Calling all Sony Alpha users! (Part 3)

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Still hunting for a lens at the moment. At the moment it's between the Sigma 10-20mm or the 16-105 in the FS section. The Sigma will cost a bit more but it gives me the true wide angle which I'd really like to play around with. However the 16-105mm is a hell of a lot more practical :( I really don't know what to go for. Would really appreciate some help.

By the way, has anyone used this website before?

http://www.onestop-digital.com/catalog/product_info.php?language=en&currency=GBP&products_id=130

Not sure if it's dodgy or not. Seems quite cheap...
 
depends what your typical photo subjects are.
i have an 11-18mm but I use the 16-105mm an awful lot more - it's a great walkaround.

onestop are in HongKong so prices quoted don't include VAT (& they do offer to repay your VAT if you get hit with it on import).
& if you need to use the warranty Sigma UK won't touch them afaik without proof that VAT has been paid.
 
George7 said:
Still hunting for a lens at the moment. At the moment it's between the Sigma 10-20mm or the 16-105 in the FS section. The Sigma will cost a bit more but it gives me the true wide angle which I'd really like to play around with.
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Sigma more? Given the 16-105 in the FS section is £260 I'm not so sure, I sold my Sigma for £250 on dyxum before Christmas (admittedly it went very fast at that price, but given that was what I paid for it on the same forum at the start of the year I could not justify asking more to myself).

I find 16mm on the CZ 16-80 wide enough for my purposes, but I don't shoot wide landscapes.
 
You see I've never shot wide landscapes/wide angle shots before, but I absolutely love the ones I've seen. The possibilities are seemingly endless. However, whether this is going to be a gimmick or not is another story. From looking around, the Sigma seems to be around 300 second hand which I can't say is too bad. I woulda had yours for 250 in a heartbeat though :p
 
The Sigma 10-20 isn't really a landscape lens, it's better for Architectural shots amongst other things. You'll get a fair bit of distortion at 10mm so the 16mm may well be the better option and give you a bit more flexibility.
 
As said before the 10-20mm isnt really a landscape lens as such....its good for foreground but if everything in the distance including mountains will look tiny. Its too wide in all fairness and I've been after a medium zoom for ages (16-80mm) as I've noticed that all my better shots tended to be with my kit lens, which I was loathe to use again so if I wanted a shot I got the 35-70mm out which was often not wide enough.

The 10-20mm is a good lens and its good for creativity and it does have its uses in landscape but its limited. Ironic when I had the 18-70mm I thought 18mm wasnt wide enough, Hopefully the 16-105mm i'm getting with the A700 will cure my problem!
 
18mm is a good starting range tbh, the kit lenses range was ideal :p TBH whilst I like doing landscapes, living in essex doesn't give me much of a chance to do any so I'm hoping the 10-20mm I'm planning on 'finding' soon will be very fun. Then again I could be wrong and I might hate it, but most of the shots I've seen recently that have made me say 'wow' have been really wide angle. I'd also like to try out some car shots.

At the moment I have a 28mm Prime which is like my 'walkabout'. The fixed range is a bit annoying sometimes and I find it 'too zoomed in' a lot of the time, but it's extremely fast and small and cheap and produces fantastic shots. Some of my favourite shots have come from this lens, including the one I have printed big on my wall and I also have a Tamron 18-200mm which will probably be going soon. It produces good images overall, but compared to my prime, the wide end is a bit lacking. I mean, wide is still good but in most situations I just wish I had my prime with my instead as I rarely use the telephoto which is the reason I'm selling it.

I'd quite like to get a superwide and then replace the prime with a 17-50, or something in that sort of range as my walkabout lens. I don't want something that covers a huge range because as I've learnt from my 18-200mm, you sacrifice quality for the range. I'd like a CZ 16-80 but that's a bit out of my reach. Then I'll pretty much have nothing above 50mm, but then I can just buy a cheapo Minolta 75-300 for the rare occasion where I'll need a telephoto lens (going to the zoo or something). I'll just see what deals come along in regards to both the lenses I want to buy :)
 
George7 said:
Still hunting for a lens at the moment. At the moment it's between the Sigma 10-20mm or the 16-105 in the FS section. The Sigma will cost a bit more but it gives me the true wide angle which I'd really like to play around with. However the 16-105mm is a hell of a lot more practical :( I really don't know what to go for. Would really appreciate some help.

