I am not endorsed or sponsored by Sony. Great equipment will not necessarily make you a better photographer as photography is still about the photographer's ability to read the light and to see the image (compose it). Equipment does not do that for you. However, today I want to share with you the difference good equipment makes.

          I have been shooting with Canon since 1986 or 1987. There was a brief period where I also shot with Minolta. I owned many different Canon bodies and finally ended up with the Canon 5D and the 5D Mark II. Since I came to digital from the film world I was slow to learn Photoshop. Needless to say I am no Photoshop expert. To this day, I do not blend images. I do use luminosity masks to bring in or to take out some brightness zones but I am not good at that either. In the Canon days I used to have to use graduated neutral density filters to curtail the dynamic range present in high contrast scenes. The Canons just could not handle many of the scenes I asked them to capture.

          Then I made the switch to Sony (A7R II). Oh my, I cannot believe the difference. I no longer use neutral density grads. I get my shots in one image - no blending, no grads. Let's look at an example:

It is after sunset. The sky is bright but the foreground is dark. The side of the rocky hill on the left that faces me is dark to begin with, but now it is totally dark because it is in shade and after sunset. This images is just not possible to shoot with the Canon (without the use of grads or blending)(to my limited knowledge). So how do you get this image with the Sony?

          With the Sony I simply expose for the sky and the let the blacks fall where they may. In post processing I just lift the blacks right up with the shadows slider and the black slider. I move those to sliders and the detail just magically appears. It does not take hours of Photoshop work; you just move two sliders. I am truly happy with my Sony (for landscape photography).

          I am not saying that you should go and buy expensive gear or that it will make you a better photographer. However, plan your savings and gear purchases well because it does make a difference. The detail in this sensor coupled with the ability to lift the blacks make this camera ideal for low-light landscape photography.

          Rather save and get the right gear than buy something you later need to replace, and then replace your replacement to eventually end up with what you need. Save up and save yourself the replacements. Good gear is not just import for your images but it is important for you too. Get yourself good gear to hike in, to keep you dry, to keep you warm. When you are not comfortable it impacts your creativity.