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

I made the decision 4 years ago to buy a dull, comfy and practical car that would make it easier to drive slowly like everyone else around me. Having a car with decent handling and even mildly responsive engine led me to become frustrated at the slowness of others. Also my reaction times and awareness are lower than is helpful for driving quickly. If I had that Merc I'd want to wellie it everywhere and that would not be good.
 
mstphoto said:
I've never felt the urge to own one of these "prestige" brands.
Nice to look at but can't help getting the impression of "Look at me - I've got a Merc/Audi/BMW"
Not saying I wouldn't want one though ;)
The last 4 cars I've owned have been KIA and Suzuki and they have been brilliant.
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It’s never about that for me, it’s the pleasure of driving mixed with everyday comfort and usability. I’ve always found Audis a bit bland, and I’ve never felt Mercs chassis as good as BMW, but you can’t deny the drama of a Merc AMG though ;)

If people think it’s a “look at me” car that’s on them (y)
 
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Prestige or nice things are in every sector. Clothes, accessories, watches, pens, cooking utensils and even tools, you name it there are people who want something nicer rather just functional things. We're not quite communists (yet) so those who want something they'll get enjoyment from rather than just function can head that way and those who want just function can go their way and hopefully people with either view can do what they want and buy what they want without sneering or laughing at people who go the other way too much.
 
snerkler said:
I think the M4 is more of a driver's car, but the AMG growl is addictive. The G82 M4 is growing on me but I still don't think it's the prettiest, the F82 was a hit straight away. That being said I didn't like the E92 for the first few years but then had 3 of them :LOL:
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I must admit I do like my F30 335d. Looks very unassuming to look at, can pootle about town all day long, 50+mpg on the motorway but stick it in sport or sport+ and it’s an absolute beast
 
snerkler said:
It’s never about that for me, it’s the pleasure of driving mixed with everyday comfort and usability. I’ve always found Audis a bit bland, and I’ve never felt Mercs chassis as good as BMW, but you can’t deny the drama of a Merc AMG though ;)

If people think it’s a “look at me” car that’s on them (y)
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I am with you on this one I couldn’t care less about what anyone else thinks.

I enjoy driving having a car that makes it more fun than just something to get from a to b is important for me.
 
f/2.8 said:
I am with you on this one I couldn’t care less about what anyone else thinks.

I enjoy driving having a car that makes it more fun than just something to get from a to b is important for me.
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If you don't buy it, do you think you ever will buy something like it in the future?
 
Seriously Toby. I know you want that lens and yes it's a lot of money and that and the rendering and cats eyes and bulk and weight might be holding you back. I know I could live with everything else but the bulk and weight. Maybe you can get clear in your own mind what the positives and negatives are and maybe giving each some weighting will help you come to a decision?
 
woof woof said:
Seriously Toby. I know you want that lens and yes it's a lot of money and that and the rendering and cats eyes and bulk and weight might be holding you back. I know I could live with everything else but the bulk and weight. Maybe you can get clear in your own mind what the positives and negatives are and maybe giving each some weighting will help you come to a decision?
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I’ve decided not to buy it and stick with the Samyang. Today outside the Samyang AF was much more comparable (it was dark ish indoor that it struggled the other day), it still had a couple more misses than the GM but was probably 95% as good. In terms of overall rendering I can’t split them really, OK the GM background is a touch softer but unless you’re comparing side by side shots you’re not going to miss it (YMMV).

In terms of the bokeh balls there’s pros and cons to each. The GM are cleaner and larger (even at f1.4) but have the cats eyes, the Samyang’s are rounder but have fringing and ghosting.

The thing is, for a hobbyist it’s very difficult to justify a £1500 outlay above the Sammy when the differences are so subtle and there’s pros and cons for each. Overall in terms of IQ and AF the GM is better, but it’s not by much (slightly more with AF) and it comes with a hefty price tag and weight penalty. Both have that ‘dreamy’ quality to them with plenty of pop.

At least I’ve scratched an itch, and who knows what an f1.2 GM2 or Samyang MK3 might bring in the future.

I think I’ll get the 35mm GM at some point and leave it at that for the foreseeable future as I was a bit underwhelmed with the 20-70mm so that’s gone off my radar for now (y)
 
Just for fun and no other particular reason than I keep reading a review of the Laowa 35mm f0.95 here's a list of 35, 40 and 50/55mm lenses, their maximum apertures and physical aperture sizes. The highlighted ones are the ones I have. I also had a 50mm f1.2 (Rokkor) but sold it.

