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

woof woof said:
I have three. Minolta Rokkor 85mm f2, Olympus Zuiko 85mm f2 and Canon FD 85mm f1.8.

I'd rate them as follows... The Minolta is the sharpest and suffers fewer optical nasties. The FD is next but fringing on highlights can be epic, the Zuiko comes in last and initially looks soft at wider apertures but sharpens up nicely on the pc.

All are ok for whole images when viewed on screen or reasonably sized prints and you'd have to be shooting at the widest apertures or in very demanding conditions (stuff like dark subject against bright backlit scene...) or you'd have to pixel peep or print BIG and nit pick.
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I will check out the Minolta 85mm
 
plamen_gb said:
I will check out the Minolta 85mm
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There are quite a few different versions.

Personally I'd avoid the older ones as the coatings don't seem to be as good, they can be affected more by flare. That was the case with the one older Minolta I had anyway.

I'd advise sticking to the later MD versions.
 
I saw many beautiful amazing shots in the past, so what happened to DR back then?

I really didn't know about DR in the past until i kept reading much about it, then i was thinking, why people getting lazy about exposure and keep dreaming about technology to make them everything ready? how were people shooting with film saying then? if film DR is huge or still far better then please go and keep shooting film if you still do, i shoot film and it didn't give me much better than digital, i don't have that great scanner [drum] so i end up not much full potential then, i was happy with 1Ds2/5D then moved to 1Ds3 and became more happier until i bought Hasselblad H3DII-39 first then H4D-60 as trade-in and i never think about DR anymore, i use all my gear around their limits, i never ask them more, if so then i will never get satisfied with my gear and i will always ask for more and i will always keep testing my gear to try proving something and pleasing the manufacturers to make that ultimate perfect camera completely, and my answer is, they will never do because there will be always a room for more, even if they produce a camera with 1000mp and 2millions ISO with 250,000 ISO as clean as ISO 100 and 50fps and 500 focus points, there will be always something to complain about and asking for something more or else.
 
I have three MF 85s.

The Canon FD 85mm 1.8 (New FD version) is light and compact, suffers a bit with longitudinal CA (purple-green) fringing at wider apertures. Cheapest of the three.

The FD 85mm f/1.2L is gorgeous and amazing, but heavy and pricey these days. My go-to 85.

If you can live with a slower lens the CY mount Contax 85mm f/2.8 renders beautifully. Price wise it's in the middle.

Of the three the FD 85/1.8 is affordable and good VFM.
 
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Is it worth spending more and going for the Minolta or Zeiss 85mm 1.4? I have been reading a lot as mentioned, I might go for the 1.8 FD
 
TareqPhoto said:
I saw many beautiful amazing shots in the past, so what happened to DR back then?

I really didn't know about DR in the past until i kept reading much about it, then i was thinking, why people getting lazy about exposure and keep dreaming about technology to make them everything ready? how were people shooting with film saying then? if film DR is huge or still far better then please go and keep shooting film if you still do, i shoot film and it didn't give me much better than digital, i don't have that great scanner [drum] so i end up not much full potential then, i was happy with 1Ds2/5D then moved to 1Ds3 and became more happier until i bought Hasselblad H3DII-39 first then H4D-60 as trade-in and i never think about DR anymore, i use all my gear around their limits, i never ask them more, if so then i will never get satisfied with my gear and i will always ask for more and i will always keep testing my gear to try proving something and pleasing the manufacturers to make that ultimate perfect camera completely, and my answer is, they will never do because there will be always a room for more, even if they produce a camera with 1000mp and 2millions ISO with 250,000 ISO as clean as ISO 100 and 50fps and 500 focus points, there will be always something to complain about and asking for something more or else.
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In the past we lived in caves and ate raw dead things... Time moves on and people expect more :D

All I can tell you is that when I had Canon DSLR's they were frankly crap at higher ISO's compared to the kit I have now and boosting the shadows lead to noise. I don't care if we call that DR or something else. The end result is that the best kit these days gives more latitude to both protect the highlights and lift the shadows post capture and get better than before results.

I watched a vid by famous blogger recently and I'll leave him nameless... he was talking about wedding togs taking picture that looked like they'd been shot on another planet as the skies were white (actually, where I live the skies are usually grey to white in reality :() and he said that he wouldn't take the shot if it meant that the sky would blow... he'd expose for the highlights and light the subject or turn around and shoot in the other direction. Both of these are valid solutions but it's nice to have another option, to shoot into the light and lift the shadows and have a better chance of not ending up with a banded mess. Just my opinion :D
 
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plamen_gb said:
Is it worth spending more and going for the Minolta or Zeiss 85mm 1.4? I have been reading a lot as mentioned, I might go for the 1.8 FD
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These have been cropping up from time to time in very good condition... sometimes unused. I have three FD lenses all bought used and to look at them you'd think they'd never been used.

