Universal Studios with Sony 24mm F 1.4 GM
My full review of the Sony 24mm F1.4 GM lens will be posted in the coming weeks but I thought I would share some images and thoughts now. I brought the Sony 24mm F1.4 along with the Sony A7riii on a winter weekend family vacation to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. In other words, the non-Disney place. While I also used a couple of other lenses, I primarily shot with the Sony 24mm F1.4, taking well over 500 images in about three days.
This post will be primarily photos. Consider it a bit of a photography tour of Universal Studios (including the Wizarding World of Harry Potter), and some general thoughts on the Sony 24mm F1.4 GM lens.
Technically, the Universal Orlando Resort is broken down into three theme parks. In reality, there are two core parks and a recent addition of a third water park, Volcano Bay. I didn’t visit Volcano Bay on this trip, instead focusing on the two main parks, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Where Universal Studios is primarily a collection of attractions within themed urban areas, Islands of Adventure tends to build up entire “islands” around attractions. For example, their Jurassic Park “island” is comprised of one main attraction (River Adventure), several smaller attractions, themed eateries, etc. The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is yet another theme park in some ways, a huge land broken down with half in Universal Studios and half in Islands of Adventure, connected by train.
See the Sony 24mm F/1.4 GM on Amazon here.
Photography in General at Universal
I’ve done many trips to Disney World that were photography intense. Anyone planning a camera-intensive trip to Universal should go in recognizing that it is far less camera-friendly than Disney World. Where Disney lets you carry your camera and actually photograph almost every attraction, Universal prohibits photography on most of their attractions. For many attractions, you can’t carry any loose items and must store your camera in a locker. Even those attractions that will let you carry the camera, will generally enforce a “no photography” rule. At Disney, I very much enjoy Dark Ride photography, but there are only a couple of attractions where that’s possible at Universal.
Now on to the images.. (Click any image for full size and meta data)
Universal Studios
Who says you can’t shoot a landscape at 1.4? When you stay at an on-site hotel at Universal Resort, you can take a water taxi to the theme parks. Above, we see the morning arrival at Universal Studios, shot at a 1.4 aperture. Given plenty of day light, there was no need to shoot at such a wide aperture, but I wanted to see if the widest aperture was usable. Given the wide focal length, you can get nearly infinite depth of field even at 1.4, if your landscape subject is a bit of a distance away. If you click the above image for larger, you see that you have a sharp landscape without any obvious defect, from edge to edge.
My patient kids were patient enough just for a few photos and they are pictured above in the temporary “French Quarter” Courtyard. For about a month, Universal celebrates Mardi Gras with a parade and part of their “New York” area is transformed into “Nawlins” with jazz and Cajun food stalls. (The Shrimp and sausage po’boy was excellent, the jambalaya was a bit dry). The above image is a reminder that 24mm is very very wide for any type of portrait images, even environmental portraits. I ultimately cropped the above image and you can still see it takes it a huge portion of the scene. For environmental portraits, my personal preference is to back up with a longer lens.
I really enjoy the “backlot” theming of classic New York City and San Francisco at Universal Studios. You’ll find a mix of real historic shop fronts as well as some from classic Universal movies. As shown above, the Sony 24mm F1/4 is not immune to flare with a harsh light in the corner of the frame, but I’ve certainly seen much worse. Contrast is very well maintained despite the back light.
Well handled back light shown above, at the Transformers ride. In addition to the ride, Transformers offers photo meet & greets with life-size moving and operating Transformers robots. And Disney only lets you take a picture with a mouse!
Other than Harry Potter, the most complete “land” at Universal Studios is probably their Simpsons area. The main Simpson’s ride, a simulated roller coaster, is a funny but mediocre experience. But the theming of the area, especially their food options (Krusty Burger! Duff Beer! Lard Boy Donuts!) is really bright, colorful and photogenic.
To get any type of portrait bokeh, you really need to be fairly close to your subject, as I sat across from my daughter and shot her at F1.4:
The background separation is quite smooth, as shown above. You are never going to complete blur the background out of existence at such a wide angle, but you can create a nice 3D look.