By the way, has anyone used this website before?

http://www.onestop-digital.com/catalog/product_info.php?language=en&currency=GBP&products_id=130

Not sure if it's dodgy or not. Seems quite cheap...
Click to expand...

There's a thread in the feedback etc. about OSD, they're good from what I can see so I've just ordered a 70-200 siggy off them
 
Certainly will, I never knew there were som many alpha-ists on the forum 'till this thread
 
How much of an improvement over my A100 would a A350 be? Or should I wait till mid-end of this year and get a (Second hand) A700?
 
Pedro Photosport said:
How much of an improvement over my A100 would a A350 be? Or should I wait till mid-end of this year and get a (Second hand) A700?
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Not much point unless you really need live view, and as for the A700. I upgraded to one from my A200 and ended up selling it a month later. Didn't like the extra size and thought the image quality differences were neglible so I thought having the money would be more useful to me.
 
Hi has anybody got any info on this lens Minolta 75-300 f3.5-5.6 are they any good and would it be better than my Tamron 70-300.
Thanks
Alan
 
rhonddaboy said:
Hi has anybody got any info on this lens Minolta 75-300 f3.5-5.6 are they any good and would it be better than my Tamron 70-300.
Thanks
Alan
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They're ok, just a lowish end telephoto I guess... I'm not 100% sure which one performs better, but I can tell you for definite that the difference is going to be negligible. ;) Don't bother.
 
i want to do portraits and i also want to upgrade my camera body so i was wondering what body should i get next? it would also help if people could give me suggestions on portrait lenses, i have a 50mm f1.7 at moment and might get a sony 30mm f2.8 macro and tamron 90mm f2.8 macro but are there any other suggestions or would these three lenses suffice for time being.
 
mastertrinity said:
i want to do portraits and i also want to upgrade my camera body so i was wondering what body should i get next? it would also help if people could give me suggestions on portrait lenses, i have a 50mm f1.7 at moment and might get a sony 30mm f2.8 macro and tamron 90mm f2.8 macro but are there any other suggestions or would these three lenses suffice for time being.
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Those lenses sound fine for the time being. I'm thinking that the 50mm F1.7 would be the ideal portrait lens :) As for the body, there's not much available that's worth buying in terms of new Sony bodys so I would suggest a used A700. Why do you need to upgrade your body anyway? I've found my A200 has been more than capable with pretty much everything :p I bought an A700 in October and sold it in December because the image quality increase I was getting was very small and I preferred the more compact size of the A200.
 
Finally sold my E-P1 (as the wife thought it was too BIG), so have been looking around for a decent compact that also does HD Video (looking at LX3, TZ7, DSC-WX1 etc)

Well, I think Sony might have make me what I've been looking for at CES 2010!

Digital photo and video - CES 2010 - CNET

But, Sony have released the:

Cyber-shot DSC-HX5V

Looks pretty interesting for a point and shoot (1080i AVCHD & MPEG4 video with active OS, Compass, GPS, G Lens & Exmor R sensor, etc)

The Sony a450 was obviously releases a few days ago, but still no replacement for the a700 at CES.
Make me wonder if, (a) Sony have majorly cut back on development the last year or so. (b) the a700 replacement isn't just going to be an a550 in a metal body (c) can't think of (c)
Maybe the a700 replacement will have HD Video, but with active SSS for video ??? Who knows.
 
