The Amazing Sony A1/A7/A9/APS-C & Anything else welcome Mega Thread!

Church done, guests fed and gone home and we're on our own now.

Merry Christmas and now on to a Happy New Year!

PS.
We didn't have a traditional Christmas dinner, we had a spicy Thai meal followed by almost endless nibbles and things. It was all very very lovely :D
 
Did anyone get any surprise photography stuff from Santa?

No surprises for me but am very happy with the PD tripod (y)
 
snerkler said:
Did anyone get any surprise photography stuff from Santa?

No surprises for me but am very happy with the PD tripod (y)
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Don’t celebrate Christmas myself but did buy myself a power bank for the phone (or can charge my cameras too I suppose). Got more film for the Instax printer.

Saving my pennies for the next Fuji X100.
 
Mrs WW said she didn't want to exchange presents this year but she did say she wanted a keyboard (electric piano) so I got her a nice one which came with a stand and stool and three months free on line course. She's used it every day. I haven't used it so much as still upset about my mothers death and the family issues we're going through but I can play the opening of ode to joy. Mrs WW also bought some Christmas jumpers from Temu, hers is fine but mine is hugely deformed and so much so that it looks silly on a human, both on me and on her, so will have to look into returning it later in the week. That's a problem, zero quality control. I'll be glad to see the back of 2023 and I'm longing for all issues to be over.

Other than that my Pergear 35mm f1.4 has landed in the UK. I hope it is f1.4 this time.

PS.
I did like wearing my wooly Christmas hat with its flashing lights today :D
 
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Nothing photo related for me. Trainers & aftershave from the other half. Bottle of rum & re-stock of car cleaning stuff from the kids - which I'll use first on the other halfs car I expect as she passed her test last week and her car needs a bit of tlc. Plus JD, cardboard/wood build a telescope kit & vouchers from the step-kids. Usual bits & pieces from everyone else.

So yeah, nothing excessive or super special but plenty for me :)
 
snerkler said:
Did anyone get any surprise photography stuff from Santa?

No surprises for me but am very happy with the PD tripod (y)
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I received this as a surprise:

SURE SHOT ZOOM XL - Canon Camera Museum

Here, you can find out about Canon's Film Cameras > SureShot > SURE SHOT ZOOM XL, PRIMA ZOOM F.
global.canon

The person who gave it to me is very into shooting film and brought a beautiful Pentax MF camera (still badged Asahi) to get some landscape shots up here, amusingly he took two rolls of ten shot film which the A9 can manage in one second - it's interesting how precious each shot is he's taken and of course I can't see them yet. I've never been a big film person but I'm quite excited to have a play with this one especially as it seems quite user friendly in comparison to the Pentax K-1000 which is the main film camera I used a little, the person who gave it to me thought it would be a nice contrast to all my super high tech cameras.

I've received the backpack as well and had a little play with the rotation system to bring the camera round which seems great, easy to get it rotate round and clips back in easily too. I think it could be handy even just for dog walks as I can just have the bits and pieces I need with easy access to the camera. I'm excited about the potential of taking the A9 and the 28mm F2 out with me mountain biking and hopefully get some usable motion shots on night rides.

I also gave some photographic gifts for a change as my Mum had requested a panoramic shot at the top of Loch Ness but I didn't have any I was happy with so I chose one I liked of Harris from a holiday which I bought as a framed print from Photobox plus chose four other panoramic shots I bought as prints to see if she preferred one of those and I'd get them printed. Although they printed fine I wasn't entirely happy with the shots but wanted to have something to give her on Christmas however she loved all of them, it's lovely to see the effect photography can have on people.
 
snerkler said:
Did anyone get any surprise photography stuff from Santa?

