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

I really like the idea of a wild flower bed. The councils here have some roundabouts planted with them and they look absolutely lovely. I've tried letting tubs lay an see what grows but so far it's not been a great success so we'll have to at least invest in some seeds.
 
Last edited:
I really like the idea of a wild flower bed. The councils here have some roundabouts planted with them and they look absolutely lovely. I've tried letting tubs lay an see what grows but so far it's not been a great success so we'll have to at least invest in some seeds.
Tried seeds but they never seem to work. We purchased from here
https://www.wildflowerturf.co.uk/
 
Starting to question selling the 55mm 1.8 now. Had it out again and the sharpness is just on another level (probably won't show as well on here).

Finley by Thomas Green, on Flickr

IMO it's the overall best 50-ish lens.
It hits the right balance between IQ, AF, size and aperture. The only downside really for me is the price
 
Talking of buying grey, still waiting for that lens from e-infinity paid for on May 4. No sign of it having reached UK yet and no update from e-infin.

Forget all the 'moral' preaching elsewhere, this inefficiency is the best argument against buying grey... :exit:
 
Talking of buying grey, still waiting for that lens from e-infinity paid for on May 4. No sign of it having reached UK yet and no update from e-infin.

Forget all the 'moral' preaching elsewhere, this inefficiency is the best argument against buying grey... :exit:
I have been led to believe it always arrives in 3 days and they have the bestest customer service. All the folks who say otherwise and all bad reports of them not replying and simply refusing to help are all lying.
 
I have been led to believe it always arrives in 3 days and they have the bestest customer service. All the folks who say otherwise and all bad reports of them not replying and simply refusing to help are all lying.

E-infin have awful levels of service when something goes slightly wrong.

Panamoz are much better in this regard.
 
E-infin have awful levels of service when something goes slightly wrong.

Panamoz are much better in this regard.
That's what I picked up from the reviews.
Hence I used panamoz for my last purchase.
Plus they "almost" matched the E-infinity price.
 
That's what I picked up from the reviews.
Hence I used panamoz for my last purchase.
Plus they "almost" matched the E-infinity price.

They usually will do and have done many times for me, I would only ever order cheaper items from e-infin.

Plus Panamoz have the 3 year warranty as well.

I always give my local shop a shout first as they will often do what they can for me in terms of pricing and a few times I have found that they are actually the better option. For example with the last A9 I bought my local shop worked out better as I was doing a trade in and they had a promotion at the time. It actually worked out about £50 cheaper to trade in at my local shop than sell privately and buy from the grey market. They gave me a much higher price for my trade in than I was trying to sell privately for plus they had a £300 trade in bonus on the A9 at the time as well. I prefer to deal with them when it isn't a huge difference in price, they are very good to me.
 
Last edited:
E-infin have awful levels of service when something goes slightly wrong.

Panamoz are much better in this regard.

That's what I picked up from the reviews.
Hence I used panamoz for my last purchase.
Plus they "almost" matched the E-infinity price.

I knew this going in too. Bought the A9, 70-200, and 200-600 off Panamoz and they were fast and flawless. As you say, not much more than e-infin but with the benefit of 3 years warranty. The single item I went for at e-infin was the 16-35 - and they have been awful. And ironically it's the lens I need most atm :(
 
I knew this going in too. Bought the A9, 70-200, and 200-600 off Panamoz and they were fast and flawless. As you say, not much more than e-infin but with the benefit of 3 years warranty. The single item I went for at e-infin was the 16-35 - and they have been awful. And ironically it's the lens I need most atm :(

Yeah there delivery times are always longer.

My issue has always been poor communications with them in comparison to Panamoz they take an age to respond or that was my experience with them anyway.

Then there is also the issue of how they will happily tell lies.

As an example I mentioned on here before how I know someone who purchased the new Samyang 75mm from them and after a week received an email saying that they had "tested" the lens before shipping and it was faulty and as it was the last one they had in stock they had to refund. Now under normal circumstances you might say that that was good service, although not sure how I would feel about them testing equipment before sending it out. However the person I know that this happened to then found out that at least 14 other photographers had received the same email. As it turned out they had mispriced the lens at £209.00 by mistake so just cancelled all the orders and lied about the reasons why instead of just admitting their pricing fault. They now have the lens back in stock at £300.

