Two good reasons to turn off the Focus Assist light...

Also in this issue:

• Why we moved
• Two new books out!  (And two more in the queue!)

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Reader Bill Gordon writes: "One comment on the auto illumination feature. You and every other author I’ve ever read says there is no reason to turn it off. But there is one place where you need to shut it off. A museum. Generally there is no flash allowed in a museum and this feature will get you yelled at every time. My mother lost a day of shooting once because she couldn’t figure out how to shut it off in the field. Just sayin….."

So now using the Focus Assist Lamp is the equivalent of using a tripod - it gets you in trouble for no good reason.  

There's another reason to turn that feature off, and I was reminded of it when trying to take the above self-portrait (as part of my Quarantine Beard series).  But this shot was going to be different -- this time instead of using studio lighting, the light from my face would come solely from the flame in the faux pipe.  Sony A7C, ISO 6400, 1/10th of a second, f/2.8 using the Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 lens, and framed and taken using Sony’s smartphone app.  

The biggest challenge here was focusing critically, since the smartphone app lost its ability to specify a focus point a few years ago, and in total darkness (using the AF Assist Lamp) the camera ignores your spot focusing settings and instead focuses on whatever is closest – in my case the closest edge of the hat.  Had I been behind the camera I would have used a flashlight to illuminate the subject and spot focus for the beard; however since that wasn’t an option I set the camera to manual focus, took several test shots with my phone, and shifting my feet a few inches closer and further away from the camera until I achieved the focus I wanted.  (Sheesh!)

In the Pipeline

Sony A7C book is finished!  (Well, the .pdf and print versions are...  the Kindle and e-reader versions will take awhile.)

Olympus E-M1 III book by Tony Phillips is finished!  (.pdf and print versions.  Kindle version soon!)

Sony A7S III book is in the works.  (Pre-order now at a discount!)

A Spanish version of the Sony A7R IV is on its way!  (Check this blog in the future for details.)

Miscellany 

A lot of people asked about why we sold our big beautiful house in Huntington Beach, California and moved to Boston.  Actually there are a few reasons for this.  First, nobody in Orange County was taking the pandemic seriously (especially the restaurants, police, city council and school districts), and since both Carol and I are 'at risk' our lives are endangered, even though we've hardly gone anywhere since March.  A few years ago we bought a 150-year-old house in Nova Scotia (where we've given several seminars, and have many friends) which we have slowly been renovating; I mentioned it in passing in this blog post from 2019.  And now that it's ready we can't get to Canada.  So we moved into small condo in the same complex as our other grandkids in Massachusetts, a 2-day drive from our house in Nova Scotia, and when the borders open up we can spend six months in each place.  (We can't stay more than six months in Canada if you're not a citizen.)  So that's the plan.  

We're still unpacking and rearranging as I write this.  Working on the condo during the day and working on my businesses night.  Will probably be another 2 months before that's done.  No room for a studio.  No time for making videos or explore the monster adapter vs. the LA-EA5.  (Although I did discover that the LA-EA5 doesn't work on the A7C or the A7S III.  Kind of surprising.)

Until next time,

Yours Truly, Gary Friedman

"Great view of Boston" said the listing...