This week, together with Sam from Sony, we besieged King John’s Castle in an attempt to take the crown! Or rather, to take portraits and landscape shots – and then besiege the castle!


Sam brought down the Sony a7M3, a full-frame beast with some stunning portrait lenses like the 50mm 1.8 and the 85mm 1.8. We used this take the walls! (ahem…) We used this to take stunning shots of the Animators at the castle; costumed characters who recreate the history of the era with costumes, conversations, and medieval games.

Sam also brought down the spanking new RX100 VI, an amazing compact camera with a range of 24-200 and the ability to take 500 frames a second at full HD for some super slow-motion footage, or 1000 frames at SD. This meant we could take footage that was 10-20 times slower, perfect for shooting archers – er, shooting the archer, I mean.

At the top of the tower we took some landscapes with the a7M3 and I tested the zoom on the RX100VI – I was shocked to see just how close I could get to the Clarion Clayton in the distance, and I swear I saw the ghost of King John shaking his fist in one of the suites.

Both of these cameras are small and lightweight. The a7M3 is designed for the prosumer, being a full frame camera with 24 megapixels and a range of interchangeable lenses. But the RX100 VI is a curious camera – a tiny thing that fits in your pocket which is capable of extreme slow-mo and has a stacked CMOS sensor just like its bigger cousins.

If you’re looking for a camera with all the bells and whistles, then the a7M3 is the camera for you, but if you’re looking for one of the most powerful pocket-sized cameras, then you would do well with the RX – it’s amazing what Sony are able to pack into such a compact size and I’m really interested to see where this technology goes down the line.

Eventually we had to call off the siege – as it was lunch time – and we trundled back to the shop, but it was a great day up at King John’s Castle. There’s a rich history there right on our doorstep, and it was super capturing a few of those moments with the Sony cams!