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

woof woof said:
A while a back all people talked about in this thread was Fuji's and before that it was...

Mirrorless will never overtake DSLR's.
Sony's are too small, they're like toys.
Sony's are too big, they're the same size as DSLR's.
I don't like the menus.
I don't like the colours.
EVF's just aren't good enough. I'm sticking to my crappy old Canon APS-C.

We've seen it all :D
Click to expand...
I like it, it's a good group of somewhat like minded people just having a natter about things that interest them Sony cameras being among them.
 
robj20 said:
I like it, it's a good group of somewhat like minded people just having a natter about things that interest them Sony cameras being among them.
Click to expand...

Sometimes it's a sort of stream of consciousness and you have to go back a few pages to see why :D
 
ukaskew said:
First time with the a9 on holiday, took the 35mm 1.2 and 85mm 1.4 but the 85 could have stayed at home. Nearly went with a do-it-all zoom but so glad I didn't.
Click to expand...

Which 35mm f1.2?

Lovely pictures Chris :D
 
ukaskew said:
First time with the a9 on holiday, took the 35mm 1.2 and 85mm 1.4 but the 85 could have stayed at home. Nearly went with a do-it-all zoom but so glad I didn't.

NYC 2022 by Chris Harrison, on Flickr

NYC 2022 by Chris Harrison, on Flickr

NYC 2022 by Chris Harrison, on Flickr
Click to expand...
These are great, I still lust after the Sigma 35mm f/1.2 but the size makes me hesitate, then again I had the 40mm f/1.4 behemoth monster on a Canon R6 for a while and my arms survived.
 
Quoting is playing up for me today, but it's the Sigma 35mm 1.2 DN. Amazing bit of kit but pretty beefy! That and the tiny Sigma 85mm 1.4 DN is a nice combo, not much that can't be shot with those and they both squeeze into my little Domke shoulder bag with my phone and keys!
 
Maybe someone with an RX10III or any knowledge of one can help this guy out...

www.talkphotography.co.uk

Unhappy

Well my Sony Rx 10 Mk 3 arrived this morning from MPB minus charger cable etc, so now got to try and contact them, which knowing them is going to be a chore. UPDATE They have offered me a partial refund as they have none spare? so still have to find what I need to charge it or send it back.
www.talkphotography.co.uk www.talkphotography.co.uk
 
The last few times I've been out I haven't bothered taking a camera. Yesterday I took some pictures with my new smartphone. It's not a brand new latest thing design as it's been out about 18 months or so but the reviews do say it has a good camera and it seems to have three on the back.

Anyway, I don't like taking pictures with them at the best of times but I tried. The results are awful. TBH they look ok on the phone screen and on my pc most look sort of ok but look any closer and they're just a smudgy mess. This pretty much matches what I've seen from Mrs WW's phone and the pictures her family and friends send her. OK on the phone or even on a tablet but poor on my pc screen.

So, I think I'm going to give up all thoughts of using a phone for the days I don't really want to take a camera and I think I'll try and take a camera out more even if it's only my TZ100 or GM5.

As always good luck to those who have top end phones with really good cameras and are happy.
 
woof woof said:
The last few times I've been out I haven't bothered taking a camera. Yesterday I took some pictures with my new smartphone. It's not a brand new latest thing design as it's been out about 18 months or so but the reviews do say it has a good camera and it seems to have three on the back.

Anyway, I don't like taking pictures with them at the best of times but I tried. The results are awful. TBH they look ok on the phone screen and on my pc most look sort of ok but look any closer and they're just a smudgy mess. This pretty much matches what I've seen from Mrs WW's phone and the pictures her family and friends send her. OK on the phone or even on a tablet but poor on my pc screen.

So, I think I'm going to give up all thoughts of using a phone for the days I don't really want to take a camera and I think I'll try and take a camera out more even if it's only my TZ100 or GM5.

As always good luck to those who have top end phones with really good cameras and are happy.
Click to expand...

I use my phone for snapshot text message type stuff and maybe Instagram stories etc but I don't think I've ever posted a 'proper' [Flickr/Instagram]image from it.
 
I think mine is better at across the table to full body shot distance but anything at any longer distance just looks poor to me. I suppose most peope will just use them for those across the table to full body distance shots.
 
woof woof said:
The last few times I've been out I haven't bothered taking a camera. Yesterday I took some pictures with my new smartphone. It's not a brand new latest thing design as it's been out about 18 months or so but the reviews do say it has a good camera and it seems to have three on the back.

