It’s a delight to travel with the Sony a7C camera while using it for street photography and shooting landscapes.
The Sony a7C (C stands for compact) is the best camera for traveling and street photography because of its combination of size and performance.
The camera’s compact design makes it convenient to bring along on my travels, whether I’m exploring an urban area or hiking through gorges or the mountains.
Even in low light, the 24.2-megapixel full-frame sensor and BIONZ X image processing provide outstanding shots.
Because of how fast and precise the autofocus system is, I have no trouble capturing even the fastest subjects, such as animals or people on the go.
Sony’s a7C is a camera that has been designed with travelers and street photographers in mind.
In this article, I’ll explore the benefits of the camera for traveling and the capabilities of the Sony a7C for street photography.
Sony a7C: The Best Camera for Traveling
In this article, I will cover all the pros and cons of traveling with the Sony a7C.
Size of the Sony a7C Camera
In my opinion, a great photo can be about two things. It can be a unique situation that you captured that makes the viewer think, wow, I can’t believe you got a photo of this! Many of these photos will be taken with a phone since the window of time will be very narrow.
Or it can be a high-quality image that’s beautiful and fascinating to the eyes like a stunning landscape or portrait photo.
With this camera, it is much easier to accomplish both dynamics in one shot.
With this camera in your hand, the chance of running into a unique situation is much higher than with most other, bigger, mirrorless cameras. Thus, I’m better prepared for spontaneous situations!
They always say the best camera is the camera you have with you.
And that is totally true. If the camera would be bulky and heavy, I would probably only use it when I plan to go out to take photos. Then I will miss many spontaneous settings, and that’s when it’s the most fun to take photos in my opinion.
Because of the smaller size it is also easier to attach the camera to a smaller gimbal. The camera does have in-body stabilization but if you want to shoot the most stable videos it is better to use a gimbal. It will be easy to fit it in your camera bag. Check out what I have in my camera bag.
Sony a7C street photography
Another thing I like about the smaller size is that you will feel more anonymous on the street. People will not even notice the camera or don’t care because it is that small.
A7C street photography involves capturing the urban environment, from busy streets to quiet corners. It’s about capturing the essence of the city and the people who live there, and creating an image that tells a story about the urban surroundings.
Not everyone might appreciate you taking photos of the streets with locals in the photo. I’ve noticed that with this camera my presence is just less prominent which is a nice advantage.
The size of the Sony A7C camera might not seem like a big deal, but I think it’s a very important factor of the Sony A7C camera for travel and street photography.
Below is one of my favorite street photography images taken in Istanbul.
Keep in mind that the images had to be converted to Webp format to save bandwidth so, the images have been compressed from 50 MB RAW format to around 80 or 100 kb Webp format (!). Even then the images look amazing!
The Sony a7C camera is just perfect for street photography. Because of its smaller size, I can easily stow it away in my jacket when I go inside a store and do some shopping, which is very convenient in the city center.
Below you see some of my personal favorite shots I made in Beirut, Lebanon with my Sony a7C camera and kit lens, the 28-60mm F4-5.6.
The streets in Beirut are perfect for some amazing and unique street photography. There is an incredible amount of street art and diverse structures in the city
Sony a7C in Low Light Conditions
Check out some of the shots I captured on my travels with the Sony a7C. Adobe Lightroom is the editing software I use.
Because of a once-in-a-lifetime discount, I used to use Luminar. It’s not a terrible editing program, but Lightroom is a little bit superior.
Because of the full-frame sensor it handles low-light conditions very well. Look how sharp that is!
And noways, in case you have to crank up the ISO, the Lightroom noise reduction software is incredible.
Check out this beautiful video below showcasing street photography with the Sony a7C in China by Gurdy:
Sony a7c landscape photography
As well for landscape photography the Sony a7C handles the job very well.
Although the Sony a7C is limited to 24.2 megapixels, in contrast to the (whopping 3700 or more dollars) Sony a7 R5 with its 61 megapixel.
