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

woof woof said:
What a sensible idea.

How many custom setting do you get on the A7c and A7III? My A7 has two, which I have set for aperture and manual both with wide area and face detect.
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3 on the 7C. Have yet to pluck up courage to try to set them. I've watched all the videos, so I suppose the only way to prove to myself that it works is to try it. I don't suppose I can break anything. :oops: :$ At the moment I'm happy enough using the "My Menu" and Fn button to change things from my standard.
 
Stephen L said:
3 on the 7C. Have yet to pluck up courage to try to set them. I've watched all the videos, so I suppose the only way to prove to myself that it works is to try it. I don't suppose I can break anything. :oops: :$ At the moment I'm happy enough using the "My Menu" and Fn button to change things from my standard.
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I don't think you can actually break anything :D

As far as I remember what I did was set everything up how I wanted it and then dive into the menu and select the option to save the settings. And that's it.

I normally use aperture priority until the shutter speed drops too low and I then switch to manual with a more sensible shutter speed. When taking people picture I select custom setting 1 or 2 depending on the light levels, the custom setting for aperture with wide area and face detect if the light is good and the manual custom setting if the light levels are low.

If I had an A7c I think I'd have the same custom settings plus another one for manual lenses, as suggested above.

If I were you... I'd stop worry about breaking something and just do it. It is actually quite easy but keep in mind that you will probably forget something and have to redo a custom setting of three until you get them right :D
 
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That's lovely George.

I was tempted this morning but by the time I'd defrosted the car, put the bin out, cleared the drains and seen to Mrs WW'f plants all I wanted was a warm up and a cup of tea :D
 
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woof woof said:
Golly Gosh!!!

I'll be 60 next year and I've just received a pension estimate from a previous employer... and... WoWza! I was not expecting this! Even the cash payout and reduced pension option looks good and the pension more in line with what I expected although to be honest I don't need a cash payout and don't want the hassle of looking for investments or alternative pension providers so I'll probably just stick to the beyond what I expected (thank you) basic pension they're offering.

What a nice surprise. I might order something in the morning, just to celebrate :D
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That's a nice surprise. I'll be 60 next year too, but rather expect the opposite. :(
 
ancient_mariner said:
That's a nice surprise. I'll be 60 next year too, but rather expect the opposite. :(
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Capitalism may yet surprise you. Fingers crossed for you.

Mrs WW doesn't seem excited, she just told me to stop the silly dancing.

PS.
My father died at 72 so I'm hoping not to.
 
woof woof said:
I don't think you can actually break anything :D

As far as I remember what I did was set everything up how I wanted it and then dive into the menu and select the option to save the settings. And that's it.

I normally use aperture priority until the shutter speed drops too low and I then switch to manual with a more sensible shutter speed. When taking people picture I select custom setting 1 or 2 depending on the light levels, the custom setting for aperture with wide are and face detect it the light is good and the manual custom setting if the light levels are low.

If I had an A7c I think I'd have the same custom settings plus another one for manual lenses, as suggested above.

If I were you... I'd stop worry about breaking something and just do it. It is actually quite easy but keep in mind that you will probably forget something and have to redo a custom setting of three until you get them right :D
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I'm more worried that I will forget what I've got assigned to which! I'm not as encumbered with different settings for people as I rarely intentionally shoot people. I use either aperture priority with auto-ISO, or manual ditto. If a camera has too many configurables I get confused. Then I sulk and pick up my Contax or Selfix. (even that has a strict sequence you must follow when taking a shot then winding on and cocking the shutter)
 
Stephen L said:
I'm more worried that I will forget what I've got assigned to which! I'm not as encumbered with different settings for people as I rarely intentionally shoot people. I use either aperture priority with auto-ISO, or manual ditto. If a camera has too many configurables I get confused. Then I sulk and pick up my Contax or Selfix. (even that has a strict sequence you must follow when taking a shot then winding on and cocking the shutter)
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I think an idea might be to save your most used settings as No1, then the next used as No.2 etc.

Plus, I don't know if your camera does the same but my A7 comes up with an initial screen full of settings when I switch to a custom mode, so I can't really go wrong as if I've selected the wrong one I'll see... and move on to the next one.
 
woof woof said:
PS.
My father died at 72 so I'm hoping not to.
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Mine at 54, so I'm determined to leave this earth penniless. The kids both earn far more than me and Mrs L ever did combined, so they're getting b@@@@r all! :banana:
 
woof woof said:
What a nice surprise. I might order something in the morning, just to celebrate :D
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Or wait till after January. I read a rumour that a brand spanking new A9III for a mere $5000 apparently has your name on it. :D
 
woof woof said:
Capitalism may yet surprise you. Fingers crossed for you.

