Calling all Sony Alpha users! (Part 5)

Quick question, do most people set the auto focus mode manually e.g single or continuous depending on the subject, or does the automatic setting generally get it right?
 
:( Gonna havta take my camera into the shop tomorrow - looks like it's/i'm over exposing - the toggers I'm hanging with have all had a good look and we've matched shots, same ap, same shutter, same AF, same metering... their's are FAB shots, mine crahp and blown... :thinking: It seems there may be a problem so the shop's gonna have a looksee and I'll take the laptop in to show the raw shots ... hugely frustrating as yesterday was the best day ever - but I've about 200 blown waves... grrrrrrrrrrrrr :shrug:

shot for shot - there's no reason mine should be blown - they kinda look soft too - such a shame, huge walk, climed a verra steep hill and in massive pain today... and no shots that look... right. Was worth every minute of pain tho just for the fantastic views and abandoned scenic tin mines on the Cornish Coast cliff edge.

will see what "the shop" say when they take a look at the pics - GUTTED right now that there's potentially a problem.

gotta say tho - I'M LOVIN' THE 50mm prime tho - mmmm mmmmmmmm mmmmmmm - beautiful bokeh - and the A33 smile shutter is just FAN-BLOOMING-TASTIC :D :D
 
It could be your lens.
Sticky aperture blades can cause over blown shots.
Try flicking the wee leaver on the back of the lens to see if it moves nice and easy.
 
Make sure you haven't left any exposure compensation on first :) A reset to default/factory values should remove any possible things in that area.

Put it in full auto mode and shoot things with not too much contrast and see how they turn out. If they're still wrong then try a different lens to make sure. If they all still look blown then it might need a trip back to the shop.
 
As its an SLT I don't suppose this is a Sigma lens. There are problems with Sigmas and SLTs.

Just read its the 50mm ?1.4? so ignore me....
 
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clownfish said:
As its an SLT I don't suppose this is a Sigma lens. There are problems with Sigmas and SLTs.

Just read its the 50mm ?1.4? so ignore me....
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heh... your reason for editing did make me chuckle :D


thanks y'all for the advice - well, what happened waaaaas... (ya gotta know Jethro to know how I said that)...

what happened waaaas - I went back to Devon Camera - who are incredibly helpful (bless those folksies) and they took a good look at my shots - so, they don't appear to be blown on the histograms and yep, the view finder is not like the regular OVF's so when the 2sec preview comes up in there straight after I take the shot - it does look blown/wishywashy/oof... however, on the screen - it is sharp and not blown - the occasional ones but I need to try and figure out metering when using ND8 with white water/waves and slow shutters.

We played around taking a bunch of shots with his camera (Nikon-really-uber-expensive-oh-man-not-in-a-million-years-if-ever ) and compared his histograms to mine - but as his was shooting at 1/8000 and mine is max 1/4000 - tho they were similar histograms and blown bits (as we shooting out the shop door) - it's difficult to compare like to like with a camera that's over 3x more dosh than mine :cool: BUT - he really did give me a lot of advice and info on "how to" and "do not get cut off by the tide" stuff.

Add to that, that I am using a very VERY old out-of-the-ark ;) school laptop as mine is busted right now... when the shots were put on a decent monitor - they don't appear to be blown in RAW IDL Sony Software.

Until I get my proper laptop back I'm not gonna know really if all is completely tickety - but I'm a little more hopeful than yesterday that the camera is working.



Ahhhhhhhh... but Clownfish - I was shooting all the landscapes with a Sig10-20 - c'mon, spill the beans, whaddya know about SLT's and Sig's imcompatability.

I was shooting with 50mm in the garden - took some awesome (so says she ;)) shots tonight on my new and very sex-ayyyyyyy tripod... ooooooooh, I LOVE MY NEW TRIPOD... I don't just love it - IT IS THE BEST - can hardly lift it - but man, it's sooooo gorgeous. My little Sony A33 on the top of it does look a little funny - but I surely don't care - have had a ball playing in the garden tonight! (Manfrotto 055XPROB with a super swivelly 498RC2 head) - oooooooooooooooh... LUVERLY!

Thank you for the responses to my dilemma yesterday... I'm rambling now (tad over excited about the tripod that won't cut my finger off like my old and relegated one did on Sunday)... so best disappear off now

toodleoooo and thanku ! :p
 
Hi People i am looking of using of camera flash for location shoots.

I have an a900 and sony 58am along with sigma 530 super.

I guess i ave to get some triggers but not sure what ones. I would like the hss and ttl to still work if poss.

I see the pocket wizzards do this but they are pricey.

Any others?? or suggestions?

Thanks in advance
 
snapsnap said:
Hi People i am looking of using of camera flash for location shoots.

I have an a900 and sony 58am along with sigma 530 super.

I guess i ave to get some triggers but not sure what ones. I would like the hss and ttl to still work if poss.

I see the pocket wizzards do this but they are pricey.

Any others?? or suggestions?

