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

hehehe.

Yes! Look at MY hair!

I've had amongst other things old MG's, Lotus Elan SE, Elise, Boxster, SLK and three MX5's and of them I'd say that the MX5's are the best mix of fun and practicality. The Elan SE was amazing and the fastest A-B car I've ever driven but it wasn't exactly exciting, the Elise was exciting but in a "I may kill you at any second" way and it simply wasn't driveable (if you wanted to live) in some conditions (mine had the ceramic/aluminium brakes and when they were wet they just didn't work at all) and the Boxster just felt like a truck and had to be really pushed to give any pleasure at all.

MX5's are fun at 40mph and they can be driven most of the year, only snow and ice defeats them and even those conditions would be possible with winter tyres. I think they are what the makers intended, a modern alternative to the old British sports cars of years ago. Old British sports cars can be good too but I'm not willing to lavish the time and energy on an MG that it needs to keep it fettled.
 
woof woof said:
But it doesn't have to be hideously expensive. I've spent bugger all on it for a long time.

The trick is to think about your requirements and keep the GAS in check. I'm sure every system can be hideously expensive if you're the kind who need to own every possible lens for the single digit times a year you might use it.
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Kind of true in the case of the case of the original A7 and a couple of primes or adapted stuff but when you want f1.4 lenses or the 2.8 zooms and the a7rii pricing gets a little silly.

I've settled on a 1 camera 1 lens setup for quite some time now, I'd still like another csc like the a6k again just to chuck in the car or for video.
 
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twist said:
Kind of true in the case of the case of the original A7 and a couple of primes or adapted stuff but when you want f1.4 lenses or the 2.8 zooms and the a7rii pricing gets a little silly.

I've settled on a 1 camera 1 lens setup for quite some time now, I'd still like another csc like the a6k again just to chuck in the car or for video.
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I've thought for a while that I can be perfectly happy with a kit zoom and a fast prime.

But of course there's still the other stuff I need.
 
woof woof said:
A7 with Minolta 50mm f1.2 @F1.2 and ISO 5,000. Looking pleased...

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That looks pretty clean for 5,000!! What noise editing [if any] did you use?

woof woof said:
I get some time to myself on Thursday so I've got my car ready and I've got my camera ready :D What could go wrong?


Outside...
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I know the feeling :( Lots of time off & I was hoping the weekend car would see a bit of use!! :(
 
LeeRatters said:
That looks pretty clean for 5,000!! What noise editing [if any] did you use?
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Just my normal setting in CS5 but also it'll have been helped by being downsized...

Luminance 20
Luminance detail 20
Luminance contrast 10
Colour 20
Colour detail 15.
 
woof woof said:
I get some time to myself on Thursday so I've got my car ready and I've got my camera ready :D What could go wrong?
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Why did I say that...

I got all ready and pulled my car out but I realised I'd forgotten my woolly hat so I went back inside, picked up my hat and walked out of the door again and in that time someone had put a big dent in my drivers side door. My usual guy says it'll cost £140. He's very cheap :D Luckily CCTV revealed the guy opposite backing his 4x4 into my little MX5 and driving off. When confronted he acted nonplussed until CCTV was mentioned and he then agreed to pay.

Grrrrrrr....
 
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woof woof said:
Why did I say that...

I got all ready and pulled my car out but I realised I'd forgotten my woolly hat so I went back inside, picked up my had and walked out of the door again and in that time someone had but a big dent in my drivers side door. My usual guy says it'll cost £140. He's very cheap :D Luckily CCTV revealed the guy opposite backing his 4x4 into my little MX5 and driving off. When confronted he acted nonplussed until CCTV was mentioned and he then agreed to pay.

Grrrrrrr....
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What a git!
 
Those pictures I posted above... the originals look fine but here via Photobucket I can see lines in the sky. How can I stop that?
 
Not necessarily green, more shades of pink and blue arching through the sky. I've seen this before with pictures posted here but have never tried to fix it. As I said, the originals look fine but reduced to 1,000 pixels wide, saved as quality 12 (the highest) and posted here via Photobucket the rainbow effect is visible in the sky of some shots.
 
I think I'll put it down to the compression or whatever it is Photobucket does and stop worrying about it :D
 
I like the Minolta 50mm f1.2. You can go all psychedelic at f1.2 or stop it down and it becomes a normal old lens :D I'm sure not everyone shares my love of flare though :D







This is 7 stitched... again this seems to have been spoilt by the process of downsizing and posting it here as I can't see the joins in the original.

 
I'm still enthusing about my A7 and Minolta 50mm f1.2 :D

Whole image...



A 100% crop from the bottom right hand quarter...



I think that's quite good for a towards the edge 100% crop from an old lens :D
 
Hi all,
FE 85mm f1.4 & 24-70mm f2.8 G Masters are back in the classifieds folks.
Open to reasonable offers. :)

Cheers,

Riz
 
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It's actually on my sisters house but it covers ours too.

That's twice recently it's come in handy.

It does actually annoy me that I've lived opposite for years and we've always got on, swap Xmas cards etc. Gotta give him the benefit of the doubt I suppose but I doubt I could have backed into another car and not known I'd done it. Maybe he had the stereo on or something.
 
I watched a neighbour back his hatchback into another neighbour's big red Toyota truck ... p***ed as a newt.
Luckily he did get banned for maybe a year, but I was surprised he didn't kill himself during his drunken days.
 
Sea coal on the beach, A7 with Minolta 50mm f1.2.