No surprises for me but am very happy with the PD tripod (y)
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Sadly not. Large Vet bill for emergency surgery Christmas Eve for our Lab pup. She’s recovering well. She’d got an infection in her Uterus. It burst. Touch and Go for a while.
 
trevorbray said:
Sadly not. Large Vet bill for emergency surgery Christmas Eve for our Lab pup. She’s recovering well. She’d got an infection in her Uterus. It burst. Touch and Go for a while.
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Sorry to hear that, glad she's recovering well.
 
LeeRatters said:
Nothing photo related for me. Trainers & aftershave from the other half. Bottle of rum & re-stock of car cleaning stuff from the kids - which I'll use first on the other halfs car I expect as she passed her test last week and her car needs a bit of tlc. Plus JD, cardboard/wood build a telescope kit & vouchers from the step-kids. Usual bits & pieces from everyone else.

So yeah, nothing excessive or super special but plenty for me :)
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Which rum, I rarely drink but if I do I like my rums.
 
Well, I finally got my hands on my new Benro Hydra 2 tripod.
Looks and feels great but haven't had a chance to use it yet.

We had a great time with all Bev's side of the family and enjoyed a really nice trad Christmas dinner washed down with some local beers (Brewdog etc) and choice Malts.
Our 5 year old Grand Daughter got a make up set from Santa so of course Grumpy had to get his nails done.
Can't get the bl**dy stuff off!! :LOL:
Now, we get to do it all over again today with my side of the family.
 
snerkler said:
Which rum, I rarely drink but if I do I like my rums.
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mstphoto said:
I'm not a huge Rum drinker but I do enjoy Kracken - very nice and in a nice bottle as well ;)
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The kids got me Lambs Spiced - which of all the ones that I've tried, I do very much like it! Plus, it is very much in their price range which suits their current situations.

Kraken isn't too bad either. My Romanian friend/workmate prefers that.
 
LongLensPhotography said:
The last reason not to buy a camera is the lack of popup flash. They actually do you a favour, because all on camera light does is wrecking the shots. If the light sucks, use a proper flash (bounce or use off camera) or change the composition. /rant

Swivel screen would be nice, I agree with you.

EVF - well that is a no go still. The only thing I would take now would be old hasselblad style 5" screen if it was fast enough. I don't think they are YET. But it is getting there, lets wait for responsive 4K EVF.

Pretty - that's a personal opinion issue. I personally don't care because it's a tool. Just like a carpenter doesn't complain that a hammer X doesn't look as good as Y. Same thing here. If you want pure fashion just buy a Leica or paint a red dot :)

The real odd one is no phase detect on A7r. Why on earth would they do that?

---

Anyway - the real message here is the new system, new direction. You could guess A-mount is replaced with this. That is the biggest news here.
This will be the first and perhaps flawed attempt. Look at first NEX and at first MS Surface. But they got a lot better. Even the lenses don't appeal to me yet. f/1.4 primes and 24-70/2.8 would be the first ones to release, and they put in 3.5-5.6 fail
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I have an Alpha 7mkIII and SG lens. It's such a good camera in low light I have never needed a flash. My 5D mkIII has no built in flash either, but the Sony is so much easier.
 
BacktotheFuji said:
Well I like it! Looks like it's made out of Lego, and who doesn't like Lego? Legacy glass users like me will be disappointed at the lack of stabilisation though.

P.s. I hate flash lol
P.p.s. I also dislike evfs but I'm not sure there's any other choice.
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There is stabilisation?
 
Redspider said:
Are SLR HUT any good? I believe they are 'grey' but can deliver in a couple of days.
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Last I knew they were to ba avoided. Grey importers I'd use are Panamoz and Cotswolds, possibly E-Infinity for lenses.
 
snerkler said:
Nice. Have you got your replacement Pergear yet?
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It landed in the UK before Christmas and there's been no update since. I expect it'll come later rather than sooner but when it does I'll do a centering test and then see if the apertures are accurate or as way out as the first ones.

