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

There's an interesting short piece on black and white conversion here...

http://theonlinephotographer.typepa...17/07/how-to-cure-the-digital-bw-nasties.html

He mentions Fuji and the Sony A7. Reading his advice about underexposing and boosting the shadows I wonder if his liking for Fuji files ties in with the comments I've read from some reviewers about Fuji files being a little underexposed compared to other marques? Anyway, he also says that the A7 is good for this.

I must admit that I struggle with black and white conversions. I remember an interesting thread on this forum some time ago in which a poster talked about choosing a subject that would suit conversion. I'm sure that would lead to good conversions but years ago (and now still) people shot everything with black and white film so all in all I think I'd rather follow the On Line Photographers directions than be very selective.

Anyway. If anyone is interested in reading the piece the link is there.

And here's a conversion I'm struggling with. Slightly warm.

Sony A7 with Minolta 35mm f1.8.

1-DSC07649-R.jpg

And another but this time a straight conversion in Silver Efex Pro without the Analog Efex Pro old camera stuff I normally do too.

Mrs Woof Woof and her new beau, Brian Clough.

A7 with Sony 55mm f1.8 at f4.

DSC07747.jpg
 
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I think the second image works better because there is more contrast and a better range of tones. The warm tone of the first one is nice but there isn't enough contrast separation (personally) between the foreground and background. Also, from a composition point of view, the first image is a bit flat with all of the land details bunched into the bottom third of the screen. It might have been better taken from a higher POV and tilt down slightly to give some lead in.
 
Aye, I agree with Steve - the first one doesn't gain anything from being B&W (Brown & White?), it's likely better in colour. You could go all-out and drag a heavy grad filter down to make sky more brooding, ramp up the clarity to make the grass more micro-contrasty, but then you'd end up with a brooding feel for what is a quite pleasant scene.

The second has more tonal range, but IMHO again the conversion doesn't really bring anything to the table. I tend to use B&W where there's high structure or contrast rather; craggy mountains, strong shadows in urban areas, architecture etc where colour is to a degree irrelevant.
 
Durbs said:
where colour is to a degree irrelevant.
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That's good a rule of thumb to follow but sometimes b&w can make things more dramatic...

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anyway good luck :)
 
Thanks guys.

Re the two pictures. I think the biggest problem with the first Saltburn picture is the light because it was crap. Unfortunately in northern England this is the light we're often stuck with, rather flat and rather lifeless. I took a series of pictures from different levels and personally I prefer the low level shot. On a different day with different light maybe I'd have preferred a higher perspective but part of the reason for including a larger amount of sky was because I thought that was the place I could get something to lift the shot as the light at ground level was rather dead.

I do like the colour version of this picture even though it's rather flat as it's a rather accurate capture of what I saw on the day and rather representative of the flat light that often greats me/us. I initially thought I'd delete this but the more I look the more I like it. I'll keep a couple of mono conversions too but I'll probably always prefer the original colour one.

The second shot was always going to be better as the light was so much better.

Processed the H**L out of it :D

1-DSC07649-R2.jpg

I'll probably go back to a flatter more natural look.
 
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Well I came back from Berlin yesterday, fantastic trip and while more of a holiday than a photo-trip I did manage to get a fair bit of free time to get out and around with the camera, also helped that we were right in the centre so some of the sites like Museum Island and the Cathedral were a few minutes away walking. Generally good weather although also a few very heavy thunderstorms and rain but that did make for some shots which I'm hoping will be nice black and white conversions.

Took far too much kit as usual knowing that some days I'd want small and light and some days happier with larger kit, this seems to have turned into a half travel review/blog post so apologies for the length! I really need to try and kick-start my blog on my website again so might expand this for that!!

Sony A7rii
Sony 16-35 f4
Loxia 21mm f2.8
Loxia 35mm f2
Sony 24-70 f2.8 GM
Sony 70-200 f4

Surprisingly the two Loxia's seem to have been the most used with the camera tending to live on a Capture Pro Clip attached to my bag strap for the most part.
I found manual focusing to be a breeze and now I've started looking at some of them on the PC I'm actually very pleased with the focus sharpness! (and a little surprised).
The 21mm tended to live on the camera and as I suspected its become my favourite "wide" focal length.

