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Detroit-Dwelling Fire-121 Gates St-4/4/21-New camera experimentation
#1
Vacant dwelling, arrived about 20 minutes into the job

After having problems with both of my cameras on the previous night, I did some assessing.  The Olympus E-5 cameras that I have been using (2 bodies, Zuiko 14-35 and 35-100 zoom lenses-f2.0 across entire zoom) were not performing to my standards.  One was experiencing issues with the auto focus that could not be corrected manually as well as the internal battery apparently being dead, resulting in having to re-enter the date every time the external battery was changed and the other randomly changing from Manual mode to Program mode while shooting.  

I have always been impressed with the Olympus line, especially the lenses.  I was converted by Bob Mitts in 2001 watching him shoot with a C4040 Zoom which I immediately went out and bought and eventually progressed to an E300, E520, E3 and eventually the E5.  The 4/3 system seemed like it had great potential with a 2x factor effectively giving double the focal length of a full frame camera but never really seemed to catch on.  I knew that Olympus got out of the camera game last year and while researching the problems I was having, I realized that the E5 was introduced in 2010-really old technology by today's standards.

I started looking at alternatives.  Photography is not a cheap hobby.  I have been following the progression of cameras and wanted a mirrorless, full frame camera that could perform in low light.  Knowing that I was going to spend a good amount to get that, I started researching and decided on a Sony Alpha A7 III with a 28-70 f3.5-5.6 zoom lens.  On the Best Buy site there were over 600 reviews with a consumer rting of 4.9/5 stars anda professional rating of 4.8/5 stars.  I made the plunge, did some quick familiarization and headed out.   

This was the only fire I caught and I obviously have a lot of experimenting to do, but I'm impressed.

   

28mm, f4.5, 1/20 sec, ISO 1000
Ed Burke
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Fireground Photos.net
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#2
f3.5, 30mm, 1/20 sec, ISO 1600

   
Ed Burke
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#3
f5.6, 70mm, 1/20sec, ISO 1600
   
Ed Burke
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#4
f5.6, 65mm, 1/20 sec, ISO 1600

   
Ed Burke
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#5
f3.5, 31mm, 1/20 sec, ISO 1600
   
Ed Burke
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#6
Close in crop of above photo
   
Ed Burke
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#7
f4.0, 31mm, 1/20 sec, ISO 1600
   
Ed Burke
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#8
Same as above, available light
   
Ed Burke
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#9
f5.6, 70mm, 1/20 sec, ISO 1600
   
Ed Burke
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#10
Last one.  I have to experiment a lot more, but using this with a Sunpack 433D (I'm on my third one, having used this flash since 1984) produced some significant nighttime fire scene images, which are some of the toughest to shoot in my opinion.  I plan on upgrading the lens to a 24-240 f3.5-6.3 zoom lens which should give me a single camera solution.  I am very interested in your opinions.

Close crop of above image
   
Ed Burke
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#11
OK, just one more.  I was playing around with some of the images.  A close in crop, f5.6, 1/20 sec, ISO 1600, 66mm focal length.
   
Ed Burke
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#12
Nice Job cant wait to see more from the new camera
D.J. Hornacek

Nikon D40 DSLR with a Nikon 70-300MM Lens and a Nikon SB 600 External Flash

Check out my website: http://davids-firetruckphotos.smugmug.com
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