I did sent Pergear a detailed email about the issue I'd found but got a standard reply asking for a picture of the damage (I never said it was "damaged.") I then commented on the Pergear site and unsurprisingly they deleted my post. If this second one is as way out at f1.4 as the first I'll shout it from the rooftops. An f1.4 being something like f2.2 really isn't good enough.
 
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ancient_mariner said:
L

Don't forget that effective aperture and transmission are different things.
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All I can say is that at f1.4 the exposure and the depth are very like those of both my Voigtpander 35mm f1.4 and f1.2 at an aperture between f2 and f2.5. That seems like more than a transition difference to me and there's the DoF which should be there or there abouts if the apertures are true regardless of transmission. When the new Pergear comes I'll see if I can incorporate my Sony f1.8 into the mix as well. I realise that there may well and even may often be small differences between lenses especially from different manufacturers but to me the differences between these lenses in both exposure and DoF and the gap between f1.4 and f2.2 or so seem too big to overlook and at the moment I trust Voigtlander more than I trust Pergear.

The first time I thought something was off I was at f1.4 and ISO 25,600 and thought that my shutter speed was too low. I then checked the lens against my Voigtlanders and there were significant differences at several apertures and yet the Pergear aligned with the Voigtlanders at others. I really can't say what the issue is, if there is indeed an issue. Maybe it's down to poor quality control with the aperture assembly or the assembly of the lens rather than just a massive porkie that it's a f1.4 lens? Time will tell.
 
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woof woof said:
All I can say is that at f1.4 the exposure and the depth are very like those of both my Voigtpander 35mm f1.4 and f1.2 at an aperture between f2 and f2.5. That seems like more than a transition difference to me and there's the DoF which should be there or there abouts if the apertures are true regardless of transmission. When the new Pergear comes I'll see if I can incorporate my Sony f1.8 into the mix as well. I realise that there may well and even may often be small differences between lenses especially from different manufacturers but to me the differences between these lenses in both exposure and DoF and the gap between f1.4 and f2.2 or so seem too big to overlook and at the moment I trust Voigtlander more than I trust Pergear.

The first time I thought something was off I was at f1.4 and ISO 25,600 and thought that my shutter speed was too low. I then checked the lens against my Voigtlanders and there were significant differences at several apertures and yet the Pergear aligned with the Voigtlanders at others. I really can't say what the issue is, if there is indeed an issue. Maybe it's down to poor quality control with the aperture assembly or the assembly of the lens rather than just a massive porkie that it's a f1.4 lens? Time will tell.
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If it's off again it would be interesting to see the differences in the DOF.
 
Yes. I wish I'd kept the originals but I will keep the test shots this time.
 
Could anyone offer up some settings they use on their A1 with regards settings etc, even lightroom settings if possible, previously a Nikon user for 10+ years and had all my settings in camera and lightroom dialed in, it wont take me long but would appreciate any help especially from wildlife shooters.
 
AdamSi said:
Could anyone offer up some settings they use on their A1 with regards settings etc, even lightroom settings if possible, previously a Nikon user for 10+ years and had all my settings in camera and lightroom dialed in, it wont take me long but would appreciate any help especially from wildlife shooters.
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Youtube is the place to go - loads of help there.
People like Mark Smith, Steve Perry, Mark Galer have lots of tips on the A1 setup for birds and wildlife.
 
AdamSi said:
Could anyone offer up some settings they use on their A1 with regards settings etc, even lightroom settings if possible, previously a Nikon user for 10+ years and had all my settings in camera and lightroom dialed in, it wont take me long but would appreciate any help especially from wildlife shooters.
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I set mine up so I rarely go into the menus when shooting. I change most of the controls from standard. One thing that is handy is to have aps-c mode easily obtainable. I set that to the buttons on the lens. I use the centre button in the 4 way to toggle bird/animal/person and C1 to toggle eye detect on and off. C2 to change focus boxes, and C3 settings effect on/off, AF on for one set of settings, AEL for a second and the thumbwheel for a third but rarely use that. The 4 way I have set up right-iso, left-WB, down-tracking sensitivity, and up remains Disp.