By the way, the massive donut is actually tasty but requires at least 4 or more people to actually eat it:
Before we leave the Simpsons, here is a shot taken of the Simpsons’ land from across the lagoon, and then some close crops to examine the sharpness. The image was taken at F3.2…. so a fairly wide aperture, certainly for a landscape:
Now below, some extremely close crops from various parts of the image:
These are extreme crops, displaying at over 100%, which is quite remarkable to me. The fact that you can fully read the signage that is nearly microscopic in the whole image is remarkable. The very edge of the frame isn’t quite as sharp, but this is an extreme blowup.
A quick night time landscape of Universal Studios below. Considering the quality you can achieve at such a wide aperture, it really gives you the freedom to keep ISO low, giving you files that allow lots of flexibility in post processing. (the below image was heavily processed to protect the highlights while lifting the exposure).
With the ban of photography on most attractions, Universal doesn’t allow much dark ride photography but there is no ban on their E.T. dark ride:
Shooting at F1.4 certainly opens up the low light capabilities.
From one of Universal’s older attractions, we move on to one of the newest:
Fairly boring brick warehouse.. But when you get inside, you get the newest attraction at Universal….and one of the most boring. But shooting architecture at F8, the Sony 24mm F 1.4 GM does shine. No significant distortion and great edge to edge sharpness. The Fast and Furious ride brings us to the edge of Universal’s “San Francisco”… bordering London, with their re-creation of the Eros Statue from Piccadilly Circus:
Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Daigon Alley
The great thing about London is that it is the gateway to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. There really aren’t any signs telling you that Harry Potter world is nearby. Instead, it’s a bit hidden just as in the books and movie. Within London, there is a re-creation of King’s Cross Station (more below), but passage through a brick wall suddenly opens up to the busy sights and sounds of Daigon alley.
The above image was taken with a 3K Gorillapod (See on Amazon / Adorama). I LOVE traveling with a Gorillapod… gives me a tripod for long exposures anywhere, with a small light tripod that easily fits in the camera bag. The downside is that it is only about a foot tall, so if there is no place to attach it, if you use it on the ground, you are at a very low perspective. But shooting from ground level does indeed create a unique and interesting angle.
As shown above, Daigon Alley is often wall to wall people, especially when the park is busy. People will stand around staring at the dragon atop Gringott’s bank, waiting to capture it breathing fire. Capturing an image without hordes of people may require a long lens, higher position for the camera and/or some cropping.
Of course, with the fast 1.4 aperture, combined with the IBIS of the Sony A7riii, combined with the high ISO capability of the Sony A7riii, you can get some pretty good images even handheld at night:
As noted above, people stand around waiting to capture the dragon expelling fire:
In the above set, see a close crop and get an idea of the level of detail captured, even at F1.4 with the Sony 24mm F/1.4 GM on the 42 megapixel body of the Sony A7riii.
Before we leave Daigon Alley, some of the live entertainment below. 24mm is definitely too wide for stage shows shot from the audience, but fortunately there is plenty of room to crop:
We will now say goodbye to Daigon Alley. As noted above, King’s Cross Train Station is located right outside of Daigon Alley, in “London.” As any Harry Potter fan knows, you find the Hogwart’s Express on track 9 3/4:
The above two images are good examples of the quality of the background separation at F1.4.
Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Hogsmeade
The train itself isn’t just transportation. It simulates the ride from London to Hogsmeade, the magical town that houses Hogwart’s school of wizardry. The Sony 24mm F 1.4 GM proves to be a champion in difficult bright light:
The main attraction from both a ride perspective and from a photographic perspective is Hogwart’s castle. First, let’s take a look at a few angles during the daylight. Note the below image taken at F13, you can observe the flare from the harsh sun and the sun star effect at F13.
One of my favorite angles to shoot Hogwart’s castle, is with the Hogsmeade Snow-witch in the foreground… taken at F6.3:
At night, they constantly run a light show on the castle, including a small batch of fireworks.
I do personally love shooting long exposure at night. It has so many benefits including ghosting away the crowds of people, making light points more interesting, and creating very rich deep images. So below, let’s look at a couple of long exposures of the town of Hogsmeade at night. In the following images, you’ll observe the exceptional starbursts of the Sony 24mm F/1.4 at smaller aperture.
Finally, my favorite long exposure of the evening, a 13 second exposure at F14 and ISO 640:
Islands of Adventure
Now that we have left the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, we can see what else Islands of Adventure has to offer.
