This particular lens is a manual focusing lens..  Fortunately, wide angle lens isn’t that complicated to get into focus.  Usually, I go set my aperture at f8 or higher and move the focus ring to infinity and then back it up a notch, that usually does the job.  For this lens, I’m pairing it with my trusty Nikon D810.

First Impressions

The Samyang XP series is their prime lens and they are not playing around here.  Once I opened and held the actual lens in my hand, I was like wow!  Is this a Samyang lens or a premium Zeiss lens? I mean, Samyang lenses have top notch build quality but the finishings are not as premium, but that changes with the XP lenses.  This is like their equivalent of the Sigma’s Art Lenses.  Really good job here by Samyang, everything looks and feels premium, especially for the price.  You can check the price here.

Build Quality

Like any Samyang lens it is built well and feels robust.  I have no doubt that this thing can survive a zombie apocalypse.  The materials used are nice to touch and high quality.  I have used some Zeiss Touit lenses before and they remind me of this lens.  This might sound weird, but I feel that the this XP 14mm f2.4 slightly edges the Zeiss because the rubber used is less of a dust magnet.  I remember, a few hours using the Zeiss Touit lenses and the rubber parts looks like a bunch of cats had a party around it.  Not the case for this lens, the rubber parts doesn’t attract too much dust or linens and can easily be cleaned.

The XP lens is not a heavy lens, but there’s a good heft to it, just enough to make it feel robust.  The focusing knob is nicely weighted, not too heavy nor too light, which is perfect.  Since this is probably the most used part of the lens being a manual lens, that is a really good thing to have.

Performance and User Experience

Samyang is not new to 14mm, in fact they have been making 14mm for a long time, the 14mm f2.8 ED UMC lens is a popular lens lens mainly because of the performance at a very good price point.  I have used that lens and was really impressed by it.  So I’m really looking forward on using this lens.  Samyang promises a lot of things about this lens and you know what,  the XP 14mm f2.4 lens delivers!

This lens shows no weird distortions or color cast.  The central sharpness is good from 2.4 until f22 and that is quite exceptional, but what blew me away is the edge to edge sharpness.  It is sharp at wide open at f2.4, where other lens double the price range sometimes struggle at 2.4 and it is sharp again until f22.  I’m using it with the D810 which is a 36 megapixel camera and the lens is resolving all those 36 megapixels, this lens is worthy to be called a premium lens.

This is a side-by-side comparison of the Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8 (left) and Samyang XP 14mm f2.4 (right)

According to Samyang, this lens can resolve up to 50 megapixels and 8K in video, and after using this lens, I believe them.  Speaking of video, I think this will be a really good video lens, since it is not so heavy and a fast 2.4 aperture which is good in low light hand held or gimbal situation.

Conclusion

The Samyang XP 14mm f2.4 is a really good lens and if you are looking for an ultra wide angle lens, you should really have a look at this lens.  Please note that even though this is a Premium lens from Samyang, it doesn’t have an auto-focus (AF) capabilities.  However, being a 14mm lens, focusing isn’t really tricky since everything is pretty much in focus already especially in higher aperture.  Also note most of the cameras these days offer manual focusing aids, in my D810, it shows a digital zoom view in the live view so you can see if its focused or not.  In other cameras they offer focus peaking which really helps a lot.  There’s some electronic connectors in the lens mount, which lets you adjust the aperture through the camera, at least in the Nikon mount version I used, you have to check for your camera mount’s version.  The EXIF shows the complete data, including the aperture and the focal length.  Those full manual Samyang lenses doesn’t really do that, since there are no electronic connectors like this lens.

As mentioned before, Samyang says this lens is meant to resolve up to 50 megapixels or 8k video resolution and if you are using a high megapixel camera, this is quite an important feature to have.  Not all lens can resolve such resolution, so it is important to check such feature if you are using a high megapixel camera such as Nikon D850, Canon 5DSR or Sony A7R.

