Sony RX100 Mark VII

So I have decided to keep pretty much all my equipment except the Sony RX100 Mark VI.  Not that there’s anything wrong with my Sony RX100 Mark VI.  It’s a very capable camera.  Physically there is nothing wrong with the camera at all.  No scratches or dents.  The body is as awesome when I bought it a few months back earlier this year.  I am going to go to the camera shop where I bought it because they have a 50% trade in policy towards a new purchase.  So I’ll get about $800 back and I’ll only have to spend another $800 for the Sony RX100 Mark VII body.  I’ll get the usual accessories like the battery grip and the necessary lens adapters so I can attach the necessary filters to the camera.  

I have made several nice sales on Shutterstock this month including a whopping $1.50US for a video today.  But I sold a few photos for over $20 a piece and a few videos for $25+.  I have a big decision to make by 6am tomorrow.  Do I cash out my photography earnings by tomorrow and put it against the purchase of a new Sony RX100 Mark VII or wait another month before buying the camera?  The camera doesn’t come out for a few more weeks so I have time.  And I still love using the Mark VI.  So you know what I’ll be doing.  

At the Speedway with the Sony RX100 Mark VI

It was another hot Saturday today.  It was 32 degrees Celsius or 89 degrees Fahrenheit not including the humidity.  With the humidity it was about 40 degrees Celsius and 104 Fahrenheit.  So basically hot.  

The girlfriend and I actually slept in till about 9am this morning.  I was exhausted personally.  Late breakfast and we decided to go to the west of Ottawa just for a drive.  We went thru Fitzroy Harbour, Pakenham and we ended up in Calabogie.  I’ve never been to the Calabogie Speedway before.  I’ve heated of it but I’ve never been there before.  I took only my Sony RX100 Mark VI with me since it’s so easy to carry, it being a really nice point and shoot camera that shoots copious amounts of photographs and does 4K video.  I only shot photos today since it was so hot today.  

I honestly don’t know how these guys and girls ride these bikes wearing those suits in this heat.  I was sweating there just doing photography in the shade.  I am just waiting for the Sony RX100 Mark VII to come out in a few weeks so I can purchase it.  It is supposed to shoot 96 RAW files in a second.  The Sony RX100 Mark VII would be perfect for sports photography such as this.  I’m using it with a 128GB SD card and I have a feeling I could spend the whole day shooting bike racing such as this and fill a few cards easily.  I’d also kill a few batteries.  I think the only problem the Sony RX100 Mark VII is going to be the battery issue.  The whole RX100 series line of cameras has had this issue where it just eats batteries for breakfast.  If Sony could just make the batteries a bit better, you’d have the perfect camera.  The Sony RX100 Mark VII is 99.5% there to being the perfect little point and shoot camera.  Sony, just fix the battery issue and add more megapixels to the sensor.  If this shot 30+ megapixels instead of the 20MP and batteries didn’t drain as fast as they do, it’d be a great camera.  Personally I’ve emptied 2 batteries over a day of shooting and filling up a 128GB SD card just once in the past 4 years owning a Sony RX100 series of cameras and I do some serious shooting with it.

The Sony RX100 Mark VII

I have not kept up with new camera body or lens releases in a few months.  My last camera purchase back in March was the Sony a7ii body, grip and lens.  Since then though, I have used the Sony RX100 Mark VI for the majority of my photography since I work in the downtown core of Ottawa and bringing the full frame camera was just not an option.

That is why I was extremely excited when I read this week that the Sony RX100 Mark VII was announced.  The camera will be released in mid August of this year or so.  I have used an iteration of the camera since the Sony RX100 Mark II came out several years back.  I’ve always loved the RX100 line of compact cameras.  Currently I use the Sony RX100 VI as my daily driver since it packs several punches in the pocket sized compact camera.  My favourite new feature in the Sony RX100 Mark VI was the 24-200MM lens equivilant.  I can do without the neutral density filter which was dropped in favour of the f2.8-4.5 24-200MM lens.  I would rather have the reach than a filter which you can purchase as an add on for less than $100 from your local camera store.

