Where To In 2020 Pt 3 - Location

 
Olympus E-M1, m.Zuiko 12-50 f3.5-6.3 EZ

Exploring new locations was a major part of my 2019 shooting. I've now seen a lot more of Southern Ontario than I'd ever had prior to 2019, especially in the Kawartha's and Muskokas. In 2020 I want to extend that to exploring areas I've not been before, especially east towards Ottawa, and west past London.

In addition, there's a number of areas I really want to see near where I've been before, especially northeast of Peterborough and northeast of Huntsville. Warsaw Caverns, Petryglyphs and many other spots I drove by getting to somewhere else.

I'm pretty tapped out on the inner GTA, After 20 years of living here and 16 years of shooting the area, I'm just not that interested anymore, but there's a lot of Ontario yet to see. I expanded my photography a lot by travelling this year, lets see what I can do next year.

Where To In 2020 Pt 2 - Technique

 
Sony A7 II, Nikkor 105mm f2.5 AI-S


There's three areas where I really want to work on my technique in 2020.

The first is long exposure work. I've not done much in this space although I dabbled a little bit in it this year, but I really want to work on this area in 2020. I love the sort of look you can get with long exposures and look forward to seeing what I can do with it.

The second area I want to work on is using tripods & other camera supports to extend the angles I can work from. Shooting at low/odd angles is very hard at times when handholding, but a tripod or other camera support can allow this, especially if combined with remote tethering to a smartphone. Again, this is something I dabbled in during 2019 and want to take it further.

And the third area is filters. I've traditionally been very light on my filter use, but I really want to see what I can achieve with ND & ND grads as well as an increased use of polarizers. As I'm shooting more landscape work, these are key tools in achieving the best results and I need to develop my use of them.

Where To In 2020 Pt1 - Gear

 
Sony A7 II, FE 28-70 f3.5-5.6 OSS


In 2020 I hope to concentrate on the sort of gear I've long ignored. Specifically non-system specific accessories like building up a proper square filter system (or two), improving my camera support systems and revisiting my bag setup.

Specifically I need a good 85mm square filter system for ND's and ND grads, likely will try and leverage my Cokin holders but I probably will also need to invest in a 100mm or 150mm system once I acquire a good modern UWA.

In terms of camera support, I currently have a good ultralight setup in my Manfrotto 290 and a small Sirui head. I need to upgrade the head on my main legs to an Arca-Swiss design (likely a larger Sirui unit) and also want to acquire a Platypod Ultra (plus head) for low-angle and odd surface shooting (they're cheap and really cool little units)

And in the case of bags & carry gear I need at least 2 and probably 3 new bags. First off my Domke that I use as a briefcase and street carry setup needs replacing. It's old, worn out & doesn't fit my kit. I'll need a new one that can handle my work laptop, my usual street setup (body plus 2-3 small lenses) and a lunchbag. I also need a small backpack for day hikes which can carry my system, tripod and food/water/jacket and eventually a larger pack for longer hikes and overnighting. I also want a Cotton Carrier or Peak Design clip setup so I can hike with my camera clipped on my chest for easy access.

On lenses, I'm planning on rounding out my current Nikon manual focus kit, which is 24, 28, 35, 50, 55 macro, 105, 200 and 300 right now. Need something wider (or two somethings), plus a couple gaps filled in the mid-telephoto range (either side of 105). I also need to expand my AF setup, which right now is just the 28-70. Eventually that will be a full kit, likely a mix of adapted Canon EF glass and native FE glass. Not sure exactly how it will look, but a 18, 20 or 21mm prime plus a 70-200/4L non-IS will be the start of it, after that I'll expand as needed.I may get the Commlite F mount adapter to see how AF F mount kit works via that adapter.

As to bodies, nothing planned, although the right deal on a Z6, S1 or A7III might tempt me around bonus time to expand my system. I just can't justify a high-MP body for my current uses, much as I'd like one (we'll see when I start seeing A7RII's below $1200CDN). I really would like to end the year shooting much of the same stuff I started it with. The good thing about most of my system being F mount right now is that the body doesn't really matter as long as I have a workable adapter, only one of my lenses is native and it would stay with the A7II anyways.