I make sure all the other items I regularly play with are on the FN menu. These include, zebra , variable shutter, type of shutter, flicker, OSS, flash mode, touch screen, and grids for the EVF choice and on/off. For everything except astro that usually means only venturing into menus at the start of a shoot to format cards, set time and date, change image quality settings and reset the folder to start with the lowest file number. Those 4 options get used every time I shoot, usually in the house before I go out and are at the top of my custom menus. Next on that custom list is custom settings so I can fine tune any recall settings I may need for a particular shoot. I put all the other things in those custom menus I think I may need but rarely use any of them. I find the menus easy to find stuff and far better than the last incarnation..

Play controls are pretty customised too but that is mostly to allow FTP and locking to be next to the shutter C1 and C2

I started off using the 1,2 and 3 on the mode dial but rarely use that anymore. I might well set it up if I got back into landscapes and astro but as nearly everything I shoot is sports, wildlife and events all the settings fall easily and I don't have to think where they are.

In terms of buttons I found the A1 superior to the Z9. It really is easy to get a set up that works really well and there isn't much to be improved with the exception of allowing a few more options in the recall setting particularly WB. They are brilliant cameras but would be so much better with built in grips and big batteries for my uses.
 
AdamSi said:
Could anyone offer up some settings they use on their A1 with regards settings etc, even lightroom settings if possible, previously a Nikon user for 10+ years and had all my settings in camera and lightroom dialed in, it wont take me long but would appreciate any help especially from wildlife shooters.
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Difficult to remember off the top of my head, I’ll come back to this when I’ve got me camera on me.

As for processing I use the color fidelity profile and then minimal changes, +5 on whites, +5 dehaze, -10 yellow saturation and change green hue slightly towards yellow. I think that’s it.
 
wookie6262 said:
I set mine up so I rarely go into the menus when shooting. I change most of the controls from standard. One thing that is handy is to have aps-c mode easily obtainable. I set that to the buttons on the lens. I use the centre button in the 4 way to toggle bird/animal/person and C1 to toggle eye detect on and off. C2 to change focus boxes, and C3 settings effect on/off, AF on for one set of settings, AEL for a second and the thumbwheel for a third but rarely use that. The 4 way I have set up right-iso, left-WB, down-tracking sensitivity, and up remains Disp.

I make sure all the other items I regularly play with are on the FN menu. These include, zebra , variable shutter, type of shutter, flicker, OSS, flash mode, touch screen, and grids for the EVF choice and on/off. For everything except astro that usually means only venturing into menus at the start of a shoot to format cards, set time and date, change image quality settings and reset the folder to start with the lowest file number. Those 4 options get used every time I shoot, usually in the house before I go out and are at the top of my custom menus. Next on that custom list is custom settings so I can fine tune any recall settings I may need for a particular shoot. I put all the other things in those custom menus I think I may need but rarely use any of them. I find the menus easy to find stuff and far better than the last incarnation..

Play controls are pretty customised too but that is mostly to allow FTP and locking to be next to the shutter C1 and C2

I started off using the 1,2 and 3 on the mode dial but rarely use that anymore. I might well set it up if I got back into landscapes and astro but as nearly everything I shoot is sports, wildlife and events all the settings fall easily and I don't have to think where they are.

In terms of buttons I found the A1 superior to the Z9. It really is easy to get a set up that works really well and there isn't much to be improved with the exception of allowing a few more options in the recall setting particularly WB. They are brilliant cameras but would be so much better with built in grips and big batteries for my uses.
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Thank you, appreciate the detailed reply, I had my Z9 so AF-ON was wide area small, joystick press was single point AF and a front button was 3D and was looking to do similar, I have started saving settings to 1-2-3 etc so looking to do same as I did with Z9, it was second nature to be able to use any 3 focus options without thinking or going into a menu, bird if flight lands in tree/bush could press joystick to get it to focus on single point
 
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