That one will have the upper hand in detail and options to crop digitally in case of shooting a wide landscape photo.
In my experience the Sony a7C is more than sufficient to shoot amazing landscapes photos (with the right lens!).
In case of shooting wilde life you might want o have more megapixels since most of the time you will have to crop in digitally to get a nice close-up of an animal.
Both these images have been taken in Beirut, Lebanon. An amazing place for street and landscape photography!
The image below was shot in beautiful Oman. The landscapes of Oman are incredibly diverse!
Technical aspects Sony a7C
Let’s dive into some of the technical aspects and features of this camera.
Battery life Sony a7C
What I also really like about this camera is the battery life. It will last long enough for a full day of shooting photos and recording several videos. This also saves some money because it is not necessary to buy extra batteries.
Screen Brightness Sony a7C
The visibility of the screen is really good. I’ve been using the camera mostly in Erbil, Kurdistan, where the sun is incredibly bright, so it is still very easy to see what is on the screen.
The battery drains a bit faster when it is set at maximum brightness but I can still easily shoot photos an entire day.
Overheating Sony a7C
Another big advantage for me is that the camera doesn’t overheat, even during hot temperatures outside. This is an important factor for me because in Iraq the temperature can easily rise to 55 degrees during the summer! The a7C overheating has not happend to me once.
I wouldn’t let the camera lay around in the sun in 55 degrees of course but with normal usage outside in 42 degrees at least, it didn’t overheat.
Even when I went filming in 4K for an entire afternoon in 38 degrees (which is hot!), the Sony a7c did not experience any overheating.
Watch the video below I recorded with the Sony a7C in the Citadel in Erbil during a sunny day in 39 degrees.
Even traveling through the desert in Oman was no problem for the Sony camera.
Although you have to be careful of all the sand when changing lenses!
Connectivity
Connectivity options like WiFi and Bluetooth on this camera are very convenient for sharing photos and videos from your trip on the go.
In other words, you won’t have to wait till you get back to your hotel room or home to share your images with clients or friends, or on social media. This way it’s much easier to throw some snapshots on Instagram stories.
All these aspects of the camera make it the perfect camera for travelling and street photography.
Sony a7C Lenses
What I’ve learned along the way is that your camera is only as good as the lens that it carries.
The Sony a7C camera can be bought in a package with a FE 28-60mm f/4-5.6 kit lens. While the price is pretty good for the lens in the package, I noticed that I’m mostly using other lenses that I bought. It’s definitely not a bad lens but for me it has several downsides.
The smallest aperture is f4. If you want to shoot in low-light conditions, you might want a smaller aperture of 2.8 or lower for example.
The zoom is nice to have but in my experience with a zoom camera, and especially with the relatively small range this lens has, you either have a very large zoom to bring objects up close or you just don’t need a zoom at all.
Most of the time you can just walk up to the object you are taking a photo of. It is also possible to just zoom digitally. The Sony a7C camera takes 24-megapixel photos. That’s big enough for posters but for websites it will be too big anyway. Just crop your object if you don’t need the full 24 megapixel size.
I would save the money of the kit lens and invest it with some extra money in a lens with better specs and zoom range from Tamron, like to Tamron 50-400 which I absolutely love.
The bigger lens obviously makes the camera much more noticeable in the streets. But, compared to its competitors the Tamron 50-400 is one of the smallest and it is black instead of white like its Sony rival.
For a thorough review on the Sony a7C kit lens check out this review by The Hybrid Shooter:
My old camera the Sony RX100
I used to have a Sony RX100 compact camera before I upgraded to the a7C. The compact form factor is similar to that of the Sony a7C.
Even though I was aware of how poorly it would perform in low light, I bought it anyway because I planned on doing most of my shooting during the day anyway. But there are times when there just isn’t enough light, even during the day, and the result is a noisy photo.