I believe that this is an excellent lens for landscape, architecture, astrophotography and even videography.  The 14mm gives a very unique sweeping view and it can take your photography to a new level.  If you can’t afford those branded lens, this is a very promising alternative.  If you have a high resolution camera, then this might be for you.

Got my lens from BHM Store, they are the distributor of Samyang lens here in UAE.

Here are some sample shots I took with the Samyang XP 14mm f2.4, they have been edited and color graded using Photoshop CC.

Like most of my reviews, it is not in any way scientific, it is a real-world experience using the A9. I will not drown you with technical specs and scientific tests.

Just to give you a brief background in terms of my camera I use, I’m shooting with Fujifilm and Nikon, and I have an Olympus m4/3 on the side. Enough of me, and more about the Sony A9.

Fujifilm X-T2 and Sony A9 size comparison with battery grips attached

Autofocus speed and frame rates
The first thing I noticed with the A9 is the superb auto focus system. The 693 AF points with 20 fps seems like a typo on a spec sheet, but it’s not! To get a clear picture, the Canon 1Dx maxes out at 16 fps and Nikon D5 at 14 fps. To top it up, it is also equipped with 241 shot raw buffer, silent shooting, courtesy of the electronic shutter and an uninterrupted viewfinder, so there’s no blackout when you go nuts and shoot at 20 fps, oh yeah, welcome to the future. Did I mentioned the 693 AF points? The AF is accurate and quick, especially with the 24-70, 16-35 and 70-200 2.8 G lenses. The tracking works great too, I did have a chance to use it at a local drifting event and it was great. Full disclosure, I’m not a sports shooter myself but I shoot moving cars from time to time and I can tell that the system works great. I noticed a few missed focused shots when doing AF tracking and racking the zoom at the same time, but no deal-breaking stuff.

Sony A9 with 70-200 f2.8 G Lens

Sony A9 with 70-200 f2.8 G Lens

In terms of fashion shoot and editorial, it is a phenomenal performer. You can capture pretty much everything with that 20 fps and who said that 20 fps is only for sports shooting, I would disagree, I think you can take advantage of that monstrous frame rates to capture in-between poses of a fashion shoot or any outdoors shoot for that matter. I think, this would be perfect for a wedding photographer too, since the AF is bullet-proof even on low light or mixed lighting.

Sony A9 with 85mm f1.4 G | Lens Model : @feeeeya (Instagram)

Sony A9 with 85mm f1.4 G Lens | Model: @safsaf.el (Instagram)

Dual SD Card slots
This might be an overlooked feature but for a professional shoot, a camera isn’t complete without it. I personally use it as a backup for those really high-paid or critical photo assignments. Sometimes I use it as a quick hand-off of photos for the photo editors. I make the other SD card to store small JPEGs so I can hand it over to clients and so they can let me know which files to edit. For shooting events, you can use it to continually store photos avoiding changing SD cards at that crucial moment. As for the technical aspect, the two card slots are not the same, I was told the first slot is the faster one supporting UHS II while the other one is UHS I. It didn’t bother me on my shooting workflow but it might be crucial to some. For me the only take-away is that I need to make sure that my faster card is going to the UHS II slot.

Touch Screen
The A7 series cameras doesn’t support touch screens and to be honest, I myself prefer the touch screen. Every time I use my Olympus OMD, I always wish that my Fuji X-T2 and D810 would also have one. It is just an easy way to focus. The A9 touch functionality is limited to focusing which is really the main thing you would want for a touch screen. However, the touch function on the menu would have been great.

Build quality, design and ergonomics
The Sony A9 mirrorless camera may not receive top prize in a beauty pageant, but it’ll surely win the grand prize for the talent show hands down by a long mile! But hey, looks are purely subjective but what’s not is what this camera brings to the table. In terms of build quality, the Sony A7 and the A9 are extremely well made and if you haven’t held one before, it will take you for a surprise. Once in your hand, you will know that it is a serious premium camera and the heft of it feels like you have a camera that will outlast time.

