Hi, it’s Charl from Pangolin Photo Safaris.
We are here again in the Chobe National Park, on the Chobe River
this morning, early in bright, waiting for the sun to rise.
We still have the moon behind us.
Beautiful Skimmers flying past us.
I'm not alone this morning.
I have a guest here from Switzerland, Marco.
Marco was so kind to borrow us...or lend us.
Sorry.
Lend us.
His gear.
He is a big Sony fan, as you can see, we have quite a lot of gear here.
Marco, what did you bring with?
Yeah.
Hello, Charl, it's a pleasure to be here with Pangolin Photo Safaris.
I brought a lot of tech with me...of course the flagship, the Sony A1
with the 600mm f4, you'll see the 400 F 2.8 attached to the Sony
A7S III and, of course, it's an amazing lens..the 200-600mm from
Sony attached to the Sony A7R IV.
It's just incredible.
And I can't wait to see what you are going to do with this gear.
Yes.
Thank you.
Very excited.
Please stick around where I will give you my first impression
about this amazing Sony gear.
Hi Marco...I see the sun is just rising.
The light is still low...beautiful, but low.
What do you suggest shall I start with?
I've already prepared it for you.
It's the combination of the Sony A1, and attached to it is the EF 400mm F2.8.
It's a monster lens. If your subjects are quite close, you should have another
reach with this baby. Let's test it.
Can't wait...let's give it a try.
Wow.
I have the 400mm f2.8 Sony lens here in my hand.
This is really the one lens I would really love to have one day...and it is the f2.8
...from any manufacturer, actually.
I remember quite a few years back...the Canon 400mm f2.8.
The first version.
That lens was so heavy, it was like a brick.
And if you see now with the technology and improvement, how
easily you can hold the 400mm 2.8.
It is just amazing.
It is really quick on focusing.
So, together with the Sony A1, it is just a dream.
Really nice and sharp.
Exactly what you would expect from a 400mm f2.8.
On the back screen, it looks exceptionally sharp, but of course I have to go
and look later on the computer, but the quality is really amazing.
Of course it comes with a big price tag, but it's a really nice wildlife lens...and
yeah, I can definitely recommend it to anyone...if you can afford it.
I've been testing the A1 for quite a while, and the eye tracking, or the animal
tracking on this camera is really good.
We were following the skimmers now and it grabs every single
skimmer without any trouble.
The only place where I did find where it was jumping a little bit off the skimmer,
is when we were shooting sort of into the light and the background was dark.
So when the skimmer turned...and the skimmer is black, and the
background is black...One or two times, it was jumping off the subject.
But other than that, it kept on it the whole time while flying
towards me...away from me.
I can't fault the focusing, or the tracking system...at a moment.
It's really fun shooting with this.
I have to say.
And the body feels really good in the hand...especially with the
battery grip. It feels like my EOS-1D X in my hand...it feels really good.
The 20 frames per second is really amazing.
I can see that the numbers here, when I look through the viewfinder
is just rising very quickly.
So, you are definitely going to need a big card...and something I am
really interested to see...and we will have to wait when I load the
pictures is the 50 million pixels.
The camera provides a lot of customization.
There are so many buttons around. I can however see that if you were
maybe a Nikon shooter, that this camera will work even easier for you.
This is so because the button layout is very similar to the Nikon camera bodies.
Very nicely built...feels good.
Yeah. It was really fun shooting with it.
Marco, how did you enjoy that Malachite sighting we just had?
Charl, it was just incredible. it's a beautiful little bird. So tiny. So fast.
It took us a while to get a good shot, actually.
You need a lot of patience for that, but it was beautiful.
It's just a jewel.
So I'm going to switch over to the 600mm.
I took the 600mm lens over from Marco.
It was really nice lens again...and again, not heavy at all.
I mean, by not heavy...you can at least
easily shoot out of the hand. You don't necessarily need a tripod for it.
Very sharp.
Oh my goodness.
It's a really nice sharp lens.
I really enjoyed it.
Marco, you invested quite a lot of money in your gear?
400mm and 600mm.
I mean, you could have easily gone with the 400mm with a teleconverter,
but you decided to get both lenses.
Why did you do that?
That's a good question.
Yeah, I mean, you've seen it here this morning. For birding, it's
just an amazing lens...the 600mm.
You need this, this reach, you need it.
And, and if you're doing birding with the 400mm, you
always have the teleconverter on.
And you know, it's always 80% that people have the teleconverter on the lens,
than you buying the 600mm...but in Africa we were also in the Delta here.
So, lots of mammals and some things are really close.
You can get close to it.
So 600mm is too much.
You just have the eyes or the nose or whatever, close ups.
So I have the 400mm also with me here.
So it is really nice to have both, if you can travel with both.
It's amazing.
Yeah.
Now with the weight, it's much lighter than it was a few years back.
So, for weight restriction, I think you, you still manage.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah, it was 90% of our luggage was just gear...as you can
imagine...just some underwear, a sock and something to, to wash and change.
So that's it...that's it basically. Still a lot...a lot of it.
Very nice. I would like to take another picture too with it.
