📸Iceland Through a New Lens

A road trip around the Ring Road

I’ve always been a Canon guy. Entry-level DSLR, reliable, familiar, the kind of camera that does exactly what you tell it to do, no more, no less. So when I decided to bring a Sony Alpha 6400 on my Iceland trip, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I just knew I needed something lighter. Iceland doesn’t forgive heavy bags.

What I didn’t expect was to fall in love with it.

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The trip

We started in Reykjavik, the world’s northernmost capital, compact, colorful, and full of energy at any hour of the day. From there, we drove east into the Þingvellir National Park, where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates meet at the Almannagjá canyon, and where the Öxará river cuts silently through ancient volcanic rock.

Then came the classics of the Golden Circle: the erupting Strokkur geyser launching boiling water 30 meters into the sky every few minutes, and the thunderous Gullfoss, a double-tiered waterfall that makes you feel genuinely small.

We then turned west toward the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, arguably Iceland’s most cinematic stretch of road. The black church, the lava fields, the tiny harbor of Arnarstapi, and the haunting black pebble beach of Djúpalónssandur, where rusted shipwreck remnants lie scattered across volcanic stones. And then: Kirkjufell. That perfectly pyramid-shaped mountain rising from the coast like something out of a fantasy novel.

Heading south and east, we reached Vík, home to the famous black sand beach and the iconic sea stacks, before continuing along the south coast toward Höfn, gateway to Vatnajökull.

A detour north brought us to Svartifoss, the black waterfall framed by perfect hexagonal basalt columns.

Then up to the north coast: Húsavík, Iceland’s whale watching capital, and Akureyri, the charming northern “capital” sitting at the end of a long fjord. Then the long drive back south, full circle, to Reykjavik.

The Camera That Surprised Me

I packed light for this trip. One bag, layers of merino wool, and the Sony Alpha 6400 with a versatile zoom lens.

Coming from a Canon DSLR, the first thing that struck me was the weight, or rather, the lack of it. Hiking with a mirrorless camera in your jacket pocket is a completely different experience.

But the real revelation was the electronic viewfinder and the tilting display. With a DSLR, you shoot and hope. With the Alpha 6400, what you see on the monitor is what you get.

One caveat though: don’t judge the shots on the small rear display. The preview looks decent. The actual file is much more than that. I opened my RAW files on my laptop in the evenings, and the level of detail, dynamic range, and color depth consistently surprised me. The camera was quietly delivering way more than its compact size suggested.

Lightroom did the rest!

All photos taken with my Sony Alpha 6400. Edited in Adobe Lightroom.