The new Sony RX100 Mark VII has fixed a lot of what the users of the series of cameras have been asking for.  Especially the addition of the mic jack and upgraded imaging sensor, this camera I think will replace travel, hobbyist, enthusiast, semi pro photographers DSLR cameras.  For an example, last night my girlfriend and I went to the Ottawa Redblacks and Calgary Stampeders CFL football game.  Walking into the stadium, I noticed a sign prohibiting DSLR cameras while accepting point and shoot cameras only.  I was not even searched or asked about the camera as it was in my right short pocket.  I basically was shooting still and footage thru out the football game with no issue on just one battery.  We were in the nose bleeds seats and was able to get close up shots of the players and cheer leaders thru out the night.  

I do all my photography semi professionally.  I make a few hundred dollars worth of shooting still and footage with various equipment and I submit everything to a few micro stock agencies.  The 20 megapixel sensor is more than enough as a 5 megapixel sensor is all that is needed.  The RX100 series of cameras has shot 4K since the Mark IV came out.  They had a 5 minute limitation on shooting 4K videos due to over heating.  The Sony RX100 Mark VII fixes this limitation as you can shoot up to a solid hour of 4K shooting non stop.  Since all my clips are between 5 and 60 seconds this was never an issue for me.  The only problem I still see with the RX100 line of cameras is that it takes up to 30 seconds to clear the buffer if you continuously shoot for 5 seconds.  It is understandable that the buffer would fill since the new Sony RX100 Mark VII shoots 90 frames a second.  Now these 90 short are all RAW 20.1 megapixel images.  That is a whole sack of information being taken and written to you SD card.

I am 99.9999998% sure I am going to trade in my Sony a7ii full frame camera with the lens and battery grip along with the Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder for the new Sony RX100 Mark VII.  I’ve used the G40 just once or twice this year.  The a7ii has been used maybe a dozen times since I bought it back in March of 2019.  I’ve used the Sony RX100 Mark VI at least 3-4 times a week as I take it everywhere with me.  It’s basically a full on DSLR camera in the palm of your hand.

The problems with iOS 12

iOS 12 is very problematic.  No real file support, no mouse support and no real browser.  I do a lot of photo and footage editing.  I mean a lot.  I need a real file system.  I need mouse support.  The Apple Pencil is fine but a real mouse is better.  I honestly cannot wait for the iPadOS to be release in September.  A real file system.  Mouse support.  File sharing.  Better file management.  Until iPadOS comes out, the 2018 Apple iPad Pro is just a media consumption device that can edit photos and videos just fine.  It's just uploading multiple files via web browser or FTP is just cumbersome.  Till iPadOS comes out, I will need to be using my Windows 10 laptop to edit and upload photos and videos.  It is very unfortunate. 

Trip to Montreal

The girlfriend, her sister and I went to Montreal just for the day.  I haven’t been to Old Montreal since I was a kid.  I haven’t been to Mount Royal in about 13 years.  Girlfriend and her sister have never been.  It was nice for them to see it.

I only took my Sony RX100 Mark VI to take pictures and footage along with my little Joby tripod that I can pretty much set up anywhere and take steady footage with the camera.  I did shoot footage in 4K video.  Typically I would shoot 4K footage if I’m not going to there again for a long time.

I’m editing my photos on my 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  I honestly cannot wait for iPadOS to come out.  The only thing that’s bothering with the current iteration of iOS 12 is that it is very lacking in features like importing files and footage from an SD card.  I also wish that Audacity would make their software available for the iPad Pro.  I think it’s the best free audio editing software out there.  I have my Blue Yeti Mic attached to my iPad Pro right now thru a hub.  I have my earphones attached and the provided Apple USB-C power cable to power the iPad Pro.

I can’t wait for the iPadOS to come out in September of this year.  I can then replace all my other computing devices.  I can just use my iPhone and iPad Pro to do all my computing needs.   If I’m travelling anywhere for a long period of time, I can just take the 2018 Apple iPad Pro, my Sony RX100 VI and my Canon Vixia HF R800 camcorder.  All would fit into one shoulder bag with all the necessary batteries, cords etc and I’d be happy.

HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C Hub — for iPad Pro 2018

So the HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C Hub — for iPad Pro 2018 came in today. It’s a pretty snazzy little device.  I wish it just had another USB-C type connector so you can hook up two USB-A devices like a hard drive and Blue Yeti microphone.  Now to make the 2018 Apple iPad Pro an almost perfect device, I need for the iPadOS to come out.  I cannot wait for September when the operating system comes out.  I am missing external hard drive support so I can import my photos and videos to an external hard drive via the HyperDrive 6 in 1 USB-C hub.  I guess one USB-A port is ok.  I don’t think I’ll have my hard drive attached to the iPad on a constant basis.  I want to start podcasting with the iPad Pro and the Blue Yeti Mic.  I have the silver Blue Yeti Mic that I’ve had for years.  I think it goes well with the iPad Pro.

I got the HyperDrive 6-in-1 USB-C hub for the 2018 Apple iPad Pro today.  I rearranged my desk today and put the Canon printer on the ground.  I can connect to it wirelessly whenever I need to print or scan something.  I am amazed by this 12.9” iPad.  It is so fast.  And the new OS is supposed to be even faster.  I think once every 3-4 years I will buy a new iPad.  Once iPadOS comes out and we get mouse support, external drive support and dark mode, I will be very happy.  I will have no need for a Mac, Windows or a Linux based computer or laptop.

I just wish there were two pieces of software that will be ported to the iPad.  Final Cut Pro X and Audacity Audio Editor.  Audacity is already available for Windows, Mac and Linux.  I wish they would port it over to the iPad.  I can stick with LumaFusion for video editing.  It seems feature rich enough for what I do with video.

So in summary, I wish September was here tomorrow and iPadOS was being released today.  Now I wonder if I can do all my photography and shoot video with just my Apple iPhone 8 Plus and edit everything thru the cloud?  

I have decided

I started a new job this week that pays really well.  I mean really well.  Enough that I can save my photography money and put away some money into my TFSA account.  I'm making enough money to pay off my credit card debt and save some money.  

July 2019 has been off to a good start so far.  In the first 7 days, I've sold roughly $200US of photos and footage.  The drone I want is roughly $2030 before tax.  So I'm looking at about $2333.00 with tax for the drone.  Hopefully, if sales are going the way they are now, I'll have the money in about six months.  So, by my estimates, I think I'll have a new drone in December.  And if things go well as well, I'll have my credit card debt paid off by then so I can buy the Sony a7R III body.  I want to do my landscape, wildlife photography on a more serious basis so I need a higher resolution camera body.  If anyone at Sony reads this, I switched to Sony last year from Canon.  The technology in a Sony camera is so much better than in a Canon camera.

I love the high megapixel count on the full frame sensor in the Sony a7R III.  I also love Affinity Photo on my 2018 iPad Pro.  Once iPadOS comes out in September I am ditching my Windows and Mac laptops and sticking with the iPad Pro.

Damn, it’s hot out

You could cook an egg on the hood of my car.  When I drove home from my first day of work at EDC, it was 32 degrees Celsius in the sun before the humidity.  Got home and turned on the air conditioning and brought it down to 18 degrees Celsius.  It’s so hot photography is not worth doing.  Just walking downtown would melt me.  If it’s 32 degrees Celsius in the burbs, it’s probably hotter downtown with all the buildings and the pavement. 

On a side not, I downloaded all the videos off my Canon Vixia HF R800 camcorder.  I wonder why I ever got rid of it a few years back before I bought the Canon Vixia HF G40.  The R800 is a great little camcorder.  Fits right into your hand and right into your pocket when not in use.  Just an awesome little camcorder.  And it lasts forever too. 

