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

Set it and forget it, custom buttons and my menu are all you’ll need. I’ve used all brands but find canon menus the worst.
 
nandbytes said:
Wide - how wide? ;)

FE55 or FE50 if you don't mind AF like your samyang 35mm.
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I've just returned a 50 f1.8 to Amazon. Having owned a Samyang 50 f1.4 and still have a sammy 35 f2.8, I can say that the 50 1.8 is FAR worse in terms of AF. It wasn't even worth the £135 I paid on Primeday, and made the AF on my old D610 look lightning-fast and super-accurate.
 
Second wedding in with the 35 1.2, aperture ring can be a pain in the b*****ks at times. Lens is amazing though
 
Could be the harness I'm using. Knocking it to like f16 etc accidentally lol
 
F/1.4 said:
Could be the harness I'm using. Knocking it to like f16 etc accidentally lol
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Do you have it set to A?

I had the same problem with the Zeiss/GM lenses, then now I just set it to F/1.4 permanently. If its accidentally knocked then it will get knocked to F/2.0 instead which isn’t a big problem. I was used to using the thumb dial to change the aperture with my DSLR, now I don't, just something to get used to.

They really should put A on the other end of the barrel.
 
Raymond Lin said:
Do you have it set to A?

I had the same problem with the Zeiss/GM lenses, then now I just set it to F/1.4 permanently. If its accidentally knocked then it will get knocked to F/2.0 instead which isn’t a big problem. I was used to using the thumb dial to change the aperture with my DSLR, now I don't, just something to get used to.

They really should put A on the other end of the barrel.
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Good thinking man ! Yeah it was in A.

Man its renders lovely. A billion times better than the crap Canon 1.2s I had, would love to see an 85 1.2 from Sigma
 
F/1.4 said:
Good thinking man ! Yeah it was in A.

Man its renders lovely. A billion times better than the crap Canon 1.2s I had, would love to see an 85 1.2 from Sigma
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Another annoyance I found is that not all lenses have this aperture ring design. The 90G macro don't have this for some reason so I constantly look for it due to muscle reflex. It can only be changed with the thumb dial.
 
F/1.4 said:
Good thinking man ! Yeah it was in A.

Man its renders lovely. A billion times better than the crap Canon 1.2s I had, would love to see an 85 1.2 from Sigma
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Wow going by the size of their 85mm f1.4 I'd love to see the delivery truck needed for a sigma 85mm f1.2
 
ancient_mariner said:
I've just returned a 50 f1.8 to Amazon. Having owned a Samyang 50 f1.4 and still have a sammy 35 f2.8, I can say that the 50 1.8 is FAR worse in terms of AF. It wasn't even worth the £135 I paid on Primeday, and made the AF on my old D610 look lightning-fast and super-accurate.
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Not in my experience. The 50mm f1.8 about as good as any samyang I have used (which is the 35mm f1.4 and 24mm f2.8)
 
nandbytes said:
Not in my experience. The 50mm f1.8 about as good as any samyang I have used (which is the 35mm f1.4 and 24mm f2.8)
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I've not had the pleasure of those 2, but if they were that bad then no wonder people are so rude about Sammy AF. I'm going to try to get another Sammy 50 f1.4 soonish, but I really don't remember the first one being anything like as bad as that, and the 35 f2.8 is a lot better - just a touch slower than the 24-105 because it overshoots & then comes back. The Sony 50 f1.8 did this too, but it was a lot slower and sometimes simply wouldn't find focus at all.
 
ancient_mariner said:
I've not had the pleasure of those 2, but if they were that bad then no wonder people are so rude about Sammy AF. I'm going to try to get another Sammy 50 f1.4 soonish, but I really don't remember the first one being anything like as bad as that, and the 35 f2.8 is a lot better - just a touch slower than the 24-105 because it overshoots & then comes back. The Sony 50 f1.8 did this too, but it was a lot slower and sometimes simply wouldn't find focus at all.
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They are better than the Sammy 50/1.4 actually

Did you update the firmware on the FE50?
 
ancient_mariner said:
I've not had the pleasure of those 2, but if they were that bad then no wonder people are so rude about Sammy AF. I'm going to try to get another Sammy 50 f1.4 soonish, but I really don't remember the first one being anything like as bad as that, and the 35 f2.8 is a lot better - just a touch slower than the 24-105 because it overshoots & then comes back. The Sony 50 f1.8 did this too, but it was a lot slower and sometimes simply wouldn't find focus at all.
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I have tried the Plannar, Sigma, Samyang and the cheap Sony 50mm.. None of them have super fast autofocus.

The best of the lot is the 55mm f/1.8, wouldn’t say it was super fast either but better than the others.
 
nandbytes said:
Did you update the firmware on the FE50?
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It was already on the current version (0.3) and the 50 1.4 that I had was very substantially better (don't know which version of firmware that had). My A73 is on version 3 (not done the 3.1 update).

It wasn't just speed, which was poor, but the amount of hunting and simply missing focus.
 
f/2.8 said:
The 90mm macro is much more than decent. It is the best standard macro lens you can buy regardless of system. It’s probably the best lens in the system.
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It does look a fantastic macro lens, from what I've heard Fuji's 80mm 2.8 is close though, if not as good.
 