Thanks in advance
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pocketwizard won't work with sony unless you buy an adapter.
the cheapest way to do it is get an Interfit Sony hot shoe adapter, and then get a Hahnel Combi TF for around £60 .. if you want to fire 2 flashguns wirelessly get a 2nd Combi TF receiver for £40.
all in all about £120 to be able to fire 2 off camera flashguns wirelessly.

the Combi TF is also a wireless remote for the camera with a 100m range.
 
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have had a nex 5 for the last month or so very impressed so far, just purchased the adaptor and the 35 1.8 will post some pictures when i get a chance to use it
 
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snapsnap said:
Hi People i am looking of using of camera flash for location shoots.

I have an a900 and sony 58am along with sigma 530 super.

I guess i ave to get some triggers but not sure what ones. I would like the hss and ttl to still work if poss.

I see the pocket wizzards do this but they are pricey.

Any others?? or suggestions?

Thanks in advance
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Sry i forgot to say i was looking for ttl and hss with these triggers if poss.
 
I was looking at my a700 and found a button on my camera I hadn't seen before, pressed it and all it seems to do is make the display through the viewfinder a bit darker. I'm not sure what this does, does anybody know what this button does? It's at the front of camera at the bottom right hand side of the lens if that makes sense?

You can see it on this review

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydslra700/
 
Yep, Depth of Field preview. It doesn't take a "shot" though, it closes down the aperture so that you can see the effect in the viewfinder. When you look through the viewfinder normally, you are always viewing with the aperture at it's largest regardless of what you set the lens at, only when you click the shutter will the aperture physically change.
 
chrism_scotland said:
Have you decided which one to get yet?
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nah I'm one of those people who just can never make there mind up. I know that I can't really go wrong with any of them but it's just one of them things :lol:

I might get an EP-1 with 14-42mm for £250 then buy a 25mm f1.4 cctv lens for £40. Or I could get an NEX with 16mm for the same price and has great IQ and Movie Quality but I can't get on with the lack of buttons as such :/
 
mastertrinity said:
nah I'm one of those people who just can never make there mind up. I know that I can't really go wrong with any of them but it's just one of them things :lol:

I might get an EP-1 with 14-42mm for £250 then buy a 25mm f1.4 cctv lens for £40. Or I could get an NEX with 16mm for the same price and has great IQ and Movie Quality but I can't get on with the lack of buttons as such :/
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I know what you mean! I'm rubbish at making up my mind too. I was just playing with the NEX 5 and 3 in Heathrow on my way through I'm still quite tempted to pick one up and give it a try I like the Olympus but I don't find it as comfortable as the NEX, I know the Panny GF2 is meant to be excellent but again its just too square for me to hold.
 
chrism_scotland said:
I know what you mean! I'm rubbish at making up my mind too. I was just playing with the NEX 5 and 3 in Heathrow on my way through I'm still quite tempted to pick one up and give it a try I like the Olympus but I don't find it as comfortable as the NEX, I know the Panny GF2 is meant to be excellent but again its just too square for me to hold.
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yeah tbh I think I'm just gonna sell my gear and see how much I have because I've got a little plan.

Sony NEX 3 and 16mm is £300 then a memory card for £20 which makes it £320 so if I make £320 profit then I'll get that one.

Olympus EP-1 and 14-42mm that comes with free 8GB card is £250 so if I make upto £300 then I'll probably get that one plus a 35mm f1.7 CCTV lens :)
 
mastertrinity said:
yeah tbh I think I'm just gonna sell my gear and see how much I have because I've got a little plan.

Sony NEX 3 and 16mm is £300 then a memory card for £20 which makes it £320 so if I make £320 profit then I'll get that one.

Olympus EP-1 and 14-42mm that comes with free 8GB card is £250 so if I make upto £300 then I'll probably get that one plus a 35mm f1.7 CCTV lens :)
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I had always been swung to the Nex 5 but part of me was thinking about picking up a cheap NEX 3 and then buying the NEX 7 when it comes out later in the year, but I just find the grip too small!!!

The Olympus EP-1 is a bargain now though considering how expensive it was at launch!
 
the_womble said:
pocketwizard won't work with sony unless you buy an adapter.
the cheapest way to do it is get an Interfit Sony hot shoe adapter, and then get a Hahnel Combi TF for around £60 .. if you want to fire 2 flashguns wirelessly get a 2nd Combi TF receiver for £40.
all in all about £120 to be able to fire 2 off camera flashguns wirelessly.

the Combi TF is also a wireless remote for the camera with a 100m range.
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Pixel Soldiers (373's) cost about the same and have Sony hotshoes. I'm not familiar with the Hahnel trigger, but the pixel's support grouping and seem very reliable.

I dont think there's a wireless solution that supports HSS and TTL on Sony. Pw's will fire, but not in TTL as far as i know. If he OP really wants TTL/HSS he's going to have to use sony's built-in optical triggering. That's not going to be very reliable in sunlight.
 
