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

Alan Clogwyn said:
There's a feature I hate! Set at 100+ it's going crazy well before the histogram's hit the right hand edge and well before pure white is reached. It seems to trigger at the same point as the blinkies on review, i.e. nowhere near blown out.

Blow it out beyond the histogram and you can't get it back in raw, there is only about 0.1 stop extra range in raw, and that has no colour info so no use whatsoever. (Lightroom, other raw converters may fare better)
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Just tried looking at what zebra and blinkines think are over exposed and they aren't so really the histogram is the thing to look at.
 
Alan Clogwyn said:
The rokkors above are sharper than they look, a little movement has crept into the leaf shots - I focussed with magnification and the detail was incredible, I could have easily been looking at a Macro image!
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I have a 28mm and briefly had the 50mm f1.7 and they're both very good lenses. I ended up selling my 50mm f1.7 and going for a f1.4 which is also a very good lens. I'd say that all my Rokkors are very good. The 35mm f2.8 and f1.8 are worth looking at as they're sharp and have quite close focus ability. My current f1.8 will focus closer than any other Rokkor I have.
 
woof woof said:
I have a 28mm and briefly had the 50mm f1.7 and they're both very good lenses. I ended up selling my 50mm f1.7 and going for a f1.4 which is also a very good lens. I'd say that all my Rokkors are very good. The 35mm f2.8 and f1.8 are worth looking at as they're sharp and have quite close focus ability. My current f1.8 will focus closer than any other Rokkor I have.
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Might look into the 35mm f1.8 - my Samyang f1.4 is massive and my Nikkor f2 doesn't perform as well on the A7R as it did on my Fuji, it's also an AF lens so isn't all that nice to manually focus.
 
woof woof said:
Just tried looking at what zebra and blinkines think are over exposed and they aren't so really the histogram is the thing to look at.
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From the previous description, I thought zebras were like blinkies, but can can be pre-set to jiggle at certain tonal values, eg skin tone? This short video appears to suggest something like that, and also that the area they cover can be adjusted. That would be handy. Shame the vid is in Japanese but you can get the gist I think!

PS Is there a full PDF user handbook available? The one that's been linked is almost useless for in-depth features.

 
You can certainly set a % for zebras but after taking some shots to try and see how useful they are I'm not sure that they're going to be too much use for me.

With my G1 what I usually do is ETTR looking at the histogram and then hit play to check for blinkies (the camera meters the scene well but I've found that small areas can be blown when the histogram hasn't looked like anything would blow) but with the A7 blinkies are only visible in the playback display with a tiny image and lots of histograms... I'd rather see them in a whole image.

Anyway... I wonder if ETTR is really needed with this camera. maybe, maybe not... I'll have to do some more testing.
 
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I have my zebra set to 100+ and to my eyes it's indicating overexposed areas so in that way it's really helpful. My Olympus EM5 has a similar function to show blinkies when overexposed.
 
So far I must have fired off 100 shots trying different things and trying all my different lenses and I've just checked the sensor at f16 and it's clean. Great stuff.
 
Just stuck a bit of helicopter tape on the screen keep the scratches away.
I cant wait until weekend so i can get out in the day to take some pictures, for now boring things around the house will have to do.
 
Mine... so far.

11193298084_1f111c46d2_z.jpg
 
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Found something that bugs me about the lens, the cap doesn't fit without the hood attached.
 
Saw that on a vid on line and I think it would annoy me,,, but you can always yust buy one off ebay... they're just pennies.
 
woof woof said:
So far I must have fired off 100 shots trying different things and trying all my different lenses and I've just checked the sensor at f16 and it's clean. Great stuff.
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Mine still seems to be clean too despite all the chopping and swapping of lenses too. Makes a change from cleaning it before every trip!

Just purchased a Zeiss Flektogon 35mm f2.4, been after one for a while but they are mostly on the bay at silly Buy it now prices... now for a Distagon 25mm and a planar 50mm!
 
I'm just waiting for my next expensive adapter to arrive and when it does I hope my 24mm works with it. Once that's sorted I can't think of anything else I want apart from some free time and a nice day to actually use the camera.
 
Fingers crossed! I've just bought a fairly expensive Kipon PK adapter, we shall see what the difference is. My Metabones Nikon one looks like it'll be next year before it gets here. This camera is going to bankrupt me I think, all these lovely old lenses that just need to be used!

The shelf I assigned for cameras is full, the second shelf assigned for digital cameras is full and has overflowed onto the windowsill and bedside table. Getting to the point where I can't put anything down without having to move something camera related - and there are 2 more lenses en route and 4 more adapters!
 
I've thought of something else I might like... a legacy macro in MD or possibly OM mount, longer than my 50mm, maybe about 100mm.
 
Woohoo! I've sold my EF 70-200 2.8. :banana:

Now to find a dealer I like with an A7 kit in stock...
 
Bah this lack of sun is causing me no end of trouble! Here's wifey pushing the buggie in the cold - excuse the poor framing :D (Contax Carl Zeiss Sonnar 85/2.8)

View attachment 1797

Quick shot with the £3.00 Pentacon Prakticar 50/2.4 pancake:

View attachment 1798
 
Oooo 24-70 available for preorder...

For a change UK price is MUCH better than grey.
 
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It's been on WEX for a while now, i'm confident Panamoz will be a fair bit cheaper.
 
UK price for 35mm is £600, Panamoz is £575. Thats not a lot. It seems the lenses are pretty competitive at the moment in the UK. Cameraworld have it for £999.
 
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I paid £546 for my 35mm, i agree though lens prices do seem more competitive.

Just seen the price of the 70-200 :eek:
 
robj20 said:
I paid £546 for my 35mm, i agree though lens prices do seem more competitive.

Just seen the price of the 70-200 :eek:
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£546 via BT, a lot wont do BT so I based price on CC payment.

How much is the 70-200?
 
So camera world have it listed wrong then. That's a relief.
 
Toby at ISO 3200, Zuiko 50mm f1.8 @f2.8.

 
PS. being able to put the camera in Manual and set the shutter speed (aperture set on the lens) and just let the ISO go up and down to maintain the shutter speed is great and a great improvement on both my G1 and 5D.
 
I have my eyes on a rokkor 135mm f2.8 now as well, i think that plus some extension tubes should make for a decent macro lens.
 
I bought some extention tubes intending to use my 85 and 135mm lenses but I don't like losing infinity and so just use my 50mm macro.
 
Had achance to play with mine in the sun. Gave it a torture test, backlit against the mid day sun. Initially I wasn't impressed - nasty blown highlight rendition (mid blue burnt straight to white with no gradation at all) but thankfully that was just the JPEG. Once in Lightroom it tailed off into white a lot better. However one issue that is very irritating in such an expensive cameras is posterisation of blue skies. Lots of it.




 
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In tried my own little torture tests...

Subject in front of a bright window and then boost the subject.
A shot out of the window and then boost the room.

I was very impressed with both results and both were perfectly usable.
 
When is Lightroom 5.3 getting released, I'm currently on 5.2.
 
Can you see what it is yet?


New Toy by cybertect, on Flickr


Yes, I nipped over the LCE on the Strand this lunch time and came back with a box full of goodness and a (literally) lighter wallet. :love:
 
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I'm very interested in the results from that 24mm. Do post some up when you can.
 
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