hill country - PhotoTrice

Shooting the A7II in Luckenbach

Kristi Grider Onstage in Luckenbach
Zuiko 135mm 3.5 @ f3.5

On Independence Day I drove up to Luckenbach with the A7II to shoot some outdoor music performances. To be honest I didn’t have high expectations of being able to use a manual lens to get decent shots. As expected the results were mixed but the manual lens was less of an issue than the camera firmware.

As has been reported numerous times elsewhere the A series cameras insist on using 1/60 second shutter speed when set to aperture priority and auto ISO with manual lenses. That behavior makes shooting any sort of moving subject problematic at best. In most ways the Sony is an outstanding camera but it falls down badly in this situation because you can’t set a minimum shutter speed in aperture mode. It is really too bad and disappointing for such a competent tool to behave this way.

All cameras have quirks and there are ways around the slow shutter speed problem with this one. You just have to change how you work with the camera. There are three variables that can be manipulated on this particular camera to get proper exposure. These are aperture, shutter speed and light sensitivity (ISO). Using some combination of the three variables provides a solution.

Two simple workarounds use either shutter priority or full manual along with auto ISO to achieve a proper result. Both are very similar when using manual lenses. Set the aperture on the lens, select the appropriate shutter speed and allow the camera to work out proper exposure by varying the ISO within a user selected range. As long as the camera can adjust sensitivity to achieve proper exposure you are good to go.

This is not a point and shoot solution. It requires the photographer be able to judge lighting conditions well enough to be able to select a shutter speed that keeps exposure within the ISO range the camera will use. The camera provides all the information you need to get proper exposure right in the viewfinder but the photographer is in control.

The point is that the photographer has to make decisions to ensure that the camera performs correctly to get the desired result. If you are unwilling to control the camera to get proper exposure then don’t shoot with manual lenses.

Contrast

These days most of us live in urban areas with access to every possible consumer product. Even if we live outside the city, internet retailers are there 24/7 to meet every need. Most of us in the developed world have the expectation of living a comfortable life.

In the days BD (before digital) expectations of having a comfortable life were similar to today but the scale of consumer choice was somewhat different. For the most part we made do with goods that were available locally. Our choices were fewer in number but more than adequate. So we thought.

Today there is a simultaneous explosion of access and goods that drives us as consumers. Every possible need is met with multiple choices. Novelty drives our shopping experiences as much as need. In some ways we have too many choices available which makes selecting the best goods nearly impossible. Compared with earlier times I’m not sure whether we are actually better off or not. Regardless I’m happy living in a connected world of endless possibilities.

Old Steel

Heavy vehicles manufactured in Detroit once dominated roads in every part of the world. A few managed to avoid the wrecking yard and now sleep in pastures or beside rural lanes. They have become a kind of nostalgic industrial sculpture to be photographed and remembered. As someone with personal experience of the mid twentieth century I say let them sleep. We of a certain age often insist that our industrial past was a national high water mark. The tools of the past don’t fit the talented hands of the present. Those hands will shape new tools for their world.