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

chris. said:
There’s some lavender fields in the Cotswolds, however another big drive..
Click to expand...
I know of that one and it's closer than the poppy field for example. But one in Hitchin is even closer. Just over 20 miles from work. :)
 
NewBeetle said:
Have you seen the deal from LCE? The genuine extra battery would be a good idea, and the brand new 50 1.8 would fetch £120-£130 quite easily (first dibs haha).

https://www.lcegroup.co.uk/New/sony-a7-ii-body-with-fe-50mm-f18-(alpha-a7m2)-_12208.html
Click to expand...
I hadn't seen that offer. I went into my nearest Jessops and they had a new A7II in stock but offered me a slightly lower figure for my lens p/ex than I wanted. I casually reminded them of the money I'd spent last year on new Sony gear and they gave me a 10% trade-in bonus which gave me more than I'd expected. The LCE deal would have been better though in cash terms if I'd sold the kit lens, knowing me I'd have kept it though:giggle:.
rob-nikon said:
Sounds like you are in a similar predicament as me. Have you thought about an A6400 as a second body? That’s what I’m thinking of rather than a mk2 or mk1 A7 or A7r. It gives some good benefits over a A7i or A7ii and there is much in them cost wise.


An A6400 would effectively make your 100-400 a 150-600 f4-f5.6 (the 200-600 would be a 300-900mm lens).
Click to expand...
There are some benefits of the A6400 over the A7II but I wanted the continuity of full frame with my existing A7RIII.
 
addicknchips said:
Stick it on a tripod and shoot the moon. Will be awesome.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't need the tripod if it's the usual bright moon with craters you're after, even at F11, SS will be still well up there on a clear night. Using Nd filters for longer exposures maybe where you want cloud and or stars in too maybe
 
Last edited:
Cagey75 said:
Shouldn't need the tripod if it's the usual bright moon with craters you're after, even at F11, SS will be still well up there on a clear night. Using Nd filters for longer exposures maybe where you want cloud and or stars in too maybe
Click to expand...

But much more comfortable to compose than holding a big ass lens with a tc on it.
 
addicknchips said:
But much more comfortable to compose than holding a big ass lens with a tc on it.
Click to expand...

For one shot in your own garden though, which is all you really need for a nice moon, maybe a couple to make sure. This is another situation M43 had 'huge' advantages, you could hand-hold a 200-800 equiv lens with ease and get smooth video let alone a pin sharp shot of the moon. Aint no shallow DOF required there
 
Cagey75 said:
Shouldn't need the tripod if it's the usual bright moon with craters you're after, even at F11, SS will be still well up there on a clear night. Using Nd filters for longer exposures maybe where you want cloud and or stars in too maybe
Click to expand...

Not necessarily, I've got shots of the moon at 600mm, 1/60, F11, ISO100. Not a full moon as you don't get much detail, but getting on for 3/4.
 
jj_glos said:
Not necessarily, I've got shots of the moon at 600mm, 1/60, F11, ISO100. Not a full moon as you don't get much detail, but getting on for 3/4.
Click to expand...

I much prefer a shadowed moon, I stopped shooting the full moon long ago because I find them way too flat and boring. Only exception is the giant Harvest moon you can get in Autumn earlier evening, huge orange moon with blue sky - often possible to get some landscape below in those situations too. The shadow on darker night moons [waxing/crescent] really makes it pop and lifts those craters
 
Last edited:
Cagey75 said:
I much prefer a shadowed moon, I stopped shooting the full moon long ago because I find them way too flat and boring. Only exception is the giant Harvest moon you can get in Autumn earlier evening, huge orange moon with blue sky - often possible to get some landscape below in those situations too. The shadow on darker night moons [waxing/crescent] really makes it pop and lifts those craters
Click to expand...

As the thread does say 'anything else'... This is on an old 7D, with a Tamron 150-600 @ 600mm with both a 2.0x TC and a 1.4x TC :D


Moon by JJ_Glos, on Flickr
 
I've decided to cancel my advance order with Wex for the 200-600. Having bought the 100-400 and 1.4 TC just over a year ago I'd be looking at a loss of £1000 or even more on the lens alone as I couldn't justify keeping both.

The extra 40mm reach and 2/3 stop gain I'd get from the 200-600 coupled with the as yet undefined improvement in IQ is not justified by the financial loss. I suppose I should be feeling better having reached that decision but to be honest I feel a little wretched, I'll give it another year to see what results others are getting.
If I didn't have the 100-400 combo I'd buy the 200-600 in a heartbeat. At least my wife's happy!
All in all :sorry::sorry:
 
Last edited:
footman said:
I've decided to cancel my advance order with Wex for the 200-600. Having bought the 100-400 and 1.4 TC just over a year ago I'd be looking at a loss of £1000 or even more on the lens alone as I couldn't justify keeping both.

