Something to Remember
400mm, ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/320, 3 images stitched

Just like that, with the passing of only two months, it seems everyone is jumping on the large-sensor mirrorless camera craze these days! Nikon’s came out with their rendition of the Sony A7 via the Z6 and Z7 with a brand-new mount, Canon is testing the waters with the M50, Zeiss’ recently announced ZX1 puts Lightroom editing right in the camera, and Fuji is even trying to make their quasi-medium format cameras more affordable with the 50R.

Since I have not held any of the new cameras, nor really cared to pay attention to pre-release hands-ons or first-impressions, I cannot really give any informed opinion on the new tech. What I can mention, however, is how glad I am the “big boys” Canon and Nikon finally dove into the pool of full-frame mirrorless that Sony has diligently developed for years now. Any competition brought in from others can only benefit the consumer, and while Sony already pushes the envelope with what a given camera can do at affordable price points (ala A7III), it will be exciting to see what else the company can bring to the table to further separate themselves from the pack. Who knows, computational photography may be well around the corner! And if you don’t know what that is, rest easy, because the big camera companies still don’t seem to get it yet either. 😉

As far as personal photography goes, I still haven’t made it over to downtown Chicago yet for some photowalks (hey, it’s not my fault public transit is beyond shabby here…), though I am slowly working through getting some more test shots for my 400mm f/2.8 review. The lens is a lot easier to use on full-frame due to the larger sensor’s pixels being a bit more forgiving, so longitudinal aberrations aren’t nearly as apparent as they were on my NEX-7/a6500. As an added bonus, the wider field-of-view makes for easy Brenizer-style panoramas (seen above), offering sharp focus detail and a very flat perspective. And before any readers get a bit confused with the title photo, no, I’m not back in Japan, I just finally got around to lugging the 400mm to the Chicago Botanic Garden’s own version of a Japanese garden. I’ll give them some major props for their work here, if you sit back and ignore everyone speaking english all around, you may almost forget you’re still in the States. There will be a few more photos of this area in the 400mm review to come.

Back to a couple things American’s love, though, if anyone is in the Milwaukee area and craving some serious butter-burgers and frozen custard, you’ve got to stop by Kopp’s in Greenfield, WI. For a cool $10 you can get what may be one of the juiciest burgers you’ll ever put in your mouth, along with frozen custard that has no equal (yes, I’m talking to you, Culver’s…). As an added bonus, they have these rather odd German cows out back for decoration. Hey, whatever catches customers’ attention!

The Row
105mm, ISO 100, T8, 1/80

That’s all for this little catch-up post, guys and gals, thanks for stopping by! Though no one knows for sure what the world of mirrorless cameras will bring us now that everyone is in the game, it’s safe to say almost everyone can be happy with at least one of the many choices out there for us today. Get out there and make some photographs, and as always, have a great day!