One of the strong points for the Sony A7RII camera is that many buttons and settings are customizable. Here's how I've setup my camera: Custom Buttons Control Wheel: Not Set (too easy to accidentally hit) C1: White Balance C2: ISO C3: Eye AF C4: AF/MF Ctrl Toggle Center Button: Focus Magnifier Left Button: Drive Mode Right Button: Focus Area Down Button: Focus Settings AEL Button: AF On (I use back button focus) AF/MF Button: AF/MF Ctrl Toggle Focus Hold Button: Focus Hold Function Menu - ...
Sony A7R II News, Links, & FAQs
Last Updated July 2, 2015I'm very excited about this camera and I'm almost certainly going to switch to Sony from my Canon setup when it becomes available. I'll keep updating this post as new information about the camera comes out. Pricing & Availability Retail cost $3200 Available in August Preorders from B&H starting June 17 Official Information Press release Specifications Sony Product Page Sample Images Landscape shot with 16-35mm FE f/4 (1920 x 1080) Field of irises ...
OWC ThunderBay 4 Thunderbolt Enclosure Review
The OWC ThunderBay 4 is a Thunderbolt 2 hard disk enclosure that holds up to 4 drives. The enclosure does not have hardware RAID support (although this is possible with software) and the disks appear individually to the operating system. In other words this is a JBOD ("just a bunch of disks") enclosure. Note that the "ThunderBay 4" is an updated version of the "ThunderBay IV" enclosure. The primary (and perhaps only) difference is that the enclosure now supports Thunderbolt 2 connections. I ...
Silverfast Resolution Target for Measuring Scanner Performance
I recently borrowed a Silverfast resolution target to measure the performance of my scanners. The target is a slide that is printed with a series of black bars which get progressively smaller and closer together (the pattern is based on the USAF-1951 test pattern). The slide costs approximately $60 at B&H Photo. You scan the target and read off the group and element number where the gap between the bars is just discernable. Based on the group/element you look up the resolution from a chart. My ...
Canon 70-200mm f/4 L IS Lens Review
I've had this lens for several years but only recently decided to test it formally so that I could compare it with my 70-300 f/4-5.6 L lens. During this time, I shot thousands of travel images and it was one of my most used lenses during my trip to Bhutan. The lens's fast autofocus, constant f/4 aperture, and light weight made it an ideal travel lens and it yielded many great pictures of traditional dancers at the Tsechu festivals. Physically, the lens is 3" in diameter and 6.8" in length (Figure 2). ...
Canon 70-300mm f/4-5.6 L IS Lens Review
When I first heard that Canon was going to release a new 70-300mm zoom lens, I wasn't very excited as Canon already had a number of zooms covering this range. When I heard that Canon was going to price it at $1600 for a variable aperture lens (f/4-5.6) I thought they were completely nuts. Up until this point I had been using the 70-200 f/4 zoom and the 70-300 f/4-5.6 non-L lens to cover my telephoto needs. However, I was not happy with this combination: The 70-300 f/4-5.6 IS non L lens did not have ...
Gitzo GT3541LS Carbon Fiber Tripod
I've been using the tripod for over a year now and it has become my main support system. It's very sturdy and can hold whatever load I've thrown at it, but it's not so heavy that I can't hike significant distances with it. It's also tall enough so that I don't need to crouch over if I am using the tripod on a hillside or on other uneven terrain. The tripod has four leg sections and is made out of carbon fiber. The tripod is part of Gitzo's systematic line which essentially means that you can replace the ...
Acratech Leveling Base
The Acratech leveling base is designed to make leveling the top of your tripod extremely easy and quick. The base has a ball and socket mechanism so that you can tilt it several degrees in any direction to compensate for uneven ground without having to make minute adjustments to the tripod legs. You might be wondering why you would need a leveling base, especially if you are using a ballhead where you can quickly point the camera in any direction. The main reason is that you may need to pan your ...
Printing Costs for the HP Designjet Z3200
Since acquiring my HP printer over a year ago, I've made hundreds of prints and gone through multiple rolls of paper. This gives me a pretty big data set on which to compute my actual printing costs and the numbers work out to approximately $1.76 per square foot. This cost can be broken down into ink, print heads, and paper as follows: Ink $0.83 / sq. ft. Print heads $0.05 / sq. ft. Paper $0.88 / sq. ft. Total $1.76 / sq. ft. These numbers are based on the following assumptions Ink ...
Hasselblad H4D Review
Recently, I attended a Hasselblad workshop which focused on their H-system of digital medium format cameras. During the workshop we were given access to the newest H4D cameras and a comprehensive set of lenses. Two of the workshop organizers, Oliver Klink and Stephen Johnson, were nature photographers who personally shot with the Hasselblad. We also had a very knowledgable staff member from Hasselblad, Eric Peterson, helping us as well. My main motivation was to see if using medium format digital is ...