Not having social media

I have no social media to advertise my stock photography.  No Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter.  They’re all pretty useless as far as I’m concerned.  They’re all full of fake news, frauds, con artists etc.  Facebook pretty much spies on you 24/7 and sells your data to pretty much everyone.  Google is censoring everyone who they disagree with.  If you have wrong thought, you are pretty much banned and making any money on their platform.  I come from a communist country and this is exactly how the communists acted.  Put everyone who disagreed with them in reeducation camps or goulash.  Patrion, PayPal are pretty much the same.  All of these California type oligarchy, communist, crony capitalist are all the same.  You and I are just peons in their little game.

July 2, 2019

I spent this morning at Parc Omega.  I left the park at about 1:15pm.  It was so hot out today.  About 27 degrees Celsius.  I paid $35 to get into the park.  I remember paying $26 a day to get into the park just a few years ago.  It was a lot cheaper and a lot better back then.  They’ve increased the prices and pretty much made the park unphotographable with fences everywhere.  The other people coming into the park drive like they never took a driving lesson.  The park is located on the Quebec side so that’s one reason why it’s harder and harder for me to go there.  Summer is really not a good time to go to the park because it’s so damn hot out.

I have basically decided that for the remainder of this year I want to pay off my credit card debt so I can do some travel next year.  I want to actually move out west in April of next year.  I am so sick of Ottawa and Ontario.  There is nothing to do here and it’s so damn expensive to do anything.  I have also decided not to sell my Sony a7ii and my Canon Vixia HF G40.  Next year I want to upgrade my drone to something better than the DJI Spark.  It’s an ok drone but it only shoots at 1080p/30fps and photos are only shot in JPEG.  So no Raw photos and no 1080p/60fps or 4K on the drone just because the sensor on the drone is so small.  I think the drone I want is about $2030 before tax.

I have everything I want as far as vehicle goes.  I have the 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport AWD which I can sleep in and have enough room for all my equipment.  I am saving some money as well.  I’m putting $50 a paycheque into my TFSA.  All my photography money is staying in my Paypal account.  With the new job I’m starting tomorrow, I’ll be making some good coinage to pay off my debt.  We just have to stop going out to restaurants every second day.  I want to also start eating healthy.  I want to lose at least 50 pounds by April 2020.  I also want to restart reading my Affinity Photo book and learn Affinity Photo.  For my Apple iPad Pro to say the least.

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day to all the Canadians out there.  Wish we had a better prime minister but he/she/they will be out in October.  Anyways, back to Canada Day.  Decided to stay home for the majority of the day.  Gonna go see a movie later today and then come home and just relax.  In no way are we headed to downtown Ottawa with all the crazy, drunken and high dopers.  No thanks.

I’ve decided to keep the Sony a7ii and the Canon Vixia HF G40.  I need the pro camera and camcorder.  I need the control.  Made that decision on Thursday when we had thunderstorms pass to the north of us.  I could have used the Sony RX100 Mark VI but it’s such a small camera.  It fits right in your pocket.  It has all the controls I need but the Sony a7II feels really good in your hands.  It’s easier on the tripod as well.

Happy Canada Day anyways.

This is not hype

CI have been watching a lot of YouTube videos on the new iPadOS lately and I cannot wait for the new O/S to come out.  It will completely get rid of my need for a laptop or desktop.  Just the ability to access portable hard drives via USB-C is a game changer.  I can edit footage, photos and music anywhere.  In the car, in bed, on the couch, in a park, on a plane.  I have the 2018 Apple iPad Pro with the 512GB hard drive.  Honestly, it’s the perfect device with a perfectly sized screen and internal hard drive.  

Apple typically releases a new O/S once a year in fall.  This summer cannot go fast enough.  I will not install any beta software on my main production machine.  I need the software and hardware to work flawlessly.  I also want to do a lot of travel this summer and fall so that’s another reason for the Apple iPad Pro 12.9” iPad with the 512GB hard drive.  It is so portable.  I can travel easily with the iPad, my Sony RX100 Mark VI and my Canon Vixia HF R800.  

I am honestly thinking of getting rid of my Sony A7ii with the 24-240MM lens and the Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder.  Yes, they are more pro level devices but I shoot mainly for stock agencies and in the end, it’s not the equipment that makes the photographer.  It’s the photographer that makes the photographer.  I’m thinking of just replacing the Sony camera and Canon camcorder with another Sony RX100 VI.  Just to have a backup.

