My photography gear is tuned for my style of photography and it is a balance between quality and costs. My profession is not photography, therefore I alway try to find a trade-off between my dream gear and my pocket.
Cameras:
I use only Sony cameras. My main workhorse is the Sony A7RV. Because of the small size of the Sony bodies I usually bring my Sony A7III or Sony A6000 too. I like to go around with 2 cameras as in this way I don't need to switch lenses on the field. This reduces spots of dust on the sensor and requires less maintenance on the camera body.
The A6000 is a great addition in my bag because of it's extremely small size and crop-sensor. By using my full frame lenses on the A6000 I am able to get more zoom range. The compact size of the A6000 is also perfect for my family trips where photo shooting is not the main reason of the trip.
For casual shooting I prefer the Sony A7x to the Sony A7Rx. The main reason is the size of the Raw file when downloaded. Bigger the files, bigger is the computer power you need to post-process them and to store them. And I am not printing yet photos on wall size.
In summary:
Sony A7RV: Sony A7III: Sony A6000
Lenses:
The lenses I currently use for 90% of my shots is the Sony 24-70 f/2.8 GM or the Sony 16-35 f/2.8 GM. I love zoom lenses and they work well for my style and subjects. Other lenses that are generally in my bag are the Sony 70-200 f/4 G, Sigma 100-400 DG-DN-OS and a mixture of primes lenses like Sony 90 f/2.8 macro and the Samyang 14 f/2.8 manual for astro photography.
My secondary lenses for the Sony A6000 are Sony Zeiss Sonar T* 24mm f/1.8 and the default Sony 10-18mm f/4. Both perform well and they served me for many years on different Sony E-mount models (including former Sony Nex5/Nex7)
Tripods:
I like Manfrotto. I use a sturdy 055 Pro Carbon with Manfrotto XPRO Ball Head in magnesium. For like travel I use the Beefree GT Carbon. I use either 200PL Manfrotto proprietary plates or the more widely used Arcaswiss plates. The L-brackets are Arcaswiss L-bracket tailored for Sony A7x, which give me better access to the connection door on the side of the camera. That being said I use wireless controls and my iPhone to remotely fire a shot or even control the manual setting of the camera.
Filters:
I use magnetic colour coded Maven filters , they are very flexible and faster than traditional filters. In the past I used Gobe CPL Polarizing Filter 3 peaks, circular filters, decent quality for the price and good for the environment. I use also glass and resign square filters from Cokin, a French brand. Cokin produces filters from low/medium to high level quality. I moved to their professional system Nuances and Nuances Extreme in 2018 with no regret. More importantly it is a very affordable system and with good software I can always fix the colour casting of the glasses without too much effort mostly when stacked. Honestly the colour casting of these filters is very low or close to zero.
For processing the image I use a MacBook Pro and a Wacom Intuos Pro tablet which works well with Skylum Luminar and OnOne Software.
For pano I am experimenting MIOPS Capsule360 for pano photography and I am having mixed results and feelings. Soon I will write a blog post about this topic. However MIOPS did a great job with Capsule360 and the mobile app to control it. The system is very user friendly and easy to set-up. I am using also Arsenal smart assistant in combination with my Sony 6000
For camera bag, I tried many bags, sizes and brands. Eventually I landed on Miggo Agua Storm proof bags, which are super water resistant. Living in Netherlands, rain and water is part of the game and I like to keep my expensive gear well sealed and dry. I have a 70l bag and the explorer bag which can manage one body and 2 lenses and few filter without too many issues. Miggo is excellent when it comes to water. You might be fully soaked while your gears will be always dry and cosy.
Hope this give you a good insight on my gears and choices. For any questions please feel free to contact me.
Till then see you soon!
