Calling all Sony Alpha users! (Part 3)

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Just going to ask on here as I'm having a hard time making a decision. I've offered my 28mm Prime up for trade and have been offered a 50mm F1.7 and a 24-85mm Minolta but I'm not sure what to go for :( I would go 50mm but I'm worried it might be a little bit too.. Zoomed in (don't know of a better term to use).
 
the 50mm is suppose to be a good lens

how have you found your prime?
 
p1tse said:
the 50mm is suppose to be a good lens

how have you found your prime?
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My 28mm? Yeah it's a fantastic lens. I've got some of my favourite shots ever with it. The downside of not being able to zoom is completely countered by the super fast AF and sharpness and fantastic colours. I loved it on my A200 but on my A700 it feels a little bit unsubstantial because of the extra size and weight :) What I'm thnking of doing at the moment is selling my Tamron 18-200mm (I got it brand new only a couple months ago) because whilst the range is great, I rarely use it as I don't do much telephoto stuff and the Prime gives me better results for normal shooting.
 
have you thought about a tamron or sigma such as a 17-50 f2.8?

as previously mentioned my tamron 28-75 f2.8 is my favourite lens. i too have an 18-200 (sony) and only use it when i need the extra length and only travelling light with one lens
 
Bad timing.. I've got next week off to do some shooting and my A900 has died.

Its no longer possible to attach a lens, something in the mount has jammed and the aperture activator is about 40 degrees south of where it should be :'(

It was fine yesterday and happened today when I took off a lens to put on another. Something got stuck during lens removal I think.

Sony are sending UPS to collect it from me Monday.. but the timing sucks!

I will take my D700 instead so its not the end of the world.. but timing could not be worse...

:nuts:
 
Any Minolta / Sony gurus?

This is the problem - compared to another Minolta body. Actuator arm is now seated in the wrong position (so I can't mount any lenses!)



a900-mount-problem.jpg


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puddleduck said:
Any Minolta / Sony gurus?

This is the problem - compared to another Minolta body. Actuator arm is now seated in the wrong position (so I can't mount any lenses!)
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For what it's worth I've just checked my 500si, my 3xi, and my 404si and they are all like the 7000 in your picture :shake: Lets hope Sony get a move on!!
 
Slimbert said:
For what it's worth I've just checked my 500si, my 3xi, and my 404si and they are all like the 7000 in your picture :shake: Lets hope Sony get a move on!!
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yeah.. its very weird.. I had a lens on, happily shooting (the Minolta 50mm f/2.8 macro is looooovly..!), decided to take it off this morning, and couldn't mount anything else!?

I darn't try to force it back... although if I had the nerve I suspect I could unscrew the mount ring, re-seat and it would all work....

I'll leave it to Sony. Somewhat ironic that a 25 year old Minolta 7000 AF is still going strong...!
 
puddleduck said:
yeah.. its very weird.. I had a lens on, happily shooting (the Minolta 50mm f/2.8 macro is looooovly..!), decided to take it off this morning, and couldn't mount anything else!?

I darn't try to force it back... although if I had the nerve I suspect I could unscrew the mount ring, re-seat and it would all work....

I'll leave it to Sony. Somewhat ironic that a 25 year old Minolta 7000 AF is still going strong...!
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I'd risk it on my A200, but not on an in warranty A900. I think you're doing the right thing leaving it to the pros however much you'd like it for next week!! Can't be too bad having an D700 to fall back on but it is very bad timing :(

My 7000 is still going strong too! Hell of a camera the 7000 is.........

Mine still feels brand new, even though it's been dropped countless times and even been dunked in the toilet (don't ask!)!!!
 
No, the D700 isn't a bad fallback although I was going to sell all my remaining Nikon stuff this weekend as it happened - had a large clearout in the Classified that I will need to put on hold - luckily I still have my 17-35 f/2.8 and 28-70 f/2.8 which are my usual landscape lenses.