Anyway, I don't like taking pictures with them at the best of times but I tried. The results are awful. TBH they look ok on the phone screen and on my pc most look sort of ok but look any closer and they're just a smudgy mess. This pretty much matches what I've seen from Mrs WW's phone and the pictures her family and friends send her. OK on the phone or even on a tablet but poor on my pc screen.

So, I think I'm going to give up all thoughts of using a phone for the days I don't really want to take a camera and I think I'll try and take a camera out more even if it's only my TZ100 or GM5.

As always good luck to those who have top end phones with really good cameras and are happy.
Click to expand...
Pretty happy with mine for times when I don't have a proper camera with me.

IMG_0154 copy by FusionX Photo, on Flickr

IMG_0148 copy by FusionX Photo, on Flickr

Peak copy by FusionX Photo, on Flickr
 
imattersuk said:
Pretty happy with mine for times when I don't have a proper camera with me.
Click to expand...

Nice.

I would expect the first two to be good as they're at the sort of distance I'd expect them to be good and I've seen good ones from mine at that sort of distance. The landscape I can't comment on as I can't look closely apart from the colours don't look right to me.

And it's always possible that you have a much better camera/phone than me :D
 
I've been using my phone a lot for photos since getting it and it is becoming apparent that it's excellent when there's great light, but inside at night with just lamps on etc it can suffer, especially if there is movement. As said, these low light shots are acceptable on the phone but on the big screen it's a no. For general memories it's fine though. I suppose I would have to try printing a 7x5 or something to see.
 
woof woof said:
The last few times I've been out I haven't bothered taking a camera. Yesterday I took some pictures with my new smartphone. It's not a brand new latest thing design as it's been out about 18 months or so but the reviews do say it has a good camera and it seems to have three on the back.

Anyway, I don't like taking pictures with them at the best of times but I tried. The results are awful. TBH they look ok on the phone screen and on my pc most look sort of ok but look any closer and they're just a smudgy mess. This pretty much matches what I've seen from Mrs WW's phone and the pictures her family and friends send her. OK on the phone or even on a tablet but poor on my pc screen.

So, I think I'm going to give up all thoughts of using a phone for the days I don't really want to take a camera and I think I'll try and take a camera out more even if it's only my TZ100 or GM5.

As always good luck to those who have top end phones with really good cameras and are happy.
Click to expand...
I’ve generally always found phone photos poor to say the least, however what I believe is one of the biggest issues is the processing applied. They look garish and the processing actually adds artefacts and to my eyes makes the image look degraded.

I’ve recently started processing in raw (not all phones can do this) and the results are so much better, a million times better in fact, to the point I don’t actually mind using it on occasion. The new 48mp camera looks even better.
 
imattersuk said:
Yeah it's over saturated, but so were the first two before converting to mono, however if it's the only tool you have with you at the time......
Click to expand...
It’s not just the saturation, but some are happy to use it. I personally got to the point where I didn’t bother and would rather go without but now using raw/Apple ProRAW I’m getting results I’m ‘happy’ with.
 
I've been trying to think which way I want to go for a while now. After all these years taking pictures you'd think I'd know but here I am :D I started with the Kodak Instamatic and eventually moved to a fixed focus compact before I got my first 35mm SLR. I do like simpler cameras and I suppose the addiction to primes is a part of that. I got the TZ100 and later the GM5 as carry anywhere cameras but I've never really done that and sometimes I do think that if I'm taking one of those why not just take the A7 and 35mm f2.8?

I do have too many cameras and lenses and I really should settle. Maybe now I'm realising that I'm too much of a pixel peeper for phone photography I can focus on the camera kit and whittle it down a bit.

PS.
With the phone I've tried letting it focus the scene and I've tried focusing specifically on something but the results do seem equally bad although as above near distance to full body distance does seem to give the best results.

Some pictures. I wont post any people pictures but at close to full body they look sort of ok. This is obviously closer and looks ok which matches what I got from my old phone for flower shots and the like.

k7DLojs.jpg


When I look closely at this it's a mess.

V0swlqg.jpg


As is this.

qedIBie.jpg


So for close up stuff I'm reasonably happy to use the phone if I haven't got anything else but for longer shots even when the phone switches to a longer lens there doesn't seem to be the definition and overall quality I'd expect.
 