I also know a couple of people who had problems returning equipment to them when they received equipment that was obviously used and not new.

Someone on this thread recently said a friend had tried to return a decentered lens and they refused as well.
 
Last edited:
To be fair, I've only bought a Panasonic 100-400 from e-infinity and a Sony 200-600 from panamoz.
I've had no issues with either company, but used panamoz for my Sony lens due to the improved warranty situation both in extended term, and the more favourable reviews when something did go wrong.
 
Starting to question selling the 55mm 1.8 now. Had it out again and the sharpness is just on another level (probably won't show as well on here).

Until I got the Voigtlander f2 I thought the Sony 55mm was the best 50-ish mm lens I've ever used but now it's only the best AF 50-ish mm I've ever used :D

It's difficult to say his without the fear or upsetting or annoying someone and that really isn't my intention at all. So cautiously I'll say anyway :D I struggle to understand the buying and selling and buying again that goes on with people selling perfectly good kit and replacing it with other perfectly good kit or even rebuying the same kit several times. I know I'm guilty of buying too much kit but only with old lenses costing a few £. I can sort of see the mind processes and the enjoyment people get from trying different things but I can't see myself selling any of my modern kit as even if I hardly use it it's there when I want it and if I did sell it I'd only get a relatively small amount of money for it. I do know money and amounts are all relative.

Anyway, my little setup of A7, 20, 35, 55 and 85mm f1.8's plus 35mm f2.8 and 28-70mm and Voigtlander 35mm f1.4, 40mm f1.2 and 50mm f2 are staying for the long term even if each lens only gets used a few times a year :D

If the money being tied up is in any way justifiable and isn't needed to spend on essentials I'd say keep the kit rather than go through the angst of selling it, regretting it and buying it again in 6 months time,
 
Last edited:
Grey, I've used Digital rev and camera in the post and both were perfect.

I know there's the moral question but in my defense I've only bought stuff which was scarce in the UK.
 
Hey chaps, I'm a Sony A7 owner (as of a few days ago) and picked up a new 50mm f1.8 to compliment it yesterday.

I was wondering if anyone could help me with auto focus on the A7. On my Sony a6000 I usually have it in AF-C and Wide. That works for most shots but when it doesn't the Centre button does a AF-S Centre auto focus and I then re-frame like I used to with my DSLR. This combination covers most of my shooting.

I can't seem to replicate this with the A7. The button for Center is set to "Standard" on the a6000 but the A7 doesn't seem to have that option. I shoot both in aperture priority most of the time. Any ideas?
 
Anyone had to cancel an order with e-infin? Thinking of doing this if I don't get a confirmed tracking number by Tuesday. My instinct is to do this through raising a claim through PayPal - any thoughts?
 
Try and cancel with them first.

Would always be my first course of action, but slightly worried by these reports of lying to customers etc. When trust is gone, it's difficult to believe anything they say and if I'm cancelling I want the money back asap so that I can get the same lens (or Tamron 17-35) elsewhere.
 
Anyone had to cancel an order with e-infin? Thinking of doing this if I don't get a confirmed tracking number by Tuesday. My instinct is to do this through raising a claim through PayPal - any thoughts?
No idea but the first port of call should always be the merchant rather than starting a dispute. If you start too many disputes paypal will start questioning your motives so its best to use them wisely.

To be fair, I've only bought a Panasonic 100-400 from e-infinity and a Sony 200-600 from panamoz.
I've had no issues with either company, but used panamoz for my Sony lens due to the improved warranty situation both in extended term, and the more favourable reviews when something did go wrong.

Don't know how much you paid for 200-600mm but got mine at release for £80 more than their current price and about the same price as their release price when they finally got around to listing one (which was about one month after I got mine).
I could have got the 20G for £30 less than the price on panamoz.
Basically helps to have a good relationship with a UK shop.

Grey, I've used Digital rev and camera in the post and both were perfect.