The 7000 is very nice, mine apparently is rare (Gold lettering, 2,000,000 etched on the back) - I only bought it cos it was cheaper to buy a lens I wanted with a body than without :lol:

I'm going to run a roll of Velvia 100 RVP through it. Its weird being able to use my Tamron 28-75 and KM 17-35 on a 25 year old camera and it all works!!
 
puddleduck said:
No, the D700 isn't a bad fallback although I was going to sell all my remaining Nikon stuff this weekend as it happened - had a large clearout in the Classified that I will need to put on hold - luckily I still have my 17-35 f/2.8 and 28-70 f/2.8 which are my usual landscape lenses.

The 7000 is very nice, mine apparently is rare (Gold lettering, 2,000,000 etched on the back) - I only bought it cos it was cheaper to buy a lens I wanted with a body than without :lol:

I'm going to run a roll of Velvia 100 RVP through it. Its weird being able to use my Tamron 28-75 and KM 17-35 on a 25 year old camera and it all works!!
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Yeah you've got a limited edition one you bloody show off!!:lol: No idea what the differences are though (beside the gold lettering on the front:shrug: )

Have you tried any of the older metal bodied lenses? The 28-85mm f3.5-4.5 is awesome! As is the 35-105mm f3.5-4.5. Wish I'd never sold mine as the prices have crept upwards ever since!!
 
I've not gone too mad getting lenses, too be honest I stuck with stuff I knew would work well, so its the Tamron 24-135 SP, KM 17-35 (really a Tamron), and Tamron 28-75. They are all excellent.

Prime wise I've got a 50mm f/1.7, I picked up a 28mm f/2.8 AF dirt cheap (the Tamron 28-75 does 28mm better than the 28mm prime!), and I have a Minolta 50mm f/2.8 macro (which is really nice)

Not really that up on the older stuff - will keep an eye out!
 
Sorry to hear about the a900 puddleduck. It does sound like somethings got stuck (or moved)... and hope it gets repaired quickly.


I have a question (haven't done this before, so trying to understand..)

I've just bought a E-P1 (m4/3) and think it would be useful to be able to attach one or two lenses.

Don't mind about MF, but trying to work out how the aperture is set if I purchased one of:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Minolta-Sony-...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4149563879

[any recommendations of what adapter (Ebay trader?) to buy from BTW]

Is this saying you use (waht looks like) a manual aperture ring on the adapter, sect the matching aperture on the camera, and bobs your uncle?

Can't see any aperture markings on the adapter, so does this mean it's a bit of guess work?

Obviously not thinking about attaching huge lenses to the PEN, but the Sig 50/1.4 and STF would be nice.

Thanks in advance
 
Quoting from the link "Please note that the pusher with the fixed ring doesn’t work, so diaphragm control of the lens is set manually."

bit hard to work out that.. obvious Minolta AF doesn't have an aperture ring, so you'd hope you can do it via the adaptor but its not clear how. Otherwise you'd be shooting wide open all the time...
 
puddleduck said:
Quoting from the link "Please note that the pusher with the fixed ring doesn’t work, so diaphragm control of the lens is set manually."

bit hard to work out that.. obvious Minolta AF doesn't have an aperture ring, so you'd hope you can do it via the adaptor but its not clear how. Otherwise you'd be shooting wide open all the time...
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I had a think about this and decided against it, as the idea for buying the PEN was to travel light (compact) - but if I have the option to take a load of lenses, I'll end up lugging lots of gear around again.

Thanks for the reply.
 
I think I'd stick with the 14-28 and maybe a couple of primes. I suppose you could fit the Oly fit version of the Sigma - I suspect the lens would dwarf the body!

Can it take M42 lenses? Those will fit to anything, its very format neutral with the right adaptor, and the lenses are very cheap (the Pentax M42 55mm f/1.8 is 60% the size of the Minolta 50mm f/1.7 AF)
 
puddleduck said:
I think I'd stick with the 14-28 and maybe a couple of primes. I suppose you could fit the Oly fit version of the Sigma - I suspect the lens would dwarf the body!

Can it take M42 lenses? Those will fit to anything, its very format neutral with the right adaptor, and the lenses are very cheap (the Pentax M42 55mm f/1.8 is 60% the size of the Minolta 50mm f/1.7 AF)
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I think adapters are available for most mounts, but the advantage of the of Minolta AF is obviously I have the lenses already (and I'm trying to avoid ending up with two systems).

