Much as I enjoy shooting with the R7, a nimble camera with superb IQ, it hit me yesterday that I’d been avoiding shooting with the RF 18-150mm after getting some middling results with the lens first couple of times out. So I set out to shoot with it for a whole day.
As mentioned before, it’s optically well-corrected for a budget zoom lens, and once images are put into DP Express, there’s really nothing to complain about. But in spite of going to some lengths to acquire a copy, I’ve quickly soured on it. Breaking point came near the end of the shooting day yesterday.
Seated in a park for a brief rest, I noticed a group of student nurses taking phone photos of each other. As I was raising my camera for a grab shot, one of the girls spotted my camera and turned towards me with a very winning smile. Motion blur, as seen below, made the shot look as though it was taken with one of those 1990’s Kodak disposables. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw that the shutter speed in moderate overcast lighting was 1/40!!!
Looks as though the “L” designation—or maybe some elusive third-party glass—may be the entry point for anything truly useful by Canon.
Much as my feelings go against it, the logic of an M camera and a 21mm Super-Elmar, 35mm Summicron ASPH, and 90mm APO-Summicron keeps rolling around in my head. Over the years, I’ve had a habit of shooting scenery 1/3-2/3 stops down and adjusting light in post-processing. With Sony and Canon, I can’t do this. Tweaking EV downward with either is like putting an ND filter over the frame. There’s far less malleability with shadows and highlights compared to Leica bodies. It goes back to something I noted many times, and for which Leica seldom gets credit: image processing.
Anyway, it looks like Sony for now, with Sigma glass doing a great job of helping me make the best of alpha IQ.
