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

We managed a trip out today so I took my A7 and Chinon 50mm f1.4.

We're here...

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"Take my picture."

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Nice spot for a sit down and to read the grandson a story.

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This really is a nice lens and I'm finding it better than I expected based on the reviews. Maybe it's sample variation with the reviewers getting poor ones and me getting a good one or maybe I'm just not picky.

My Chinon 28mm f2.8 arrived today and it too seems to be in very good condition and sharp enough, it does have vignetting at wide apertures though. I may get some centre pinch lens caps for them as the ones they came with are a bit fiddly.
 
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wookie6262 said:
I used a 6 stop and 10 stop ND. Both were Lee Square filters and I also had a polariser and grad on too. I could easily have shot then with a round screw in 10 stop and exposed for the sky and bring up the water or taken two exposure and blended them later.


If you are shooting during the middle of the day you may need a 15 stop but a 10 stop would get more overall use. I actually use my 6 stop more than the others as I tend to shoot when the light is pretty low and at fairly small apertures and iso.

The simplest way of finding out what filter is to look back at the photos you have taken and see what shutter speed you were using and how many stops less you would need to get a 30 second exposure, that is what these shots were.

This was taken with a 6 stop before the sun was up.
Boating Pond to Bass Rock Sunrise by Simon Wootton, on Flickr
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Thanks. I don't really want the expense of the Lee filter systems (at the moment anyway) and am more considering a screw on ND filter. Taking two exposures would be ok with me. I could do that in lightroom with the photo merge tool like I would do with bracketed images?

Would this be a good one to get? https://www.kentfaith.co.uk/SKU0127...Kc5hWv_JF-9t7mpeh9_WJZt8JFoFbYdsaAkX4EALw_wcB
 
I have some relatively cheap Cokin square filters. Some claim they're rubbish or give colour casts but I can't say I've found any great fault with them.

One thing to keep in mind is that at wider focal lengths a square filter system or even stacked circular screw on filters may obstruct the optical path. I have two Cokin holders, their normal one and a slimmer one with fewer slots.

Another thing to keep in mind is that when buying filters you should maybe get the size to fit your biggest lens (as in widest at the filter end...) and get step up rings for your smaller lenses.
 
woof woof said:
I have some relatively cheap Cokin square filters. Some claim they're rubbish or give colour casts but I can't say I've found any great fault with them.

One thing to keep in mind is that at wider focal lengths a square filter system or even stacked circular screw on filters may obstruct the optical path. I have two Cokin holders, their normal one and a slimmer one with fewer slots.

Another thing to keep in mind is that when buying filters you should maybe get the size to fit your biggest lens (as in widest at the filter end...) and get step up rings for your smaller lenses.
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Thanks Alan. I'll have to check but I think my Sigma 16mm and Sony 70-350mm both have a 67mm filter thread, but I could be wrong,
 
Merlin5 said:
Thanks. I don't really want the expense of the Lee filter systems (at the moment anyway) and am more considering a screw on ND filter. Taking two exposures would be ok with me. I could do that in lightroom with the photo merge tool like I would do with bracketed images?

Would this be a good one to get? https://www.kentfaith.co.uk/SKU0127...Kc5hWv_JF-9t7mpeh9_WJZt8JFoFbYdsaAkX4EALw_wcB
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I use Haida for my solid ND filters. No real cast to them that I've ever noticed.
 
wookie6262 said:
I used a 6 stop and 10 stop ND. Both were Lee Square filters and I also had a polariser and grad on too. I could easily have shot then with a round screw in 10 stop and exposed for the sky and bring up the water or taken two exposure and blended them later.


If you are shooting during the middle of the day you may need a 15 stop but a 10 stop would get more overall use. I actually use my 6 stop more than the others as I tend to shoot when the light is pretty low and at fairly small apertures and iso.

The simplest way of finding out what filter is to look back at the photos you have taken and see what shutter speed you were using and how many stops less you would need to get a 30 second exposure, that is what these shots were.

This was taken with a 6 stop before the sun was up.
Boating Pond to Bass Rock Sunrise by Simon Wootton, on Flickr
Click to expand...
Do you have a reversed grad? I looked into them a while ago but they're very expensive.
 
LeeRatters said:
I use Haida for my solid ND filters. No real cast to them that I've ever noticed.
Click to expand...

nandbytes said:
Yep the 10 stop one I had wasn't good.
I'd suggest zomei or Haida for good price to performance.
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Thanks for the recommendation guys. Ok, will this one be good to get? Seems a reasonable price.

Haida - Professional 67mm Slim PRO II MC Neutral Density ND 3.0 Filter - 10 Stop/Schott glass: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

Shop Haida - Professional 67mm Slim PRO II MC Neutral Density ND 3.0 Filter - 10 Stop/Schott glass. Free delivery and returns on eligible orders.
www.amazon.co.uk
 
Merlin5 said:
Thanks for the recommendation guys. Ok, will this one be good to get? Seems a reasonable price.

