Weekly Recap #2: "Favorite Cameras - July2017"
Well, still working on a new logo so I can start making more videos & branding social media accounts. I think my buddy Todd & I are nearly there with a design, so hopefully by the end of this next week I'll have something to share. A lot of this past week consisted of regular day-to-day stuff, but there were definitely a few highlights. On the family end, my wife, Sara, wrapped up her last week of teaching... hooray for summer! We also made some progress on our upright piano restoration project. It is now in the house, but we still have a few pieces to paint & we're also getting it tuned this week. On Saturday we celebrated my very young mother's 50th birthday (that now grandmother of 3 had me in high school, for those trying to figure out the math haha).
On the business end of things, I made the very hard choice of getting rid of my Canon 70-200 f4 L lens & my Canon 85 f1.2 L to trade in at Nelson's Photo for a new Sony a6300 body & a Sigma 18-35 f1.8 Art lens. I have found those beloved pieces of Canon glass collecting too much dust the past year & I have been really impressed using my Sony a6500 for video shoots lately & have found the need for a second body that shoots 4K with a similar color profile could be VERY useful. Ideally a second a6500 would have been nice to have, but from the reviews I've read & seen on YouTube the a6300 is a solid predecessor with very similar features & a $400 savings. Just another future vlog review in the making I guess. The purchase of the Sigma Art lens is really exciting because I've loved using that lens quite a bit this past year, but I didn't own it & now I do. I would highly recommend the Sigma Art series of lenses for the quality of the build, & especially for the clarity & overall color the glass produces. The 18-35 f1.8 & the 50-100 f1.8 are the two lenses I have the most experience with in the Art lens series & I love them both. I also had a family photo shoot with the Klein family this week. The highlight of that shoot was the fact that their son kept calling me "Dan Corn-ado" & hearing that in his cute little toddler voice was pretty funny. I used my trusty Canon 5d Mark IV for that shoot. While, I'm LOVING the Sony a6000 series of cameras for shooting video, I still can't part ways with Canon for photography. I'm generally a pretty brand loyal guy, but lately, I can't be in the world of photography & video. I can rely on the fast focusing & simple reliability of my Canon 5ds & haven't gotten used to the feel of the Sony's for photography. My almost 10 year old Canon 5d Mark II is still a camera that I can pick up & know it will fire perfectly & capture beautiful photos. Canon definitely knows how to produce a lasting product, however they are really slacking in the professional video world & that became even more evident with the announcement of their 6d Mark II this week.
We ended our week at the beach with some friends, & I brought my handy little GoPro Hero5 Session. The following photo is actually a screen grab from one of the videos I captured, & while the quality of the screen grab may not look that spectacular, the quality of the 4k video is in fact pretty impressive, especially if you consider the fact that the Session is basically a 1 inch cube you can throw in your pocket.
I haven't done a comparison video between the larger Hero5 Black vs The Hero5 Session, but here's a good review about the differences between the two plus a few extra: Wired Magazine GoPro Comparison For me, while the Hero5 Black has some incredible features, the literal point & shoot method of using the Session works so well, I haven't felt like owning the larger HERO5 Black would be much more beneficial for what I'm using it for. I would definitely recommend the Session to any families looking for a waterproof camera to take on vacations, & with the money you would save buying the Session over the regular HERO5 Black, I would buy accessories & a larger memory card. You can also find accessory bundles, but the bundles on Amazon can sometimes be a bit cheesy. I recommend buying individual accessories, that you think you'll actually use, of higher quality so you don't end up buying a cheap accessory that may break, resulting in you possibly losing your GoPro. One item I'm going to be looking into is something like this floating selfie stick. It seems like a very useful item for the Session while filming with kids in the water.
Considering the fact that I also own A LOT of cameras, for families that may only have one camera, or maybe have a nice DSLR but want to have one water proof action cam that can do it all, the Hero 5 Black, or maybe even a cheaper GoPro that only shoots 1080, will work for you. The best part about technology improving, is it lowers the price of older tech. You have to just find what works best for you. That basically wraps it up, looking forward to this holiday week with family. The sun is out & The Tour de France is on :) Have a safe & Happy 4th everyone!