Adapters seem to start at around £10 but I use mine with Novoflex adapters and they're more expensive.
 
I will check ebay out, I have seen the Minolta 85mm MD surface few times on ebay, though it is considerably more rare than the FD
 
plamen_gb said:
I will check ebay out, I have seen the Minolta 85mm MD surface few times on ebay, though it is considerably more rare than the FD
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Maybe keep an eye on used gear sellers too, I prefer to buy from almost anyone other than evil bay and of course there's the film gear section in the classifieds here.

I've bought from Ffordes before and they've had FD's in the past...

http://www.ffordes.com/category/Lenses/Canon/FD

No FD 85mm f1.8's listed today though.
 
plamen_gb said:
Is it worth spending more and going for the Minolta or Zeiss 85mm 1.4? I have been reading a lot as mentioned, I might go for the 1.8 FD
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Depends if you think you can nail manual focus at f1.4

Personally I understand mf lenses for wide angle but not sure a 85mm mf lens is all that useful, must be really easy to keep missing focus!
 
addicknchips said:
Just.

Don't forget The Nikon hardly gets any longer when you zoom. The canon does. What about the Sony?
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Darn, trust you to pickup on that..... yes the Sony does extend ;)
I may pull the trigger on the 24-70mm and 70-200mm G Masters :)
 
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JYC said:
Depends if you think you can nail manual focus at f1.4

Personally I understand mf lenses for wide angle but not sure a 85mm mf lens is all that useful, must be really easy to keep missing focus!
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I find it easiest to focus with longer lenses like 85mm because the subject is likely to be larger in the frame. I also find it easier to focus accurately at wider apertures as when using peaking at wide apertures very little is peaking and it's therefore easier to see what the camera thinks is in focus ditto with the magnified view, at wider apertures you can see the shift in the point of focus easily. When shooting at much smaller apertures like f8 I find peaking pretty useless as large areas of the image will be peaking and you can move the focus ring quite a bit with seemingly little effect and although the final image may look ok if you look closely god knows where your point of focus will actually be. I find focusing at smaller apertures ok for stuff when the point of focus doesn't really matter, like a landscape or general scene but for shooting people I'd focus wide open on an eye either with peaking if wanting to be quick or with the magnified view if there's time and then stop down, I find this gives the best results.

So yes, I find focus at f1.2 with my 50mm and f1.8 or f2 with my 85's relatively easy and I have a high hit rate. Actually I found manual focus at f0.95 with MFT pretty easy too.
 
Rizvan said:
Darn, trust you to pickup on that..... yes the Sony does extend ;)
Looks I may pull the trigger on the 24-70mm and 70-200mm G Masters :)
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Although I'm almost certainly not in the market for these lenses I'll look forward to reading what you think of them.
 
Rizvan said:
Darn, trust you to pickup on that..... yes the Sony does extend ;)
I may pull the trigger on the 24-70mm and 70-200mm G Masters :)
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So the Sony is the longest extended.
Well anyone interested in these needs t forget about size/weight. Just get the lens for the quality they offer.

I'd wait for some real world reviews to come out first.
 
Just looking at the 85mm which is the only lens I'd potentially be interested in and comparing it to the Sigma 85mm f1.4 I had in Canon mount...

The Sony comes in a touch larger and heavier but maybe not too much to make a real world difference? I'd have to handle them both to be sure and forgetting for a moment that the Sigma would need to be used via an adapter (I'm just trying to compare what is probably the best AF lens I've ever used to the new Sony.) I don't think the size and weight differences are so great they'd matter so the question is, is the Sony better? It's certainly more expensive.
 
i think the sony is the lightest 24 70 2.8, but its 82mm filter and fatter, plus theres the history of their light but poor standard zooms,and no os.

and while the new tech is nice, it wont stop their p*** poor sample varaition and quality issues.
 
Some news, Olympus are going to start making their Zuiko lenses for the FE mount ;) hopefully it'll be officially confirmed soon.
 
I had to be in Southampton this morning, so I figured I'd take a little detour on the way back to Clifton Cameras. Taking my bank cards into camera shops can be a bad thing with me, so annoyingly I left most cards at home and just took one which I don't keep much in. It was annoying as they had a Sony day on in store, with 10% off the A7 series doh.

I could have bought the A7ii body for £1060. Oh well, was good to try it out again and I'll order it this week now anyway (but not at that price unfortunately).

The main reason I went was to have a look at tripods. It was 3 legged thing I really wanted to try. Sadly this was disappointing. I tried the Brian, this was just not stable enough for what I want. Then they bought the bigger Steve out. This is the one I had earmarked in the back of my head. Again disappointing. The built quality wasn't great IMO for £479 and it wasn't that stable.