35/0.95=36.8mm
35/1.4=25mm
40/1.2=33mm
50/2=25mm
50/1.8=27.7mm
50/1.4=35.7mm
50/1.2=41.6mm
50/1.1=45mm
55/1.8=30.5mm
 
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woof woof said:
Just for fun and no other particular reason than I keep reading a review of the Laowa 35mm f0.95 here's a list of 35, 40 and 50/55mm lenses, their maximum apertures and physical aperture sizes. The highlighted ones are the ones I have. I also had a 50mm f1.2 (Rokkor) but sold it.

35/0.95=36.8mm
35/1.4=25mm
40/1.2=33mm
50/2=25mm
50/1.8=27.7mm
50/1.4=35.7mm
50/1.2=41.6mm
50/1.1=45mm
55/1.8=30.5mm
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May as well get the other two to complete the list :lol:
 
Hello Sony world - I'm new to this (over from the Nikon and M4/3 threads). Knowing nothing about Sony, my best friend wants to get a new camera. Whilst he's not looking to invest into a big system he quite likes the idea of Sony APS-C bodies and is particularly taken with the ZV-E10 with the kit lens. Whilst from what I've read, this body is designed primarily for Vlogging, he wants it as a lightweight (circa less than 500g) camera for holiday images and some 4k video from holidays too.

Has anyone used this and can advise if it also makes a good general purpose travel camera. He's not interested in using it for wildlife and sports, just holiday type vistas, architecture and general purposes uses. Would this be a good buy and give much better quality over his current 8 year old Fuji P&S, and whilst I don't expect the kit 16-50 F3.5-5.6 lens to be Zeiss quality, is it a reasonable performer ?

Any views on this good or bad gratefully received.
 
Sootchucker said:
Hello Sony world - I'm new to this (over from the Nikon and M4/3 threads). Knowing nothing about Sony, my best friend wants to get a new camera. Whilst he's not looking to invest into a big system he quite likes the idea of Sony APS-C bodies and is particularly taken with the ZV-E10 with the kit lens. Whilst from what I've read, this body is designed primarily for Vlogging, he wants it as a lightweight (circa less than 500g) camera for holiday images and some 4k video from holidays too.

Has anyone used this and can advise if it also makes a good general purpose travel camera. He's not interested in using it for wildlife and sports, just holiday type vistas, architecture and general purposes uses. Would this be a good buy and give much better quality over his current 8 year old Fuji P&S, and whilst I don't expect the kit 16-50 F3.5-5.6 lens to be Zeiss quality, is it a reasonable performer ?

Any views on this good or bad gratefully received.
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The camera would be great, the lens is only so-so in my opinion.
 
Sootchucker said:
Hello Sony world - I'm new to this (over from the Nikon and M4/3 threads). Knowing nothing about Sony, my best friend wants to get a new camera. Whilst he's not looking to invest into a big system he quite likes the idea of Sony APS-C bodies and is particularly taken with the ZV-E10 with the kit lens. Whilst from what I've read, this body is designed primarily for Vlogging, he wants it as a lightweight (circa less than 500g) camera for holiday images and some 4k video from holidays too.

Has anyone used this and can advise if it also makes a good general purpose travel camera. He's not interested in using it for wildlife and sports, just holiday type vistas, architecture and general purposes uses. Would this be a good buy and give much better quality over his current 8 year old Fuji P&S, and whilst I don't expect the kit 16-50 F3.5-5.6 lens to be Zeiss quality, is it a reasonable performer ?

Any views on this good or bad gratefully received.
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Would probably suggest something like A6100+zeiss 16-70mm f4 or sigma 18-50mm f2.8.
16-50mm kit lens isn't great but its fine for general purpose use.

I think the internet sometimes gets too hung up on corner to corner sharpness but for most folks they probably wouldn't notice.

Also consider Sony RX100 vi/vii
 
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Sootchucker said:
Hello Sony world - I'm new to this (over from the Nikon and M4/3 threads). Knowing nothing about Sony, my best friend wants to get a new camera. Whilst he's not looking to invest into a big system he quite likes the idea of Sony APS-C bodies and is particularly taken with the ZV-E10 with the kit lens. Whilst from what I've read, this body is designed primarily for Vlogging, he wants it as a lightweight (circa less than 500g) camera for holiday images and some 4k video from holidays too.

Has anyone used this and can advise if it also makes a good general purpose travel camera. He's not interested in using it for wildlife and sports, just holiday type vistas, architecture and general purposes uses. Would this be a good buy and give much better quality over his current 8 year old Fuji P&S, and whilst I don't expect the kit 16-50 F3.5-5.6 lens to be Zeiss quality, is it a reasonable performer ?