PDub said:
Does anyone use non genuine batteries in their A700 or know where the cheapest to get a genuine NP-FM500H from?
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Keep an eye in the classifieds on here.I bought two from a member on here not long back.
 
TurnipFarmer said:
Thank you guys, I didn't know the a700 had a dof preview, glad I found it and now know what that button does.

Is it a good function to use? Do many people use it?
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I use it occasionally - it's useful when you want to select the right aperture for a controlled DOF shot - one going from OOF to in focus to OOF - BUT you need a decent amount of light otherwise it gets too dark when it closes the aperture!
 
DEANSUPREME said:
Keep an eye in the classifieds on here.I bought two from a member on here not long back.
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I have used non originals from eBay. Worked fine for me.
 
PDub said:
Have they been used in a grip as well?
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I have a non original grip. But hearing you say that makes me think I have heard of issues of non Sony batteries in grip
 
I personally would only use an official battery myself in case anything did go wrong with the 3rd part one.Not taking any chances with cheap batteries in an expensive camera..Probably me just being overly paranoid though.:)
 
My preference is to only use original batteries - but that means watching out for when they are priced reasonably.

I have 5 batteries in total, one with each of A700 and A200, plus 3 spares.

The 2 spares I bought new were £35 and £20 (Jessops silly price, the salesman had to double check he had the right one as they had been £60 the previous week!), plus a third I got s/h with my grip for the A700.

The most juice I've got through in a day was when I went to a flying display at Shuttleworth, when I filled 16Gb of cards (cRaw) and drained 2 1/2 batteries.
 
I've just been digging in an old camera bag and found a minolta AF to T2 mount adapter. I'm therefore now wondering what I can stick on the end of it?! I know metering will be stop down and no AF but I wondered what cheap and cheerful fun things I could probably try out?

Got the feeling I bought it to use with a centon f8 reflex 500mm lens that I used to have. I've just seen one for sale cheaply and wondered whether that would be quite fun? With a crop sensor it would be 750 mm and with the digi teleconverter on my a350 it would become a whopping 1500mm!! Awful quality potentially I know especially with my manual focussing skills :)
 
Using Sigma 180mm f5.6 Macro with no AF
I purchased an old Sigma 180mm f5.6 APO Macro lens Minolta fit and have been trying it on my Sony alpha330, it is only a 5 point electrical contact so no auto focus. I have taken a few shots of flowers indoors in natural light on a tripod ISO 100, the exposure is set and shown on the lcd screen, there is a box to the left beside the ISO 100 box which reads MM -2.0, can someone explain what that is and what the value means as I can not find any reference to this in the camera manual. If it is something that I am doing wrong I would be grateful of any help to put me on the right path.
 
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Melmount said:
Using Sigma 180mm f5.6 Macro with no AF
I purchased an old Sigma 180mm f5.6 APO Macro lens Minolta fit and have been trying it on my Sony alpha330, it is only a 5 point electrical contact so no auto focus.
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this is wrong. If it's a 5-pin lens then it means that it's screw-driven AF & the 330 has an in-body screw drive (it also means that the lens is quite old, iirc Minolta introduced 8-pin in 1992 but it wasn't until 2003 that they brought out an SSM lens).
If you don't have AF it's because you have a setting wrong, the AF gears on the lens are broken or being an old Sigma it has a firmware incompatibility
there is a box to the left beside the ISO 100 box which reads MM -2.0, can someone explain what that is and what the value means as I can not find any reference to this in the camera manual. If it is something that I am doing wrong I would be grateful of any help to put me on the right path.
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it's telling you that the settings that you have set are 2 stops out from what the camera thinks correct exposure is.
I'll see if I can dig up a manual that explains it.
 
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srichards said:
I've just been digging in an old camera bag and found a minolta AF to T2 mount adapter. I'm therefore now wondering what I can stick on the end of it?! I know metering will be stop down and no AF but I wondered what cheap and cheerful fun things I could probably try out?

Got the feeling I bought it to use with a centon f8 reflex 500mm lens that I used to have. I've just seen one for sale cheaply and wondered whether that would be quite fun? With a crop sensor it would be 750 mm and with the digi teleconverter on my a350 it would become a whopping 1500mm!! Awful quality potentially I know especially with my manual focussing skills :)
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Get yourself a spotting scope ?
Make sure is uses t2 of course.
You would need to spend big to get good IQ but cheap would let you get shots that are not possible with a lens. Just don't expect lens quality.
 
heidfirst said:
this is wrong. If it's a 5-pin lens then it means that it's screw-driven AF & the 330 has an in-body screw drive (it also means that the lens is quite old, iirc Minolta introduced 8-pin in 1992 but it wasn't until 2003 that they brought out an SSM lens).
If you don't have AF it's because you have a setting wrong, the AF gears on the lens are broken or being an old Sigma it has a firmware incompatibility

it's telling you that the settings that you have set are 2 stops out from what the camera thinks correct exposure is.
I'll see if I can dig up a manual that explains it.
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I would be interested in seeing the manual too as I have the same MM message also on an m42 lens
 
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