2019 in Review

 
Sony A7 II, FE 28-70 f3.5-5.6 OSS


 So 2019 is a wrap, and where am I photographically?

I started the year off in a dead spot, I'd sold my A7II in fall 2018 and basically didn't shoot anything until the beginning of February 2019. At that point I sold my Zeiss 85/1.4 ZF.2 and used the money to (briefly) acquire a D7100 to try and kickstart my shooting. I quickly discovered that as a everyday camera it just didn't work and returned it and got a Fuji X-T1 and 16-50 instead. That got me out & shooting steadily until late spring. It was a great little kit, but shooting dropped off through May, June & July as conditions moved from the sort of weather that was best for Street to more landscape like conditions and I got bogged down with work. I did shoot around 2200 shots with the X-T1 and got some great results.

At the end of July I traded my Fuji kit in on a Olympus E-M5II and some lenses, that triggered me to get out and shoot more, and to do more nature & landscape work, triggering one of the most productive photographic periods I've had and I took around 7800 images between late July and the end of October. However I was still not entirely happy with what I was getting from the body and decided to make a fourth system shift and sold the Olympus stuff to acquire another A7II, this time with the kit 28-70 OSS lens. While I'd not entirely bonded with the A7II when I owned it in 2018, this time things went somewhat smoother and I've shot as much with it as I did with the X-T1 in my first two months of ownership, around 1600 images. I intend to keep the A7II for the near future and slowly build out my kit.

So where does that leave my Goals for 2019

1. Way more than 365 images produced. I still have 250+ curated images in my to be edited collection. Rating: Exceeded
2. Average daily views on Flickr are floating just below 2000, I'm very active on Fred Miranda. Rating: Successful
3. So many new locations photographed that I lost count by the end of August. Rating: Wildly Successful

And the 11526 images in my library exceed the goal of 7220 images by more than 50%. Rating: Wildly Successful.

Additionally, with 16 images for 2019 in Flickr Explore, I set a new personal best (beating the 14 I had in 2007)

So all in all, a very successful year for me photographically.

A Few thoughts on FF Mirrorless Today

 
Sony A7 II, Nikkor 105mm f2.5 AI-S


So we're at the end of the first full year of competition in the FF mirrorless market. So where are we.

Sony remains the clear leader, having benefited from the competition largely targeting their long-running A7 mkII series in terms of features and performance, despite Sony launching the A7RIII in late 2017 and the A7III in 2018. Now 2019 saw the A7RIV and A9II arrive, and the A7RIV certainly sets a new standard for high-MP bodies, although the A9II truly is little more than an optimization of the A9 design, adding little, but removing a lot of the rough edges of the first generation model.

Sony continues to both round out their lens line and garner increased 3rd party support, especially with Tamron truly coming into the game with their new lens lineup (up to 5 FF lenses, with 6+ more coming) and Samyang turning into a real player in the AF market.

Nikon seems to have quietly become the default alternative. Their bodies are good, but look deliberately designed to come in below the equivalent DSLR body. That works OK with the D850 vs Z7 mix, but the D750 is so much cheaper than the Z6, and arguably more camera in most regards (except video). The lens lineup is steadily growing and aside from the silly 58mm f0.95 it's a very sane and well laid out lens line and growing steadily. The new Z50 is to the D7500 much as the Z6 is to the D750. Nice little body, but some obvious deliberate limitations on features vs a body which is now decidedly cheaper. The FTZ is a solid adapter, but Nikon should do a cheaper ETZ adapter that only works with E lenses to drive adoption of their E lenses on Z mount. This would match up particularly well with exotic lenses like the 105/1.4E and the PF superteles. Nikon really needs to do something to start driving 3rd party support. The Tamron & Samyang small lenses would be great additions for the system.

Canon has launched a dream lens line for the serious shooter, and paired it with two bodies that don't make sense in context. I think their basic RP body is a really nice alternative to the A7II as a discount body, but it lacks a really decent set of kit lenses to match up (Sony at least has the 28-70, but lacks a FE 70-xxx lens to match). The R body seems kinda like a UI test mule that Canon stuffed into production to meet an unexpected release timeline. Not bad, but some odd UI bits that aren't well integrated (mostly the touch bar) and it's otherwise a slightly crippled 5DIV. Canon needs a body that matches their lenses and lenses to match the RP body. Canon's also seen the beginnings of 3rd party support thanks to their reuse of a lot of EF mount engineering.

