Calling all Sony Alpha users! (Part 3)

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stan the man said:
you could always come back to sony..:p





:lol:
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not at the moment LOL
the nikon d90 seems a good choice so far with limited use

one thing the sony wins hands down is the live view focusing as it's almost instant compared to the nikon.
 
puddleduck said:
Quite impressed with Sony - phoned up Friday to report the problems with my A900 (http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showpost.php?p=1995937&postcount=1732), and they sent UPS to collect it (who just arrived)

Will see how long they take, and what they do repair, but so far excellent service thus far....
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Good to know, as the wind blew my tripod over last night with my A200 attached to the top of it!!:(

Haven't noticed any major damage to it yet, only thing I noticed was some grass and mud in the hot shoe but the tripod was at full height (150cm ish) so it did take a bit of a fall.

Luckily I was on softish ground at the time which I think is the only reason it's still in one piece!!
 
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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actually it was Minolta/KM.
Obviously the idea was that by starting the focusing as soon as it was at your eye that it would be ready to shoot sooner.
I believe that the latest Alphas don't have it any more.

btw the KM 28-75 isn't quite the same as the Tamron - apart from the obvious cosmetics the coatings are different & iirc there are some internal differences (iris is 1 iirc).
 
heidfirst said:
btw the KM 28-75 isn't quite the same as the Tamron - apart from the obvious cosmetics the coatings are different & iirc there are some internal differences (iris is 1 iirc).
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The iris are the same - I know the KM is claimed to have a circular aperture but the Tamron has it as well. Same with the 17-35 KM / Tamrons.

I do like the fact that the KM version uses the proper lens ID. The Tamron highjacks the lens ID from the 24-105 f/3.5 - f/4.5!

I'll probably keep the KM version purely down the the lens ID.

I'm curious as to how the newer 28-75 SAM is? - if the SAM motor is anything like Tamron's Nikon motors AF if going to be slower on the SAM models than the KM / Tamron 28-75s.
 
puddleduck said:
The iris are the same - I know the KM is claimed to have a circular aperture but the Tamron has it as well. Same with the 17-35 KM / Tamrons.
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are you 100% that there are no differences?
the KM & Tamron 17-35mms look even closer than the 28-75mm but the KMs always seemed that bit smoother which again hints at internal changes (even if only in acceptable tolerances).
Probably only KM & Tamron know exactly the real differences.

Btw supposedly the 28-75mm is largely a KM design built by Tamron rather than a Tamron design.
Wouldn't be surprised if the 17-35mm is too.
Even today Tamron apparently use a lot of tech. licenced from Minolta.
 
heidfirst said:
are you 100% that there are no differences?
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Yep - the iris is identical. Its basically the same lens, if you look into it you can see all the same internals etc etc.

The Tamron is made in Japan, the KM China.

Can't see any coating differences (at least on front and rear)

I do find these excellent lenses - compared to a Minolta 28mm f/2.8 prime they outpeform it for vignettting control and edge and corner sharpness when at 28mm wide open. The Tamron is also slightly wider at 28mm then the prime.
 
heidfirst said:
Even today Tamron apparently use a lot of tech. licenced from Minolta.
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That's a really funny statement when you consider that Sony has a large share in Tamron.

From what I've read (maybe you know a bit more)... I don't think Sony bought the rights of the lens designs as part of the 'deal' with Minolta, which makes you wonder why if they were already investing in Tamron.

Regarding the sharing of designs between Sony and Tamron....

The Sony 11-18 & Tamron 11-18 also obviously share the same design, but the performance does seem different (I know you can't compare across camera systems, but it does kind of give an indication)...

Sony 11-18
http://www.photozone.de/sony-alpha-aps-c-lens-tests/375-sony_1118_4556?start=1

Tamron 11-18
http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/2...-aspherical-if-sp-test-report--review?start=1

The MTF figures for the Sony and Tamron do seem very different ???
 
I wonder if when the 28-75 SAL comes out if Sony "ask" Tamron to stop making the 28-75 in Sony fit...

(tin foil hats on maybe but it wouldn't surprise me!)
 
springtide said:
That's a really funny statement when you consider that Sony has a large share in Tamron.

From what I've read (maybe you know a bit more)... I don't think Sony bought the rights of the lens designs as part of the 'deal' with Minolta, which makes you wonder why if they were already investing in Tamron.
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I don't see that it's funny at all. :thinking:
Sony was already invested in Tamron before they bought the KM DSLR business & Tamron's licencing of Minolta tech. goes way, way back (most of it iirc relates to glass).
Even today if you look at KM's balance sheet you'll see substantial income for intellectual property.
 
puddleduck said:
I wonder if when the 28-75 SAL comes out if Sony "ask" Tamron to stop making the 28-75 in Sony fit...

