PITT MEADOWS, BC

Pitt Meadows, BC | Shot on Sony A7s3

 For those who know me a little, then it is no secret that I am a bit of a Canon fanboy. Although I started my photographer's journey wearing Nikon's yellow colours, I quickly switched to Canon as I was dipping my toes into videography. It was a simpler time then, the days when Canon ruled the DLSR world with their legendary 5D Mark 2 (I still own mine). At the time, Sony was relatively insignificant, but they soon jumped into the bigger pool - along with the bigger fish, and they grew fast.

Earlier this year, I was tasked to choose a video system for work. I was torn between the Canon R5 and the Sony A7s3. If my heart was beating R5, my mind was thinking a7s3. Since we needed a tool primarily for video work, I chose Sony as I was afraid the R5 would overheat on me while being on a full-day shoot.

Mid-February, we expected record-breaking cold temperatures in Metro Vancouver, with wind chills around -15 and -25 in the Fraser Valley.

The weekend of Valentine's day was supposed to be warmer with snowfalls. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to try out the Sony A7s3 with the Sigma 24-70 f/2.8 and the Sony 70-200mm f/4 G OSS. I wandered about Pitt Meadows, following the half-frozen river towards Pitt Lake.

It was not the first time I was using a Sony system. We were shooting with A7s2, a73 and Fs700 for most of our commercial work at PaperCrane, and I'd never really enjoyed it. I had difficulties working with the colours once in post-production, I didn't particularly appreciate having to change the battery every 20 minutes on the a7s2; the menus were disorganized and confusing; the display was poor, and the bodies themselves were awkward to hold.

The first impression is important. Picking up a Canon camera and you'll feel instantly at home. The system is working with you, not against you, and you overall feel like you will enjoy shooting with that cool tool.

And so far, I always felt the Sony cameras were doing the exact opposite.

Nonetheless, the great thing about Sony is they never stop innovating, constantly pushing the boundaries of what can be done with a mirrorless camera. On top of that, they seem to listen quite well to criticism and feedback from customers.

After several shoots with the Sony a7s3, I can finally say that I did enjoy shooting with a Sony Camera. It is not perfect, and there is still progress to be made, such as the ergonomics of the body itself and the quality of the back screen (at least it is now a flip screen!)

However, being able to finally shoot 4K (UHD 3840px) at 60 frames per second in 422 10 bits in a small body like the a7s3 is simply amazing. Once brought back in the editing room, working with the dynamic range and colours was phenomenal.

Since I only had the Sony A7s3 with me, I decided to take some photos with it. I turned the dial from video mode to manual photo mode; however, the picture profile stayed on S-Log 3. The actual files were not affected since I shot RAW. Nonetheless, the live viewfinder and previews showed the photos with S-Log3, and once in Lightroom, I discovered all my images at least four stops underexposed. The insane dynamic range of the Sony allowed me to save the details, but I wish the camera would automatically switch off the s-log picture profile when shooting stills.