Haven’t posted in a while as I’ve been extremely busy with work. I’m still busy, but I needed to get my mind off work, so here we are. I have been taking photos when I got a chance to get out since I last posted. I just haven’t had time to go through, edit, organize, post, and all that stuff.
During this time I managed to travel to Italy (yes, again, and loved every second of it), had several occasions to hike in my favorite Jrvezh state park, which now restricts (extorts money for taking pictures with) “professional” cameras in its premises, so I’ve been taking my good old Canon A480 a lot more, and the results turned out quite acceptable for a casual shooter like me. I do take some sneaky shots with my Sony a6700 too, like the one below. My justification is, that I don’t shoot for commercial reasons, and all my photos are licensed with Creative Commons license. (see the the exact version in the site footer).
The photo below is from my recent hike in the evening of May 19. Normally at this time of year, the sun is so hot that it singes all the grass to a golden brown color. This year, however, we had a lot more precipitation than usual, both as snow and rain, and as a result, we got to enjoy the lush green landscapes for longer.
I’ve been passively following this trend of people revisiting their old point and shoot cameras.
Initially, I wasn’t that interested in the topic, but I stumbled upon someone mentioning this great software called CHDK which would give their old Canon point and shoot a whole new set of tricks to play with.
I happened to have my very own old Canon PowerShot A480 point and shoot that by itself has very limited features. Being a true point and shoot, it doesn’t even offer any control modes like aperture or shutter priority.
About a year or so ago, I gave it to my kids, so that they can get a glimpse of photography outside of phone cameras, but they quickly lost their interest in it.
Since it has been lying around, and gathering dust for a few months now, I decided to poke it, and see if anything comes out.
Luckily, I found a version of CHDK for Canon A480 on their website, loaded it onto the SD Card, and it worked!
The most important functionality gain for me was the ability to save RAW files, and the live histogram when shooting. Other than that, unfortunately there was no way for me to control the aperture, or shutter speed. I believe there should be a plugin that would resolve that issue, but I didn’t have enough time to dig deep into it just yet.
The software, by default, has a lot more to offer though, like the zebra screen, file manager, even games.
So far, I took it to a short walk with me to Jrvezh State Park, which is one of my favorite places, and the results are quite satisfying, despite some of the shots coming out soft (which may or may not be because of a smudged lens 🫣).
Compared to the RAW photos that I get from my phone’s camera when shooting with Open Camera app, these have very little noise when shot in bright daylight, a ton of dynamic range to work with, and much better colors straight out of camera.
I will certainly start using this camera more from now on, and I am grateful to the people behind CHDK project that prevent old, but still capable cameras from going into junkyard.
Below are some of the photos I took that day. These are slightly edited in darktable.
One of our favourite getaways in Armenia’s Aragatsotn province, is the area around Astvatsankal monastery which was built and extended from 4th to 13th centuries.
A bit further below of the monastery, there is a well maintained camping spot in the gorge, right at the banks of the Kasagh river.
The photos below were taken from around the monastery. The altitude is around 1790m / 5873ft in the area.
TLDR: I bought Sony a6700, it is awesome, but I have some nitpicks about ergonomics.
At this point, I’ve had my good old Canon 850D for over two years now, and it has served me quite well. I bought it to re-learn the basics, re-ignite the passion for photography, and get myself an extra-work activity that I truly love.
Given the intention, the 850D has done its job brilliantly! It offered (well, it still does, I still have it) all a beginner could want and much more. So much so, that I slowly came up with a list of features that I’d like to have on my next long-term camera.
Some must have features from the list are an IBIS, more megapixels, cause I often re-compose in post, better and faster autofocus, a joystick, etc.
For the past year or so I’ve been primarily looking into full frame mirrorless cameras. Mostly older models ranging from Nikon Z6ii to Sony A7 III, you know, cause I cannot justify a $4k+ sticker price of a new camera for the life of me (plus my wife would kill me if I ever dared to make the purchase 😅).
So, at some point, I came across Petapixel’s review of Sony a6700, and boy did it send me down the rabbit hole. I’ve probably checked out every single review of the camera that’s out there.
Now, obviously it did not offer a full coverage for my feature list, it has an APS-C sensor, smaller resolution, etc, but, It felt like a good compromise between price and features. So, after sitting on that thought for a couple of weeks, I bought it, with the 18-135 kit lens.
At this point, I took it to a couple of walks with me, as you can see from the photos below, and I have to say, that, functionality wise, it does everything I wanted it to do.
Compared to my 850D, it has one additional control knob, which I use for exposure compensation, and it has been a game-changer so far. Because it has superior subject tracking, I don’t even feel the need for an autofocus joystick anymore. I simply put the focus square on the subject and re-compose. As expected, it does a wonderful job at it. As for the “lack” of megapixels, I made a vow to take a slower approach and do a better job at composing in-camera, to not have to do it in post later on.
Have some nitpicks regarding ergonomics though. For instance, I think the grip could be improved a bit. My pinky constantly folds underneath the camera as there’s not enough room for it on the grip. The AF button would’ve been so much easier to use if it was placed just a bit to the right, you know, something similar to what canon does. These are certainly not dealbreakers, and I think I’ll get used to it after some time.
Overall, I think I’ve made a good choice, and I quite like my new camera. With me being a one camera one lens type of person, I hope it’ll serve me well for the upcoming years, and looking forward to taking it out for various trips soon.
After dropping her off, I had a few hours to spare. The weather was quite pleasing for this time of the year, so I decided to take a stroll across the river bank till it’s time to pick her back up.
Here are a couple of photos that are worth sharing.