The A9 ergonomics is much better than the A7 in my opinion. The small tweaks by Sony made a big difference. That joystick is a massive help when shooting. You can easily move the focus points around on the fly, which is great. The buttons are tactile and well placed. The camera feels premium and the handling is a lot better than most of the mirrorless cameras out there. There’s no beating the DSLR when it comes to ergonomics, especially for bigger hands, but the A9 is without a question the best handling Sony I’ve ever used. Pair it with the battery grip and I wouldn’t miss the handling of a DSLR.

Sony A9 with battery grip and 2 batteries weighs 1044 grams

In comparison with the Fujifilm X-T2 with battery grip and 3 batteries

24-70 f2.8 G Lens weighs 899 grams

Performance and user experience
So, how did it perform? Let’s put it into perspective, shall we?

The main issue with Sony A7 series is the battery. Well, let me tell you now, you have nothing to worry about. The A9 battery is close to DSLR performance, in fact when I shot over 1,200 images during the drifting event, I still had almost half of the battery charge to spare! That’s impressive.

The autofocus (AF) as mentioned is fast and accurate. It can rival high-end DSLR in terms of performance.   When shooting portraits, I really enjoyed the eye detection feature, it is just phenomenal and to me, this is a feature that should be in every camera and include it with the 20 fps without black out, now that’s a game changer!

Sony A9 with 24-70mm f2.8 G Lens | Model: @deemohamud (Instagram)

Sony A9 with 24-70mm f2.8 | Model: @rayyanumrani (Instagram)

Conclusion
At this point, you are probably waiting for the “but”. It is quite hard to fault this camera but like any other camera, it isn’t perfect. The white balance could use some improvement, I noticed that the images are too warm sometimes. The out-of-the-camera JPEGs colors aren’t my favorite but then again, I don’t shoot JPEGs but rather shoot raw in which I do my editing, nor I had enough time to play around with the JPEG picture settings. But mind you, all these small issues can be addressed with a simple firmware upgrade.

Sony created a powerhouse of a camera here, they listened to the users of the A7 series and put all the missing bits and changes into the A9. There’s no question that this is the best Sony mirrorless yet. All the things that hunted the A7 series like the AF speed and the battery life are both answered and A9’s AF and battery life are probably the best out there. I had the camera for around two weeks and to be honest, it wasn’t enough to learn all the features, but it is enough to know that the A9 can definitely hang with the best cameras out there. If you aren’t a fan of the Sony mirrorless yet, this might change your mind.

Sony G Lenses: 70-200mm f2.8, 24-70mm f2.8, 16-35mm f2.8, 85mm f1.4, Sony A9

Samyang 135mm f2 is a nice addition to the Fujifilm lens line-up.  This lens particularly good for portraits and head shots photography, but can also be used for any subjects really.  At the moment, Fuji is offering a 56mm f1.2 (my favorite!) and 90mm f2 which are both excellent portrait lenses but they can be expensive; don’t get me wrong, they are cheaper than their DSLR lens equivalents but still hurts your bank account nonetheless.  And to be honest, Fujifilm lenses are well made with exceptional image quality, but the same can be said with the Samyang 135mm f2 lens and boy, it is half the price.

Build Quality
This lens is made for Fujifilm X-Series cameras so no need for adapters here.  First thing I noticed when I held this lens, is that dang! This sammy is heavy!  Granted that I don’t workout nor I do weight lifting regularly, I do carry cameras and lenses regularly (just establishing credibility here).  If you are going to use this lens with a small Fujifilm body like X-A and X-E series, you will be wishing you are going to the gym and have a strong wrist, because it will be front heavy, no kidding.  With a Fujifilm X-T1 or X-T2 with battery grip, it kind of balanced it somehow.  As an advice, get a small monopod and you won’t feel a thing after hours of shooting.  Yes, you are welcome!