Any views on this good or bad gratefully received.
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I have the 16-50 kit lens on my A6000, which is what I use when off on holiday, days out with the family, etc.
For that, it's fine - it's easily good enough for posting shots to FB, etc. and if a bit of care is taken with the shots will happily produce images that can be printed A3 and look fine.
On the downside is the aperture limits, and also the power zoom is not as precise as a mechanical zoom if you're trying to get an exact framing part way through the zoom range (it's easy to overshoot or undershoot the zoom).
It's big plus point is how compact it gets when powered down - making it ideal for taking on holiday, when you might want to just slip the camera in a coat pocket, for example.
 
My file numbers have gone right round past 9999 and I'm trying to import some photos into lightroom that have the same file numbers as previous files but it won't let me as they're greyed out, even if I untick the box that says don't import suspected duplicates it's not letting me do it. Anyone have any ideas please, other than renaming the files?
 
Raymond Lin said:
If it's not in the same folder...it doesn't matter?
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Same folder, but old ones have been offloaded onto external drives hence why they've gone in with the same name. I'll just have to rename them for now, but would be interested to know if there's a different way in future (y)
 
snerkler said:
Same folder, but old ones have been offloaded onto external drives hence why they've gone in with the same name. I'll just have to rename them for now, but would be interested to know if there's a different way in future (y)
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Erm, when import with Lightroom, they are automatically sorted by the date they are taken, into folders, by day, month and year.

So I have never had this happen as the same file name would be months ago, in a different folder.
 
snerkler said:
My file numbers have gone right round past 9999 and I'm trying to import some photos into lightroom that have the same file numbers as previous files but it won't let me as they're greyed out, even if I untick the box that says don't import suspected duplicates it's not letting me do it. Anyone have any ideas please, other than renaming the files?
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My import is set to both auto rename and to import into a folder by date - I set it up this way as I had 3 different Sony Cameras, so wanted to avoid the risk of file name collision.
The rename I use is <Custom Name><Original File Name>
and I set the custom name to Camera + Year

When I had 2 A900's, I would have A900-2023 and A900b-2023 as the camera names

Giving me filenames (on the PC) like A900-2023-1234.arw

And it would be in a folder such as D:\Photos\2023\2023-04-10\
 
Raymond Lin said:
Erm, when import with Lightroom, they are automatically sorted by the date they are taken, into folders, by day, month and year.

So I have never had this happen as the same file name would be months ago, in a different folder.
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Faldrax said:
My import is set to both auto rename and to import into a folder by date - I set it up this way as I had 3 different Sony Cameras, so wanted to avoid the risk of file name collision.
The rename I use is <Custom Name><Original File Name>
and I set the custom name to Camera + Year

When I had 2 A900's, I would have A900-2023 and A900b-2023 as the camera names

Giving me filenames (on the PC) like A900-2023-1234.arw

And it would be in a folder such as D:\Photos\2023\2023-04-10\
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I think the problem is that I drag and drop the files from the SD onto the computer, and then import into LR. It's just a habit I got into many years ago so that I could have the folders set up exactly as I want them. I've not looked into LR's direct import for years to see if it's easier to direct/save to a specific folder. Maybe a should look into it and could then set to rename. Pn second thoughts maybe I can do this anyway, I'll look into the import preferences (y)
 
snerkler said:
I think the problem is that I drag and drop the files from the SD onto the computer, and then import into LR. It's just a habit I got into many years ago so that I could have the folders set up exactly as I want them. I've not looked into LR's direct import for years to see if it's easier to direct/save to a specific folder. Maybe a should look into it and could then set to rename. Pn second thoughts maybe I can do this anyway, I'll look into the import preferences (y)
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I found LR was better able to automatically create the folders I wanted, and put the right photos in the right folder, than I was - particularly if I was away for a few days and so had photos for multiple dates to import.
The only issue is if I accidentally click on the drive selector for destination, and it puts them on my C drive rather than D :)
 
Faldrax said:
My import is set to both auto rename and to import into a folder by date - I set it up this way as I had 3 different Sony Cameras, so wanted to avoid the risk of file name collision.
The rename I use is <Custom Name><Original File Name>
and I set the custom name to Camera + Year

When I had 2 A900's, I would have A900-2023 and A900b-2023 as the camera names

Giving me filenames (on the PC) like A900-2023-1234.arw

And it would be in a folder such as D:\Photos\2023\2023-04-10\
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I can't find the option to rename on import, I'm using Mac OS Monterey?

