With 36 megapixels, you don’t always need a telephoto lens

My Sony a7r and a6000 were two of my mainstays while I was shooting down in the Florida Keys during my January-March escape from the bitter Winter we had up North as 2015 opened.  Although I favored the a6000 with the Sony 70-200mm f/4 lens for wildlife, sometimes I found myself with an opportunity to shoot an interesting creature, such as this heron, when toting only my a7r and 24-70mm f/4 Zeiss Vario-Tessar FE 24-70mm f/4.  As you can see from the slightly cropped main image at left, I really was able to get no closer than about 50 feet from the bird at Long Key State Park before it began to display skittish tendencies.  I was already knee-deep in murky water, so I shot away.   Back at my Winter “headquarters” I was pleased to see that 36 megapixels were plenty to allow some judicious cropping.  Exposure was about 1/800th second at f/5.6 at ISO 100 and OSS active.   I can’t remember whether I was more concerned about my feathered friend flying away, or slipping and giving my mirrorless camera a salt-water bath.