Here it is on a weighing scale

This is X-T2 with battery grip and the lens attached
The lens is well built, the focusing ring and the aperture ring like any Samyang lens is perfect.  I can’t fault it.  You will be using the focusing ring quite a lot since this is a manual lens like all Samyang lenses and it is buttery smooth.  Make sure you enable focus peaking and you will be focusing way better than the X-Pro1 with the version 1.00 firmware.  For those who didn’t get that reference, consider yourself a late adopter of the X-series cameras.  Gone are the days of focus hunts for Fuji, the X-T2 era can compete to a professional DSLR in terms of AF speed.

Ease of Use
Since this lens is 135mm which is around 200mm full-frame equivalent, using this hand held might be a challenge, especially if you are not a gym rat like me.  A tripod or a monopod will be great but you can get sharp shots even without it, especially if you have plenty of light to work with.  I may sound a bit exaggerating about the weight of the lens here but, at 200mm (full frame equivalent) without image stabilizer you will need a super steady hand or better yet and tripod/monopod.  This is not just because of weight issue, the long focal length is involved in the equation too.

As I mentioned, this is a manual focus lens, it can be a challenge but if you get it right, it is more rewarding and you will not regret the pain once you see the bokeh of this lens, it is fantastic, a lot better than some expensive prime lenses out there. As I said, if you have a tripod or monopod and combine it with the Fujifilm focus peaking, you are good to go.  Another tip is that, you just tell the model not to move forward and back, because guess who forgot the frigging tripod? This guy.  That’s why I insist you bring one with you, learn from my mistakes guys.

Image Quality
What can I say, this is a bokeh machine.  If you like shallow depth of field, this will not disappoint you.   Shooting at f2, it is super sharp.  I have never shot it with any other aperture but wide open.  The flares are also well managed and no nasty color fringing too.  No noticeable color cast on skin that I can see, depending on the lighting scenario it might go towards a more magenta one or greener tone but nothing too complex and can easily be corrected in post, so yeah, do not forget to shoot raw, especially in tricky lighting situation.  This practice should be observed at all times anyway.

This lens is a great value for money, although it is a cheaper solution the image quality is not compromised.  Granted that it is not an auto focusing lens, it will reward you will sharp images with wonderful bokeh and compression you get at this focal length.  As long as you get the focus right.

100% crop with no sharpening from a raw file

Verdict
Right now, Fujifilm isn’t offering a 135mm prime lens, yes, there is a 50-140mm f2.8 zoom lens but that is three time the price of the Samyang 135mm f2.  Although, I have to admit, I prefer an AF lens over a manual focusing lens, but the price and performance of this lens is something to think about.  This lens offers quality of a true prime lens, image quality is not compromised here.   It will give your subject a good background separation with nice out of focus quality and no distortions.  If you have no funds at the moment and you want to get high quality shots from a long fast prime, and manual focusing isn’t a problem, don’t look elsewhere and get this lens.

In case you are intreseted, you can get the lens here.

Here are few more long distance shot from this lens

Special thanks to:
BHMStore for providing the lens
Model: @el_vershina
Modeling Agency: http://www.annamodels.com/

Tilt-shift lenses have been an essential tool for landscape and architecture photographers, mainly for its perspective control and many other things. This review is not meant to educate you about tilt-shift lens, but let me point out a few features that makes this kind of lens unique:

Perspective control
Any time your wide-angle lens goes up or down, you can see perspective getting a bit wonky. Verticals look like they are falling down or leaning, which is a big no-no for any architectural photos. By simple shifting the lens up or down you can easily correct the perspective, thus vertical lines remains straight just as the architects designed them to be.

[twentytwenty]

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Edge to edge sharpness
Compared to a regular lens, the tilt-shift lenses covers a larger image circle. Meaning, they can cover larger than the sensor they were designed for. Thus creating the sweet spot larger than any regular lenses, hence sharper edge to edge images.

Panorama
A tilt shift lens enables you to create perfect vertical or horizontal panoramas. By simply shifting the lens up and down or from side to side, you can shoot three photos which overlaps perfectly and will blend in post without any problem due to the lack of parallax.

Miniature effect / creative effects
I think miniature effect is probably the most popular feature of a tilt-shift lens.  Although you can easily create this effect on post or by Instagram filters, nothing beats a straight out of the camera effect. By tilting the lens you can easily adjust the plane of focus to where you want it. This also makes some very cool creative effects for your photos.