I'm not sure whether it's a glitch or not, I'm sure before if I unticked "don't import suspected duplicates" before it allowed me to check the photos I wanted to import regardless, but it now makes no difference if the "don't import suspected duplicates" is ticked or not, the files are still greyed out and does not allow me to do anything with them, "check all" and "uncheck all do nothing" :thinking:

Screenshot 2023-05-15 at 15.56.04.jpg
 
snerkler said:
I can't find the option to rename on import, I'm using Mac OS Monterey?

I'm not sure whether it's a glitch or not, I'm sure before if I unticked "don't import suspected duplicates" before it allowed me to check the photos I wanted to import regardless, but it now makes no difference if the "don't import suspected duplicates" is ticked or not, the files are still greyed out and does not allow me to do anything with them, "check all" and "uncheck all do nothing" :thinking:

View attachment 389408
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You need to select 'Copy' rather than 'Add' on the top (if they're already on your Mac, then you can use 'Move' to Move and rename) - Add just adds the file(s) to the catalogue.
 
Faldrax said:
You need to select 'Copy' rather than 'Add' on the top (if they're already on your Mac, then you can use 'Move' to Move and rename) - Add just adds the file(s) to the catalogue.
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Thanks, they're still greyed out though :thinking:

Screenshot 2023-05-15 at 16.41.34.jpg


If I double click on one of the photos it just says photo already in the catalogue
Screenshot 2023-05-15 at 16.46.02.jpg
 
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snerkler said:
Thanks, they're still greyed out though :thinking:

...

If I double click on one of the photos it just says photo already in the catalogue
...
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:thinking: err, not sure what you can try next.
I assume you have checked the Library to make sure it's not actually in the catalogue? (IE Has it imported successfully at some point, without you realising)
 
Faldrax said:
:thinking: err, not sure what you can try next.
I assume you have checked the Library to make sure it's not actually in the catalogue? (IE Has it imported successfully at some point, without you realising)
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Thanks, I'm not 100% sure what you mean by the last part though? As I said I drag and drop from the SD into a specific folder on my computer, I then import from this folder into LR in which the file stays in the same place on my computer, and it 'logs' it in the catalogue in Lightroom.
 
gman said:
If you don't buy it, do you think you ever will buy something like it in the future?
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Decided not to buy it and reign myself in a bit.

Test drove a load of really great cars over the last lot of days but have ended up just getting a Focus ST as that was the most sensible option.

Gid I have got boring :)
 
snerkler said:
Thanks, I'm not 100% sure what you mean by the last part though? As I said I drag and drop from the SD into a specific folder on my computer, I then import from this folder into LR in which the file stays in the same place on my computer, and it 'logs' it in the catalogue in Lightroom.
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I was wondering what you see if you navigate to the Betty 2023 folder in LR Library - IE Has LR actually already got the image in it's catalogue as it is reporting?
 
Faldrax said:
I was wondering what you see if you navigate to the Betty 2023 folder in LR Library - IE Has LR actually already got the image in it's catalogue as it is reporting?
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No it doesn't, but it has an old one of the same name in the same folder of the same catalogue so I can only assume it thinks it has it in already.
 
f/2.8 said:
Decided not to buy it and reign myself in a bit.

Test drove a load of really great cars over the last lot of days but have ended up just getting a Focus ST as that was the most sensible option.

Gid I have got boring :)
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Still a good fun car though (y) Did you go for the bright green? ;)
 
snerkler said:
No it doesn't, but it has an old one of the same name in the same folder of the same catalogue so I can only assume it thinks it has it in already.
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OK, that makes sense.
I would have thought that using Import and rename it would get round that, but obviously not.
 
I find that Sigma's 10~20mm on the A65 is a very useful lens for record shots. The war memorial in the Strand at Exmouth...

War memorial rhe Strand Exmouth E-PL1 P1011538.JPG
 
Anyone uses the 1.32 firmware in anger yet? I’ve had two really odd occurrences with my A1 on the 1.31. First was a weird soft lock where the C2 button stopped working and then nothing else on the camera worked either, including the power switch. Had to take the battery out to reset it. Second was whilst following two birds. The camera did eye focus on the left bird but then the box remained fixed on the same spot even though the bird had moved on lol. Really strange behaviour and I had to turn the camera off to reset it.

The camera has only ever been used with my 600GM4 Lens which is rarely removed so the two weird bugs were odd. Hoping the 1.32 “stability improvements” fix both of these from happening again.
 
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