Sony a9 + Borg71FL + Borg1.4x + Kenko2.0x (1120mm)
The night before full moon

For few days I was provided with a Sony a9 to test from Dunedin’s Jonathan’s Photo Warehouse. I wanted to test the a9 with the Lunar Eclipse. But with a huge cyclone storm approaching, unfortunately, the sky was full of rain clouds and the eclipse wasn’t visible.

The Sony a9 was set up with a Telescope (Borg71FL + Borg1.4x + Kenko2.0x) to capture the moon. I also had a Canon 5DMKIV to shoot in wide angle along with the a9 for the night.

During the evening, there was a huge fire in Dunedin. When I faced the other way from where the moon was supposed to rise, I was surprised to see a large amount of smoke and helicopters trying to put the fire out. It was a record hot day in Dunedin and the wind was blowing strong. It was difficult for the fire to be put out and also for the tripod to hold the telescope steady.  Sony a9 + Borg71FL + Borg1.4x + Kenko2.0x (1120mm)
Full frame with no cropping and no post editingSony a9 + Borg71FL + Borg1.4x + Kenko2.0x
Cropped at 100%
Fire rescue helicopter
Sony a9 + Borg71FL + Borg1.4x + Kenko2.0x
Cropped at 200%
The Lookout Point Fire station at the top of the other hill

The a9 showed pretty impressive results with high resolution and nice dynamic range. It was quite amazing to see the letter of the Lookout Point Fire station placed on the hill far away with a lens having converters to achieve the focal length of 1120mm.

These are also taken with the a9.

To see the circumstance this is a wider view of the location.5DMKIV + 70-200mm

The Sony a9 was a very simple but reliable camera. It has dials and nobs and quick and easy to change the settings and potentials to assign the relevant settings to the customizable buttons.
The results of the images seemed surprisingly good in the dynamic range and the quality of the colours felt much more natural compared to the a7s series I’ve used before.

For more about the fire, read this article in Stuff.co.nz that used some of the photos.

Special thanks to Jonathan’s Photo Warehouse
 (https://www.photowarehouse.co.nz/store-locations/dunedin-city-store/)