A few days ago I got back from my 10 day trip to Shanghai and Osaka which was a really enjoyable but I’m glad to be back. Since we flew with Cathay Pacific, it meant we had a stopover both on the way there and back so since it was 6 hours each time, we made the most of it and went out for a quick exploration of the city.

For the first visit in Hong Kong which was my first time there since 2016, we landed around 4:30am so I was able to shoot sunrise (image at the top of the page) which was decent but quite cloudy which blocked the majority of the light.

After this we went to Australian Dairy Company so my wife could get her favorite food she likes to get (pictured below) and after that it was already time to head to the airport for our flight to Shanghai.

The next stopover on the way back was the most exciting one for a simple reason, I GOT THE SONY ALPHA A7 V!!!

Originally I planned to buy it in Japan but that sadly didn’t work out (more on that in the Osaka post) but thankfully Man Shing Photo Supplies came through and got me a unit. I contacted so many stores and they either had no stock or weren’t willing to hold a camera for me until I got to Hong Kong but Man Shing Photo Supplies was kind enough to hold the body for me for multiple days until I was able to collect it which I’m very thankful for.

The price was much better than what I could get locally and Sony HK provide a limited time Australian Warranty so that was covered too. It was a tight window to make it to the city and back but was well worth it.

The Sony Alpha a7 V

Below are some images I took of the Sony Alpha a7V in all its beauty. I actually used my Godox AD200 for these images as I want to try focus on using flash more this year and improving at it.

I haven’t used the camera enough to write a review yet, but some very early impressions are all positive. Coming from the a7C II the first and major difference I noticed is the better build quality, having the extra custom function buttons also feels like a huge luxury. I found the autofocus is a noticeable improvement, it seems sticker for subjects in tracking and even faster than the a7C II which was already an improvement over the a7 IV.

In terms of IQ the dynamic range seems excellent although I haven’t been able to push it much yet and even then, I never felt limited by the a7C II in that regard. I think I’ve spent a day or two just setting up all the custom functions, in fact on the 8.5 hour flight home I sat there customizing the camera while most people were sleeping.

Below is a gallery of images taken with the a7V all with the Sigma 85mm Art which has had zero issues.

I’ve only had the camera for 3 or so days so I haven’t been able to really put it through its paces yet but I’m looking to find every opportunity I can to use it and get a review on it done.

A Change to My Editing

In recent times I felt my editing had becomes so overcomplicated and overdone, I had really lost the easier workflow that I was had so I knew it was time to change things. I had made a preset of sorts some time ago which I had found quite helpful but now with more than 800 images in this recent trip, I made some more changes.

I’ve made a camera profile for both my a7C II (which will be sold soon) and my a7V which gives me honestly a REALLY good starting point. From here I plan to make some more presets to further speed up my editing as I often make similar adjustments each time and then go back to my old editing style which I used for these test images.

This old style was doing as much as I possibly can in Lightroom/Camera Raw then using PS just for color work, minor touch ups after the former then sharpening and export. My editing time per image got up to maybe 30 minutes per image at one stage but now I managed to get it back down to 5 to 10 minutes per image which I’m much happier with.

What’s Next?

It will take some time to edit everything and write up the posts but aside from my random shoots here in Sydney, the next major post will be all my Shanghai images followed by the Osaka ones. I hope you enjoyed this update and thank you for reading!