How visiting the city of Prague once charmed me twice...
This is what I consider a good benchmark to try on the Sony A7Rm2 camera with A-mount lenses and Sony LAEA-3 adapter: A trip abroad in the heart of a charming and colorful city, Prague.
A quick spoiler about the place itself, I prefer to kill any kind of suspens right here right now, Prague is the most charming and delightful place I have been visiting ever.
Let me tale you why...
I had decided to get there for a romantic short week-end visit, and I have been fascinated by the building architecture, the colors, the statues... This is such of a refreshing and chilling experience.
It is late march and I imagined sunny weather...
Truth is I didn't especially prepare this trip weather-wise and only focused on the places to visit.
But the more the plane was closing to the ground and the less I doubted that I would feel colder than I'd expected.
The snow was very visible through the window and the cold was strongly marking its presence while I was waiting for the cab in the night at the airport. Funny thing is that I didn't have any gloves...
On a side note, that trip from the airport to the hotel in the center of old Prague is something I'm not used to anymore while traveling. Fortunately the course was pretty cheap.
The hotel is very well situated in the center, very cosy and decorated with different kind of art pieces: wall paintings, framed photographs, sculptures and allows to behold the spires of the town shaping the skynight.
This NYX hotel Prague is an awesome and cool experience to say the least. It is in some way a mirror reflection of the art symbols of the city itself.
Just the time for me to drop off my luggages and get out for scouting the city at night.
First stop is decided: let's try to find a place to eat something...
From the hotel, Wencelslas square is just 2 blocks ahead and loads of restaurants are available there.
I opted for a pizza at Ristorante Italiano Buschetto. A cosy and welcoming place where the food is really good.
Cherry on top of the cake, the service is of excellent quality and the waiters are talking english naturally with a real proper accent... Something, we, french people just can't do.
After the dinner it was time for scouting the place and try to take some shots thanks to my travel tripod.
Due to the low temps of -7° Celsius and the fact that I didn't have gloves yet it was a short walk from the national theatre up to the old city square.
During this short walk I quickly discovered how the A7Rm2 is not quite up to the task at such low temps.
Despite the fact that I had the grip and 2 batteries, they were depleted pretty quickly and it called the end of the visit for this night.
A short stop-by for a drink in a pub helped to up the charge of the batteries a little bit though.
Stopping by the old square, I also noticed that the astronomical clock was under maintenance, so I couldn't see it unfortunately....
The morning after, I immediately bought some gloves to bear the cold and started my visit.
For this day, I decided to wander in the zone of Charles Bridge. At day light the city is revealing its charms and secrets like a witch would have cast a spell on you.
Walking down Karlova street is source of very peculiar discoveries like the carvings on the walls.
Following its path, the street is leading you straight to Charles Bridge. Nonetheless one the main attraction of the city of Prague, but also one of the most known bridge of Europe.
The statues and gargoyles are everywhere and you might quickly feel overwhelmed by them if you're into this kind of stuff.
The 5 axis IBIS and the 42 megapixels sensor are a joy to use. You get all the details you want and the colors are very good too.
I'm less convinced by the ergonomics of the camera itself though. Still, one feature of the camera I really appreciate is the wheel to review the pictures taken.
The end of the bridge is opening to the old town with its antique cars... Quite a surprise to see this, but such a way to immerse you into a back in time universe. Quite funny.
Wandering those streets and pavements I ended-up to the castle and its well known chandeleer.
I was a bit deceived by the fact that eye-AF wasn't working with my adapted Sony 28-75/2.8 lens. Still the AF was smooth and not so clumsy.
And I could appreciate the details of the outside architecture of churches and how Prague citizens are tied to their passion for puppets.
On my way back I obviously stopped by the John Lennon wall and the pub, after all I'm a tourist here too. Be sure yourself not to miss it.
My afternoon walk ended with the visit of Klementinum allowing me to behold the roofs and the spires of the city.
As a reminder it's the city of hundreds spires right !
Stunning view isn't it !
The night arrived fast and for this night walk, I didn't have my tripod and could appreciate the high iso performance of the A7Rm2 camera.
It is able to bring back great details despite shooting above 10000 iso that's one major improvement to me coming from a crop sensor camera.
So far my feelings about this A7Rm2 camera body are splitted.
On one side, I know that I really love the 42mpx sensor and the 5 axis IBIS.
On the other side, I just hate the ergonomics and the poor way a full AF Sony lens like my Sony SAM 28-75/2.8 is adapting so badly on this Sony camera body...
But man, this sensor is fantastic.
And like if it was needed, my last incoming day in Prague proved that to me even more.
I passed the last day wandering along the river and discovered or rediscovered multiple facets of this city.
Some strange metallic sculptures rising from the ground. So representative of the inner artistic traits of the city.
The shore of the river and the calm landscapes that can taken from it.
From the typical architecture and colors of the buildings all around to the dancing tower a wonderful and totally new art style building
From my crop sensor camera, this trip showed me the path to go full frame.
I want this 42mpx sensor and this 5 axis IBIS but can't accept the tradeoffs brought by the Sony A-mount to E-mount adapters neither the poor ergonomics and construction of the A7Rm2 mirrorless.
That's decided, I'm ready for the Sony A99m2 A-mount camera.
At the end of the day, I met a thrilling and exquisitely charming city which by delivering me its secrets also helped me to take a decision concerning my next gear update.
A very good reason to get back there sooner or later.
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