Last edited:
I also find that the telephoto lens on my phone is not as good as the standard one, but still better than digital zoom. What phone are you using in those shots?
 
gman said:
I also find that the telephoto lens on my phone is not as good as the standard one, but still better than digital zoom. What phone are you using in those shots?
Click to expand...
A number of phones dedicate a better lens (and sometimes sensor) to the main camera and the UWA and tele don't get the same benefit. This is the big swizz of the iPhone 14 Pro, they bill it as having 48mp but it's only the main camera that does, the UWA and Tele are still only 12mp.
 
After losing Rosie in August we couldn't face the idea of having another dog at the time.

However after a few months we both realised that not having a dog is not living our lives the way we want to.

So Tuesday 27th December we collected Molly from our local rescue centre.

As she is a Romanian dog we have no history whatsoever but suffice to say she has settled in wonderfully.

Needs training but she is already so affectionate to us both that we think she may have once been a pet and not a "street dog", although she is nervous of any and all noises on walks.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2o8SGTR]Molly by Terence Rees, on Flickr[/URL]
 
GreenNinja67 said:
After losing Rosie in August we couldn't face the idea of having another dog at the time.

However after a few months we both realised that not having a dog is not living our lives the way we want to.

So Tuesday 27th December we collected Molly from our local rescue centre.

As she is a Romanian dog we have no history whatsoever but suffice to say she has settled in wonderfully.

Needs training but she is already so affectionate to us both that we think she may have once been a pet and not a "street dog", although she is nervous of any and all noises on walks.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2o8SGTR]Molly by Terence Rees, on Flickr[/URL]
Click to expand...
So happy for you, glad she's settling in well. What a wonderful thing you've done rescuing/rehoming her, hope she brings you a lot of joy.
 
gman said:
I also find that the telephoto lens on my phone is not as good as the standard one, but still better than digital zoom. What phone are you using in those shots?
Click to expand...

It's a Samsung A32 5G.

Mrs WW chose it for me and said it's been on the market 18 months or so, As above, reviews seemed to say the camera is ok but it doesn't look to be much better than my old phone, it has more cameras and zoom but the actual image quality is pretty pants IMO unless you're shooting close up.
 
Lovely dog Terry. I hope you have many happy years together.

Mrs WW's last dog died a few months after she came to the UK. We'd both love a dog but sadly we can't manage one at the moment.
 
woof woof said:
It's a Samsung A32 5G.

Mrs WW chose it for me and said it's been on the market 18 months or so, As above, reviews seemed to say the camera is ok but it doesn't look to be much better than my old phone, it has more cameras and zoom but the actual image quality is pretty pants IMO unless you're shooting close up.
Click to expand...

I bought a load of these for business use as they seem excellent value for money with good specs. I don't recall it having a telephoto lens though?
 
gman said:
I bought a load of these for business use as they seem excellent value for money with good specs. I don't recall it having a telephoto lens though?
Click to expand...

I can't remember the specs so I googled and found this...
  • A 48MP Main lens for taking high resolution shots that are clear and bright.
  • A 8MP Ultra Wide lens that provides an immersive 123 degree viewing angle for capturing everything around you.
  • A 5MP Macro lens that captures small details, making it perfect for taking photos of food, animals, and nature.
  • A 2MP Depth lens for detailed selfies when using Portrait mode.

Those two above are at a stated 25mm equiv and another I took is at 13mm equiv. It does go longer but I can't remember what too or how it does it as the file dimensions seem to stay the same.

I'm not into phones at all so Mrs WW picked this one for me. Photography wise I think it's poor but as above, ok for closer picture taking. She's got a more expensive phone as she runs various apps, I don't know how good the camera on hers is though as she's only just started to use it.
 
It might be worth looking at options to turn off in-phone processing, then tweak any images you do like.
 
woof woof said:
I can't remember the specs so I googled and found this...
  • A 48MP Main lens for taking high resolution shots that are clear and bright.
  • A 8MP Ultra Wide lens that provides an immersive 123 degree viewing angle for capturing everything around you.
  • A 5MP Macro lens that captures small details, making it perfect for taking photos of food, animals, and nature.
  • A 2MP Depth lens for detailed selfies when using Portrait mode.

Those two above are at a stated 25mm equiv and another I took is at 13mm equiv. It does go longer but I can't remember what too or how it does it as the file dimensions seem to stay the same.

I'm not into phones at all so Mrs WW picked this one for me. Photography wise I think it's poor but as above, ok for closer picture taking. She's got a more expensive phone as she runs various apps, I don't know how good the camera on hers is though as she's only just started to use it.
Click to expand...
There’s no tele lens so my guess would be that if there is a tele mode it’s just a crop from the 48mp sensor that :thinking:
 
ancient_mariner said:
It might be worth looking at options to turn off in-phone processing, then tweak any images you do like.
Click to expand...