(tin foil hats on maybe but it wouldn't surprise me!)
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Lets hope not! That has been suggested before (elsewhere), but so far (touch wood!) this hasn't happened with other Tamron lenses. e.g. 11-18, 10-24, etc

But lets not start that rumour just in case you give Sony the idea LOL
 
I don't really understand how they hope to sell the Sony 28-75 otherwise... its about twice the price of the Tamron.

And as its SAL it'll be slower than the Tamron and KM re-badge for focus speed! I think you'd really want to have to see a Sony logo on the lens barrel to go for it.

(I know its not out yet, but I know it'll be the same lens)

Do folks really pay a lot more the the Sony re-badges generally?
 
heidfirst said:
I don't see that it's funny at all. :thinking:
Sony was already invested in Tamron before they bought the KM DSLR business & Tamron's licencing of Minolta tech. goes way, way back (most of it iirc relates to glass).
Even today if you look at KM's balance sheet you'll see substantial income for intellectual property.
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I guess what I was thinking was, if Sony was already investing in lens technlogy (via Tamron)- why they didn't push to try and get the IP for the glass as part of the deal with KM?

Maybe KM were not interested in letting go of the IP for the lens designs as it gives them a nice income, or maybe more like they didn't want to let if go for what Sony wanted to pay for it.

I must admit, I don't know enough about this and the press announcements did't have a great amount of detail at the time - and I had no involvement with KM until the Sony deal went through, when I bought my first dSLR, the 7D (and bought the 7D as I had the A1 prosumer cam)
 
puddleduck said:
I don't really understand how they hope to sell the Sony 28-75 otherwise... its about twice the price of the Tamron.

And as its SAL it'll be slower than the Tamron and KM re-badge for focus speed!
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I think that you mean SAM not SAL - SAL just means Sony Alpha Lens afaik whereas SAM=Smooth Autofocus Motor.

(I know its not out yet, but I know it'll be the same lens)

Do folks really pay a lot more the the Sony re-badges generally?
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we'll have to see what the finished item is like e.g. the Sony version of the 18-250 is reckoned to be the better (focus is higher geared so faster) & the KM versions were generally reckoned to be better (whether down to improved QC, slight engineering improvements or whatever).
The 11-18mm seems to sell & again there may be slight differences other than purely cosmetic.
Part of it comes down to the local Sony pricing policy - in the USA the Sony 18-250 was only ~$50 (15-20%) more whereas in the UK it was nearer 40-50% dearer.

springtide said:
I guess what I was thinking was, if Sony was already investing in lens technlogy (via Tamron)- why they didn't push to try and get the IP for the glass as part of the deal with KM?

Maybe KM were not interested in letting go of the IP for the lens designs as it gives them a nice income, or maybe more like they didn't want to let if go for what Sony wanted to pay for it.
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Exactly what was involved in the KM/Sony deal has always been shrouded in secrecy - again I suspect that only KM & Sony really know.
There has always been a lot of suspicion that KM retained an interest in at least some of the production facilities - indeed they are still a major manufacturer of lenses for things like cell phones & camcorders.
Similarly there has always been a suspicion that KM still get a cut on sales of the carried over lens designs (e.g. 70-200 2.8, 300 2.8) which would at least in part account for why they are a noticeable bit dearer than competing lenses from CaNikon whereas the new Sony designs (e.g. 24-70, 70-400) are fairly competitive

I also wouldn't be at all surprised if the deal included a clause allowing KM to come back into cameras at some point if they so wished.
 
heidfirst said:
I think that you mean SAM not SAL - SAL just means Sony Alpha Lens afaik whereas SAM=Smooth Autofocus Motor
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Yeah, thats it - SAM! I'm not really up on my Sony an acronyms yet!

heidfirst said:
we'll have to see what the finished item is like e.g. the Sony version of the 18-250 is reckoned to be the better (focus is higher geared so faster) & the KM versions were generally reckoned to be better (whether down to improved QC, slight engineering improvements or whatever).
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I wonder if this is label blindness or a genuine engineering change?

I imagine a lot of folks see "Sony" on a lens barrel and run a little mental USM on their images to justify the price premium :)
 
puddleduck said:
Yeah, thats it - SAM! I'm not really up on my Sony an acronyms yet!

I wonder if this is label blindness or a genuine engineering change?