I really have fun with it.
And I really enjoy also the camera combination with it.
Maybe while I'm talking about a camera of the A1...oh my
goodness, I really enjoy it.
You've been shooting a while with this camera?
Yeah, since February.
What is your pros and cons about the camera?
Why do you like?
Something you don't like about the camera?
I mean, it's mostly, it's mostly pros.
It's, it's just an amazing, amazing gear.
It's a great camera...but of course, there are some flaws.
One thing of course...first is the price.
It's just a, it's just really heavy on price.
So that's a lot of money for just the body and it's of course it's 50 megapixels.
It's not a low-light monster.
Many people say, oh, the A1 is such a great camera in low-light.
Yes, it's good.
Really good for 50 megapixel, but it's physics.
C'mon it's physics...50 megapixel is 50 megapixels...
to a point and then...Exactly, exactly.
Yes.
But otherwise...
It's a fantastic camera.
Yeah, no, I have to say I'm really enjoying it.
Yeah, I only played a couple of hours with it, but I did have fun with it.
Yeah, that's nice.
I would like to take more pictures, so let's go out and
enjoy it...yes, let's do it.
Perfect.
Great.
So I've been shooting now with all three lenses that Marco brought with.
I have tested the 400mm f2.8, the 600mm f4, and then the 200-600mm lens, as well.
When we changed the lenses around from a fixed 600 to this one, I
didn't feel much weight difference.
So this lens, although it's lighter, it's still a bit heavy.
You can feel it is strongly built.
It's solid...you can see there is really a lot of design technology in here.
One thing I really like...that I appreciate about this lens from
Sony...is this internal zoom.
Yeah, I think this will prevent a lot of moisture and dust sucking in...with the
front barrel not extending and coming in.
A big thumbs up for Sony, designing a lens like this...I mean, FE 200-600mm...and
it zooms out easily...with just with a flick of your fingers, basically.
So when we shoot the skimmers far away...600mm full...but sometimes they
came a bit close, and then it's just a small flick.
This I really enjoyed.
I think this is such a good lens for wildlife and for anybody.
The ideal lens for here in The Chobe...
a lot of birds and we also have mammals.
...AND it's not expensive.
This lens.
No, it's a bargain.
A very affordable lens...and really sharp.
I mean, I've only looked at some of the pictures on the back
screen/viewfinder...And they're really sharp...even on f6.3.
A lot of these lenses, you will find that on f6.3 - wide open - you
can get it a little bit soft.
The ones I got were surprisingly sharp, really sharp.
For a zoom lens, I was really impressed.
I think it's a very good build.
I don't know how much you use this lens with two beautiful primes in your hand.
Yeah.
To be honest with you, I don't use it that often.
I may miss one or two shots, maybe...but I have the shots I want...with the look that
I want. I mean, if I really had to travel...it's super light.
That's my weapon of choice.
This one.
Yeah, definitely.
It's a great lens.
Great lens and camera combination.
Absolutely.
It's a dream.
I believe it is lighter than the 150-600mm lens from Sigma...The sport version.
Yeah.
But it's definitely more heavy than the contemporary one.
Definitely, definitely quite a few hundred grams, I think.
Marco, again...Thank you so much for this amazing opportunity to be able
to play a little bit with your gear.
It was really nice to get the feel of the Sony...how it works.
The one camera, I didn't have time to play around with, was the A7R IV.
Maybe you can just share your thoughts about it?
Yeah.
I mean, I have it with me...and it's a great camera, especially for
static subjects, but the auto focus system is definitely not on par with
the A1...You have these blackouts.
It's like some DSLR style blackouts.
So it's not really good for birds in flight and fast moving subjects.
But, if something is static...or just slow moving.
It's an awesome camera.
And the 61 megapixels means you can crop in like crazy...and it
gives you so much detail, but, the other downside, of course, 61
megapixel is not a low light monster.
It's ISO 3200.
It's getting quite noisy.
And afterwards you have to really to decide what picture
you like...or you don't like.
Most of you probably won't like it, because it's too much.
So, is it maybe better to go 10 mega pixels down and rather invest in this.
I'm sure there's a big price difference.
It is.
It is quite a big price difference.
Yeah.
I mean, as an overall camera, it's amazing for portraits,
for sports...it's okay.
It's a great camera.
If you're really, if you're really into it...and you're an enthusiast...and you love
wildlife...and birding is your thing.
From Sony, the best camera to get is the A1.
So you have to pay the price.
Yeah. Thank you again, Marco, for joining us.
Thank you for this opportunity again.
Thank you!
I hope you enjoyed it.
It was awesome.
It was epic.
It was one of the greatest trips I've ever had.
It was really, really nice at Pangolin Photo Safaris.
I can highly recommend it to anyone to get here on the Chobe River
and take some amazing pictures.
The photo hosts are great.
It's just phenomenal.
Thank you very much for having me here.
It was a pleasure.
I will definitely come back.That's what I wanted to ask you.
I knew that.
Thank you.
And I really hope to see you here soon again...and thank you guys.
Thank you, Charl.
Thank you so much.