Join me on a photo walk of a beautiful conservatory that was holding a special dinosaur and historic plants event. The whole thing was indoors, which is great for avoiding the rain that was happening, and I was curious to see what they set up.
Check out the video on YouTube:
Or check out the point-of-view photography video that's a mix of ambient sound, GoPro footage, and the resulting photos.
Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm f/4 ZA OSS Lens:
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| A first person view of the dinosaur exhibit inside the conservatory. |
The A7S is a very video-focused camera, but it's also pretty good for photos. I paired it with a pretty standard zoom lens for this, the Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm f/4 ZA OSS Lens. Having that fixed maximum of aperture of f/4 through the entire zoom range makes it a nice, consistent lens for both photography and video work.
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| The Sony A7S camera with the Sony FE 24-70mm F4 lens attached |
My Custom Camera Settings for the Day
To make my shooting process faster and more efficient, I set up two custom modes on the camera's main dial.
My first custom mode was Aperture Priority. This let me adjust the aperture as needed to control the depth of field. In this mode, I also used a flexible spot for focusing. This is really useful because I can change the size of the focus box and move it around the screen. That way, I could tell the camera to focus exactly where I wanted it to. On other cameras I tend to use the touch screen for focus point positioning, but this camera doesn't have one.
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| The camera's rear screen showing the flexible spot focus box being moved around. |
My second custom mode was a standard Program Mode. This setup lets the camera decide most of the settings, including where to focus. As I was walking around and taking pictures, I found myself switching between these two modes quite often. Sometimes in Program Mode, the camera wouldn't focus exactly where I wanted it to, so I'd just flip the main dial back to my Aperture Priority mode to deal with that.
Focusing overall on this camera can be a little quirky because it does not have a touchscreen. To work around this, I customized the camera's buttons to be more photography-focused.
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| The 'Custom Key Settings' menu on the Sony A7S, showing assignments for Custom Button 1, 2, and 3. |
One of the most important changes I made was remapping the AE-L button to "Focus Settings". This specific option is designed for adjusting the position of the focus box. When I was in my custom Aperture Priority mode, I used this button a lot. The AEL button is part of a switch, so I have to make sure the switch is in the right position, and then I can press the button to activate the focus box adjustment.
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| The AF/MF AEL switch with a button inside. |
With the two custom settings saved to the '1' and '2' spots on the top dial, switching between full automatic and precise manual control was very convenient and quick.
Camera Handling and Ergonomics
In the mode where I could adjust the focus point, I used the camera's two main dials in combination. One dial moves the focus box up and down, and the other moves it left and right. It's decently convenient. While it's not as fast as a touchscreen, it works.
My one gripe with this camera is that the front dial is kind of sharp and small, so it can be a little difficult to adjust.
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| The front dial is small and sharp feeling. |
Having the dedicated EV compensation dial on top is pretty nice, especially when I was in Program Mode. It makes it super simple to adjust the brightness of the photo. You just have to remember to check on it so you don't accidentally leave it at a high or low setting for the next shot.
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| The EV compensation dial. |
Overall, it's not a bad camera for photography. Considering its resolution, I think it's fine. I'm not doing any prints with these photos, just posting them online, so for me, that 12 megapixels or so is pretty decent.
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| A final photo of a Tyrannosaurus Rex. |
Photographing the Conservatory and Dinosaur Exhibit
One thing I noticed about the 24-70mm lens is that it does have a bit of distortion. I could see this happening in my photo software, ACDSee, as I was cycling through the RAW files. The software would first show the camera's corrected preview, and then it would switch to the uncorrected RAW file, and I could see the distortion pop in. It's not terrible but it is noticeable.
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| A screenshot of Acdsee where it doesn't have a profile for lens correction. In the related video, you can the image distortion after it processes the RAW. |
The conservatory had a very cool exhibit going on with all these dinosaurs. They had informational cards placed around the displays with a bunch of interesting facts. Even at 12 megapixels, I was able to take clear photos of these cards and read the text easily when I viewed them later on my computer.
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| A close-up, readable photo of the informational card for the Velociraptor. 12MP is good enough. |
The dinosaur and creature displays seemed to be made from a mix of natural materials with some type of shellac or other coating on them. I had the most fun using the zoom lens to get in close, exclude parts of the background, and try to make the scenes feel more natural, as if I had stumbled upon these creatures in real life. Considering all of the real plants around, this worked out pretty well.
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| A photo of a dinosaur model positioned among lush green foliage to create a natural-looking scene. |
As you walk through the conservatory, you find more and more creatures hidden around. It was fun trying to find all of them, kind of like playing Pokemon, but with a cool mix of creatures that were once real.
The conservatory has a kaleidoscope that's been there for as long as the building has existed. I've taken photos through it before, but this time they changed it up and put little dinosaurs inside the display, which was a nice touch.
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| A photo taken looking directly through the kaleidoscope. |
I have been slacking on using filters, which a viewer reminded me of in a previous video. I really should be using circular polarizers more to deal with reflections, especially on water. I didn't do it this time either, which made it a little challenging to get the right angles to capture the koi fish in the pond.
A circular polarizing filter, often called a CPL, is a special type of filter that screws onto the front of a camera lens. Its main purpose is to reduce or eliminate glare and reflections from non-metallic surfaces like water and glass. By rotating the filter, a photographer can control how much of the reflection is cut out, which can make water look more transparent and bring out the color and detail of what is underneath the surface. (description created by Gemini Pro AI)
Despite not having a filter, I was able to get some decent photos. The koi here were very friendly and would come right up to you, which made them easy subjects.
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| A photo of several colorful koi fish swimming in a pond, with visible reflections on the water's surface. |
In addition to the dinosaurs, they had a bunch of plants related to the exhibit, some of which have been around for hundreds of millions of years. It was super cool to see them, and I'm glad I took photos of them too.
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| A photo of an informational card for Cycads, which are described as ancient plants. |
This was a really fun exhibit at the conservatory, and I really enjoyed taking photos. If you want to see the full photo walk and all the final images, check out the full video on YouTube!