripod, as all mine are too heavy and not designed for travel. but I am taking this.

A Manfrotto super clamp and a articulated arm I bought off the internet a couple of years ago. The clamp will attach to a rail or bar, and with the articulated arm I can position the camera easily. I tried attaching a ball head but that setup is very limited on how much levelling I can achieve. That said the arm is slightly less rigid but the lack of righty is outweighed by the extra articulation. This setup would not work well with a D700 due to all the extra weight. 

Also I am taking a different bag this year. Last year I had my Bellingham camera bag that I bought in 1984. This year I am taking a 2001 vintage Lowe Pro stealth reporter. Its better for the laptop and carries more when we get there.

Camera testing

I don't change my cameras very often, but at the moment I am looking at all the camera gear that I have and looking at getting something lighter, as what I have was great when I was working commercially but now is far heavier than I want to carry around.

I have been considering all the options available and on paper the Sony A6300 is looking very promising.

Luckily I have a friend who has just bought an A6000 which is the previous incarnation of the Sony camera and looking at the reviews has a very similar output.

So yesterday I had the change to borrow the camera and run some test shots. the weather was bad so no chance to get out and walk about with the camera.

So it was my usual test image from the backdoor decking looking down the garden.

I then shot the same shot on three cameras. 

Nikon D700 with 24mm f2.8 prime lens

Nikon D40x with 18-50mm kit lens

Sony A6000 with 16-50mm kit lens

The Nikon D700 and Sony images were both with the same angle of view with the D40x slightly less wide. Also the Sony is a 24 megapixel image but the nikons are both around 13 megapixels but all images were resized to the Sony resolution.

Blowing up the centre section of the image was interesting.

Sony A6000

NikonD700

NikonD40x

All image processed through Adobe camera raw. All with similar amounts settings.

My view is that the Sony has the best quality images significantly better than the D700. Also very surprised by the quality of the lens. Most reviewers don't rate the kit lens but to my eye it more that good enough for commercial images. The corners are not as good as the Nikon prime but not far behind and better that expected.

As I only shoot for Alamy picture library now, I only look to what I call the 'Alamy paradigm'. 

The bottom line being if it fulfils the Alamy quality standards the it is good enough for me.

So the Sony will be more camera than I will need.