Ah, the first musings of the year. I just landed in Lisbon after visiting Mississippi for my Mom’s 70th birthday (Happy Birthday Mom!). Portugal is the first stop on a rather long journey through Europe till March 16th. So there probably won’t be many posts till I’m back in New York.

Without further ado, let’s get to it!

GEAR TALK

Panasonic’s Upcoming S1RII Camera

The Panasonic S1R II. Brilliant specs, attractive price, and looks sexy. I’m gonna pass on it.

Panasonic is set to announce their all-new S1R II (or whatever it will be called) today. So far, the specs look very impressive. 44 Megapixels, Dual Native ISO, 8K Open Gate recording, 40fps electronic shutter, 10fps mechanical shutter, internal RAW video recording, 4K 120fps without a crop, multi-angle flippy screen, and it even has tally lights on the front and read of the camera for video recording.

Oh and the kicker, it will support tethered shooting into Capture One! As someone who has ranted about this ad naseum for YEARS, this is a welcome addition.

And it will be priced around $3000! That’s a lot of camera for the price.

Essentially like combining an A7RV and FX3 into a single camera. Quite impressive indeed.

But I won’t be buying one.

I said in my Fall of Panasonic post, that they could release a super impressive camera as sort of a Hail Mary and completely knock everyone’s socks off. This may be that camera. It will probably sell well and you will see dozens of posts and YouTube videos with shills saying how they’re switching to Lumix and selling all their gear. But in that post I also said, other companies will likely counter with an impressive camera of their own in due time.

We can’t keep jumping between camera brands every time something new is released. It’s exhausting and EXPENSIVE. And does it even make you a better artist? If you’re a hobbyist then it probably doesn’t matter.

My A7RV’s do practically everything I could want them to do and Sony’s ecosystem is so mature. There’s a lens for practically everything and they’re amazing. Panasonic still hasn’t updated many of it’s premium lenses, instead relying on Sigma to make up for gaps in their selection. Not to mention their lenses are still obnoxiously big and heavy. Compare their 70-200 f/2.8 to Sony’s or Canon’s.

And their customer service is terrible. That hasn’t changed.

It makes no sense for me to jump ship. And that’s probably the case for most people. Additionally, I don’t want to reward a company who dragged their feet for years before implementing many of the features working professional photographers needed. While I understand demands of the market change and many clients are requesting video in some capacity, Panasonic has focused much of its attention on the video segment of it’s customer base. The photographer side has seemed like an afterthought, although they marketed the cameras for photographers. Having Capture One tethering support should have been a day one thing for the original S1R camera. Now they finally make the change.

Too little, too late for me. I won’t be returning.

But props to them for making a very impressive camera!

Passing on Medium Format and Loving the A7RV

Portrait of the stunning Iryna captured on the Sony A7RV. Why do I *need* medium format again?

My love affair with the A7RV continues.

I recently had an opportunity to re-invest in medium format and decided against it. I was looking through some recent images taken on my A7RV and was amazed at the quality, especially when compared to some medium format images I’d taken. Medium format image quality is very impressive, but there’s more to enjoying a camera than image quality alone. The A7RV is just so versatile and suited for practically every scenario I find myself in. Be it portraits, headshots, event photography, and even when traveling it captures beautiful images and simplifies the process. I never really want for anything.

So instead of making a dumb financial decision, I decided to invest a little more into my current system. I sold my Sigma 85mm f/1.4 DG DN (a lens I never liked - the distortion and vignetting is terrible), Sigma 50mm f/1.2 DG DN, and my beloved Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 (I’ll miss that wonderful little lens) and invested in the new Sony 28-70 f/2 GM and Sony 85mm f/1.4 II GM.

Immediately I noticed a difference in quality. Especially for the 85mm. It doesn’t have any weird distortion that needs to be corrected in the software or vignetting on the edges of the frame. It’s a pristine, perfect lens. Something that rarely happens, a model I was photographing immediately noticed the difference using the 85mm. She loved the way she looked when photographed with that lens. She goes, “Wow, the previous shots are great, but these just look amazing! What did you do? Did you change the lighting or something?” I told her I switched lenses to the new 85mm and she says, “Shoot me with that one! There’s something about these I really like. I don’t know what it is, but the images look so crisp and lifelike.” A glowing review if I’ve ever heard one.

Back in the day, I used to have many more prime lenses in addition to a couple of zooms, but over the years after reflecting on the way I work, I only buy lenses that make sense for what I do. I used to always have a 50mm in my bag, either a cheap one or premium, expensive one. These days it’s hard to convince me to buy an expensive 50mm lens. The Sigma 50mm f/1.2 was great, but I barely used it. I just don’t shoot the focal length enough to justify keeping it. And why get a super expensive 50mm lens when I can spend a little bit more and get a zoom that covers than range and also gives be beautiful background separation? So I went with the 28-70 f/2 and I love it. It’s a marvel of technology. It feels like a collector’s item lol.

With those 2 lenses I can do the majority of my work without issue. I have other lenses to cover some other needs when the situation calls for it and with that collection, I’m content with my kit.

MUSINGS

My European tour will include Porto (Portugal), Barcelona(Spain), Dusseldorf (Germany), Prague(Czech Republic), and Paris(France). I enjoy traveling across Europe but it can be quite tiring hopping from country to country in 4-5 day intervals. Going frequently in and out of Ubers, navigating airports, and going through security checkpoints does get old after you’ve done it a number of times. When I toured back in October I wasn’t as prepared but I think this trip will be much smoother logistically. Proper planning prevents piss poor performance as my Dad would say.

I’m mulling over having my first portrait photography workshop this Spring. I’m not sure where I’ll hold it yet but Paris seems to be a great place to do it. Now I have to develop the program, workshop goals, etc. I think it’s time to share some of my knowledge with the next generation of passionate photographers. If you’re interested let me know and I’ll put you on the waitlist for announcements!

My rent increased in NY. Which to me is another sign it’s about time to call it a day in New York. I don’t enjoy spending considerable time there but I do have a great client base I don’t want to lose. I have a year to plan but I want to create a way I can maintain my client base while not having to be in NY either in terms of where I live or in a full-time capacity. Gonna have to rack my brain to come up with a solution.

I’m tired after the long flight from the US and have a shoot at 11AM (It’s 9:AM here). Flying internationally from Jackson, MS to Lisbon meant I had to connect in Atlanta, then fly to JFK in New York, then off to Lisbon. So yeah, I’m a bit beat already. But I gotta down some coffee and go on with the day!

All for now. More to come!