Tests

Last week, I did something that I don't do nearly enough of anymore. I grabbed my camera, jumped in my car, and headed out to take pictures.

And I know what you're thinking: Ross, you and DW seem to head out all the time to capture photos of birds and wildlife. But this time, I wasn't going out on some nature trail: I was going downtown.

Apart from photographing nature—and that one time where I tried some studio photography—I haven't gotten to know my Sony α6700 for any other settings. And as I explained last week, I have my camera set up so that I only have to turn a custom dial and I'm ready to go bird-nerding.

Bird-nerding mode on my Sony α6700.

I wanted to see what the α6700 could do when I have no subject recognition turned on and when I was controlling the aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. I also wanted to see how good (or bad) the kit 16–50mm lens was; after all, I had only really used it a couple of times, while I was waiting for my 70–350mm lens, and I was more concerned with getting a decent exposure than in worrying about the quality of the glass.

One of my favourite downtown locations is the Glebe. There are so many quaint shops and historic buildings, and there's lots of traffic.

And people. Not that I was necessarily thinking of capturing people.

I parked the car on Fifth Avenue and walked up to Bank. It's been a long time since I've spent any time at this intersection and I can't get over the fact that the building that housed The Arrow & Loon has been knocked down to make way for condos. It makes me worry that this old neighbourhood may lose its character.

I walked to Fourth Avenue, where I decided I would catch some slowed-down traffic passing through the intersection. Almost immediately as I started setting up my tripod, a man approached me with a smile. He asked me something like, "What subjects are inspiring you this evening?"

"I don't know," I said, "for now, I just want to capture light trails of the moving traffic."

"I'm a photographer, myself," he said. "I was just curious." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a brochure-sized piece of paper. Handing it to me, he said, "I'm having a show in just over a week. If you're interested, I'd love to see you there."

His name is Claude Latour and he is an artist. His show, Makwa's Blessings, opens this evening at Patrick Gordon Framing, on Elm Street, and runs until the end of June. Check it out.

When he continued on his way, I framed my first shot. I placed the camera in Manual mode and set the ISO to 125. I slowed the shutter speed to a second and, using the view screen to guide me, adjusted the aperture until I had an exposure that wasn't too dark or that wouldn't blow out anything. And because I don't have a remote shutter release, I set the camera to a two-second delay so that there wouldn't be any shake as I snapped the picture.

Here's what I got.

Sony α6700 | 16mm | f/16 | 1 sec. | ISO 125

I wasn't crazy about the composition, with the emptiness of Fourth Avenue, so I moved further up Bank Street and recomposed the shot. This time, I moved closer to the street and included a fire hydrant in the shot to fill the otherwise empty space.

Sony α6700 | 16mm | f/16 | 1 sec. | ISO 125

Because the camera has built-in image stabilization, I wanted to see how I could hand-hold it in low light and still get a sharp image. I placed the camera against a shop window and snapped at 1/20^th of a second. Even though the lens was set at 16mm and falls within the range of hand-holding, I don't like to shoot slower than 1/60^th of a second without a tripod, especially in low light.

But it worked out just fine.

Sony α6700 | 16mm | f/3.5 | 1/20 sec. | ISO 125

I moved up to Third Avenue and set up for another intersection shot, but this time I wanted to see if I could capture people moving as well as light trails from cars. I made an adjustment to the camera settings so that I could touch the part of the screen where I wanted the camera to focus, and instead of pressing the shutter button when I wanted to take a shot, I tapped the virtual button on the view screen.

Sony α6700 | 21mm | f/22 | 2 sec. | ISO 125

From here, I walked back the way I came and continued, at Lansdowne, to cross Queen Elizabeth drive and stand along the edge of the Rideau Canal, where I took photos of the Bank Street Bridge—which I shared for this week's Wordless Wednesday.

I have to say that I'm impressed with the Sony α6700 so far. It's easy to use, compact, and intuitive with its screen controls, and the results aren't bad at all. I'll definitely be using it for more images than just photographing birds.

Will it replace my Nikon D750? Probably not but you never know. I should do some direct comparisons.

Later today, I'm heading to the Laurentians, where DW and I are joining some friends for a four-day, 200K cycling adventure, and I've packed the α6700 for nature photography as well as doing some vlogging for my YouTube channel.

And I'm confident that the tests I've done in preparation mean that I'll have no problems at all.

Happy Friday!