I've have a look. I don't know if it'll do raw but if not one thing I used to do with my old phone was open the files as raws and process for best effect. I like the tools in the raw processor more than in the... whatever it's called... non raw processor.
 
snerkler said:
There’s no tele lens so my guess would be that if there is a tele mode it’s just a crop from the 48mp sensor that :thinking:
Click to expand...

Whatever it is I think it's best for across table to full body distance and for viewing on the phone screen.

I'll have a look at the settings/processing and also experiment more with letting it focus / selecting something as the point of focus and what "focal lengths" are worth bothering with and which to avoid.

PS.
I suppose what gets to me in all this is I keep reading everywhere and even here that phones are so good these days and yet I've just rarely seen anything that I'm happy with, and I don't have particularly high standards. On the phone screen and sometimes on tablets too I think pictures can even look stunning but when looking closely and sometimes even with whole pictures I'm mostly disappointed and left wondering if I'm missing something here? Are other people using much much better phones?
 
Last edited:
woof woof said:
Whatever it is I think it's best for across table to full body distance and for viewing on the phone screen.

I'll have a look at the settings/processing and also experiment more with letting it focus / selecting something as the point of focus and what "focal lengths" are worth bothering with and which to avoid.

PS.
I suppose what gets to me in all this is I keep reading everywhere and even here that phones are so good these days and yet I've just rarely seen anything that I'm happy with, and I don't have particularly high standards. On the phone screen and sometimes on tablets too I think pictures can even look stunning but when looking closely and sometimes even with whole pictures I'm mostly disappointed and left wondering if I'm missing something here? Are other people using much much better phones?
Click to expand...
As I mentioned earlier SOOC jpegs from phones are mostly awful imo, processed raw are much better.
 
snerkler said:
As I mentioned earlier SOOC jpegs from phones are mostly awful imo, processed raw are much better.
Click to expand...

TBH I think the camera in my previous Xiaomi Note 4 took better pictures than the nominally 108MP main camera in my X4Pro 5G. Just had a quick look on the editing screen, and it's about the same as a typical compact from 15 years ago.
 
I've not played with the RAW much in my phone and I probably should to see if it will help with low light. I did a quick test a short while ago and when compared the RAW to JPG you can really see how much processing is done and the AI is pretty incredible, however, not necessarily to taste. I'm going to see how far the RAW can be pushed from the tiny sensor.

In good light and with nothing moving too fast I think the results are excellent for memories etc and whilst I'm sure they can all be better with a DSLR/CSC, a lot of the times I would not have had a dedicated camera on me, so there would be no memory at all. That's pretty important to me.

Here's a couple of recent shots with decent light. I think the quality is more than enough, but maybe I'm not expecting too much? I don't know.

Field.jpg

Beagle.jpg
 
Looks like my phone camera doesn't do raw. I've tried turning everything off to kill any in camera jiggery but the results are still mostly just awful. IMO.

Zooming in seems little better if better at all than digital cropping on the pc but the files are all the same, 4000 x 3000.

I think I've only ever had two cameras this bad, one was a keychain camera I had years and years ago which was just pathetic and unusable really the other is my Medion compact camera but actually I think that might be better than this phone.

Overall I'm just shocked how bad this phone is for photography considering that it's just a couple of years old as a design, I'm talking just about the technical quality of the jpeg's it kicks out.

We're going out one day to check out the location of Mrs WW's new class and after looking at these phone pictures I think I need to take my A7 out and I might take something other than a 35mm. I might go 24mm f2.8 G :D
 
Last edited:
gman said:
I've not played with the RAW much in my phone and I probably should to see if it will help with low light. I did a quick test a short while ago and when compared the RAW to JPG you can really see how much processing is done and the AI is pretty incredible, however, not necessarily to taste. I'm going to see how far the RAW can be pushed from the tiny sensor.

In good light and with nothing moving too fast I think the results are excellent for memories etc and whilst I'm sure they can all be better with a DSLR/CSC, a lot of the times I would not have had a dedicated camera on me, so there would be no memory at all. That's pretty important to me.

Here's a couple of recent shots with decent light. I think the quality is more than enough, but maybe I'm not expecting too much? I don't know.

View attachment 377460

View attachment 377461
Click to expand...

ancient_mariner said:
Example of phone pics.

View attachment 377470

View attachment 377469
Click to expand...
They all look OK at this viewing size to be fair.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top