Here are some sample photos with very minimal adjustments using Adobe camera raw:

Interior shots with mirrors
If you have been shooting interiors houses or buildings, having a tilt-shift lens in your camera bag is invaluable. Not only you can get the perspective control from the lens itself, but you can also get the composition you want without changing the perspective. This is a bit hard to explain but you can do a quick internet search to see its advantages, however there’s one thing I found a good use for it. When shooting reflective surfaces or specifically mirrors, you can easily hide your camera by just moving on the side of the mirror but sometimes this screws up your composition, by simply shifting the lens, you can get the perspective that you are shooting the mirror straight on but hiding your camera gear. Ok, YouTube it now if you don’t believe me.

Now, lets go back to the subject here, which is the Samyang 24mm tilt-shift lens for Fujifilm X-mount. Before proceeding with the review, I just want to clear the following things:

• Since this is an X-mount lens, there is no need for any adapters, this will mount to any Fujifilm X-Series interchangeable lens cameras.
• Like any tilt-shift lens, this is a manual focusing lens.
• Because of the crop factor of the APSC sensor of the Fujifilm X-series cameras, this 24mm lens will give you a perspective of a 35mm focal length equivalent in Full frame 35mm sensor.
• This review is by no way scientific, so if you are looking for a more technical and scientific review, you might need to look elsewhere. This is a real world review of this lens while on an actual photo shoot. I didn’t shoot bricks or straight lines here, I was shooting a real life subject in an actual photo shoot.

Build Quality

This lens is built like a tank. You probably hear this a lot but this lens is really built like a tank. Mostly metal construction and dang this thing is heavy! Using this on a small Fuji camera might be a challenge, however pairing it on the X-T2 with a battery grip, it feels quite balanced. Using this hand-held will remind you of the good old days with the DSLRs (in case you shifted recently to mirrorless system) but since you will mostly use this kind of lenses on a tripod, I guess it wont be a big deal.

The only thing I feel it could have been improved on the lenses are the plastic knobs, but for the price of this lens, I really am surprised in terms of build quality. Using the lens for a month, I think although cheap looking the knobs are quite well made.

The focusing ring is buttery smooth and nicely weighted. Using the focus peaking on the X-T2 makes it very easy to focus. Using this lens for creative purposes and hand-held, I really feel that the amount of resistance is just perfect for adjusting the focus plane. The aperture ring is nice and notchy, which makes it easy on adjusting the aperture even without looking. Although it feels light and easy to turn, there was never an incident where I turned the aperture ring by accident, mainly because the focus ring is big so you cannot confuse it with the aperture ring. Samyang lenses are all manual lenses and I guess they know what they are doing.

To give you an idea about the weight of this lens:

This is with the Fujifilm X-T2 + battery grip:

In comparison, a Nikon D810 full frame camera with a 14-24mm f2.8 lens :

Performance

I used this lens for a portrait and fashion shoot and I really don’t remember having a problem using it. The only main issue I remember is it’s a bit heavier compared to my 56mm f1.2, which is the one I use mostly for this kind of shoot. I also shoot a little slower because I have to manual focus all the time. That being said, I really had a fun time shooting with it. For creative purposes, the tilt feature is the most used. I can easily blur things I want with a simple turn and pick the focal plane exactly where I wanted it. I never had this freedom with a regular lens. I won’t say it will replace your 56mm or 90mm but this lens can bring some creative perspective to your portrait or fashion shoot.

The knobs can be a pain to use if you are doing a fashion editorial shoot because you constantly have to change it, but leaving it in a mid open position, I can easily tilt back and forth without even touching the knobs.

Image quality

This is where it all boils down and the way I see it, I see no faults. The lens is sharp wide open but it gets sharper after stepping it down to f7.1 to f11. Like any wide angle lens, this is prone to flares.   The lens flare isn’t pretty specially shooting right in front of the sun, however it is predictable enough so with a slight adjustment you can get the shot without any flares.