Been thinking about this (as I was originally thinking about the advantage of say a very fast prime), but wonder how practical it would be trying to focus with a very narrow DOF using Liveview - as there is no viewfinder - and the screen isn't supposed to be that high resolution. I'm not saying it's not possible, but wonder whether I should just stick to using the PEN as a compact replacement?
I have read that when you switch to MF with the E-P1 is zooms to help focusing, but maybe it's worth seeing how this works first before buying 'extras'.

I had ruled out the E-P1 (and the GF1) due to cost, and was looking for a 'G9/10/11 with HD video' type camera, but picked up a E-P1 from here not much more than a new G11.

I think the E-P1 is flawed in some ways (viewfinder and no built-in flash), but it's worth giving it a try as none of them look perfect and picked up the E-P1 for a pretty good price (so could always sell it on if it doesn't work for me)
 
Just got my Sony A200. This will be a backup to my A900 in case of any ill fortune when out on the road.

First impressions are very favourable - nice build quality, reasonable viewfinder, and also takes CF cards which is bonus. The eye start AF is very disturbing - need to find out how to turn that off.

As an entry level body.. its seems to compete very well with the Nikon D60 from what I can see. With a decent lens (Minolta 50mm f/2.8 macro), the accuity seems to be very good indeed (weak AA filter)

Quite impressed!
 
Although I've already got the (awesome) Tamron 28-75 I've been trying to find the re-badged KM 28-75 as well (as it reports EXIF properly)

I managed to find a minter - here is it compared to the Tamron, as you can see its really the same lens :)



DSC_3433.jpg



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Here is a boring test shot at 75mm to test wide open sharpness (on my A200 as the A900 is dead)

http://www.odysseus-software.co.uk/A900/KM17-35-1.jpg

100%

http://www.odysseus-software.co.uk/A900/KM17-35-2.jpg

Pretty happy with that for 75mm wide open - at least I get 28-75 reported in my EXIF as opposed to 24-105 that the Tamron version reports.

Need to see it on the A900 as well...
 
puddleduck said:
Just got my Sony A200. This will be a backup to my A900 in case of any ill fortune when out on the road.

First impressions are very favourable - nice build quality, reasonable viewfinder, and also takes CF cards which is bonus. The eye start AF is very disturbing - need to find out how to turn that off.

As an entry level body.. its seems to compete very well with the Nikon D60 from what I can see. With a decent lens (Minolta 50mm f/2.8 macro), the accuity seems to be very good indeed (weak AA filter)

Quite impressed!
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Never actually held the A200 but have always heard good things about it. My first DSLR was the A100 and I thought the eyestart was great at first. Then I turned it off and myst shots improved ten fold. It's easy to turn off (well it is on the A100 & A700) using the menus although I haven't got a camera with me so can't tell you exactly where but I'm sure someone will point you in the right direction (although i'm sure you'll work it out yourself pretty quickly).
 
Thanks, I managed to turn it off, its really unnerving having the lens going on a big old hunt as soon as you put your eye up the the viewfinder.. who on earth at Sony decided that was a good idea?!! :nuts:
 
TurnipFarmer said:
eyestart?? I have not heard of that on my A200? What is it and how did you turn it off?
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Press the "Menu" button, go to the tab that looks like a Cog / Wheel, on Page 1 of that tab, there is a option marked "Eye-Start AF"



DSC_3437.jpg


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puddleduck said:
Thanks, I managed to turn it off, its really unnerving having the lens going on a big old hunt as soon as you put your eye up the the viewfinder.. who on earth at Sony decided that was a good idea?!! :nuts:
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Hmmm, yes I seem to remember disabling that on my a700!

Think the worst thing used to be (from memory) when the camera used to start focusing when hanging around your neck!
 
one thing i miss from the sony is the sensor at the viewfinder where it turns off lcd
 
nope not on d90. the d90 however has a lcd display on top and the to turn the light on just flick the on button further round and this can also light up the rear, alongside hitting info button. something minor, but things you notice
 
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