I know there's the moral question but in my defense I've only bought stuff which was scarce in the UK.

Thought you got your 20G from e-infinity?
 
Last edited:
Yup, forgot that. That's 3 greys for me then and all surprisingly perfect.
 
No idea but the first port of call should always be the merchant rather than starting a dispute. If you start too many disputes paypal will start questioning your motives so its best to use them wisely.

yep, fair enough - although I've only raised one dispute with Paypal and that was years ago.

If e-infin don't respond by end Tuesday (I have emailed them again today), then I will raise a dispute unless there's another good reason not too...
 
E-Infinity always have sent me a photo of the item before they are ready to ship it.

Ok, well after 19 days, I feel like there must be a problem if we haven't even got to that stage. :(

edit: and I should also say, thanks for your help guys.
 
Last edited:
Hey chaps, I'm a Sony A7 owner (as of a few days ago) and picked up a new 50mm f1.8 to compliment it yesterday.

I was wondering if anyone could help me with auto focus on the A7. On my Sony a6000 I usually have it in AF-C and Wide. That works for most shots but when it doesn't the Centre button does a AF-S Centre auto focus and I then re-frame like I used to with my DSLR. This combination covers most of my shooting.

I can't seem to replicate this with the A7. The button for Center is set to "Standard" on the a6000 but the A7 doesn't seem to have that option. I shoot both in aperture priority most of the time. Any ideas?

Not sure, sorry. @woof woof has a A7 and might be able to help.

How are you finding focussing with the 50 f1.8? My experience wasn't good, but hopefully yours is better.
 
49916549682_499df010c1_h.jpg


First time out in the park for nearly two months a couple of days ago, did me the world of good.
 
I've just done the same this morning, I was almost nervous!

:ROFLMAO:

To be honest I was, probably just because I haven’t done any people stuff since the last wedding we were able to do.

Was fine by the time I got there though. Really cheered me up to be honest it was great to be back doing “real work” again.

They were a nice wee family too and gave me a good chance to shoot a lot with my 135GM as well. Got some photos that I was really happy with.
 
:ROFLMAO:

To be honest I was, probably just because I haven’t done any people stuff since the last wedding we were able to do.

Was fine by the time I got there though. Really cheered me up to be honest it was great to be back doing “real work” again.

They were a nice wee family too and gave me a good chance to shoot a lot with my 135GM as well. Got some photos that I was really happy with.

yeah and I half knew the family so it was good fun! I used 85mm all the time. To be honest a 135 would’ve been far more suitable. :ROFLMAO:
 
yeah and I half knew the family so it was good fun! I used 85mm all the time. To be honest a 135 would’ve been far more suitable. :ROFLMAO:

I struggle to find a use for my 135 most of the time have only really used it for a few portraits and the speeches but it is excellent for family stuff.

It’s my favourite lens but my least used.

Plus social distancing lens :ROFLMAO:

Although maybe the 200-600 would have been a better option.
 
Not sure, sorry. @woof woof has a A7 and might be able to help.

How are you finding focussing with the 50 f1.8? My experience wasn't good, but hopefully yours is better.

It's a big step back from the a6000 and 50mm (OSS) combo for AF. It's a bit hit and miss getting my kids in focus. I do like the field of view though, it's wider than I expected coming from the crop sensor.

I was going to slowly transition to full frame but I think I might keep my a6000 setup too now. At some point I'd like an A7 III and that might retire the a6000.

Anyway, one from yesterday when the lens was about 2 hours old. :D

DSC00189.jpg
 
It's a big step back from the a6000 and 50mm (OSS) combo for AF.

I had that lens briefly and found it slow to focus, frequently missing a bit and sometimes just sawing back & forth without a lock - on an A7III. I know some find it OK, but it was probably the worst AF experience I've had since the 1980s. If you can, I'd try to send it back & pick up the kit 28-70 for similar money for general shots, because it's simply much better unless you need a large aperture/shallow depth of field/super-sharpness.

If you've been using a 50 on the 6000 then consider the 85 f1.8 for low weight a super-quick focussing at reasonable cost.
 
Back
Top