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

Anyway im off shooting fireworks tomorrow day and night, never done daytime fireworks before.
 
woof woof said:
Steve Huff has done a 7s write up and there is at least one other by someone else in the "Index" section on his site.
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Thanks, here's the link in case anyone is looking for it:

http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2014/07/01/the-sony-a7s-digital-camera-review-wow-period/

I was amazed by the moonlit video Sony produced to show off the A7s and there's been some impressive reviews as well, that article is a good read as it gives more of a real world feel. I realise you pay a premium over the other A7 cameras it's not as flexible but those seem reasonable trade offs for outstanding low light performance.

John
 
JohnMcL7 said:
Thanks, here's the link in case anyone is looking for it:

http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2014/07/01/the-sony-a7s-digital-camera-review-wow-period/

I was amazed by the moonlit video Sony produced to show off the A7s and there's been some impressive reviews as well, that article is a good read as it gives more of a real world feel. I realise you pay a premium over the other A7 cameras it's not as flexible but those seem reasonable trade offs for outstanding low light performance.

John
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I've never actually found myself wanting more resolution, and the high ISO ability of my A7 seems to be very good indeed.

The biggest prints I've ever done are A3 but my pictures are mostly viewed on screen and shared with others in electronic format maybe at 2000 wide and my Panasonic G1 and Gx7 and Sony A7 all seem adequate for these uses and my 12mp Canon 5D certainly was.

I'm happy with my A7 and I'm not looking to swap it for anything else at the moment but if the A7s had been available at launch I may well have gone for it over the 24mp A7 if only because my 12mp 5D gave enough resolution for me... and big files just take longer to load and process and fill up more space.
 
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The D700 is the only full frame camera I have which of course is only 12MP as well, I might think differently if I'd used the newer 24MP/36MP FF sensors but 12MP on the D700 seems fine and I'm not seeing it as that much of disadvantage.

John
 
Hrgh.

I was going to post a picture taken with my FD 85mm at f1.8 and I was going to enthuse about how sharp this old lens was but Photobucket made it look so soft that there's just no point... :(

Oh well. Carry on... :D
 
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Well fireworks were great, got a few shots i was happy with, not an easy subject.

10712717_10153208134148502_1427609789382216924_n by treboraj20, on Flickr

10665105_10153208134303502_5707516648675726031_n by treboraj20, on Flickr

1965014_10153208134068502_5309420436469169122_n by treboraj20, on Flickr

And a shot over the lake on the way back to the car.

1969374_10153208134403502_8169188467470700823_n by treboraj20, on Flickr

The camera continues to impress as does the apparently rubbish 24-70, i manage to get some great shots with it.
 
Can any one advise if I am missing something. The one thing that bugs me is the Power Save off feature. It doesn't seem to actually work very well.

Last week I was out walking and taking some pictures. I normally turn the camera off when putting back in case. Forgot, but that's okay as I have it set to Pwr save after 1 minute. Took about 2 hours to drive home. When I got home the power level was at 2% and the camera was quite warm. Anyone else see this?
 
You probably have the ir remote function turned on that keeps it awake. AFAIK.
 
ukaskew said:
There is an option in the menu to show the phase detect area in the EVF, as I shoot moving targets it's the first thing I switched on. In Cog Menu 2 it's the bottom option.

As for moving the points, with Focus Area set to Flexible Spot (Camera Menu 3) I mapped the C1 button to 'Focus Settings' (in Cog Menu 6), once you've tapped C1 you can move the AF point where you like (literally anywhere) using the wheel controller, and then just tap the trash can button to return it to centre.

I don't have a manual handy here, but both of the above are described in it.
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I've got the kit lens attached and have turned Phase detect on, but still can see it when I cycle through my EV screens. It's suppose to be seemless, but I thought that I should still be able to see a little red cross when focus is achieved.
 
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What's different about the Olympic edition?

If it helps at all... I have FD 28, 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.8 and the latter aren't as good as my Rokkors. The 50mm f1.4 is better than the Zuiko though, but not as good as the Rokkor.
 