Most of the photos taken at Islands of Adventure were around golden hour, from about an hour before sunset till shortly after sunset. The challenging part of this time of day is that the amount of natural light is very variable, you may find your ISO escalating quickly. Yet if the setting sun is directly in front of you or behind you, you may be getting as much light as midday.
The difference between an interesting landscape photograph and a boring photograph often comes down to the light and time of day. You can get your best images by setting aside your camera but being sure to pull it out for Golden hour.
When you first enter Islands of Adventure, if you veer to the left, you head towards their Marvel superhero land. (In contracting irony, while Disney owns Marvel, Universal contracted for the theme park rights to Marvel before it was acquired by Disney). As you enter the superhero land, you pass under the “Hulk coaster.” The curves of the coaster make for an excellent wide angle image. Below you can see the difference between day time and golden hour.
The best attraction is the Superhero Island is the Spiderman dark ride/simulator, based on the cartoon Spiderman. This is one of the few rides without photography restrictions but the ride is mostly 3D movie projections which don’t exactly photograph well. But if you’re quick, you can capture the Statue of Liberty head floating above you:
You need to react fast, compose quickly, and avoid overexposing.
After Super Hero Island, you pass into “Toon Lagoon,” which celebrates many classic comic strips. I passed the meet and greet with Popeye and Olive Oil. Though I have to wonder how many people under 30 years of age would even recognize most of the toons being celebrated. Toon Lagoon is home to two soaking wet water rides that I opted to pass. But the land itself has the bright colors of the Sunday comics.
Next up, you come across Skull Island: Reign of Kong.
Unlike most of the theme park, this is a single attraction without a true “island.” The outside of the attraction is brilliant, forced perspective used to create towering mountains in the background. The attraction looks dark, mysterious and foreboding. As a massive King Kong head ends this attraction, it would make great dark ride photography, but unfortunately photography is banned on the ride itself.
While you’re prohibited from taking photographs on the ride, nothing stops you from taking photographs while you’re on line.
Taken close up at F1.4, the above-image starts to show you the bokeh ball rendering of the Sony 24mm F/1.4, which is definitely nicely rounded at wide apertures.
There are several more “Islands” and attractions, but I didn’t really photograph them with the 24mm F/1.4. I’ll do a full Universal Studios Photography Guide at a later date. The purpose of this post was to get a sense of real world use of the Sony 24mm F/1.4. So let’s get to some conclusions…
Real World Conclusions of the Sony 24mm F/1.4
Traveling with primary reliance on a single prime lens cuts against conventional wisdom, but I actually do recommend using just two lenses when traveling, a wide angle and a prime. (Two lens travel article). The Sony 24mm F/1.4 GM can fill both needs: wide and fast prime. Considering the sharpness of the Sony 24mm F/1.4 GM, especially when paired with the high resolution body of the Sony A7riii, you can crop extensively essentially getting a bit of zoom when necessary.
In real world use, the Sony 24mm F/1.4 has no significant defects. I’ll do a full pixel peeping review in the near future. There may be some CA, some vignetting, etc, but nothing that really hampers use of the lens at just about any aperture at any time. The ability to shoot landscapes at F 1.4 means you can shoot more handheld, you can keep ISO down.
To me, the only question is whether you need a 24mm prime lens. Sony has seven different zoom lenses that cover the 24mm focal length. So every Sony full frame shooter almost certainly already has a lens covering the 24mm focal length. Many shooters want to use prime lenses for superior bokeh. But at wide angle, you’re rarely going to be getting much bokeh at any focal length. That means the main reasons to consider a lens like the Sony 24mm F/1.4 GM are better low light capability and just overall better image quality than you can get with a zoom. On those fronts, the Sony 24mm F/1.4 GM certainly delivers.
My gear used in this post:
- Sony 24mm F/1.4 GM: See on Amazon / See on Adorama
- Sony A7riii body: See on Amazon / See on Adorama
- Joby 3k Gorillapod: See on Amazon / See on Adorama
Adorama also offers the Sony A7riii and some great “Free extras.” They include a very good camera bag, my favorite full size tripod, the Manfrotto Befree, and a Joby Gorillpod. You can see this entire package here.
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