The extra 40mm reach and 2/3 stop gain I'd get from the 200-600 coupled with the as yet undefined improvement in IQ is not justified by the financial loss. I suppose I should be feeling better having reached that decision but to be honest I feel a little wretched, I'll give it another year to see what results others are getting.
If I didn't have the 100-400 combo I'd buy the 200-600 in a heartbeat. At least my wife's happy!
All in all :sorry::sorry:
Click to expand...

please keep such sensible un-GAS decisions off this thread.
 
footman said:
I've decided to cancel my advance order with Wex for the 200-600. Having bought the 100-400 and 1.4 TC just over a year ago I'd be looking at a loss of £1000 or even more on the lens alone as I couldn't justify keeping both.

The extra 40mm reach and 2/3 stop gain I'd get from the 200-600 coupled with the as yet undefined improvement in IQ is not justified by the financial loss. I suppose I should be feeling better having reached that decision but to be honest I feel a little wretched, I'll give it another year to see what results others are getting.
If I didn't have the 100-400 combo I'd buy the 200-600 in a heartbeat. At least my wife's happy!
All in all :sorry::sorry:
Click to expand...

I did exactly the same! Pre-ordered the 200-600 but cancelled a week or so later when I thought about it. The 200-600 is a lot bigger to carry and doesn't have the dual AF motors etc.

There's an interesting discussion in Mark's latest video on the pros & cons of the 100-400 + 1.4TC against the 200-400.
View: https://youtu.be/UR_s8DRWh6U
 
Furtim said:
I did exactly the same! Pre-ordered the 200-600 but cancelled a week or so later when I thought about it. The 200-600 is a lot bigger to carry and doesn't have the dual AF motors etc.

There's an interesting discussion in Mark's latest video on the pros & cons of the 100-400 + 1.4TC against the 200-400.
View: https://youtu.be/UR_s8DRWh6U
Click to expand...
That's the video that swung it for me!
 
footman said:
I hadn't seen that offer. I went into my nearest Jessops and they had a new A7II in stock but offered me a slightly lower figure for my lens p/ex than I wanted. I casually reminded them of the money I'd spent last year on new Sony gear and they gave me a 10% trade-in bonus which gave me more than I'd expected. The LCE deal would have been better though in cash terms if I'd sold the kit lens, knowing me I'd have kept it though:giggle:.

There are some benefits of the A6400 over the A7II but I wanted the continuity of full frame with my existing A7RIII.
Click to expand...
That’s fair enough. I thought I would mention it just in case if it was an option. I too would like to keep the full frame sensor but AF is pretty important for me. I also want to keep animal eye AF on the second body so I will need to go with something quite new (A7III, A7RIII, A9 or A6400). The problem is for a second camera the first three options are pretty much out of my price range for a second body. The A6400 seems to be much easier on the pocket and gives extra advantages the A7RIII doesn’t.

Enjoy the A7II :)
 
Last edited:
chris. said:
There’s some lavender fields in the Cotswolds, however another big drive..
Click to expand...

Do tell..

Went to the real confetti petal co. fields on Sunday, just squeezed the last hour. Haven’t seen so many cameras and photographers since the photo show. My little one is a bit small really, reckon perfect in 3 years or so as the flowers are about 4ft high.
 
Really like that video the a9 and 200/600 looks like a great birding combo .

Question is the a9 MKII on the horizon .
Rob.
 
GyRob said:
Really like that video the a9 and 200/600 looks like a great birding combo .

Question is the a9 MKII on the horizon .
Rob.
Click to expand...

I am not sure how much they can improve upon the A9. With fw5 it's just phenomenal. At this point if can't get your birds in focus it's entirely photographers skills.
 
That’s the point though isn’t it. With the A9 you don’t have to do much. Its AF is so good you’d have to be pretty bad to miss focus. With the A9II you won’t have to do anything. Just point the camera in the general direction and it will read your mind, get your subject in focus and track it until you click. With a later FW update you probably won’t even need to click. You can just say ‘Hey Alpha, click click click!’.

Joking aside, I think it gets to a point where too much tech kinda ruins the fun. Maybe it’s just me.
 
Shoot Em Up said:
That’s the point though isn’t it. With the A9 you don’t have to do much. Its AF is so good you’d have to be pretty bad to miss focus. With the A9II you won’t have to do anything. Just point the camera in the general direction and it will read your mind, get your subject in focus and track it until you click. With a later FW update you probably won’t even need to click. You can just say ‘Hey Alpha, click click click!’.

Joking aside, I think it gets to a point where too much tech kinda ruins the fun. Maybe it’s just me.
Click to expand...

I call the eye af the cheat button.
 
Livin The Dream said:
Do tell..

Went to the real confetti petal co. fields on Sunday, just squeezed the last hour. Haven’t seen so many cameras and photographers since the photo show. My little one is a bit small really, reckon perfect in 3 years or so as the flowers are about 4ft high.
Click to expand...

