Three weeks in Scotland with the Sony A7v 📸🪄🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

This month I have had the privilege of living in my van in Scotland, amidst the snowy, wintery conditions with endless stunning landscapes before me. If that wasn’t dreamy enough, I was sent the Sony A7v, a 24-50mm lens and a 24-70mm lens to test out for the duration of my travels here.

If you’ve followed me for a little while you’ll know I have a few camera bodies on the go, and whilst I love these cameras, my set up isn’t the most efficient for being on the move all the time. As a full time photographer and a full time traveller I need a set up thats highly effective in executing professional work, light enough to hike up mountains with and small enough to have in the van without feeling like I’m living in an equipment cupboard. I have also been very keen to start taking on video projects for work, so testing out this camera felt like a great way to see if it has potential to be the next step in my camera gear journey.

For a brief introduction to the A7v; it’s a hybrid camera made for both photo and video, full frame, with 33 megapixels, and has the most incredibly fast and precise auto focus I’ve ever experienced. It's phenomenal in low light, weather resistant and has an enhanced 7.5 stop built-in stabilisation. There are hundreds more specs I could list but I think it’s best to get into what it is actually like using it.

Now, you’re probably thinking that a lot of cameras do both photo and video, however this one really does feel like it was designed with both a photographer and a videographer in mind. You can switch between photo and video seamlessly and quickly, which is great for when you’re in Scotland’s Glencoe Valley and all of a sudden, whilst you’re photographing the mountains, you hear an RAF aircraft coming in at high speed and need to switch to video to capture the moment but only have about 4 seconds before it’s over. This type of situation actually happened to me a few times and the A7v made sure I never missed anything. I customised the settings (shout out to Teja for helping me) meaning switching between manual photography settings and preset video settings saved me a lot of time out in the field and made going between the two even faster.

This ease of use combined with the autofocus? Game changer. As a professional photographer, I will admit I’ve missed focus here and there which is one of the most frustrating things to happen if you’re photographing out in the field. The A7v, however, did not let me miss focus once. Even when faced with fast paced situations or testing weather conditions, this camera captured exactly what I wanted.

The in built stabilisation makes hand held shots a lot less scary, especially for a beginner. For on-the-go shots when hiking or if you’re in the passenger seat of a moving car and want to video the views - it’s perfect. I really, really noticed the brilliance compared to my current camera I use for video which renders handheld shots basically useless. If the other advantages don’t sell the camera to you, this will.

Let’s talk battery life, I will preface this by mentioning that I’m in a colder climate (the highest temperature has been about 5 degrees celsius) so perhaps this wouldn’t fare the same in a warmer country. But the battery, for me, hasn’t even crossed my mind. It easily lasts me a day when shooting both photo and video and I’ve not noticed any over heating or quick draining just yet. Of course, if this camera was my own, I’d buy a few extras because that’s always safest, but it’s good to know it’s not a concern.

One thing I was nervous about when switching to Sony was the colours within the images. I am always being asked about the colours I capture and how I achieve them. I’ve worked for years refining my editing process to keep a consistent style in my work and have a recognisable look. As someone with an attuned eye, I can tell a photograph that’s been shot on a Sony because of the colours they produce. If you’re familiar with my work, I use very warm tones and didn’t want to have to alter this. Though there is a noticeable difference in the RAW files (for me at least), and the editing process is taking me slightly longer, I am managing to get close results to my usual edits in just 3 weeks with this camera.

Another advantage is its 4 axis, fully articulating screen. For the most part I am a solo traveller and so getting into video, an articulating screen is a necessity to be able to see what’s in frame if I need to use myself as the subject. Sony have really made this perfect by allowing you to put this screen at almost any angle, which is great if you want the camera at a low angle on the tripod or if you’re shooting photographs overhead. If you then pair this with the creator’s app, solo content creation actually becomes easy. You can see the viewfinder from your phone and adjust your cameras settings too, just connect through the app and voila, you can frame yourself in front of those incredible landscapes.

Though this article is more for the camera body itself, I feel like I should mention the lenses that I was sent too. I mostly used the 24-70mm because it gave me the most versatility in focal lengths being out and shooting landscapes. It’s light and fairly small compared to other brands I’ve used and the quality is crisp, it was perfect for video with beautiful background blur at f/2.8. The 24-50mm was so light and small, I absolutely loved carrying it about. It felt like no trouble to have the extra lens on me which is great for hiking and long days out doing street photography. I think it’d be the perfect set up to have the 24-50mm and then a 70-200mm.

The quality of the images that come out of this camera is really impressive, as a self-confessed pixel peeper, I genuinely was a bit shocked at how good the quality is when you take zooming in too far. The image quality holds up to the same standard as my Leica, which boasts 47.3 megapixels, so this is definitely a huge selling point for me.

I’m blown away by the video quality. I am a photographer and just beginning my journey into video, but again, compared to my current camera I use for video, I feel like I’m using a cinema camera. The tones, the textures and the quality is just unbelievable. I have found colour grading so much easier with these files too, the dynamic range is fantastic and I honestly don’t have a bad word to say about the video side of things. It has made me very excited to carry on with video now!

It’s safe to say I have fallen in love with this camera - there are some seriously incredible specs on it and it’s easy to use as someone who has come from entirely different systems. It’s definitely going to be an excellent and efficient set up for someone that needs something smaller and lighter yet still excels in all areas. I think the Sony A7v brings a lot of incredible specs to the table without compromising.