Sony A7R III Pixel Shift: Is it Viable Outdoors Even in Almost-Still Conditions?
Related: digital sensor, pixel shift, Populus tremuloides, Sony, Sony A7R, Sony A7R II, Sony A7R III, Sony mirrorless, Sony Pixel Shift, true-color sensor or image
See my Sony wish list and get Sony A7R III and Zeiss Loxia at B&H Photo.
Pixel Shift is a wonderful idea. But it is also severely limited in its application, with unpredictable results from conditions one cannot even feel or sense, including changes in lighting. I can’t see much use for it in my shooting. I‘m thinking a Bayer-matrix 100-megapixel Fujifilm GFX-100 or Hasselblad X2D, I guess.
OTOH, I don’t recall the Pentax K-1 SuperRes pixel shift mode having such problematic usage. Maybe Sony can up their game by improving it to not require 3+ seconds regardless of shutter speed. Still, there are outdoor uses in which it will work. But then it’s not a habit, it’s an exception and easy to forget to do.
This example looks at using pixel shift in an outdoor situation in which there is very little wind and yet issues occur because pixel shift requires zero movement for 3+ seconds. This kind of scenario interests me greatly, since pixel shift bumps up the image quality considerably—if it can be used.
A DNG file incorporating all 4 pixel-shift frames was generated using LibRaw SonyPixelShift2DNG. The resulting DNG was then processed exactly the same as the ordinary non-pixel-shift frame (number 1 of the group of 4).
Sony A7R III Pixel Shift: Aspen Trunks at Dusk
Includes Pixel shift and single shot image at up to full resolution as well as a large crop and discussion of the viability of pixel shift for outdoor use.
Sony A7R III + Voigtlander FE Macro APO-Lanthar 65mm f/2 Aspherical
[low-res image for bot]