I enjoyed the Loxia's enough that I think I'm going to swap out the 16-35 and just get the 15mm Voigtlander I intended to get, 21mm is plenty wide for all but the most extreme of uses for me!

Nothing wrong with the 16-35 though, really nice, sharp lens and a really nice size and weight for travel. The only time that I found MF a little more of a struggle was after dark, if I hadn't been tripod mounted I think it might have been a struggle but then I'd have been using a much faster aperture too likely.

The 70-200 f4 was only really taken for a few specific shots I had in mind, mainly from the Park Inn viewing floor, TV Tower (which I didn't get up in the end) and for a long shot of the TV Tower and Oberbaum Bridge, I might be tempted in future to take an 85mm and a longer prime but in honestly the 70-200 IQ is excellent and very sharp and while its large it is very light.

I need to check the shot count in Lightroom but I know that the 24-70 spent most of its time in the safe, if I had only taken that lens to cover off the range it probably would have been taken out more but I was very comfortable with the 21/35 combo in the most part, the few shots I do have with the 24-70 GM though so show how good a lens it is and while it wasn't used much on holiday its a dead cert to be used a lot over the next few months now I'm back home, its big, heavy but worth the carry for the shots I did take with it but not one for all day!

Lowepro Flipside 450AW
Initially meant to be used as my carry-on luggage to take my kit, tablet and phone, etc it actually got used almost exclusively. Held loads of kit and was so comfy to wear loaded up, even when we cycled around the city. Also has a built in rain cover that was very useful when we got a sudden downpour! Certainly pleased I took this and not the 1KG heavier Lowepro ProTactic 450 that I intended to.

Nisi 100mm Filter Kit (& Filters) & some 82mm FireCrest ND Filters

Generally used the FIrecrest Screwins although the Nisi Filters in the Lowepro Filter Case were actually pretty small, would probably just take the kit in future unless I notice massive differences in quality between the Nisi 100mm and Firecreast 82mm screw in filters.

Gitzo GK1545T Series 1 Travel Tripod

This tripod is immense, folds down tiny, light as hell and stable even raising the centre column. Had no issues with the heavier glass and was so easy to either strap to the outside of my bag (Lowepro Flipside 450AW) or even fit inside if I removed the velcro holding the top section.

Billingham Hadley One
Picked this up just before the holiday, actually when I had the GFX setup as its slightly bigger than my standard Hadley Pro.
Used it one night and that was it, really nice bag with a slot for my laptop and bundles of space but not as comfortable as the backpack with a few bits of kit in it.
Was really useful on the way home though as I could remove one of the Billingham inserts to carry a couple of nice German Steins back with me!
Great bag but I'm actually tempted to move it on and just keep my Original Hadley Pro for travel!

I feel I ticked the boxes with most of the sites I wanted to see (Reichstag, Berliner Dom, Museum Island, TV Tower, Olympic Stadium, Tiergarten, Soviet War Memorial, Oberbaum Bridge and Gendarmenmarkt) but also left a lot more to do when I undoubtedly go back, I'd like to have got up the TV Tower and the Panorama View at Potsdamer Platz but having spend a hour or so on the Park Inn watching the sun go down over the city I felt that the view from the TV Tower (Rather than of it) wouldn't be quite as impressive!!!!

Certainly given me a few bits to think about kit wise, 16-35 will be going as it was only ever intended to be used on the trip ahead of a possible 16-35 f2.8 purchase but feeling I might just go down the manual 15mm Voigtlander route now. May even cover off the longer end of the 24-70 with a Loxia 50 or 85 and leave the 24-70 at home next time!

