NEW EQUIPMENT

Hi First name / everyone, I hope you had a fantastic month of April! This months newsletter is a little more aimed towards photographers, as I will be sharing my first impressions of finally moving to a mirrorless camera. That being said, for those who are here for the photography, there are lots of new images to view as well! Without further ado, I hope you enjoy newsletter #34! 

 

- William

I bought a new camera! After a few years of deliberating I finally have started making the move to mirrorless. Those of you who have followed my work for a while, will know I try not to get caught up in the tech side of photography. For that reason, and because I have mostly been happy with my old equipment, I was reluctant to make the change. While most people moved to mirrorless years ago, I struggled to justify the huge cost of replacing my DSLR's.

 

As the firmware of new mirrorless cameras have improved at an incredible rate, I eventually couldn't put off the move any longer. So for the first time ever, I have bought a NEW camera, the Canon R6 Mark II.

 

While I want to share my initial experiences with this camera, there are already enough reviews out there. But I do know that a lot of people may be intrigued about my views so far, so I thought I would share the pros and cons I have moving systems.

 

An obvious reason for me moving to mirrorless from my trusty 5D Mark IV is its low light capabilities. While I haven't yet had a chance to properly test this, the initial results do seem great. I am happily shooting up to 6400 ISO with very little signs of noise (almost twice as much as my 5D Mark IV) and images look usable up to 12800 ISO with the add of Topaz Denoise. As someone who would probably never shoot higher than this I am really happy with the cameras low light capability. 

 

While it is hard to show in picture form, the eye and subject tracking abilities of the R6 Mark II are nothing short of incredible. As someone who is a little late to the mirrorless move, I knew that I would be blown away by this, but that being said it truly has increased my success rate drastically. While I use the eye tracking a lot it is important to note that it isn't perfect for every situation. For some animals e.g Elephant, Crocodiles, and Hippo I do revert back to spot focus quite often.

 

So will eye tracking make me a better photography? No, not at all, but what it will do is give me the technology to capture images easier and in circumstances I otherwise would struggle. As a result I expect it will result in improved success rate. It will be interesting to see if this improved ability to capture action will inadvertently change my style, I guess we will just have to see.

 

Raw burst mode in the Canon R6 Mark 2 gives you the option of taking images for 0.5 seconds before you actually press the shutter button. With this function on, as you focus, your camera is continually taking images for half a second before you engage your shutter button. With the R6 Mark II shooting up to 40 FPS on electronic shutter, this means that you can shoot 20 images before you even press the button.

 

While I didn't buy the camera with raw burst mode in mind, it has been a rather interesting addition to my photography. This pre shooting mode means you are much more likely to capture that perfect frame. 

 

Probably my only current issue with the camera is that I fear it wont be as rugged and robust as my previous DSLR's. Not only is there much more features to go wrong, it also feels much more flimsy.

 

Because I spend over 250 days a year on safari, I am unintentionally hard on my equipment. For that reason I have to be assured that it will be able to handle this intense workload. Currently I don't feel confident enough to trust one camera for a long trip, and as a result I am already looking for a second body. 

 

I guess time will tell if these cameras are resilient, but I have a sneaky suspicion that this camera will not be the workhorse I am used to.

After over 10 years of using my trusty GoPro Hero 3+ I have finally replaced it with a new Hero 11. My Hero 3 has been in the mouth of Cheetah, Lion, leopard, Wild Dogs, Elephant, and Giraffe. It has been trampled by Hippo and Buffalo, and stolen by Baboons, Vulture, Hyena and a yellow billed kite!  

 

While the Hero 3 was always mean to be a fun camera to get unique perspectives, it has captured some amazing images and videos along the way! If the Hero 11 can survive half as much I will be thrilled.

 

While the Hero 3 is not done yet, I thought it would be fun to share a selection of my favourite images taken with it over the past decade!

I know it has been a few months since I shared an “if only” post, but I haven't felt like there has been one that really fits the theme. Maybe it has been because I have been focusing on different projects. 

 

This month I thought I would share one of my favourite images from the last month. While Elephants may be the most photographed animal in Africa, no matter how many times I see them I cant help but take more photographs. I just loved the intimacy and also symmetry of this image. 

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