Hi, I had a look online some time ago and saw them in the Cotswold, not really done much else to that really, I guess there will be opening/closing times etc, which wouldn’t be at sunrise/set.
I’ve not been to the confetti farm yet, some friends have with there children and they’ve all said how good it was.
 
chris. said:
Hi, I had a look online some time ago and saw them in the Cotswold, not really done much else to that really, I guess there will be opening/closing times etc, which wouldn’t be at sunrise/set.
I’ve not been to the confetti farm yet, some friends have with there children and they’ve all said how good it was.
Click to expand...

Strangely, some of the cycling lads mentioned a ride out this weekend to the Cotswold lavender, so sussed it. Have to try squeeze it in.
 
Wishing that Sony would fit a top screen...

https://fstoppers.com/originals/who-else-wants-sony-change-one-thing-386303

I just don't miss the top screen, not when I can see the setting in the EVF and don't have to take my eye away from the EVF to look at a top screen. I suppose if picking the camera up just looking at it a top screen shows the settings but is that really more convenient than looking at the back screen or picking the camera up and looking at the EVF?

We're all different but I just don't miss the top screen at all...

Reading the comments on that article people talk about losing the exposure dial if a top screen is fitted and that's something I wouldn't be too upset to lose as two dials would be enough for me, one at the front and one at the back, as long as one was clickable to switch between aperture or shutter and exposure compensation.
 
woof woof said:
Wishing that Sony would fit a top screen...

https://fstoppers.com/originals/who-else-wants-sony-change-one-thing-386303

I just don't miss the top screen, not when I can see the setting in the EVF and don't have to take my eye away from the EVF to look at a top screen. I suppose if picking the camera up just looking at it a top screen shows the settings but is that really more convenient than looking at the back screen or picking the camera up and looking at the EVF?

We're all different but I just don't miss the top screen at all...

Reading the comments on that article people talk about losing the exposure dial if a top screen is fitted and that's something I wouldn't be too upset to lose as two dials would be enough for me, one at the front and one at the back, as long as one was clickable to switch between aperture or shutter and exposure compensation.
Click to expand...

It's interesting. I really thought that exposure compensation dial would be enormously useful, but actually I barely touch it because it's really awkward, preferring to use exposure lock instead. A top screen showing shutter speed, aperture, iso, shots remaining on the card and battery level would be a dozen times as useful, and one of the things that I really miss from the D610, even after 4 months of familiarity. I also often find the exposure dial gets moved when replacing or removing the camera from the bag, which is another reason I'd like it moved.
 
I can't say that moving the dial by accident has been a problem for me and I do use it but much of the time I'm in aperture and use the back dial rather than the top one.

The best handling camera I've had was the Panasonic G1. That camera didn't have an ec dial but one of the dials was clickable and ec was therefore just a click away. Actually that's how my GX80 and GX9 work too the latter having an ec dial which is just too stiff to use so I just use the clickable back one. I'd have an A7x with no top dial and a clickable back one and I don't think I'd complain but I honestly can't say that I've missed a top screen at all.
 
I used to knock the Exposure Compensation dial on my Fujis all the time (it somehow even used to change in my bag!), usually ended up on - 3 or something. Thankfully not had that issue on the Sony, it's pretty stiff.
 
ukaskew said:
I used to knock the Exposure Compensation dial on my Fujis all the time (it somehow even used to change in my bag!), usually ended up on - 3 or something. Thankfully not had that issue on the Sony, it's pretty stiff.
Click to expand...

I am instead knocking any one of the assigned button on the dial, be it i would be end up shooting bracketing all of the sudden.
 
I remember going out once with one of my Canon DSLR's and every shot was 2 or 3 stops under exposed. I tried to rescue them but even today I regret not noticing what had happened. Dozy me.
 
Last edited:
robinsslee said:
Since I'm full manual lad, I hardly ever use EV compensation unless I am on Av or Tv mode.
Click to expand...

I use it in manual as I can set the aperture and shutter and use ec to alter the ISO. I find this useful.
 
woof woof said:
I use it in manual as I can set the aperture and shutter and use ec to alter the ISO. I find this useful.
Click to expand...

I see, but I prefer full manual so I stick to what I prefer and comfortable with unless I've encounter constant change of light (-2ev or more), then Ev or Tv or Auto ISO to the rescue.
 
I usually use aperture priority until the light drops to a point at which the shutter speed is too low and then I switch to manual and set an appropriate aperture and shutter speed and let the ISO float if necessary adjusting the exposure with ec changing the ISO as required. Actually these days the kit is so good that a lot can be done with the exposure post capture and the results will still probably be easily good enough for me.
 
I honestly don't even know what the EC dial does (or rather, how it does it). I mostly shoot aperture priority with a minimum shutter speed set in Auto ISO, I can comfortably get through 90% of a wedding just riding the aperture control dial and never thinking about anything else. If I took the EV down to - 1 which variable does it override or prioritise, particularly if shooting full manual where I've defined those variables?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top