I imagine a lot of folks see "Sony" on a lens barrel and run a little mental USM on their images to justify the price premium :)
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Sorry, I edited a post and you proably didn't see my update..

.........regarding the sharing of designs between Sony and Tamron....

The Sony 11-18 & Tamron 11-18 also obviously share the same design, but the performance does seem different (I know you can't compare across camera systems, but it does kind of give an indication)...

Sony 11-18
http://www.photozone.de/sony-alpha-aps-c-lens-tests/375-sony_1118_4556?start=1

Tamron 11-18
http://www.photozone.de/canon-eos/2...-aspherical-if-sp-test-report--review?start=1

The MTF figures, CA's etc for the Sony and Tamron do seem very different.

As I said you shouldn't really compare across systems on Photozone, but are these differences due to the different platform, tested slightly differently, better QC / Sample or even a slightly changed design?

Just looking at Tamron / Sigma lenses we know that samples of the same lens can be very different.

And yes, there are people who pay a pemium for the Sony branded lenses, but I guess they (at least) think they are getting improved quality [whether that is true or not is being debated here :) ]
 
Just I'd drop Sony a mail asking if they got my camera back OK and if they had any ETA.

Got a personal reply back in 5 minutes - its awaiting some spare parts which should be available next week. Sounds good so far. I assume it'll be a replacement mount? They got it back on Tuesday, and its only 48 hours since it was logging in.
 
Just I'd drop Sony a mail asking if they got my camera back OK and if they had any ETA.

Got a personal reply back in 5 minutes - its awaiting some spare parts which should be available next week. Sounds good so far. I assume it'll be a replacement mount? They got it back on Tuesday, and its only 48 hours since it was logging in.
 
fabs said:
Skydiver

Wanted posts must be placed in the Wanted section of this forum. You will not be able to start a thread there until you have reached 100 posts though.
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Exactly...so what are you supposed to do...post 100 meaningless posts? - that's why I posted in the Sony area, 'cos it's for an A700 :bang:
 
The classified section is provided as a benefit for established members. It's not about quickly posting 100 meaningless posts to get up to the minimum requirement. It's about contributing to the forums, establishing yourself as a member and then benefiting from the privilege of the classified sections.
 
:thinking: - it's o.k to spend £100's buying kit from members but you can't post a wanted ad :shrug:

Oh well, ours not to reason why...and another post toward a hundred
 
i have the sigma lens, and its pin sharp! Stan has the same lens too. my recent long exposures from north berwick were taking with it, and done some others... no probs so far!:D
 
I'd definately nail my hat to the Tamron mast. At least in Nikon fit, the Tamron would be a no-brainer.

The Sigma is only really about 19mm to 46mm as well.
And the Tamron is sharper wide open.
 
PAS said:
i have the sigma lens, and its pin sharp! Stan has the same lens too. my recent long exposures from north berwick were taking with it, and done some others... no probs so far!:D
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See this is the trouble I'm having...........

I've seen the results you and Stan have had with the Sigma, and they are very impressive but every Sigma I've owned in the past has been a bit of a dog and it's left a bad taste in my mouth (not that I eat my lenses you understand!). Whereas I've never heard much about the Tamron, but every Tamron I've owned in the past has been really really good value!

With finances as they are at the moment, this will be a pretty big purchase and I don't want to find out at a later date that I picked the wrong one. Although I spose they'll both be very good and I can't really go wrong with either.........

Decisions decisions!!:thinking:
 
I've been happy with two tamrons i've had on the sony and considering tamron for the nikon
 
Thanks for the tips guys :thumbs:

The Tamron is 1st choice at the minute, I'm currently on flickr looking for some example shots taken with both lenses. What I've seen so far (which isn't much!) puts them neck and neck!

I need some side by side 100% crops, which I think might be like rocking horse ****!!:lol:
 
personally,i don't think you will go wrong with either(so long as you get a good copy ;))so it's down to your personal choice...i will however say,if i'd had a past bad experience with any lens,it may also put me off getting another...

go with your head :thumbs:

also..anyone with any recommendations as to what i can get next as i've just been given £200 for my birthday...:D
 
stan the man said:
personally,i don't think you will go wrong with either(so long as you get a good copy ;))so it's down to your personal choice...i will however say,if i'd had a past bad experience with any lens,it may also put me off getting another...

go with your head :thumbs:

also..anyone with any recommendations as to what i can get next as i've just been given £200 for my birthday...:D
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put it towards a tamron wide angle as per classifieds ;-)
 
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