Calling all Sony Alpha users! (Part 4)

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The batteries that shipped with my Sony A900 looked like this:


DSC09124.jpg

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I've seen a few on Ebay that from the close-up's look different (font) etc - I know mine are genuine :)


I'm happy to use 3rd party (Phottix etc), not happy with fakes such as this:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BATTERY-NP-FM...ography_DigitalCamBatt_RL?hash=item2eaaf48018

Worth looking at the bottom to be sure.

This is definately genuine:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Genuine-SONY-...lCamBatt_RL?hash=item20af72b225#ht_500wt_1182
 
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Got a question for you guys regarding Sony flashes.

I've got 2 flashguns, the F56AM and the F58AM. I want to mount one on the camera and use the other off camera but when I do that, the off camera one only seems to fire when the mounted one is pointed directly at it. Is that the only way it works? Not really much good to me if that's the case is it? :help:

Please ease my confusion as only you guys can. ;)
 
I don't really use flash (or understand it!) but generally I think this is the way it works - via line of sight - which is probably why folks either use cables or buy pocket wizard type stuff to do this.

I've found off-camera flash always a bit hit and miss, even with Nikon's CLS.

I've not tried it with Sony at all, but I doubt you are doing anything wrong.
 
7dayshop are selling the SanDisk Ultra 8GB CF cards for £19.99 (free postage). These are the new Ultra cards capable of 30MB/s (200x) not the old Ultra II which did only 10MB/s.

They may not be fast enough to keep up with continuous 5fps raw shooting on the A700/A900 but I find they are good enough for most photography on my A850.
 
fabs said:
Cheers Andy. I've used the pop up flash to fire remotely but wanted to bounce them both and was hoping this was the solution. Maybe time I invested in some triggers.
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Talking of flash, before Christmas, Jessops were knocking out 360AFD flash guns in Nikon, Sony and Canon mount for about £40.

I picked up one in Nikon and one in Sony, and I can confirm the Sony fit one is very good - using it bounced, it produces lovely diffused light - almost makes me look like I know what I'm doing with flash!
 
puddleduck said:
Talking of flash, before Christmas, Jessops were knocking out 360AFD flash guns in Nikon, Sony and Canon mount for about £40.

I picked up one in Nikon and one in Sony, and I can confirm the Sony fit one is very good - using it bounced, it produces lovely diffused light - almost makes me look like I know what I'm doing with flash!
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Would be tempted by one of those if it could be used as a slave. That said, when I just went to look for it on the jessops site, I notice they do the sony hotshoe covers and I've been looking for one for a while now. (y)
 
fabs said:
Would be tempted by one of those if it could be used as a slave. That said, when I just went to look for it on the jessops site, I notice they do the sony hotshoe covers and I've been looking for one for a while now. (y)
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I just tried it - the Jessops flash was mounted on the Sony A900, set to Slave mode.

I triggered the Jessops flash from about 10 feet away with the A200 "pop up", it worked up to about 40 degrees from direct line of sight. 45 degree+ and it didn't trigger.
 
puddleduck said:
I just tried it - the Jessops flash was mounted on the Sony A900, set to Slave mode.

I triggered the Jessops flash from about 10 feet away with the A200 "pop up", it worked up to about 40 degrees from direct line of sight. 45 degree+ and it didn't trigger.
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Interesting. According to the jessops blurb, it can't be used as a slave. :thinking:
 
fabs said:
Interesting. According to the jessops blurb, it can't be used as a slave. :thinking:
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This is Jessops we are talking about though ;)

Definately has "Slave" mode - turned on by a switch marked "S" / "Off" :D
 
fabs said:
Got a question for you guys regarding Sony flashes.

I've got 2 flashguns, the F56AM and the F58AM. I want to mount one on the camera and use the other off camera but when I do that, the off camera one only seems to fire when the mounted one is pointed directly at it. Is that the only way it works? Not really much good to me if that's the case is it? :help:

Please ease my confusion as only you guys can. ;)
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haven't tried it with 2 seperate flashes but I can have a 42AM mounted to the side of the body on a bracket & it will fire using the popup as a trigger - so that's definitely not pointing straight at each other ...
you have set them to wireless & the same channel?:thinking:
 
heidfirst said:
haven't tried it with 2 seperate flashes but I can have a 42AM mounted to the side of the body on a bracket & it will fire using the popup as a trigger - so that's definitely not pointing straight at each other ...
you have set them to wireless & the same channel?:thinking:
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Yeah, I've used the pop as a trigger like that before without any problems. They're definitely both set to wireless and I think the same channel, I'll have another play later this evening.
 