Cagey75 said:
It does look a fantastic macro lens, from what I've heard Fuji's 80mm 2.8 is close though, if not as good.
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the biggest advantage of the fuji (IMO) is you can use it with 1.4x and 2x TC to get higher magnification.

even though Sony lenses are certainly very sharp like the 90 macro and 135GM, they aren't compatible with the TCs which is a shame.
 
nandbytes said:
the biggest advantage of the fuji (IMO) is you can use it with 1.4x and 2x TC to get higher magnification.
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That is quite a nice benefit for sure. Otherwise, as stand alone lenses they are very similar, the 80mm for APSC having more equivalent reach
 
ancient_mariner said:
It was already on the current version (0.3) and the 50 1.4 that I had was very substantially better (don't know which version of firmware that had). My A73 is on version 3 (not done the 3.1 update).

It wasn't just speed, which was poor, but the amount of hunting and simply missing focus.
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I wonder if you had a duff lens, whilst I wouldn't call it a speedy lens I've not had the terrible with hunting and missed focus that you've had. I only use AF-C though, were you using AF-S? I'm quite happy with mine for £135 and it actually made me revaluate selling the Sony and looking into getting some smaller/lighter lenses. The A9 and 50mm f1.8 is actually lighter than my X-T3 and 35mm F1.4.
 
ancient_mariner said:
It was already on the current version (0.3) and the 50 1.4 that I had was very substantially better (don't know which version of firmware that had). My A73 is on version 3 (not done the 3.1 update).

It wasn't just speed, which was poor, but the amount of hunting and simply missing focus.
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As stated above think you had a lemon. I have had good results with this lens albeit only using it sparing at Sony events

I wish Sony would update this lens with a better AF motor. It's the only one that gets bad press just for the AF. Before the firmware update it was actually better to just adapt the canon 50mm f1.8 STM.
 
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jj_glos said:
I wonder if you had a duff lens,
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nandbytes said:
As stated above think you had a lemon
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Perhaps it was a bad copy, though I'd have thought electronics wouldn't be variable. Optically it was good, but that's not enough because the point of this was to have eye-AF for kids parties etc. The Sammy 50 f1.4 had about a 50% hit rate, but this really was about 10% unless the subject was static, and even then it was back & forth.
 
nandbytes said:
the biggest advantage of the fuji (IMO) is you can use it with 1.4x and 2x TC to get higher magnification.

even though Sony lenses are certainly very sharp like the 90 macro and 135GM, they aren't compatible with the TCs which is a shame.
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I used to use the Fuji 80mm (with tc) and never really settled with it funnily enough - it was definitely sharp but also huge and heavy and didn't suit the Fuji body IMHO. Also the stabilisation gubbins would wobble about in the lens when not active which I found off putting. Not missed it since switching systems :)
 
dibbly dobbler said:
I used to use the Fuji 80mm (with tc) and never really settled with it funnily enough - it was definitely sharp but also huge and heavy and didn't suit the Fuji body IMHO. Also the stabilisation gubbins would wobble about in the lens when not active which I found off putting. Not missed it since switching systems :)
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Sounds more like personal preference, on the XH1 it'll be nicely balanced
 
f/2.8 said:
XH1 is ancient though. It’s so old that Jesus used one to shoot the last supper.
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Cool story, it came out the same time as the A7III :LOL: You seem to know as little about cameras as religion :p
 
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dibbly dobbler said:
Never intended to be anything else :)
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Yeah I know, but when you mention the moving parts, I've had this with Sigma lenses, among others - floating elements they called it - annoying but it wouldn't turn me off a lens. I'm more about the output. Would you say one is sharper in general than the other having used both? Looking about it seems the Fuji is actually pricier
 
Cagey75 said:
Yeah I know, but when you mention the moving parts, I've had this with Sigma lenses, among others - floating elements they called it - annoying but it wouldn't turn me off a lens. I'm more about the output. Would you say one is sharper in general than the other having used both? Looking about it seems the Fuji is actually pricier
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Based purely on sharpness I’d find it very hard to pick a winner - both are superb
 
Cagey75 said:
I know man, same - I could give less of a hoot about religion for one! But I was imagining Jesus taking the pics :D wouldn't be the last supper without him in
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He turned water into wine (which would be a handy aul trick) am sure he could manage to conjur up a phone with a remote release app after a bit of a pray.
 
f/2.8 said:
He turned water into wine (which would be a handy aul trick) am sure he could manage to conjur up a phone with a remote release app after a bit of a pray.
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He was a canny lad for sure, I'd deffo go to one of his parties :D
 
ancient_mariner said:
Not quite heaven, but I do like my old Sony 50 f1.4 for the way it renders, even if it's not as sharp as a modern lens. And on an LA-EA4 adapter it focuses a damn sight better than that sucky 50 f1.8.

Folly sunset 1 by Toni Ertl, on Flickr

Folly sunset 2 by Toni Ertl, on Flickr
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Surprising depth to the first one at f/1.8! Very nice, the second, a little too much sky for me but still like it
 
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