Mrs WW doesn't seem excited, she just told me to stop the silly dancing.

PS.
My father died at 72 so I'm hoping not to.
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Mine around his 52nd birthday, though my mother is now 87. TBH I'd rather die in my mid-late 70s than become truly old.
 
Merlin5 said:
Or wait till after January. I read a rumour that a brand spanking new A9III for a mere $5000 apparently has your name on it. :D
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Good point but I think an A9 of any designation might be a bit wasted on me :D
 
ancient_mariner said:
Mine around his 52nd birthday, though my mother is now 87. TBH I'd rather die in my mid-late 70s than become truly old.
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If you're still healthy and active or not is the key I suppose. So far I'm lucky enough to be in relatively good and healthy nick.
 
nandbytes said:
Sigma 65mm looking very nice performance wise
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I'm tempted by all 3. Some are saying that the 24 and 65 have the best rendering but none as good as the 45mm but that lens has issues with focusing for some due to the uncorrected aberrations which helped to make the rendering so nice. It looks like they've tried to eliminate the focus issues with these new lenses and in doing so maybe hit the rendering a bit.
 
woof woof said:
I'm tempted by all 3. Some are saying that the 24 and 65 have the best rendering but none as good as the 45mm but that lens has issues with focusing for some due to the uncorrected aberrations which helped to make the rendering so nice. It looks like they've tried to eliminate the focus issues with these new lenses and in doing so maybe hit the rendering a bit.
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Their 35mm looks to be the best one of the lot. It's the one I'd buy over the other options.
Though samyang is a fair bit cheaper.
Sony focuses closer which is nice too...
 
nandbytes said:
Their 35mm looks to be the best one of the lot. It's the one I'd buy over the other options.
Though samyang is a fair bit cheaper.
Sony focuses closer which is nice too...
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Yes, the close focus of the Sony is nice but from what I've read the MFD of the Sigma is only 2" inches longer, so that could be ok. If I was ordering the Sigma I'd double check and I probably will check just out of interest but these days I often take a No.4 close up filter with me and that enables focusing closer and quite a bit further back than MFD too so there is quite a range of movement.

TBH it's the build and rendering that attract me to the Sigma so the cost doesn't really come into it as it's sort of in the ball park of what to expect.
 
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ancient_mariner said:
Mine around his 52nd birthday, though my mother is now 87. TBH I'd rather die in my mid-late 70s than become truly old.
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I don't think you'll be saying this when you are in your mid 70's. !!
(Comment from a 76 year old). ;)
 
robj20 said:
I'd never replace my 35 with anything longer.
It's my most used lens I just wish it was faster for night time shots. Love the idea of the sigma f1.2 but it's far too big.
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Yeah you ideally want an f1.2 or 1.4 for night shots. That said, my f1.4 on aps-c I think is equivalent to f2.2, maybe someone can correct me. But it works fine for night shots with the slowest shutter speed I can get away with. Wouldn't really matter though if you were doing nighttime long exposure on a tripod.
 
Merlin5 said:
Yeah you ideally want an f1.2 or 1.4 for night shots. That said, my f1.4 on aps-c I think is equivalent to f2.2, maybe someone can correct me. But it works fine for night shots with the slowest shutter speed I can get away with. Wouldn't really matter though if you were doing nighttime long exposure on a tripod.
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It's more night time street type stuff, mostly for times when on holiday I guess.

Damn physics, I want a 35 f1.2 that isn't huge.
 
The Voigtlander 35mm f1.4 is quite small, MF though.
 
Malfis said:
I don't think you'll be saying this when you are in your mid 70's. !!
(Comment from a 76 year old). ;)
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We'll have to see when I get there. Lots of parts of me hurt these days, sleep is difficult and I don't have the energy or determination I once did.
 
ancient_mariner said:
We'll have to see when I get there. Lots of parts of me hurt these days, sleep is difficult and I don't have the energy or determination I once did.
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Snap!
 
robj20 said:
Mmm what about Voigtlander 35mm F1.2 SE.
Now that looks interesting.
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It does look nice and I've thought about buying one more than once but I already have the 35mm f1.4 and 40mm f1.2 and 50mm f2. I do think that the 35mm f1.4 doesn't get the love and attention it deserves as IMO it really is a nice lens its only fault being the possibility of funky bokeh at its widest apertures with an unfriendly background.
 
ancient_mariner said:
We'll have to see when I get there. Lots of parts of me hurt these days, sleep is difficult and I don't have the energy or determination I once did.
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If seeking help might help, I'd recommend it.