This is not the case with the Sony a7C. Low light performance is superb. Check out below some photos I took during the day and in low light conditions.
Taking my Sony a7C camera on my trips has opened up a world of creative opportunities. Since it isn’t much bigger than my Sony RX100, I can easily keep it on me at all times and not worry about missing a photo opportunity.
As you can see, even when the images have been highly compressed to Webp format they still are high quality.
In my opinion, the photos taken with the full frame Sony A7C have a certain cinematic feeling to them because they are such high quality, sharp and clean of noise.
For some photos I used the AI noise reduction of Lightroom which can only be applied to the RAW format. The high quality images really help to keep the high quality when noise reduction is applied.
I even noticed that I was able to compress my images to a smaller size compared to the Sony RX100 or an iPhone of course, and still keep a decent quality.
This is super helpful to keep a website fast and save storage while still have high quality images on my website.
Price of the Sony a7C
When compared to other cameras, the Sony A7C is in the middle of the price spectrum. At its release, the camera had a suggested price of around $1,800 for the body alone, or $2,000 with a lens.
But I’ve seen several places where the price was lower so make sure to do some digging for a good price! Sony also sometimes has a cash-back promotion.
While the Sony A7C is certainly not cheap, its professional-grade image quality, feature set, and size make it a valuable purchase for serious amateur and professional photographers. I wish I bought it a lot sooner.
A tip to get a discount: many stores will buy second hand cameras when you buy a new one. If you have an old camera laying around, trade it in!
Tips for traveling with the Sony A7C
Here are some tips when using the Sony a7c for travel photography.
Make Good Use Of The Camera’s Functions
Learn how to use the Sony a7c’s features and controls to enhance your photographs. If you want complete creative freedom with your photographs, try out various shooting modes such as aperture priority and manual. Use the camera’s menus and buttons to create a setup that works best for you.
At first all the different functions can be overwhelming. What really helped me is to analyse all my photos after a day of random shooting and see in Lightroom what the settings were and how the photo looks.
This will give you a better feel of which settings result in which output.
Make a photo opp itinerary
Before setting out on a trip, do some background reading about your destination(s) and look for interesting photo ops. You’ll be able to schedule your shoots more efficiently once you know where the best locations are. Note the times of the golden hour and any festivals or events that may present interesting photographic opportunities.
Get the most out of your trip!
It always really surprised me that sometime when I take a photo of random things it can turn out to be a really epic photo once you do some editing with the lighting.
Try to focus on one key element
When you travel to different places, try to envision what it is like to feel like a local. If you want your photographs to tell a captivating visual story, you should seek out interesting details, and local culture. Try out new angles and compositions for some originality into your snaps.
Focusing on one key element also helps to get a great shot.
What are downsides of the Sony a7C camera?
Although the Sony A7C camera packs a lot of features, there are three things that I’m missing in it:
4k 60 fps
The Sony a7C camera cannot shoot 60 fps in 4k, only at 1080p. This might be the biggest thing I miss on this camera. Because the quality when shooting 24 fps in 4K is absolutely amazing. It’s down-sampled from 6K, which gives it a more crisp and sharp image.
But when you want to shoot something in 60fps to make a slowmotion shot the image quality will drop a bit. That’s a shame because it can be nice to take slow-motion shots in the streets.
The drop in quality isn’t very noticeable when the video is uploaded on YouTube, where people watch it on a 14-inch laptop, for example. But you might see it on bigger screens.
The small grip
The camera is much smaller than most other mirrorless cameras about there, so the grip is also a bit smaller.
When I’m traveling with the camera for an entire afternoon, you will feel your fingers a bit. Luckily, there are several solutions for attaching an external grip, but this makes the camera slightly bigger.
10-bit Recording
The camera records video in 8-bit. In my opinion, it’s not a big deal, but when you do heavy color grading and need the highest quality you can get than this might be something to think about.
