Zurich – Blue Hour photo session

Today the alarm clock got us out of bed early again for photo purposes. We bought the Sony Alpha 7R II – so you can’t just give it back anyway – but we are still in the test phase. Last weekend we were on the Gotthard route with both cameras and took comparison pictures.

Conclusion: With the same processing, you can make out color differences (especially in the green tones). In terms of image detail and sharpness, the Sony in combination with the Sony Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 can stand out from the Canon 5D Mark III.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0
F/8 1/160 ISO 100 32mm

Sony Alpha 7R II / Sony Zeiss 35mm f /1,4
F/9 1/80 ISO 100 35mm

This morning, the focus was on performance during the Blue Hour. Shortly after five o’clock we took the tram in the direction of Bürkliplatz and took the following test pictures. At the end of the article, there are two underexposed images in RAW format so that you can test the dynamic range for yourself.

The quality of the electronic viewfinder and the Live View is significantly worse in the dark than in normal lighting conditions. But you can still see more than with a conventional viewfinder of an SLR camera.
The focus is fast and precise in the Blue Hour. The automatic focus here has no disadvantage compared to a 5D Mark III. However, this is certainly also positively influenced by the lens with the maximum aperture of 1.4.
The battery is definitely in need of improvement. After about 24 long-term shots (between 2-20 seconds) with the self-timer delayed by 10 seconds, since we don’t have remote shutters yet, more than 10% of the battery was already used.
A plus point compared to the 5D Mark III is the possibility to charge the battery easily and quickly directly in the body. Fortunately, a second battery including charger is included in the scope of delivery. In this way, the batteries can be charged at the same time and thus the camera definitely has enough “breath” for around 500 pictures per day.