ACL Festival Street Photography

I took my new Sony A7C II all around South Austin last night for its first street photography outing. I caught the crowds leaving the Austin City Limits music festival and bounced a few times between South Congress and 1st Street.

I only took my Sony/Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 lens instead of the 35mm length I’m so used to. These days I mentally compose photos in 35mm, and now I have the itch to practice more around 50mm and 85mm.

The crowds and pedicabs were moving fast. I love low-light photography, but don’t have much experience doing it with shutter speeds over 1/125 sec. And I hadn’t even tested the decade-old 55mm ZA’s autofocus capabilities in low light. I missed focus and exposure a lot.

Lesson learned: Don’t learn new techniques and new gear at the same time. 😛

It may have felt uncomfortable and frustrating, but in a constructive “growing pains” way. I think the next time I go out, I’ll think less and enjoy more. That probably means I should do it as soon as I can!

RAW File Support Workaround for Sony A7C II

Two Sony cameras sit on a computer desk: An RX1R II and an A7C II.
corner viewfinders 4 lyyyyyfe

I got the new Sony A7C II this weekend! It is likely to replace most/all of my interchangeable lens cameras. I just love the rangefinder shape, and people seem less guarded around cameras without a serious-looking pentaprism bump on top.

As of this writing, there isn’t much third party support for A7C II raw .ARW images yet. But the A7C II uses the same image sensor as the older, widely-supported A7 IV – so the raw files should be very similar.

I’ve figured out how to make them pretend to be from an A7 IV using ExifTool – it works for my workflows in Capture One and Apple-based raw editors on macOS. And be warned: it’s not entirely stable.

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