In this lesson I’ll outline a few of my ideas on how to use the a7R II and a7S II for street photography.
Continuous shooting
Shoot in silent mode. There are a few situations where it screws with the image, but those are rare.
It’s better to shoot JPEGs if you need a faster fps.
For a7R II users: The camera overheats quickly, and takes its own sweet time to start up once it goes to sleep, so you might miss the shot you’ve been waiting to take. There’s a small lag when you click the shutter. So it’s better to anticipate.
It’s better to shoot in small bursts, so better anticipation is key.
Focusing
For a7R II users: AF-A with Phase Detection is perfect, and probably mandatory. You need native Sony lenses – which unfortunately are not the fastest.
a7S II users can use single-shot AF. Eye AF is also useful, but not very reliable all the time.
However, third party lenses with adapters that allow for autofocus should be okay for autofocus. Just make sure there’s no back or front focus, and the AF hits its mark.
Manual focus works great too. That’s how I shoot. Focus magnifier and Focus peaking do a great job, and the EVF works well in bright and low light.
Native Sony lenses will turn out to be lighter than other equivalent lenses with an adapter.
Mixed color temperatures
Again, not much any camera can do. Switch to RAW if this is the case. Use compressed RAW to save space.
Color
This is a personal preference, but I’d start with Standard as advised, and go from there. The Black and White setting looks nice, too, check it out!
Exposure
Multi-metering works great. A half-stop underexposure looks fine.
Also, an eyecup would be useful.
Batteries
Sony batteries to keep the weight down. A PowerBank in the pocket helps too!
If I think of more ideas I’ll definitely update this lesson. If you know of any pointers please share and everyone can benefit from it!
