Sony a7r, illustration picture effect, and my cat

4/1/2014

I have a lot more work I want to get done tonight: some video editing, some photo editing, getting ready for my tax meeting in the morning, playing with my new camera, and planning for a lot of photo shoots I have coming up. But all work and no play make Jake a something something so I decided to take some pictures of my cat Benedict instead, with the new a7r.

I'm just as smitten with my a7r as it seems everyone else is, though while going through the menu I came across something that took me way back to my first digital camera, which I'm pretty sure was the Sony Cybershot DSC-T1 the year it first came out. It was $500 and I thought it was pretty awesome. I ended up breaking the back screens on a lot more Cybershots than I'd like to admit, but what made me think back to them was the "picture effects" I found in the a7r menu. I'm thinking of it as the "Archer" picture effect.

I'm glad I didn't miss the "picture effects" before getting all serious with my new camera. One of the picture effects that was not on my earlier cybershots is the illustration effect, which there are some examples of in the cat photos below. What fun!

As a side note I ended up getting the Sony HVL-F60M flash and 35 mm f2.8 Zeiss lens with a promotion and I think I like the flash more than the camera. Part of this is coming from shooting Canon, which I've always wished had the flash control that Nikon does. While I haven't had a chance to shoot much with the camera yet and write any kind of real review I do like the flash controls and functionality, and the remote shooting app that lets you live view and tether the a7r from your smartphone or tablet. Thanks technology.

Lastly I was also planning on sending my good friend Jeff (jeffmentzer.com) a short cell phone video of my cat, which he has not yet seen. These are more fun though, so Jeff, this is Benedict, that cat I mentioned on the phone. For anyone else, stay tuned for more of Jeff in June or July, when I shoot him in a slightly higher production shot involving a sea captain and flying fish.