I had a serious back injury at the age of 21 and I suffered for years until I got to see a really good physio who showed me some exercises to include in my usual routine (I exercise almost every day) and I haven't had a serious episode for a long time now. I wont say I'm fitter than I've ever been as I'm not, but I get by :D
 
woof woof said:
It does look nice and I've thought about buying one more than once but I already have the 35mm f1.4 and 40mm f1.2 and 50mm f2. I do think that the 35mm f1.4 doesn't get the love and attention it deserves as IMO it really is a nice lens its only fault being the possibility of funky bokeh at its widest apertures with an unfriendly background.
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I can't tell you how close I am to ordering one. It's just the £849 stopping me.
 
robj20 said:
I can't tell you how close I am to ordering one. It's just the £849 stopping me.
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£849? A piffling amount when you consider that the lens will probably outlast humanity. The electronics may crumble over the ages so you may eventually lose exif and automatic call up of the magnified view but other than that all it'll need is a clean and lubrication every 25 or 30 years and it'll go on forever :D

I prefer the styling of the older e mount Voigtlaners with their scalloped focus ring over these new SE versions but I suppose the SE's are still just about acceptable :D

I would buy a 35mm f1.2 but I do know it's just gas. I hardly use the 40mm f1.2 as I prefer the optically inferior but much more compact 35mm f1.4. The 50mm f2 is worth a look, it's the best lens I've ever used.

I'm just posting these two picture because no one can stop me :D

wIZIoC4.jpg


CnD4wDX.jpg
 
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robj20 said:
Mmm what about Voigtlander 35mm F1.2 SE.
Now that looks interesting.
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Looks to be pretty similar in performance to the 40mm/1.2 which I'd prefer to 35mm but I hear they both are nice.

I'd buy one if it was just for myself. But shooting my son requires AF and my wife won't MF.
 
nandbytes said:
Looks to be pretty similar in performance to the 40mm/1.2 which I'd prefer to 35mm but I hear they both are nice.

I'd buy one if it was just for myself. But shooting my son requires AF and my wife won't MF.
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One slight weakness of the 40mm f1.2 is corner performance. It's better than the 35mm f1.4 but the 35mm f1.2 seems better than the 40 with Fred saying the 40mm can't match the 35mm until f8. That's fine if you can resist pixel peeping but when doing so into the corners there are better lenses than these f1.x Voigtlanders.

35 v 40mm f1.2...


And a PS. Just my VHO.
IMVHO these Voigtlanders, the wide aperture ones, are best looked at as mid distance portrait / people lenses. Yes they can do landscape or anything else but if across the frame performance is what you like to see at 100% on screen there are better performing lenses. These seem to be biased towards a look at middle distances with a sharp central area and nice fall off. You might get a sharper result into the corners with a Sony 35mm f1.8 or some other modern lens but will possibly struggle to match the look unless going for one of the large f1.2/1.4 AF lenses.
 
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She wanted some snaps to send to her mam.

A7 and Sony 28mm f2. A bit noisy due to ISO and awful light but hey-ho.

Making pasta and vegi sausage rolls, lovely! :D

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Vegi sausage rolles filled with Quorn sausage and cheese.

They're very nice, easily as good as the Vegan ones from Gregs.

I haven't tried the pasta yet.
 
woof woof said:
£849? A piffling amount when you consider that the lens will probably outlast humanity. The electronics may crumble over the ages so you may eventually lose exif and automatic call up of the magnified view but other than that all it'll need is a clean and lubrication every 25 or 30 years and it'll go on forever :D

I prefer the styling of the older e mount Voigtlaners with their scalloped focus ring over these new SE versions but I suppose the SE's are still just about acceptable :D

I would buy a 35mm f1.2 but I do know it's just gas. I hardly use the 40mm f1.2 as I prefer the optically inferior but much more compact 35mm f1.4. The 50mm f2 is worth a look, it's the best lens I've ever used.

I'm just posting these two picture because no one can stop me :D

wIZIoC4.jpg


CnD4wDX.jpg
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Lens porn! :wideyed:
 
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