Panasonic launched 3 bodies, matching Sony's generalist, high-res and video specialized A7 variants. And those bodies promptly sank out of sight almost immediately. The bodies are well designed, but huge, the lenses are huge and insanely priced (and are still cheaper than the alternative Leica lenses) and the lack of any usable Continuous AF at a point where the primary differentiating performance factor in mirrorless is continuous AF performance results in a very good system that just couldn't get any traction.

Sigma did join the market with a very nice little video-oriented body also in L mount, a first for Sigma (best known for their terrible SA mount cameras). And this time it's actually using a proper Bayer sensor instead of the Foveon stuff they were peddling before. Leica also released a new body, but it's basically a SL body with a Panasonic S1R stuffed in, although with Panasonic & Sigma now in L mount, Leica's offerings more practical now and while overpriced the Panasonic lenses are much more reasonable than Leica's own.

Where does that leave me?

Sony for the foreseeable future, although I could transition to Nikon at some point if I don't get too deep into native FE glass. Who knows, I like the Nikon ergos better, but overall the Sony ecosystem fits my needs better for now.

December Update

Sony A7II, FE 28-70 f3.5-5.6 OSS

The Beaver River in Cannington, ON, frozen over.

I'm up around 900 shots on the A7II at this point, and overall it's working out for me fairly well. Very definitely in the comfort zone now, but that was pretty much immediate since it's only been a year since I sold my previous one.

I've had it for 6 weeks or so, so at 900 images I'm a little light on shooting activity compared to what I've done over the summer and early/mid-fall, but that's mostly due to work and the usual late fall blahs. I'm busy, it's cold & dark after work and it's mostly been a dead zone in terms of subject matter until the snow fell. I just have no interest in shooting bare trees and brown soil.

Overall most shooting has been with the kit lens, with some using my Nikkor 50/1.8D and Nikkor 55/3.5 Micro. I have got out my other manual lenses a little, and finally got some time with my Nikkor-H 28/3.5, Super-Takumar 35/3.5, Nikkor-S.C 5cm f1.4 LTM and ZOOM-Nikkor 50-135/3.5 AI-S.

I do like working with the A7II and manual primes. I find the FE 28-70 kit zoom to be acceptable, but there's no love there (nor hate). The 50-135 really sucks to work with. It's actually pretty good in terms of IQ, but the long minimum focus distance everywhere except 50mm, the horrid zoom slop, even for a push-pull zoom and how finicky it can be for focus just makes the experience of using it to be a right PITA. Add in that there's no IBIS unless I'm willing to accept the crapshoot of the IBIS setting and zoom focal length not matching and the end result is I need to replace it with something, or ideally a few somethings.

The ideal replacements would be a 70-200/4 AF for zoom work (likely the Canon L non-IS) and 85, 100/105 and 135mm primes for manual focus use. I'll likely start with either a 100/2.8 Series E or a SMC Takumar 135/3.5, then get the zoom, then fill out the range.

I also need a UWA option. My original plan was the upcoming Tamron 20/2.8, however it looks like the manual focus experience for that lens is going to suck (based on the new 35/2.8 and 24/2.8 reviews) so I may just get a Nikkor 20 AI-S instead. Don't really need AF for that lens anyways.

Winter on the Gull

 
Sony A7II, FE 28-70 f3.5-5.6 OSS


This colourful shot was from my first real photo ramble with the A7II, taken in Minden on the Gull River in the Kawarthas.

I only took about 200 shots on this drive, but that was a combination of not passing any good hiking spots and general winter limits, plus a relatively short drive (left in mid-morning rather than well before sunrise). I was shooting from the car mostly, ie stop, get out, grab a few shots, get back in and drive on. That tends to result in less shots compared to my other style of photo ramble, where I'm doing a fair bit of hiking outside the car. I tend to shoot a lot when hiking, but only grab 3-4 shots per stop when doing the drive+shoot style ramble.