10-bit color video is better but for most videos it doesn’t matter for me.
Why The Sony a7C camera might not be for all pros
Another thing that is missing it that the camera doesn’t have dual SD card slots. This might be an issue for photographers who absolutely cannot miss a shot. For example, it will be impossible to recreate a scene at a wedding or big event. You will only have one shot and if you miss it it’s gone.
Having 2 SD-cards lots has several benefits:
With two SD card slots, you can use one as the main card for recording and the other as a backup. If one of the cards malfunctions or fills up, you can keep shooting without worrying about losing your photos or videos.
Dual SD card slots can also be used to split the recording of static photographs and movies. The ability to record photographs on one card and videos on a second is a nice feature of some cameras.
Some cameras even give you the option to record on both cards simultaneously, giving you redundancy in case one card fails.
Although, the more functions the better I would say, I’ve never had an SD card fail, but for some this might be something to consider. But if you’ve just climbed Mount Everest and your SD-card is failing…
Obviously, Sony had to make some concessions to be able to achieve the smaller size, so this is one of the features that they had to drop since an extra SD-card slot takes up quite some space in the camera.
Final thoughts on the Sony a7c camera from a traveler
During my time in China (check out my story of working at a Chinese company), I didn’t have the Sony A7C camera yet. It is a big investment, and the high price held me back to buy one. Now, I regret that I didn’t buy it sooner.
I would have loved to have better, and higher quality images of all the 38 different cities in China where I’ve been.
I did have the Sony RXV100, but when there wasn’t enough light, the quality was too low to use the photo effectively, so I used my iPhone 12 Pro Max most of the time. During daylight, the images are fine, but they will never reach the quality of a full-frame camera.
It’s amazing to be able to carry a camera with you that can shoot super high-quality images while you are travelling. It’s not just about having great photos; it’s also about being able to go back to those memories years later.
Photos with an iPhone just don’t have the same impact that photos have of the Sony A7C camera for example. The high-quality images really take you back to that place and moment.
It even made me go outside and explore new areas more than ever. It’s great to go exploring, take photos, and see what you’ve caught when you get home.
My final verdict: The best camera for traveling is the Sony a7C.
See what else I have in my camera bag.
F.A.Q.
What makes the Sony a7C Camera different from other cameras?
The Sony a7C Camera is known for its compact size and lightweight build, making it ideal for travel photography. It also has a larger sensor compared to other cameras in its class, allowing for better image quality and improved low-light performance.
How much does the Sony a7C Camera weigh?
The Sony a7C weighs just a little over 500 grams, making it easy to carry around during your travels or in the streets.
Can I use the Sony a7C for professional photography?
Yes, definitely! The Sony a7C is highly regarded by professional photographers for its image quality. It offers many features and settings that allow you to edit your shots fully and produce professional images.
Can the Sony a7C Camera handle low-light situations?
Yes, the Sony a7C performs exceptionally well in low-light conditions. Its larger sensor and advanced image processing capabilities enable it to capture clear, noise-free images even in dimly lit environments.
Can I use the Sony a7C Camera for sunrise photography?
Absolutely! The Sony a7C Camera is perfect for capturing the rich colors and beautiful light of a sunrise. With its ability to handle low-light situations and its efficient exposure control, you can easily capture stunning sunrise photos.
Can the Sony a7C Camera create a bokeh effect?
Yes! The Sony a7C Camera has a wide aperture range, which allows you to create a beautiful bokeh effect in your photos. This effect can be achieved by using a wide aperture and focusing on your subject while the background appears blurred.
How does the Sony a7C’s large sensor help with better photo quality?
The Sony a7C’s larger sensor contributes to improved photo quality by capturing more light and details in the image. With the larger sensor, you can push your ISO to higher levels without worrying too much about image noise.
This improvement allows you to shoot high-quality photos even in low-light conditions, which is pretty helpful if your travel involves indoor or night photography.