No idea what if any difference there is.

How much are the rokkors though and where are you getting them from, only shop im using is Ffords.
 
The Rokkor, Zuiko and FD all seem to be in the same price range.

The only differences I've found between the lenses I have are with the 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f1.8 / 2 from each and only at the widest apertures. I'd say that the Rokkors are the best, then the FD's with the Zuiko pair bringing up the rear being less sharp and suffering more optical nasties. The Zuiko lenses are more compact though and they do look lovely and once you stop these lenses down a bit IMVHO there's nothing in it.

I've bought from dealers including Ffordes, Mifsuds, Vintage and Classic Camera co and others. Just looked at the Olympic edition and personally I think the price is a bit steep* and you may find a f1.4 for the same money. Mifsuds have a few FD 50mm f1.8's for £20-29. They also have a Zuiko 50mm f1.8 for £29 and a Minolta Rokkor 50mm f1.7 for £39.

*Just spotted that the FD's are "N" and that may be the reason for the higher price.

Some reviewers say that you're better off going for the 50mm f1.8/f1.7 rather than the f1.4's and I'd probably largely agree. If going for a bargain 50mm I think I'd go for the Zuiko. It's lovely, it's compact and it's sharp. If planning to add more lenses such as an 85mm I'd go for the Minolta's as IMVHO they are a bit better especially the 85mm.
 
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I had the Zuiko 50/1.8 and it wasn't much better than the Pentax-M 50/2. The Pentax had better contrast and colours, but the Zuiko was sharper wide open only.

I've also got a MD45/2. The colours are great.

If you like Minolta style rendering then you'll really not like the Zuiko.

I let both my 50/1.8 and 28/3.5 zuikos go.
 
Spotted the 50mm f1.7 rokkor on mifsuds, no indication of the lenses condition though or am i missing something.
 
I had considered ebay, but its more of a chance on the lens being in good condition. I like the likes of ffords that rate each lens and allow you to send it back should it not be up to scratch. A rokkor 50mm 1.4 would be perfect i already have an mc/md adapter. Or i may just stick to a 1.8 FD and save some pennies.
 
Buy cheap enough on eBay an you can usually get your money back by selling it on internationally, even if it's in poor condition. There's plenty of people out there who are very adept at cleaning/fixing lenses, particularly in countries where the gear doesn't really exist in a second hand market :) Just need to be honest in your listing.
 
I've noticed that prices of manual lenses seem to be rising, maybe as a result of CSC's becoming more popular. I was late to manual lenses as I only started buying them when I got my G1 but even so in the few years since I've noticed a rise. Actually I sold my Olympus lenses earlier this year for a good price but the guy didn't get on with MF and they bounced straight back but if anyone can live with MF I still think that they represent good value and the prices may even continue to rise a bit.
 
robj20 said:
Also i'm tempted by a Canon FD 50mm f1.8 Olympics edition are they any good?
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I'm open to correction but, AFAIK, the the only extra feature of the Olympic lenses was a logo printed on the lens cap.

The FDn 50/1.4 is a fab lens; especially when stopped down a bit (f/2.0 or 2.8) it's razor sharp.

At f/5.6 it will give any lens I own a run for its money in terms of resolving power on my A7, and I'm including a number of EF 'L' zooms, FD 'L' primes and C/Y Contax Zeiss primes in that.

If I'm going out with one lens, it's as likely to be that as anything else.

The 50/1.8 is only single coated and a bit ho hum IMO, though I've shot with it much more on film than digital. It has 5 aperture blade vs 8 on the 1.4 and IME there's little to choose between the FD and FDn versions of the 1.8 in terms of IQ.

Unless you are *really* short of cash, for an extra 20 or 30 quid I'd go for the 1.4 every time.

Edit: I'd say the Zuiko 50/1.8 is a better performer than the FD 1.8, but the FDn 50/1.4 is superior to both.

FWIW, I have heard the OM 50/1.4 is no better than the OM 50/1.8 and not worth the extra expense unless you need f/1.4.
 