The lens flare can also overthrow the color rendition and white balance, I noticed that it gives a hint of green / yellow cast or a more magenta cast if shooting against the sun. In my experience, it can be corrected through post. Shooting on a normal lighting, I don’t see any discoloration or color cast on the photos. The contrast on the lens is also good, it gives a nice pop on the photos.

This is a sample photo with minimal post-production work to adjust the colors and exposure:

Verdict

I really love this lens. This gives my Fujifilm cameras a breath of new life, it just gives you features you can’t get with any regular lens out there. I feel that this will be really good with timelapse and videos too; giving you a unique look that only a tilt-shift lens can provide.   I think you can do a lot of creative images with this lens and it will open a new world of opportunities for fashion and editorial shoot. The the reason I went for a fashion and editorial shoot with this lens, I feel it will be more interesting to see how it looks rather than the predictable architectural interior shots.

For architectural work, I really wish Samyang made a 16mm (24mm full frame equivalent) for Fujifilm mount. This lens was designed for full frame use; you can get an equivalent Canon and Nikon equivalent of this lens.   A wider focal length will give this lens a more versatile use for architectural work.

The main question about tilt-shift lens is, if you are not landscape or architectural photographer, do you really need one? To answer you bluntly, with the price of this Samyang tilt-shift lens, I don’t see any reason why not! It gives you creative effects and it is so much fun to use on non-architectural work. Using this for portrait or fashion shoot might get that spice that you are looking for.

If you want to buy this lens online at BHM Store or by clicking here.

Have you been asked a question many times and you gave a different answer all the time?  As soon as my alarm clock (which is also my phone btw) buzzes with that annoying tone, the first thing I do is check my messages.  Instagram, Facebook, E-mail, whatsapp and so on.  Out of all the messages I get, I get this question a lot:  “What is a good everyday camera you can recommend which is better than my phone?” or something along those lines.  And I always give a different answer, unknowingly.  Depends on my mood really.

Most of them are not photographers, they just want to take better photos for social media or for their blogs/vlogs.  Since “vlogging” is kind of the thing right now, because there’s lots of youtubers buying supercars, gives you the impression that it might not be a bad full time job right?  But I digress.   Let’s get back to that question again:  “What is a good everyday camera you can recommend which is better than my phone?”

Well, I might have found one.

Enter the Sony RX100 V.  This is the fifth revision of this model and let me tell you, this is a tiny powerhouse of a camera.  I’m reading the technical specs and dang! This camera is loaded.  This has features that even a professional photographer (and videographer) will drool over.

Feature highlights:

• 20 megapixels
• 1” BSI-CMOS sensor
• 24-70mm f1.8-2.8 optical zoom lens
• 315 AF points
• 4K video which is oversampled from 5K footage
• 24fps burst shooting in JPEG+RAW
• Flipping and tilting LCD
• Built in flash
• Built in Electronic View Finder (EVF), XGA OLED

For complete technical specifications click here:  https://www.sony-mea.com/en/electronics/cyber-shot-compact-cameras/dsc-rx100m5?cpint=HOMEPAGE_TOPBANNER_DSC1016_3630

Let’s go with some FAQs:

Q: Is the image quality much better than the latest iPhone/Android camera?

Yes. Without a doubt.  The RX100 V is 3x bigger than the sensor of your iPhone 7, meaning cleaner images in low light and you also get shallower depth of field.  The dynamic range is also quite good with the RX100 V and since you can shoot in RAW, you can do a proper post processing with the files.  You can adjust your white balance and other parameters just like any DSLR or high-end mirrorless cameras.  It also comes with 24-70mm lens meaning you can zoom in and out your subject and this is optical zoom not a digital zoom on most of the smartphones.

Q: How about video?

Did I mention this camera is a powerhouse? This is where this little camera shines.  It has features you can only find in professional high-end video cameras like S-Log2 that captures full dynamic range.  It also features a proper 4K video, Sony mentioned that the 4K video is oversampled from a 5K capture, which makes the videos really sharp and very detailed. Rolling shutter is also very minimal, even on 4K.

