Calling all Sony Alpha users! (Part 3)

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there are a couple of s/h A700s - usually around the £400 mark - floating about from people who have upgraded to A850/A900s.
Have a look on forums like Dyxum.
 
A present arrived for me this morning.... Guess the lens... :)

#1
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#2
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[ a Sony MF ;) ]
 
heidfirst said:
135 STF?
drool.gif
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Yep, it's the STF.

It's a cracking lens, but I wish my eyes were 20 years younger as Manual Focusing can be pretty tricky (hopefully it's something you get used to again)
Tried taking a few portraits of the kids, but trying to manually focus on a moving target was more than a match for me! LOL

As yo can see the bokeh is lovely, but you do loose 1.5 stops of light for same DOF. i.e. At T4.5, you have the light of f4.5 but the DOF of f2.8.
So it's not an issue when you want small DOF, but can be tricky when you want more DOF and light is limited (so end up pushing up the ISO)

But a nice (if a bit impractical) lens :)
 
Stunning bokeh! Not sure if I fancy tackling MF just yet, but it's definitely something I'd like to try in the future........

Some lovely MD mount glass about at the moment for silly money.

Anyone recommend where to start with MF lenses?
 
Slimbert said:
Some lovely MD mount glass about at the moment for silly money.

Anyone recommend where to start with MF lenses?
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M42 or T2 or if you have an MAF Adaptall II mount then ADII before MD mount lenses - the MD mount adapters either lose infinity focus or use an optical element which both magnifies (usually 1.1 or 1.2x) & degrades the image.
You can get e.g. M42>MAF adapters chipped for focus confirmation & on his James Lao will programme in focal lengths for you to maximise effectiveness of SSS.
 
anyone know where you can buy the following new:
- SAL 18-200
- Grip VG-B30AM
- Flash F42?
 
If anyone's around Fife - this is a pretty good deal from Argos, but as far as I can see there's only 1 left in Scotland, and it's in the Leven branch (there was one in Glasgow but it's now mine :naughty:)

It's about £100 less than it cost not too long ago, so could be a good buy for someone.

I love mine, just need to learn to use it properly now :help:
 
p1tse said:
anyone know where you can buy the following new:
- SAL 18-200
- Grip VG-B30AM
- Flash F42?
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I just bought a s/h but as new, boxed, VG-B30AM with spare battery with 6 month warranty from Digital Depot for £99 posted.
Wilkinsons are doing the grip brand new for £99.

HVL-F42AM - £157 delivered on Amazon

Castle Cameras has the SAL 18-200 for £279 new or £199 s/h
 
bobiscuit said:
If anyone's around Fife - this is a pretty good deal from Argos, but as far as I can see there's only 1 left in Scotland, and it's in the Leven branch (there was one in Glasgow but it's now mine :naughty:)

It's about £100 less than it cost not too long ago, so could be a good buy for someone.

I love mine, just need to learn to use it properly now :help:
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Very good price but seems to be pretty much out of stock everywhere close to me
 
rhonddaboy said:
I have a VG-B30AM Grip boxed as new only been on camera once.
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mines never come off since having it

thanks for the above, a bit out of touch on going new prices
 
what sort of lens you thinking?

if my a300 kit goes, i'll be parting my tamron 28-75 f2.8 and tamron 11-18 wide angle; but that's if it goes

anyone know where these are in stock so i know what new prices are?
 
im not sure yet...i use a 18-200 most of the time at the moment, but i take a lot of pictures of historic house/churches and ive started to notice a lot of distortion at 18mm..so I want something better really...I know distortion will always happen to some extent, but there msut be better glass out there for what im taking, and some decent low light performance too..churches arnt always flash friendly after all.
 
my tamron 28-75 f2.8 is great at low light

but for buildings with good light i have seen some good shots from people using wide angel lenses
 
Jacbos do the Tamron 28-75 for £340 new but most places are £350-400. I'm looking at them now but trying to put off bashing the plastic any more until after christmas.
 
I purchased a battery from there for my a100 and it turned up was a genuine sony article as well. chuffed as it was only aboud £15 posted off amazon:thumbs:
 
Kev M said:
Jacbos do the Tamron 28-75 for £340 new but most places are £350-400. I'm looking at them now but trying to put off bashing the plastic any more until after christmas.
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I have the 28-75 for my A900 and the lens works superbly on it.

