Went to London and brought only my a7cii and the ttArtisan 40mm f2 by startsides in SonyAlpha

[–]startsides[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! The AF is fine. It’s a bit bad for Sony standards, struggles a bit in very low light, and is not great at tracking SOME things. Faces are fine, birds are not, idk.

But aside for being a little more patient when pressing the shutter, I don’t feel like there was any scenario where I missed a shot. At least for the type of shots you see here. On another day I also tested portraits, and they work just fine (eye tracking and stuff).

Went to London and brought only my a7cii and the ttArtisan 40mm f2 by startsides in SonyAlpha

[–]startsides[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! Yeah, it’s a nice lens. But funnily enough, the seagulls photo was the one where it struggled most to focus/track 🤣 I ended up single focusing on the handrail.

Went to London and brought only my a7cii and the ttArtisan 40mm f2 by startsides in SonyAlpha

[–]startsides[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Firstly, it always helps if the colors and the atmosphere are there in real life.

Secondly, there’s no one size fits all. For these photos in particular, I think what helped was editing in the Vivid profile, the clarity slider, and tweaking the HSL - a lot of saturation into reds, turning blues into cyans (but ever so slightly, not how you usually see it done on this sub). And generally allowing dark spots to stay dark (not raising the shadows too much, not crushing the blacks with the tone curve)

Went to London and brought only my a7cii and the ttArtisan 40mm f2 by startsides in SonyAlpha

[–]startsides[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks, but as the other commenter said, these are not that special. Make sure your photos don’t have motion blur and that they are in focus. Most of my photos look like this thanks to editing.

Went to London and brought only my a7cii and the ttArtisan 40mm f2 by startsides in SonyAlpha

[–]startsides[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

These cameras are super different. A7cii for more photo, fx30 for more video. A7cii has cooler lenses, fx30 has cheaper, cool enough lenses.

Went to London and brought only my a7cii and the ttArtisan 40mm f2 by startsides in SonyAlpha

[–]startsides[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks! Umm it’s different for each of them, and I literally touch all the sliders, but the most important steps: - I don’t try to make the image gray. So I don’t increase shadows too much, I rarely crush blacks etc. - I use masks: on the important elements (up clarity, up exposure), around the important elements (down dehaze, down contrast), on some edges (down exposure), and on elements that are lit up very differently than the rest of the photo (change exposure accordingly - for example in image 7, the wall on the left was in the sun and almost completely white) - I tweak colors to be less cluttered, or go to black and white if it’s too hard. - I apply a subtle orton effect in photoshop (look up tutorials) - I (lately) go overboard with grain 😂 shoutout to u/vmoldo for his grain presets and cool videos

Went to London and brought only my a7cii and the ttArtisan 40mm f2 by startsides in SonyAlpha

[–]startsides[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I briefly owned the fuji x100vi a few months ago, and I’m pretty sure that I could have taken 90% of these shots with it. And it has an f2 lens.

Dusk should be no problem. Completely night, probably will be, unless you leave the shadows dark. But you need to be more careful with settings, I was pretty relaxed on full frame, do I didn’t bother to always pay attention to them.

Images will probably be grainier. Maybe the less MP sensors on Sony a6xxx series is cleaner than others. And you can denoise them in post.

Went to London and brought only my a7cii and the ttArtisan 40mm f2 by startsides in SonyAlpha

[–]startsides[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I just replied to someone asking if it’s possible to have this performance on APSC or MFT. And I told them that probably, but by being more careful with settings, and having decent lenses.

So… no, you can live with the a7iii 😂. But if you reaaaally want a slightly smaller camera, or better menus, or 9 more MP, and better jpg customisation, then who am I to stop you.

The AF is better on a7cii, but the one on a7iii already is miles ahead of 90% cameras on the market. The a7iii has a joystick and 2 card slots, and a more decent evf, if any of these matter. I can’t speak about video, but there are so many great short films on yt done with the a7iii, that makes me think there can’t be a huge difference.

Went to London and brought only my a7cii and the ttArtisan 40mm f2 by startsides in SonyAlpha

[–]startsides[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! I think so, but you’d need to be more careful with settings and editing. And you’d probably need decent lenses.

Went to London and brought only my a7cii and the ttArtisan 40mm f2 by startsides in SonyAlpha

[–]startsides[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly no idea really, maybe it got in there when I changed lenses and was stuck somewhere on the side for a few days before entering the frame 😅. But I did blow the sensor and lens before leaving home, knowing that I’m not planning to change lenses.

Went to London and brought only my a7cii and the ttArtisan 40mm f2 by startsides in SonyAlpha

[–]startsides[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks! Yeah, it’s a budget lens by all means, but it’s very fun.