I like it. I usually don't like the H series Sonys much but this one looks like a chunky W series so the 1080p video and megazoom in a compact package sound very tempting :p My friend has got a WX1 and it's very impressive tbh. The lens is the equiv of a 16-80 I think, and the 10fps is very cool and so is the sweep panorama. They're a bit of a gimmick but very fun :p
 
IMO Sony should stop releasing countless subpar low/mid end SLRs! There's so many in the range now and I don't think I like one of them! There's the A230, A330, A380, A450, A500, A550! When are they going to stop! Much preferred the old setup of A200, A350, A700 for the low/mid range SLRs. Much better! More simple and makes it easier for the buyer.
 
springtide said:
The Sony a450 was obviously releases a few days ago, but still no replacement for the a700 at CES.
Make me wonder if, (a) Sony have majorly cut back on development the last year or so. (b) the a700 replacement isn't just going to be an a550 in a metal body (c) can't think of (c)
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CES isn't really the place to release higher end DSLRs & related equipment - in fact iirc Sony were the first to ever release a DSLR at it with the A200.
Now there is a show in a month or 2 that imo is more likely to see stuff like that released ...
 
heidfirst said:
CES isn't really the place to release higher end DSLRs & related equipment - in fact iirc Sony were the first to ever release a DSLR at it with the A200.
Now there is a show in a month or 2 that imo is more likely to see stuff like that released ...
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Hoping the A700 replacement will be on the Sony stand at Focus to play with. Not that I'll be buying one, I'm quite happy with what I have and am more likely to spend any money on glass.
 
heidfirst said:
CES isn't really the place to release higher end DSLRs & related equipment - in fact iirc Sony were the first to ever release a DSLR at it with the A200.
Now there is a show in a month or 2 that imo is more likely to see stuff like that released ...
Click to expand...

Yep, I'm aware that CES isn't really very big for dSLRs. I guess we have to wait until end of Feb for PMA to see if a a700 replacement is close.

Just hoping that the a700 replacement isn't just an a450 with a larger viewfinder and metal body.
Not sure why the a450 was released now, maybe it's because Sony don't see it as a major camera and want to get it on the streets to start selling.

PMA 2010: 21st Feb if anyone else is interested:
http://www.pmai.org/pma2010_home.aspx
 
i might seem rather cheeky but does anyone have a spare flash foot for a sony flashgun that they would be willing to donate, its just i bought one from ebay and its a multi version so my flash sits on the edge of it.

its a jessops 360afds flash and so it never came with a foot. cheers for anyone who can help.
 
Hi, as some of you may have noticed from my earlier posts on the forum I'm new and a novice.

A friend of a friend has for sale a 18 month old A350 with a 3.5-5.6/ 18-70mm lens.

9600 (ish) actuations.

As a newbie will this be too advanced for my needs or is it a good starter camera ?

I can get it for (what I think) is a very good price ..... can I say how much ... is it against any rules ?
 
GingerNinja said:
Hi, as some of you may have noticed from my earlier posts on the forum I'm new and a novice.

A friend of a friend has for sale a 18 month old A350 with a 3.5-5.6/ 18-70mm lens.

9600 (ish) actuations.

As a newbie will this be too advanced for my needs or is it a good starter camera ?

I can get it for (what I think) is a very good price ..... can I say how much ... is it against any rules ?
Click to expand...

Dont think your breaking the rules if only enquiring about a price and not selling
 
GingerNinja said:
Hi, as some of you may have noticed from my earlier posts on the forum I'm new and a novice.

A friend of a friend has for sale a 18 month old A350 with a 3.5-5.6/ 18-70mm lens.

9600 (ish) actuations.

As a newbie will this be too advanced for my needs or is it a good starter camera ?

I can get it for (what I think) is a very good price ..... can I say how much ... is it against any rules ?
Click to expand...

hi,and welcome to TP.the A350 was designed with the starter/intermediate photographer in mind,so yes..it will be suitable for you.i don't see a problem with you stating what you're able to get it for..so fire away,we can then let you know if the price is okay (y)
 
mastertrinity said:
i might seem rather cheeky but does anyone have a spare flash foot for a sony flashgun that they would be willing to donate, its just i bought one from ebay and its a multi version so my flash sits on the edge of it.

its a jessops 360afds flash and so it never came with a foot. cheers for anyone who can help.
Click to expand...

Plenty of them cheap enough HERE Luke. (y)
 
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