Haida - Professional 67mm Slim PRO II MC Neutral Density ND 3.0 Filter - 10 Stop/Schott glass: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

Shop Haida - Professional 67mm Slim PRO II MC Neutral Density ND 3.0 Filter - 10 Stop/Schott glass. Free delivery and returns on eligible orders.
www.amazon.co.uk
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Yep that's the one.

I also have a zomei 10stops ND in sales too but it's a 77mm you'd have to use step rings but the benefit is if you buy a larger or smaller lens you can stick with one filter and just use a step ring.

But if most of your lenses are 67mm then it makes sense to buy the 67mm ND filter and not have the headache of step rings.
 
nandbytes said:
Yep that's the one.

I also have a zomei 10stops ND in sales too but it's a 77mm you'd have to use step rings but the benefit is if you buy a larger or smaller lens you can stick with one filter and just use a step ring.

But if most of your lenses are 67mm then it makes sense to buy the 67mm ND filter and not have the headache of step rings.
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Last year when I started photography, I bought the wrong size circular polariser for my Canon 50mm F1.8. I'd bought a 52mm polariser when it's a 49mm thread I needed and so ended up buying a second hand Hoya 49 to 52mm step up ring. But shortly after I bought the Sony gear and have never used the polariser. It turns out my Sony 70-350 4.5-6.3 is 67mm, same as the Sigma 16mm, so that's handy, although I can't see myself ever needing to use an ND filter on a telephoto lens. I don't know if people do that? Pity my Sigma 56mm is a 55mm filter thread.
 
woof woof said:
If you end up with a bag of hardly ever used step up rings it's no biggie. They're cheap. I don't know how many I have :D
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Yeah, I just looked at my ebay purchase history and the step up ring was a massive £2.50. :p
 
Merlin5 said:
Last year when I started photography, I bought the wrong size circular polariser for my Canon 50mm F1.8. I'd bought a 52mm polariser when it's a 49mm thread I needed and so ended up buying a second hand Hoya 49 to 52mm step up ring. But shortly after I bought the Sony gear and have never used the polariser. It turns out my Sony 70-350 4.5-6.3 is 67mm, same as the Sigma 16mm, so that's handy, although I can't see myself ever needing to use an ND filter on a telephoto lens. I don't know if people do that? Pity my Sigma 56mm is a 55mm filter thread.
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You can use ND filters on any lens inc. telephotos can help in landscape too for example for smearing the clouds give dramatic and dynamic skies.
 
LeeRatters said:
And typically you either haven't got the exact range you need or you can't find them :ROFLMAO:
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I've looked for one I must have, not found one, thought I never had it and bought it and then found the original... I'm not telling you how many times :D
 
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nandbytes said:
You can use ND filters on any lens inc. telephotos can help in landscape too for example for smearing the clouds give dramatic and dynamic skies.
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Yeah. I guess that's what I was wondering. If people do landscape with telephoto or any lens that isn't a wide angle, but it seems they do.

LeeRatters said:
And typically you either haven't got the exact range you need or you can't find them :ROFLMAO:
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Yes, no doubt. :LOL:

LeeRatters said:
Both mine are Slim Pro II - but I only have 3 & 6 stops for my usage.
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Awesome, I'll do what wookie suggested and look back at the photos I've taken and see what shutter speed I was using and how many stops less I'd need to get a 30 second exposure,
That said, I'm going to take a punt on that 10 stop Haida Slim Pro ll I linked above and see how I get on. I can do long night exposures now, but am much less familiar with understanding daylight long exposures and filters so it'll be a new learning curve for me.
 
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Merlin5 said:
Awesome, I'll do what wookie suggested and look back at the photos I've taken and see what shutter speed I was using and how many stops less I'd need to get a 30 second exposure,
That said, I'm going to take a punt on that 10 stop Haida Slim Pro ll I linked above and see how I get on. I can do long night exposures now, but am much less familiar with understanding daylight long exposures and filters so it'll be a new learning curve for me.
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I'm not really a fan of the really long exposures & blurry clouds hence 3 & 6 which I normally use for water. I'm usually happy with a couple of seconds maximum.
 
nandbytes said:
Telephotos make for really good landscape lenses :)
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I see. I had no idea. Are there any examples you can show me of a landscape with a telephoto? It might inspire me to use the 70-350 for that as well as the 16mm.

LeeRatters said:
I'm not really a fan of the really long exposures & blurry clouds hence 3 & 6 which I normally use for water. I'm usually happy with a couple of seconds maximum.
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Yeah, I must admit I've seen a lot of those photos with water that looks like a sheet of ice and wasn't too keen myself but I've recently become more interested in that look. Not for every landscape photo, but would be fun now and again.
 
nandbytes said:
85mm
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140mm
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200mm
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105mm on APS-C
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105mm
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Good luck :D
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That's it then, I'll use my Sony lens for some landscape. :) I like the last two photos, very nice.
 
