Sony A7rIII and the GoPro Hero 7 Black. Do I Really Need them Both? Yes…I do!

As photographer, I often struggle with whether or not to lug my big camera with its even bigger lenses with me everywhere I go. When I do leave the house without my camera, I often find myself wishing I had it with me.

And many times, someone will walk up to me and say “Do you have your camera with you because that would make a great picture of the kids.“ And I reply “No. I left my camera at home today.”

Then I’m sad because I missed a special or funny moment. Well…I didn’t miss it, but I did miss capturing a photo of it. Learning how to be present in the moment and not taking a photo of every one of these special events is hard.

But as a photographer, taking a picture with my cell phone just doesn’t quite cut it for me. The best camera, however, is the one you have with you, and quite often, my iPhone is the only camera I have with me!

I recently acquired a GoPro Hero 7 Black. For those of you who might not know, it is a very small video camera used to film sports, etc. I took it to my son’s baseball game and tested it out for the first time last week.

I took quite a bit of video with it – in fact, I went through 2 batteries and over-heated the device once too. Now I find myself with an overwhelming amount of video footage that needs to be edited, none of which will be included in this post, because I haven’t had time to edit any of it. And I thought editing pictures was time consuming…

At my son’s game, I also tried to snap a few photos with it thinking it might be a good substitute for my Sony. However, once I got home and looked at the pictures, I realized that there is no substitute for my Sony.

But the video quality that this little camera provides is amazing! I shot so much of my son’s baseball in 4K! Wow! Maybe carrying this tiny thing around would be more fun than a camera.

Hmmmm…capturing a video of all our special moments instead of a photo? Something to consider, because the GoPro Hero 7 Black fits right into my pocket!

What did I learn from my first outing with my GoPro? Well, if I want to get a good photo of all the special moments, I guess I’m gonna have to lug my Sony with me everywhere I go. Or, I can just carry the GoPro and video every event.

However, I think the best idea might be just to carry them both. I guess it’s time to start looking for a new camera bag that fits both my Sony and my GoPro, Mark. What do you think? Can you ever have too many camera bags?

By the way…can you tell which pictures featured in this post were taken with my GoPro? How about my cell phone? Can you tell a difference between those photos and the photos that were taken with my “real” camera? Well…I sure can!

Until next time…

P.S. Below is a little bit of video footage from my GoPro Hero 7 Black. By the time I finished typing and editing this post, I was able to figure out how to grab a short clip off my GoPro to include for you to see. Enjoy…