Leon Turnbull Photography

So I just bought a new camera, the Sony A6300. I did not have the extra money to buy the full frame version, but I needed the new camera for my upcoming backpacking trips. The Canon is just far too heavy for backpacking, as I talked about last year in my blog. This year I absolutely needed a new camera for backpacking, but also a good camera. Enter the A6300.

With my wife out of town for the weekend, partying in Las Vegas, me looking after the kids, and after dropping my daughter off at dance practice, I only had a short time to hike on Saturday, but I had to get out to try the new camera, so up I went up to Colfax and back to Stevens Creek Falls.

The trailhead parking area was busy! I figured there would be a few people on the trail today, but not this many. By the time I got back to the car after my hike, there were so many cars they were parked up along the road back to town. I had no idea this trail was so popular. Ugh.

I don’t like it when there are so many people on the trails, but what to do. This is why I normally start hiking at sunrise. Anyway, it is a short hike to the falls. With the flow much lower now, it was relatively easy to cross the creek at the top of the lower falls. No surprise or difficulty there. I have never shot this lower waterfall before because it is very steep getting down to it, but I was determined to try it again today. It was much more difficult than I imagined it to be! The ground was very crumbly and steep, and a big long slide off into the creek if I lost my footing. Even using the rope, I had a lot of trouble getting down, and the poison oak was unavoidable down at the bottom. Argh! I was just in it bad last week, and I got the rash (though just a very small one on my leg and on my side), and now I was back in it again. I did not want to be in the oak again this week!

All the people up on the trail just made everything worse. I could see many people come across the creek at the top of the falls, all watching me, sensing I was about to lose my footing and fall into the creek and over the lower falls, killing myself. Blood and guts spilled all over the place. Oh the pressure. But I made it through that oak, and down to the bottom of the waterfall safely.

I brought both cameras on this hike. I wanted to compare the photos. The A6300 is certainly going to take a lot of getting used to. The buttons are just extremely sensitive. I had everything ready to go beforehand and figured out, I thought. Yet the settings just seemed to change randomly at the small touch of any button, and the shutter would release even though I was sure I had not touched that button. Ah, it was frustrating. As far as quality goes, the Sony is all right, but when I compared the photos at home, I think the Canon 5D MK II quality was still a lot better. They are about the same amount of megapixels so you might think the Sony would be just as good if not better than the Canon. I was hoping that would be the case so I can sell the Canon, but I’m not so sure right now. The colors seem to be pretty good on the Sony, perhaps better. Anyway, the jury is still out. The Sony is definitely going to take some getting used to. It was a good morning on the trail. Let’s just hope I do not get that darn rash this week.