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In my experience the f1.8's are sharper wide open. The advantages of the 1.4's are the f1.4 when you want it and the usual addition of more intermediate f settings.

As I've said, for 1.4's my pref is the Rokkor, FD then Zuiko in thst order but the Zuoko's are more compact and look lovely which makrs them tempting :D
 
my takumar 50mm 1.8 does have a beautiful physical feel

the 1.8's are smaller and lighter, my yashica 50mm 1.4 has a nice rendering style, slightly muted colours
 
pingu666 said:
my takumar 50mm 1.8 does have a beautiful physical feel

the 1.8's are smaller and lighter, my yashica 50mm 1.4 has a nice rendering style, slightly muted colours
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Yes, I think that makes them very attractive. The Zuiko 50mm f1.8 in particular is very compact and lovely to look at and use and of course as you have to use an adapter the smaller size of these lenses helps to keep the overall bulk down.

I don't think you can really go wrong with any of these lenses and the 50mm f1.8 and 28mm f2.8 lenses from just about any maker seem to be cheap and safe bets and you can even use the cheap £10 APS-C adapters... although the prices of these lenses seem to be rising a bit.
 
pingu666 said:
28 2.8 aren't as consistantly good imo
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I found the Tokina 28mm f2.8 not to be a great lens, although MC it was terrible for flare even with a rubber colapsable hood fitted. For the 50mm range, my favourite has been the Helios 58mm f2 lens, lovely smooth focus ring looked nice on my Xpro, sorry I sold it. Now have a Penatcon 50 f1.8, an okay lens but I might give the Canon 50mm f1.4 a go, as mentioned above.
 
Just recently I have got back into using Sony Image Data Converter to take the ARW file and convert to TIF. Do no more than maybe set white balance then export. After converting to TIFF then bring into Photoshop for any tweaks. As you can imagine the TIFF files are rather massive so I only do for favourites but I can see a difference in the overall clarity and ability to sharpen without noise or halo when compared to Lightroom or lightroom then into photoshop.

Can be got from here http://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/www/disoft/int/idc/index.html?fm=na
 
you can get capture one sony version for 20quidish for the pro version, or free with some limitations
worth trying tthat :)
 
Hi Paul. I last looked at Capture one quite a few yars ago so downloading again and having a play with the trial. looking for the best quality, quickest, easiest workflow: In that order.

I actually have no problem with the subscription model of Adobe CC but saying that, we all like to save a few pennies. If I like it is there a direct link to the 20quidish version, looked on the sony site and couldn't see it. Are there any limitations when compared to capture one standard?

EDIT: Just found it one the phaseone site. Re the above. Is the pro version for Sony 'limited' in any way?
 
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limited to sony raw files and tiff jpeg etc, so you can't import some canon raw files otherwise its full fat
I can edit sigma tiffs
 
Hmm..interesting. Just did my first decent process with capture one. Took the TIFF that I used for Photoshop , brought into capture one then exported as a jpg. Found the result to be outstanding. Need to play more.
 
For those that dont think Sony are making the lenses compact.

7773adf16c844549e125d9d99818c474.jpg


Looks a fair bit smaller to me. Cant wait to see some proper feedback on this, i really want it to be a top performer, it would be my most used lens.
 
pingu666 said:
limited to sony raw files and tiff jpeg etc, so you can't import some canon raw files otherwise its full fat
I can edit sigma tiffs
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Many thanks for the heads up on this. After a few days I cancelled my Creative Cloud subscription and bought this. The final results are sharper, more noise free and more natural looking.
 
For anyone who's interested...

I read that there's a new and improved Rawtherapee (free photo processing package) available for download. I used to use it years ago but I haven't more recently. Some people seem to be getting good results from it.

Anyway... I had a nice moment the other day... someone was nosing through my smartphone (oh er...) and excitedly shouted "I want that picture!" It was one taken with my A7 and (I think) an 85mm. It's nice to be asked and in fact it made my evening and that person is now in possession of a full sized JPEG :D

Sunset over the windfarm here...

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/the-sony-a7-a7r-owners-thread.511885/page-50
 
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