In other words, the video performance on the RX100 V is more than capable than cameras more expensive and higher-end than this.  Sony is really killing it with their video capabilities on most of their new cameras.  The RX100 V is not an exemption.

If you don’t understand what I mentioned above, simply put, the video capabilities of the RX100 V are really good, it can rival cameras more than twice its price.

Q: Can you take a selfie?

Yes.  The LCD flips right out on top of the camera, meaning your selfies are now 20mp.  Wow.  Next question.

Q: Is this camera pocketable?

Unlike other cameras on the same price range, this is actually a true “pocketable” camera, unless you like wearing really tight pants.  OK, kidding aside, this thing is small enough to fit with most shirt’s pocket or even a small purse. What?!  Of course I don’t own a purse but a friend of mind does and yep, it fits right in it.  Doubt cleared.

The Sony RX100 V weighs only 300 grams in comparison with the iPhone 6 plus with Apple silicone case that weighs 205 grams.  Not that far apart when it comes to weight.

Q: How’s the battery life?

Specifications mentions 220 shots, but I used it up to 300 and it’s still OK.  But, the best part is, you can connect the RX100 V to any battery or power bank to charge it.  So nothing to worry about.

Conclusion:

I’m quite surprised about the RX100 V, I mean I know it’s a good camera, let’s be honest, with its price tag it better be.  But even with that in mind, I still didn’t imagine this camera to be that good.  Especially at this size.

I am amazed with the quality of the RAW files of the camera.  The dynamic range is quite good; it might be even good enough to be used for a professional shoot.  For areas that might be difficult to mount a big camera, this might be a really good option since you can clamp this thing with anything without worrying.  With its already very small design, Sony manages to include a pop-up flash and most importantly, an excellent Electronic View Finder (EVF) which is really useful when shooting in bright sunlight.

For an average user, who needs a camera for their next vacation or for an event, I think this might be a good option. You don’t need to worry about carrying a camera bag and deciding how many lenses to bring or how many batteries to pack.  You can use the same battery pack or power bank for your phone to charge this camera.  You should be able to capture good photos and videos of your vacation trip and this camera wouldn’t weigh you down.

For those who are doing or planning on doing blogs, vlogs or even YouTube, I think this camera is designed for you.  I would highly recommend you going to the store nearby and test this camera out, might be a perfect fit.

If you are thinking of gifting yourself these holidays, this might be something worth considering.

Here are some sample photos taken with RX100 V

So we met up and shared some stories about cars and cameras.  It was a fun shoot and I enjoyed the company of the owner and his friends. So, for this shoot, I decided to use my Fujifilm X-T2, since getting this camera, I haven’t used it for car shoots.  Review for the X-T2 will be posted soon!

On to the shoot, so I used the X-T2 with the 10-24mm lens and some LEDs.  I did a light painting technique for this shoot.  Took around 10 shots to light the whole car

The paint being a mica contains some pearlescent properties meaning it changes the shade depending on the light.  I decided to try a light painting shoot for the car.  I did a couple of tries and I made a few mistakes so I guess, its a good shoot.  Learning something is always good.  I learned that lighting angles and height matters a lot.  Light painting is not my go to lighting but, maybe I’ll try to for my next car photography assignment.

The gear I used:

Nikon D810
Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8
MTL 900 II LED light (yeah, this is the Ice light knock off) with barn doors

Took a few shots and different exposure and discovered that 6 seconds on Shutter priority works best for my setup.

Here’s the final photo:

More to come on my next experiment

Gear: Sony A7R II + 16-35mm f4

Model:  @abbey_sketch

To my surprise, Ashrafs from Bahrain, in conjunction with Ford Middle East Bahrain provided a super rare car.  2014 Ford Mustang GT500 Shelby Super Snake.  This is the highest factory spec’d mustang there is, 850 HP of pure american muscle.

Gear info:
Nikon D800E + 14-24mm