All in all though I think the first few shots I've processed might be my best city/travel shots in a long time and part of that has to be down to how easy the A7rii has been to carry and use.
 
out of interest guys what are the options for 24-70 mm on sony a series? is there anything top quality that's smaller than the master-g lump?
 
niko said:
out of interest guys what are the options for 24-70 mm on sony a series? is there anything top quality that's smaller than the master-g lump?
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Only other native option is the 24-70 f4 lens which gets mixed reviews, much smaller though but having used both the GM is far, far superior.
Other than that you could adapt a Sony A Mount or Canon EF Mount 24-70 like the Canon 24-70 f4L or Tamron 24-70 f2.8 VC but size wise they're not going to be as small as the 24-70 f4.
 
chrism_scotland said:
Only other native option is the 24-70 f4 lens which gets mixed reviews, much smaller though but having used both the GM is far, far superior.
Other than that you could adapt a Sony A Mount or Canon EF Mount 24-70 like the Canon 24-70 f4L or Tamron 24-70 f2.8 VC but size wise they're not going to be as small as the 24-70 f4.
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thanks mate, that's a shame. i think a very high quality but smaller 24-70 might of made me interested in the high-rez sony
 
niko said:
thanks mate, that's a shame. i think a very high quality but smaller 24-70 might of made me interested in the high-rez sony
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FF is FF, a mirrorless FF lens is the same size as a DSLR FF lens in most cases.
 
niko said:
out of interest guys what are the options for 24-70 mm on sony a series? is there anything top quality that's smaller than the master-g lump?
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Sony "a" series?? You mean the E mount Sony "Alpha" bodies or the Sony "A" system mount?

If it's the E mount then the 24-70 f4 lens, I have one and love it as does my mate who also has one, neither of us have any complaints about the lens and get excellent results but for some reason it has had bad press over the years which from my experience is unjustified.
 
Kiwi Paul said:
Sony "a" series?? You mean the E mount Sony "Alpha" bodies or the Sony "A" system mount?

If it's the E mount then the 24-70 f4 lens, I have one and love it as does my mate who also has one, neither of us have any complaints about the lens and get excellent results but for some reason it has had bad press over the years which from my experience is unjustified.
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thank you that's good to hear, the camera I was contemplating is the A7R II

twist said:
FF is FF, a mirrorless FF lens is the same size as a DSLR FF lens in most cases.
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yep I realize that, but I just don't know how good the various options are. just weighing up my options really. been using m4/3 for a few years and thinking of a change, will probably grab a canon 6d mk11 but I do like mirror-less.
 
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If you've been using MFT wont you miss all the mirrorless goodies such as in view histogram, focus and exposure aids and the magnified view, being able to focus anywhere in the frame etc?

I'd hate to go back to an optical view DSLR now.
 
twist said:
Uh oh the opportunity has arisen to get myself a cheap UK a7rii. What to do.
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Give it a miss and wait for the A7III unless you specifically need high resolution and ok with slower AF-C tracking.
I guess depends how cheap is cheap ;) hehe
 
It's pouring down here :(

So... There are a couple of articles at luminous Landscape. This is a subscription site but it's only $12 or so a year... The articles... "A disturbing trend" and in response "And so it goes."

In the first the author complains about too much text accompanying pictures, in his words "explicated, explained, contextualized, rationalized and elevated with text or verbal rationales." whilst the actual pictures aren't very good.

Having scanned through the two articles to me none of the pictures in either grab me. I've found this quite a bit on LL. The pictures may be technically good or maybe they're not but I just don't find them interesting. I think there's been better pictures in this thread.

Anyway, if anyone here has read these articles... what do you think about the pictures?
 
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addicknchips said:
We all know you are desperate for one so go ahead and dive in.

Ps cheaper than grey?
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Ha ha. Itching to try one don't know if desperate to own... depends how the testing goes if I decide to go ahead. It's still a lot more dosh than my current setup.
 
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Riz_Guru said:
Give it a miss and wait for the A7III unless you specifically need high resolution and ok with slower AF-C tracking.
I guess depends how cheap is cheap ;) hehe
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I don't think the a7iii will be better than the a7rii in terms of feature set... or it'll be at a high pricepoint and cannibalise a7rii and a9 sales.
 
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