I could also shoot 4K with the Sony RX100 Mark VI since I only shoot 30-60 second clips to upload to sites like Shutterstock, Pond5 and Videoblocks.  Honestly the Sony RX100 VI is an awesome point and shoot camera that fits into your pocket.  The 24-200MM lens is honestly all I need for what I shoot.  I can shoot landscape, wildlife, architecture and portraits with the camera and the Canon Vixia HF R800 shoots at 1080p at 60fps.  So its all good for me.  

And yeah, the new operating system for the iPad can’t get here soon enough.

I need to get out

I miss Calgary.  I miss Calgary a lot.  I miss going to the mountains.  I cannot stand Ottawa any more.  The people, the weather, the ineptness of the local government.  There is absolutely nothing to do here in Ottawa.  I was supposed to start a job with Export Development Canada but I never got a start date.  I got the job back in April of 2019.  It’s the end of June as I write this and still no start date.  Luckily they don’t know I’m working right now so I’m not hurting for cash.  Well I am but I have pay coming in.  

I love photography and shooting footage.  I’ve done it all here in Ottawa.  I’ve been here for 36 years and I’m bored.  The girlfriend and I signed a lease for an apartment back in March 2019 for a year.  That’s basically the only thing that’s keeping me here.  I miss the mountains.  I miss actually doing stuff outside.  Parc Omega near Ottawa blows monkey penis’.  It’s no longer photogenic.  Too many obstructions.  Too many idiots.  And they keep raising prices.  I need to move back to Calgary.

I honestly cannot wait

Apple typically releases a new operating system every September.  THis year, a “new” operating system is coming out specifically made for the Apple iPad.  Two of the most important things within iPadOS are going to be external hard drive support and mouse support.  ON a lighter note, dark mode is also coming.  See what I did there?  ;) 

I will no longer need a laptop wether it’s Windows or MacOS or Linux.  Not that I used Linux before but it’s hardly used for photography or editing videos.  You can do it but 99.9% of the people I know use either Windows or Mac.  I cannot justify spending a minimum of $4500 on a MacBook Pro where the keys are crap and the O/S is buggy.  MacOS used to be good under Steve Jobs because Steve actually took quality control seriously.  Tim Cook, not so much.

Once iPadOS comes out in September, I am thinking of lightening my load with my camera gear.  The Sony A7II is a great photographic camera.  It’s a 24.4 megapixel full frame sensor camera.  But it is kind of heavy with the battery grip and the 24-240MM lens on it.  I am absolutely in love with the Sony RX100 line of cameras having owned the RX100 Mark II, IV, V and the VI.  I am thinking of trading in the Sony A7II camera, the grip and lens for another Sony RX100 Mark VI.  I’m also thinking of getting rid of the Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder as it’s too big for me size wise for me.  I have the Canon Vixia HF R800 camcorder as well.  I mainly capture wildlife with the Canon Vixia HF G40 and I don’t video much at night so the Canon Vixia HF R800 is good enough for me.  It’s also about half the size of the G40.  I know the G40 has a lot more controls on it so I may just keep it.  I just want to do a lot more travel this year and next and I don’t want to carry around a lot of equipment with me.  Shoot me a quick email or leave a comment telling me what you think or giving me suggestions.  

But yeah, time to think over the next two to three months to see what I will do once Apple iPadOS comes out in September.

I think I need to upgrade my drone

So I bought a DJI Spark last year and 3 months later, the remote control lost connection with the actual drone.  So I got another one and it's been functioning ok.  I don't fly it like I did anymore.  I won't fly it more than a 100 meters away from me and definitely not over water.  Someplace accessible where I can retrieve it if it goes berserk again.  It only shoots in 1080p at 30fps and photos are only in JPG.  Not RAW or 4K.  

I think I'll get a DJI Mavic Pro 2 in the spring of 2020.  I am saving my photo money until I get the new DJI Mavic Pro 2 which costs about $2000 Canadian.  One day.