Can't you rotate the head on the 2nd flash so that the body (and therefore) sensor are pointed in the direction of the on camera flash and the head is pointed where you want the light to go?
 
which lenses have you sony people bought that you're happy with? I keep finding recomendations for glass that will not fit my a200

a) i want something up to 200
B) possibly a 200 to 500
C) and a maybe a macro lens which gives 1 :1

i can afford what i want really ( not nessessarily straight away )but i hate wasting cash and don't want to buy a disapointing lens
weight is a factor

and i'm actually quite happy with the much maligned kit lens at the moment

i'm trying to shortlist before i go down to the focus exibiton but not getting very far
 
Kev M said:
Can't you rotate the head on the 2nd flash so that the body (and therefore) sensor are pointed in the direction of the on camera flash and the head is pointed where you want the light to go?
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Problem is that the flash on the camera will be bounce so will not be pointing anywhere near the 2nd flash.
 
Are you bouncing straight up or 45degress forward and up? Either way I'd have thought that providing the sensor of the 2nd flash is pointing in the direction of the first it will pick up the pulses.
 
Kev M said:
Are you bouncing straight up or 45degress forward and up? Either way I'd have thought that providing the sensor of the 2nd flash is pointing in the direction of the first it will pick up the pulses.
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That's what I would have thought but it just isn't happening unless the command flash head is pointing directly at the second flash. :shrug:
 
maggieme said:
which lenses have you sony people bought that you're happy with? I keep finding recomendations for glass that will not fit my a200

a) i want something up to 200
B) possibly a 200 to 500
C) and a maybe a macro lens which gives 1 :1

i can afford what i want really ( not nessessarily straight away )but i hate wasting cash and don't want to buy a disapointing lens
weight is a factor

and i'm actually quite happy with the much maligned kit lens at the moment

i'm trying to shortlist before i go down to the focus exibiton but not getting very far
Click to expand...

The problem here is that your list is very vague.

The macro is easy, bang for buck 1:1 macro goes hands down to the Tamron 90mm f2.8.

The others aren't so easy. Something up to 200 could be 70-210mm, 18-250mm or 24-105mm. Same with the 200 to 500. You need to be more specific about your requirements.
 
maggieme said:
I keep finding recomendations for glass that will not fit my a200

a) i want something up to 200
B) possibly a 200 to 500
C) and a maybe a macro lens which gives 1 :1

i can afford what i want really ( not nessessarily straight away )but i hate wasting cash and don't want to buy a disapointing lens
weight is a factor
Click to expand...
if you can afford/justify it then it's very hard to go past the 70-400 G SSM.
It's not light but nothing of this size & aperture will be & it's not that much heavier (about 250g) than the Tamron 200-500.

It may well also cover your requirement a) & it takes pretty decent pictures of butterflies, dragonflies etc. too (if that's what you want requirement C) for).
 
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thanks heidfirst and dave w......i know i'm being vague but its hard to know what i want /need. there is nowhere here where i can have a try out of various lenses
I've only got the kit lens and know that for landscapes i would use a longer focal length than the 70 kit lens on a regular basis and would want a sharp image.

with the longer length one i would like to get shots of wildlife, birds etc so i supose that it would need to be reasonably fast.
 
another possible option would be a 70-200/2.8 (Sigma & Tamron both ~£600+-) & a teleconverter?

mastertrinity said:
d
might get myself a 30mm f2.8 macro, i tried the 50mm f1.8 today in jessops and fell in love with it.
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saw 1 in use at the weekend - build quality is shall we say, uninspiring but image quality is very good.
 
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heidfirst said:
saw 1 in use at the weekend - build quality is shall we say, uninspiring but image quality is very good.
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yeah build quality is a let down although when that lens is on the front of your camera it feels like theres nothing there, think thats the only good thing about plastic is that its lightweight.

what amazes is thaat alot of people are saying that the f1.8 version is actually better than the f1.4 IQ wise, considering theres such a big price difference, hopefully sony make a new f1.4 with an ssm because that would be quite a powerfu (yet expensive!) lens.
 
oops, my bad - I didn't make it clear that I was talking about the 30mm & not the 50mm.:(

mastertrinity said:
what amazes is thaat alot of people are saying that the f1.8 version is actually better than the f1.4 IQ wise,
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well, the 1.4 is a 25 year old design afterall (& really just an AF version of an even older 1)
of course it's a FF 1.4 so more glass, somewhat more substantial build quality & made in smaller nos.
 
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heidfirst said:
oops, my bad - I didn't make it clear that I was talking about the 30mm & not the 50mm.:(


well, the 1.4 is a 25 year old design afterall (& really just an AF version of an even older 1)
of course it's a FF 1.4 so more glass, somewhat more substantial build quality & made in smaller nos.
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dont matter the 30mm and 50mm are exactly the same apart from one is an f2.8 macro and the other is an f1.8:D

has anyone else tried the new 28-75mm f2.8, it looks really good but cheapest i found it for was £450 at cameraworld. i wonder if its worth the extra £100 over the tamron version?
 
I've got a Sony 28-75 f/2.8 but I've not got round to opening the box yet to test!

My CZ 24-70 is astonishingly good at 70mm f/2.8 (perhaps the best 70mm f/2.8 wide open performance I've seen, including from Pro Nikon lenses such as the 28-70 f/2.8 and 24-70 f/2.8), so I've not had chance to use even try the Sony yet!
 
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