I liked the abstract shapes. I thought about moving the seaweed but it would have left an impression and on second thoughts it does add something so I didn't. I can't decide which I like, maybe the portrait view.
 
woof woof said:
Sea coal on the beach, A7 with Minolta 50mm f1.2.





I liked the abstract shapes. I thought about moving the seaweed but it would have left an impression and on second thoughts it does add something so I didn't. I can't decide which I like, maybe the portrait view.
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Mind if I do a quick crop?
 
Yup although to me it sort of looks like a side of beef which is disconcerting as I'm a vegi.
 
Finally went for it and picked up an A7 over the holidays. I've been shooting just film on my Leica M6 TTL for the last 5-6 years but become increasingly unhappy with the quality of developing I could get round here...and of course convenience!

Only had a chance for a quick stroll with it, but loving it so far. Great companion to my rangefinder glass, handles great on the A7. Not sure I'm going to be using the kit lens much....

This is with the 50 Summilux 1.4. I've also got a Voigtlander Nokton 35.14 and a Voigtlander 12mm ultra-wide.

DSC05536 by Chris Ashworth, on Flickr
 
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mid_gen said:
Finally went for it and picked up an A7 over the holidays. I've been shooting just film on my Leica M6 TTL for the last 5-6 years but become increasingly unhappy with the quality of developing I could get round here...and of course convenience!

Only had a chance for a quick stroll with it, but loving it so far. Great companion to my rangefinder glass, handles great on the A7. Not sure I'm going to be using the kit lens much....

This is with the 50 Summilux 1.4. I've also got a Voigtlander Nokton 35.14 and a Voigtlander 12mm ultra-wide.
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Great stuff. Was it just the basic A7 you went for?

It's interesting that the falling quality of development drove you to digital as that's what happened to me back in 2003 or so. I assumed at the time that they'd cut costs to compete with emerging digital and had hurt quality in the process. Whatever the cause if the quality of processing has stayed up I'd have stuck with film much longer.

PS.
Was the inclusion of flare deliberate or unavoidable?
If you've seen my pictures you may have spotted that I deliberately provoke it at times :D
 
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woof woof said:
Great stuff. Was it just the basic A7 you went for?

It's interesting that the falling quality of development drove you to digital as that's what happened to me back in 2003 or so. I assumed at the time that they'd cut costs to compete with emerging digital and had hurt quality in the process. Whatever the cause if the quality of processing has stayed up I'd have stuck with film much longer.
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I've mostly been shooting Acros and the local labs have two weeks turnaround time on B&W which was the main bugbear. Quite often had films badly trimmed and one scratched. Mostly I was waiting for a rangefinder-sized digital FF but wasn't going to pay Leica money. Had been watching A7 prices since it came out and it finally hit the price point I wanted. I picked up the standard Mk1 A7.


woof woof said:
PS.
Was the inclusion of flare deliberate or unavoidable?
If you've seen my pictures you may have spotted that I deliberately provoke it at times :D
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Heh yeah it was deliberate shooting straight into the sun like that, I kinda liked it. The Summilux is so nice on the A7, although infinity focus being off is a little annoying I'm sure I'll get used to it quickly enough.

Honestly don't think I'm going to use the kit lens so I may just shift it on and get the Sony 28 f2.0 instead :)
 
My issue with film was scratches on negatives and scratch/dirt marks on prints.

Can't you get an adapter that allows infinity focus?

I bought the A7 + kit lens as I thought that the lens would come in handy and as it was so cheap it'd be rude not to buy it :D I think that it is a good lens but so far I haven't used it beyond the house and garden. I mostly use the Sony 35mm f2.8 and film era primes.
 
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woof woof said:
Can't you get an adapter that allows infinity focus?
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I think it's just this cheapo adapter I have. Close focus is a bit further out than on the M6 and if I move the focus ring to infinity I have to dial it back a mm or two to get it sharp.

I usually zone focus anyway so not a big deal, and with the focus magnifier it's obvious something is off before you shoot. Plus not having to wait two weeks to get the shot back :)
 
Are you using any processing software? Quite a bit of fringing in my shots is taken care of by ticking a box in CS5.
 
Been a long time since I've shot digital!

Shot again in RAW and applied the LR profile. Still a little magenta cast but a flat grey sky like that is always a worst case scenario

DSC05597 by Chris Ashworth, on Flickr
 
It's the view from my balcony of a particularly grey and cold Düsseldorf :)

Was hoping my last day off would give me some decent light to get out but no luck.
 
I'm sure the light will be lovely when you look out of the window at work. Such is life... I went to Saltburn (Northern England) last week and it was the first time I'd had the combination of free time and good light in months.
 
Thom Hogan has an interesting article (link below) about what's missing from each system and about the Sony FE amongst other things he says...

"Weak Kit Zoom: the 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 is a fairly terrible option and needs a redo."

I bought one of these and although I haven't used it (I'm mostly a prime guy) beyond testing it around the house and garden (and it looks good enough to me even at 100%) I can't see much wrong with it. To me it's compact and light, it hardly extends when zoomed and the image quality seems good for a standard range "kit" lens. Maybe I'm missing something but this lens doesn't seem to be a "fairly terrible option" to me. It seems to be a good kit lens at a reasonable price.

I'm a bit baffled by his slating of this lens and I do wonder what he expects from a standard length variable aperture kit lens at this price point.

Anyway, read it here...

http://www.sansmirror.com/articles/missing-items-in-each-syste.html
 
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