£340 is a decent price, and its an excellent lens!
 
puddleduck said:
I have the 28-75 for my A900 and the lens works superbly on it.

£340 is a decent price, and its an excellent lens!
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my favourite lens for sure. just wanted to know new prices to see what mine is potentially worth if i move on from sony. also @ £340 from jacobs is out of stock
 
does anyone know what a new or seen used price for a tamron 11-18?
 
probably ~£250 s/h depending upon condition.
you can find out easily enough yourself by Googling, eBay completed sales etc.
 
heidfirst said:
probably ~£250 s/h depending upon condition.
you can find out easily enough yourself by Googling, eBay completed sales etc.
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thanks
not know you can see ebay complete sales, will google that
 
civicboy40 said:
I think i might be investing in a new lens for my trip to north yorkshire..anyone else got any experiance with the cz range of lenses?
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Which one in particular?

I assume 16-80, which is a cracking lens (if you don't need it to be 'fast'). The 24-70/2.8, is like a set of f2.8 primes from 24-70.

Think most (if not all) of the CZ's are considered very very good.
 
heidfirst said:
M42 or T2 or if you have an MAF Adaptall II mount then ADII before MD mount lenses - the MD mount adapters either lose infinity focus or use an optical element which both magnifies (usually 1.1 or 1.2x) & degrades the image.
You can get e.g. M42>MAF adapters chipped for focus confirmation & on his James Lao will programme in focal lengths for you to maximise effectiveness of SSS.
Click to expand...

I've got a chipped M42 Adaptor and a Tamron Adaptall 2 mount.



DSC01214.jpg


Ashai Pentax 55mm f/1.8 with chipped M42 Alpha mount

DSC01219.jpg


Tamron 90mm f/2.5 macro with Alpha / Maxxum Adaptall 2 mount

​

The chipped M42 adapter works pretty well with the Super Takumar 55mm f/1.7 - the chip reports 50mm f/1.8 which is close enough. Green dot accuracy is not that high though. Infinity focus is OK.

The Tamron Adaptall-2 mount works well - completely non-electronic, so the camera needs to be shot in "M" mode. The 90mm f/2.5 lens is superb of course.

I'd avoid anything that needed an extra optical element to get to infinity.

Talking of adapters, a friend has lent me an ancient Sigma 1.6x TC that somehow manages to take Nikon AI-S lenses and is able to autofocus them OK on "A" mount film bodies?! :nuts: Doesn't work on my A900, but works just fine on older Minolta AF bodies - ie 7000 AF etc. The adaptor is nuts... seems like magic!!
 
hi there i'm having a few problems getting sharp images from my a200:shrug: i could get sharper images with my fuji s602z :thinking:, I thought it might be the kit lens so i got a tokina 70-210 from evilbay=== rubbish wont focus to infinty:'(:'( so i took a even bigger risk and bought another tokina this time a 35-200:):) this is much better, focus works, the macro is brill but it is a heavy brute:lol::lol:

only since i have put this lens on have i got some what i would call sharp images:shrug::shrug:
 
Sharp images are deff possible with kit lens! so could possibly be settings etc.? more details and examples would help.:thumbs:
 
orion22 said:
hi there i'm having a few problems getting sharp images from my a200:shrug: i could get sharper images with my fuji s602z :thinking:,
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file type & size (e.g. RAW or jpeg)?
mode settings etc.?
as PAS says more details/samples would help but remember that P+S are typically set up to show sharper images out of the camera with DSLRs allowing for better post processed images.
 
i've just suffered a computer crash and lost a load of images:'(:'( luckily its just the first 2 weeks of dslr pics i lost and all from my old camera were backed up

i think the main problem is me == camera shake:(:( here is one early image that didnt get lost

DSC00065Medium.jpg


and here is a later one with the new lens
DSC02271Medium.jpg
 
it's hard to tell much from such small files as those.
however, you are shooting pretty much wide open aperture wise so try stoping down a bit & also imo there isn't much point in using ISO100 on the Alphas as the native ISO is nearer 200.
also according to EXIF there is no sharpening applied.

what lens(es) were they taken with as I notice the 2nd is@105mm so not the kit 18-70mm then?
 
what lens(es) were they taken with as I notice the 2nd is@105mm so not the kit 18-70mm then?
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the second image was taken with a tokina 35-200 that seems to give better results
 
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