Merlin5 said:
That's it then, I'll use my Sony lens for some landscape. :) I like the last two photos, very nice.
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Telephotos helps focus on your subject and cut out the distractions. Also compresses your perspective which can be useful too.
In some ways it's actually harder make good landscapes with wide angles :ROFLMAO:
 
nandbytes said:
Telephotos helps focus on your subject and cut out the distractions. Also compresses your perspective which can be useful too.
In some ways it's actually harder make good landscapes with wide angles :ROFLMAO:
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I think that's what it is for me. Less distractions, more minimalist, nicer perspective, I'm not sure if that stems from my woodlands interests.
 
Sometimes you are just too far away for wider angles.
Aberdeen Lighthouse storm by Simon Wootton, on Flickr
Telephoto are great for landscapes particularly if you are up the mountains. Focal length is huge in landscapes. I quite often step back to shoot at a longer focal length to make mountains or the sun bigger in the frame. The shots I posted earlier are often taken much closer to the boating pond but that makes the Bass Rock too small in the frame for me.
 
LeeRatters said:
I think that's what it is for me. Less distractions, more minimalist, nicer perspective, I'm not sure if that stems from my woodlands interests.
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Here's a question. I'm watching a tutorial on how to use an ND filter and he says whatever shutter speed you have before putting the filter on, you then change the shutter speed accordingly using an ND conversion chart which I could google and download to my phone for reference. So like, 1/1000 shutter speed before the filter will be 1 second with a 10 stop filter. So when I'm setting up to do a long exposure, would I just set whatever shutter speed will give me correct exposure for base 100 ISO and then use the conversion chart for that speed? And if I was at 1/1000 shutter speed but decided to do a longer exposure than 1 second, how would that look, would it work?
 
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Another thing to add...... I've been out & taken a wider 21/40mm image of a woodland scene or sunrise etc & also then taken a pano with maybe the 40/85mm respectively. More often than not, I usually go with the panoramic in all honesty.

But again, everyone's tastes, style & vision is different..... ;)
 
wookie6262 said:
Sometimes you are just too far away for wider angles.
Aberdeen Lighthouse storm by Simon Wootton, on Flickr
Telephoto are great for landscapes particularly if you are up the mountains. Focal length is huge in landscapes. I quite often step back to shoot at a longer focal length to make mountains or the sun bigger in the frame. The shots I posted earlier are often taken much closer to the boating pond but that makes the Bass Rock too small in the frame for me.
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Great capture.. Is this photo regarded as landscape then?
 
Merlin5 said:
Here's a question. I'm watching a tutorial on how to use an ND filter and he says whatever shutter speed you have before putting the filter on, you then change the shutter speed accordingly using an ND conversion chart which I could google and download to my phone for reference. So like, 1/1000 shutter speed before the filter will be 1 second with a 10 stop filter. So when I'm setting up to do a long exposure, would I just set whatever shutter speed will give me base 100 ISO and then use the conversion chart for that speed? And if if I was at 1/1000 shutter speed but decided to do a longer exposure than 1 second, how would that look, would it work?
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As I said, I no longer own a dark 10 stop. When I want up to a couple of seconds at the coast/waterfall I just stick the filter on & use Av or M along with the histogram/live view as I would for a 'normal' image to balance all the variables out.

If it worked out at 1 second & you went over 1 second it would obviously be over exposed. It's a case of balancing the aperture/ISO as you would normally to get the shutter speed you desire.
 
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Merlin5 said:
Here's a question. I'm watching a tutorial on how to use an ND filter and he says whatever shutter speed you have before putting the filter on, you then change the shutter speed accordingly using an ND conversion chart which I could google and download to my phone for reference. So like, 1/1000 shutter speed before the filter will be 1 second with a 10 stop filter. So when I'm setting up to do a long exposure, would I just set whatever shutter speed will give me base 100 ISO and then use the conversion chart for that speed? And if if I was at 1/1000 shutter speed but decided to do a longer exposure than 1 second, how would that look, would it work?
Click to expand...

Why melt your brain with all this?

In good light if you want to blur water and clouds a bit a few seconds will do, if you want to blast everything completely to silk you'll be looking at 20-30 seconds.

So, set your ISO to base, compose your shot, focus and then load up the ND's until your target shutter speed is reached.
 
Merlin5 said:
Here's a question. I'm watching a tutorial on how to use an ND filter and he says whatever shutter speed you have before putting the filter on, you then change the shutter speed accordingly using an ND conversion chart which I could google and download to my phone for reference. So like, 1/1000 shutter speed before the filter will be 1 second with a 10 stop filter. So when I'm setting up to do a long exposure, would I just set whatever shutter speed will give me correct exposure for base 100 ISO and then use the conversion chart for that speed? And if I was at 1/1000 shutter speed but decided to do a longer exposure than 1 second, how would that look, would it work?
Click to expand...
You had to do that with DSLRs as you simply couldn't see what you were shooting or focus with the filter on. That is why I liked square filter as you didn't knock focus or exposure as easily when putting an ND in. With the Sony mirrorless you can still focus if there is a 10 stop assuming the exposure is ale to be seen on the screen or evf. I focused through the filters today which is a nice advantage over dslrs.
 
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