Last year I put together a bunch of long form Machine Elf videos for those who like to have something audio/visual running for a few hours at a time. Today I’m taking that a step further and, if it works as planned/tested, running now, and for at least the next 24hrs is a live stream of Machine Elf content on YouTube. You can watch it over here:
Enjoy!
Just like when I was playing a little with Fuji cameras to see what they might do for my workflow, I spent some time with the Medium Format Hasselblad H5D. Wow that thing was huge and being a little crazy I decided that a trip across the world including India, the Middle East and Europe (a good chunk by train) with the family was an ideal situation for it. It did give me a lot to think about in terms of what I needed or wanted in a camera system, and it also created some epic images.
Next up as I wander through my past lives camera wise was the first refresh of the Sony a7R range, the a7R Mark 2 which joined me, early on in its time for a trip to a wintery Japan.
As well as the a7R series from Sony, I’ve dabbled in a few other a7 models along the way. The a7S was a particularly interesting experiment. For those who don’t remember (or know) the S series is (was?) Sony’s twist on the full frame mirrorless range which prioritised low light performance over resolution. The sensor may “only” have been 12MP but the benefits for both stills and video in low light from this alternate design were huge. I had it out with me in Antarctica where it created some cool shots, but it was probably this one from Africa which most stands out in the portfolio.
The NEX-7 was awesome. It went all over the place with me, even shot a campaign for Air New Zealand with it but it was always a steppingstone for Sony taking them towards full frame mirrorless and for me that meant the a7R. Here it is, doing its thing, in Antarctica.
In the latest post about my journey through different camera bodies I mentioned yesterday that I buy my own kit, which has the benefit I don’t need to be concerned about the wants and needs (or restrictions) of brands. I do however sometime borrow some kit to try out and see if it suits me. One such occasion was with the Fuji X-T2 and it didn’t quite go as smoothly as I’d hoped… or more to the point as smoothly as Fuji might have wanted. I’d been out to Burning Man with the X-Pro2 the year before and it was good, and I wanted to see a little more from the range so decided in 2017 to try the X-T2 and take it to Burning Man as well. I felt I was pretty clear about the stress it would be under and the environment out there… but it would be fair to say that Fuji were not exactly enamoured with the dusty condition it returned in. On the plus side, the images were great, and it handled the extremes really well from a reliability point of view!
(Side note, not the worst camera mishap I’ve had… that probably goes to a Hasselblad. More about that in a few days!)
I’ve long said that I’ll always lean towards the tool that gets the job done in the way I want. I don’t get camera bodies from the various manufacturers, at least not to keep, and buy what I use. So along the way I’ve tested out a few things like the X-Pro2 which went to Burning Man with me in 2016.
Finishing up the cropped Sony range, for me, was the A6400 in Africa…
It was Africa for the A6000 series and Arizona/Utah for the NEX-6…
The NEX-7 was my main camera from that series, but I did dabble with others from the Sony cropped mirrorless range. Like the A6000 which was invaluable on my trips to Africa when paired with the 150-600 lens…
