“The best camera is the one you have with you.” When getting ready to leave on a recent family road trip to the central coast, I was presented with the first world problem of deciding which camera to bring. The Canon 6D? Too bulky. Maybe I’ll shoot some film…The Hasselblad? Too heavy. The Rollei? Too delicate. The old trusty AE-1? No 35mm film. My Sony A7III? Too expensive! Haha! Hmmmm? Choosing a camera for me is sometimes almost as difficult as me choosing my deodorant at Target. While going back and fourth in my head I glanced over and seen my son’s Sony A7 with the 28-70mm kit lens. For those that are not photo dorks like me and do not speak camera, the A7 is the oldest and first in the line of Sony’s full frame mirrorless line up. A “kit lens” is a “starter” lens. It is generally an inexpensive lens priced low so as to not add to the camera’s overall kit price. Light, competent, with a decent zoom range. With Milo’s permission I decided to put it through it’s paces. I must say, I am always SO impressed with the image quality that comes out of this setup. For the lens only having a minimum 3.5 aperture, I feel that I am still able to achieve some very decent bokeh (background blur). The 28mm end allows me to get pretty wide when I want to include the environment and the 70mm end allows me to render some pleasing separation between the main subject and the background. And let me tell you, the image quality on the kit lens is SHARP and clean. Very sharp actually! Lots of bang for the buck. Although there is a lot to be said for some of the technologically advanced cameras and lenses, but a good image has and always will come down to composition, light, the photographer, and the subject. Even though I know this, this trip and Sony A7 experience was a refreshing reminder to not get caught up in the gear, but to simply focus on the things we love.
All images edited with the Manny Ortiz’ “Greenhouse” preset.
