Bracklesham Bay
Posted: Tue 18 Sep 2018, 14:15
The remnants of Hurricane Helene blew into the UK overnight and come this morning the strong winds brought out some intrepid kite and wind surfers in Bracklesham Bay. I spoke to one of the wind surfers after he had made it back onto the shore and he said that it had been exhilarating, if tiring. He said that he had only come back onto dry land for a rest and was planning tp go out again later on.
I knew that there would be a lot of spray, so I chose my camera with some care although it turned out that my preparations were insufficient. I took a Sony A7 Mk II with a Canon EF 24-105 lens attached. Both have some weather sealing and the lens had the benefit of a filter for some added protection. A Sigma MC-11 adapter did the duties for the translation between the Canon and Sony systems. As soon as I got onto the beach, I knew that I had selected the wrong setup.
The Sony gets through batteries almost like no other camera I know*. There is also significant battery drain when it is not being used. I had shot it a couple of days previously at which point it still had quite a lot of juice left. I turned it on and found that it was down to 19%, which ended up being 9% even with sparing use. I knew that the AF also had some shortcomings, but this would not have been an issue with the static subjects I had been anticipating . A couple of times I missed some action simply because the camera did not focus quickly enough. The other issue was that having not foreseen that there would be sporting activity taking so place so close to shore, my chosen lens was on the short side. Both these images have had some significant cropping and even starting off at 24 MP, I would probably struggle to make anything larger than an A4 print.
* Nothing like a Sigma DP Merrill camera, though; 50 shots from a single charge is good going.
I knew that there would be a lot of spray, so I chose my camera with some care although it turned out that my preparations were insufficient. I took a Sony A7 Mk II with a Canon EF 24-105 lens attached. Both have some weather sealing and the lens had the benefit of a filter for some added protection. A Sigma MC-11 adapter did the duties for the translation between the Canon and Sony systems. As soon as I got onto the beach, I knew that I had selected the wrong setup.
The Sony gets through batteries almost like no other camera I know*. There is also significant battery drain when it is not being used. I had shot it a couple of days previously at which point it still had quite a lot of juice left. I turned it on and found that it was down to 19%, which ended up being 9% even with sparing use. I knew that the AF also had some shortcomings, but this would not have been an issue with the static subjects I had been anticipating . A couple of times I missed some action simply because the camera did not focus quickly enough. The other issue was that having not foreseen that there would be sporting activity taking so place so close to shore, my chosen lens was on the short side. Both these images have had some significant cropping and even starting off at 24 MP, I would probably struggle to make anything larger than an A4 print.
* Nothing like a Sigma DP Merrill camera, though; 50 shots from a single charge is good going.