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A little night photography and thoughts on Sony A7S


Andy Perrin

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(ok, a LOT of night photography)

 

As previously related on this forum, after many travails, I received my full spectrum conversion of the Sony A7S. At the same time, I bought a Sony ZEISS Sonnar T 55mm f/1.8 ZA FE lens, which was the sharpest fastest lens I could afford, with the intention of doing night photos full spectrum on my walks. The last week I have been wandering around in the wee hours trying it out, with the results below. I have to say, it's amazing to be able to walk around just taking photos hand-held, with no need for a tripod, in full night.

 

It took me quite a bit of experimenting to determine good exposure settings. I found that if I pump the ISO up too high, often I get a blue "amplifier glow" around the bottom left edge of the photo. I'm still trying to figure out the best way of eliminating it. Also, despite the alleged "ISO-less" behavior of the Sony, I found it did make a real difference if I used ISO 52000 versus ISO 10000 even though several reviews allege these to be in the range where it shouldn't matter because the camera is just digitally moving the histogram around instead of actually changing the gain of the amp. Myth busted?

 

The S-Log2 picture profile is handy for framing shots in the dark. It basically just applies an S-shaped gamma curve to the image, which does not affect the RAW. This flattens the contrast in the image, so dark areas are raised up and become easier to see, and highlights are reduced. It's not good for determining exposure in the dark, however! Several times I destroyed a nice photo by forgetting I was in S-log2 mode and underexposing. After a while I got used to the rhythm of switching back and forth. I think this feature might also be handy in UV photos with dark flowers and such.

 

I have to say, having previously seen Andrea and Birna complaining about the Sony user interface, but having the exact opposite experience with my NEX-7 (which has a very efficient button and command layout), I was wondering what the objections were about. Well, sadly I am no longer wondering. Sony managed to utterly ruin what was once a reasonably efficient interface with poorly located, badly labeled buttons and important functions deeply buried in menus inside of menus. After trying to use this disaster for 15 minutes, I got out the manual and started reprogramming buttons. At least you CAN reprogram them!

 

Anyway, on with the photos. Nearly all of them are at F/1.8 for obvious reasons, including why buy such a nice lens if you aren't going to use it opened up? The ISO varies quite a bit in these because I found night in a city is not strictly dark, it's more like you go from very bright areas to very dark ones rapidly. The shutter speed was between 1/20 and 1/30 sec with a couple of exceptions. Saturation was pushed up in all of them (because I enjoy saturated images). Noise removal was with Neat Image plugin in photoshop. White balance was also chosen for artistic merit and a blue night sky, not by any rational procedure.

 

F/7.1 1/30" ISO400 - handheld

post-94-0-07711700-1537423715.jpg

 

F/1.8 1/20" ISO10000 - handheld

post-94-0-32542500-1537423724.jpg

 

F/1.8 1/30" ISO51200 - handheld

post-94-0-11609700-1537423733.jpg

 

F/1.8 1/30" ISO12800 - handheld

post-94-0-25198500-1537423742.jpg

 

F/1.8 1/20" ISO51200 - handheld, path mostly invisible to my eyes except in bright area

post-94-0-08169800-1537423751.jpg

 

F/1.8 1/20" ISO12800 - handheld

post-94-0-38973800-1537423760.jpg

 

F/1.8 1/20" ISO8000 - - handheld. This was the second night of shooting. I became a lot more conservative about upping the ISO unnecessarily.

post-94-0-84625800-1537423771.jpg

 

F/4 0.3" ISO3200 - camera was sitting on the stone cemetery wall.

post-94-0-91094300-1537423783.jpg

 

F/4 0.8" ISO3200 - camera was sitting on the stone cemetery wall.

post-94-0-03822400-1537423796.jpg

 

F/4 0.8" ISO2500 - camera was sitting on the stone cemetery wall.

post-94-0-26542900-1537423807.jpg

 

F/4 1/6" ISO10000 - handheld but stabilized using a convenient traffic light.

post-94-0-29316000-1537423817.jpg

 

F/1.8 1/20" ISO6400 - handheld

post-94-0-96658800-1537423828.jpg

 

F/1.8 1/20" ISO12800 - handheld

post-94-0-13845600-1537423840.jpg

 

F/1.8 1/20" ISO12800 - handheld

post-94-0-75713000-1537423849.jpg

 

F/1.8 1/20" ISO1600 - handheld

post-94-0-67349700-1537423860.jpg

 

F/1.8 1/20" ISO8000 - handheld

post-94-0-22845700-1537423871.jpg

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Very nice shots, Andy! I especially like the long shadows of the trees in the 3rd photo, and the mixed magenta and green tones in the 3rd-from-last one (I'm guessing the grass is flood-lit by LED, hence no IR to make it magenta, whereas the bushes behind have a different type of lighting).
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Andy, thank you for this review of your converted A7S. (And, once again, I'm happy it all worked out.) These Sonys are great cameras once a person can convince themselves that the awful menus can be dealt with. They can, but it takes some dedication. Reprogramming buttons is a very good way to tackle the A7 cams. (I had to make notes though to remind myself which does what and why I did it that way. :D )

 

Your night images are quite interesting. This is a great series, very creative. I like the 3rd one of the student (presumed) walking across a campus. I like those old headstones with stars in the sky. And how charming to find a night bunny sitting so prettily on the sidewalk in an urban area casting its little street light shadow!

 

The high ISOs are impressive, aren't they? If I think back just a few years, using any ISO beyond 800 created a noisy mess. Not so these days with an A7S or any of its friends. (Or from the higher level Nikons.) I've never minded a bit of grainy noise. But color (luminance) noise is simply awful.

 

We'll all be looking forward to seeing more full spec night walks. Can't wait to see how some snow scenes look. B)

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Thanks Andrea!

 

I like the 3rd one of the student (presumed) walking across a campus.

My favorite also. It is not a student or a campus, though! It’s a random pedestrian walking beside the lake in the other photos. I was facing away from the lake in this case. The view in the opposite direction is the castle-like St John’s Seminary over the lake.

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