Rouse on mirrorless
Alright a lot of people have been asking for this, apologies for the delay but with the book launch and a 2 week India trip time has been very limited. Plus this week's Brexit fiasco kinda swamped everything, probably like most of you I wanted to turn to vodka. Anyway we are here now and this is intended to be an overview of a lot more in depth articles to come including a more general "Why the f*&k should I change to mirrorless" piece that will set my views out for all to see (if anyone cares of course!!).
As soon as the long awaited EOS R mirrorless was released I knew that it would suit my style. I ignored all the usual horse manure surrounding the initial launch, people who just use spec sheets to compare cameras and want all cameras to have the same features should try actually taking pictures outdoors. Or even going outdoors. So I wanted to test an R, to see what it could do in a really stressful environment, when I had no choice but to shoot with it. That's the only way I want to test a camera, in the field and under stress. So I took it with me to shoot Jaguars in the Pantanal in October.
For the first few days I used it very sparingly then one day, when I had an "issue" and couldn't use the 5D4, I had no choice so attached it to my 100-400mm using the control ring adaptor. Then I shot with it for a day, looked at the JPEGS (because the raw converter hadn't been updated at that stage) and my jaw dropped. The next day I shot with it more and then more, in perfect partnership with my 1DX2. The fixed 5D4 stayed in my cabin and didn't make it out for the rest of the trip. Here's a few images I shot with it, I will do a much more in depth BLOG on the trip with image analysis etc over the next few weeks, this is a taster!
Love Jaguars, such awesome menacing dudes. By the end I was totally converted to the R and as soon as I came back I bought the kit with the 24-105 and the Control Ring Adaptor (in my view the supplied adaptor is about as pointless as a roofrack on a Porsche). I bought it myself. As a Canon Ambassador I don't have to buy anything, I can borrow it, but I decided to wanted to have my own R and do my own testing without the pressure of doing it on someone else's kit. It's an important decision for me to make; as a professional photographer my life depends on the quality of my images and without money how would I buy the gin? Or the vodka?
Rouse in Ranthambhore
When I went to Ranthambhore in November to lead my two client tours I took 2 EOS R and a single 1DX2. I permanently had one EOS R on my 100-400, with the second on wide-angle duty on the 24-105. The 1DX2 was more of a comfort blanket and lived with the 1DX2...until I stopped using it altogether. Now I'm gonna stop writing and let you watch this video that I shot on the last day there. It explains everything. Excuse the sound drop outs and the non HD quality (a godsend with my moon crater skin), next time I will be better prepared, but that's not really important. It's 13 minutes long but so far everyone who has watched it did so without the aid of money, blackmail videos involving greyhounds / vicars / both or a locked room. So grab a coffee, a nice biscuit and laugh at my attempts to be "street"!! Oh and no I am not turning "all artist" wearing a cravat, it's a neck buff for the dust which was epic!
Still with us? Well good as I'm not going to mention any of those advantages in here, you gotta watch the video! Yeah I know it's torture but it's better than Deal or No Deal. Ok so anything is better than that so not a fair comparison. Anyway this is intended to be a brief overview that I will expand on over the next few weeks so I am gonna end it there. I will just say this. For some photographers, obsessed with frame rate over creativity, cameras like the EOS R won't suit you and you should continue doing what you do. Don't slag off photographers that do use it, don't make grand statements on social media, just continue to use what you use. That's great, no one asked you to change so let everyone make the decision that is best for them. But for photographers like me, that want to get everything right in camera, to generate great images at shoot time and who care first and foremost about image quality then the R is a perfect fit for me. Already I have seen my creativity come back in floods, I've been shooting with a freedom that I haven't for quite some time and I think my images show that. But like I said it suits me and doesn't suit everyone; it has its issues no doubt as it has not had it's first firmware yet, and yes there are things that it cannot do. But the things that it does do well, the important things for me, it does brilliantly. So much so that for my Mara Safari next month I will be buying a second R so that on my 600mm lens I can have an R as well as on the 100-400. Alright here's a few tiger pics shot in the past two weeks with the R:
Boom boom and double boom!!! I believe that is what young people say now. Anyway 4 lovely images. If you wanna see more, along with daily hints and tips then follow me on Instagram @ wildmanrouse as the account is really flying now. So as I said I will be back next week with some more stuff on the R, Tigers and Jaguars. Right now time for a shameless plug!!
Amazon Storefront
The Noor Queen of Ranthambhore book is now available from Amazon Prime! It's taken some effort but I have finally got it there.
Now I have put it on my new Amazon storefront, which provides quick and easy links to things that I use in my photo life plus lifestyle stuff like rice husk re-usable coffee cups and compostable nespresso capsules. And you can get all my books there too, check it out!
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