Then I tried the Gitzo's. Unsurprisingly, these were in a different league. The one I liked was the GT1542 Mountaineer kit, which comes with a pretty good ball head for £700. A lot more than I wanted to spend, but seemed very well built, very stable and the right height. When I got home I thought I'd do a little ore research on this model and found that it can't take spiked feet. The next model up does, but this is £900. This is too much for me to spend on a tripod.

So I thought I'd ask hear for recommendations. I want something fairly tall (need to be able to video myself face on for work, I'm 6ft), as sturdy as possible as I like long exposures and I'm often on the edge of a cliff in high wind and as light as it can be. When in high wind I generally widen the stance and shoot low. This is where the Gitzo leaves the 3LT for dust as the 3LT doesn't hold the legs tight in one place very well. They flex really badly from the top join. The video height is fine with centre column up as this is usually indoors.

Ideally I'd like to spend say £300 - £400 with a ball head. Any suggestions?
 
Rizvan said:
Some news, Olympus are going to start making their Zuiko lenses for the FE mount ;) hopefully it'll be officially confirmed soon.
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Really... FYI they make m43 lenses, and AFAIK they've been designing lenses for Sony anyway seeing as Sony (pretty much) own them. That's where they got their ibis tech.
 
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twist said:
Really... FYI they make m43 lenses, and AFAIK they've been designing lenses for Sony anyway seeing as Sony (pretty much) own them. That's where they got their ibis tech.
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From what I've been told they are going to be branded Sony Zuiko lenses and they are aiming for lower priced primes etc.
If true it's good news for people who are put off with the current Sony lenses.
 
Rizvan said:
From what I've been told they are going to be branded Sony Zuiko lenses and they are aiming for lower priced primes etc.
If true it's good news for people who are put off with the current Sony lenses.
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But the sony primes aren't badly priced and perform well, here's an idea for Sony, use the g branding like they did in a mount or SSM branding and stop trying to flog zeiss to everyone, not everyone wants it. G is good enough for most and Zeiss clearly isn't always best. Doesn't Sony have enough bloody sub brands / confusion.
 
twist said:
But the sony primes aren't badly priced and perform well, here's an idea for Sony, use the g branding like they did in a mount or SSM branding and stop trying to flog zeiss to everyone, not everyone wants it. G is good enough for most. Doesn't Sony have enough bloody sub brands / confusion.
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I think with the introduction of the G Master series Sony may just do that.
Zeiss have their own line(s) Batis & Loxia for FE.
 
Rizvan said:
I think with the introduction of the G Master series Sony may just do that.
Zeiss have their own line(s) Batis & Loxia for FE.
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Really? Anyone buying into Sony now has to do some serious research... A mount, e mount apsc, fe mount, loxia, Sony Zeiss apsc, Sony Zeiss fe, g, g master, adapted a mount, supposedly zuiko. No wonder people get confused about what's available.
 
Did you (like me) install Sony PlayMemories App on your desktop?

If so what did it give you you can't live without?

To me it is a complete pile of cr*p or is there some magic little nugget I have missed?
 
TBH I installed this on the assumption this 'might' be Sony's equivalent to Canon's DPP But had been given a totally stupid name. I thought maybe I needed it for my first foray into trying video but that doesn't seem to be the case. Don't get me wrong it might suit peeps who aren't into LR or PS or who opted for the Sony C1 freebie, BUT I haven't found a single thing it could possibly do for me. For example I wondered if it would show the point of focus (retrospectively as I might have missed) as DPP would do - nope. I also thought there might be some collaboration with the camera apps on the A7Rii but I must have missed that as I can't see it. Hence my question here about there maybe some little nugget that would make it worth keeping because AFAICS it is of no use to me whatsoever.
 
Like the sound of zuiko they are pretty damn good, up there with the good ones
 
Olympus have as far as I know made some of the best consumer lenses... ever... so this is fantastic news if true. It's been doing the rounds on the various rumour sites and I do hope it comes to fruition.

I wonder if Sony have been caught out by demand and therefore need others to get involved? I read somewhere that none of the usuals have the capacity to do more than a few a year. I can't remember if I read 2 to 3 or 3 to 4 a year.
 
Good morning all and happy Sunday.. I want some tips from you all if you can help me....

Firstly dull sky's and sunbeams, is there a way to shoot dull sky's or make sunbeams have punch with the camera by using either a few stops lower or a higher f number etc... I presume it's stops, but I always do mine in Lightroom but wanted to ask if there were many tricks or common things I could do.

Secondly I've kinda got the hang of star trails but what about general stars, is it just use highest Iso I can have ?. But what time and f number, I'd presume wide open and between 10 to 30 , what I'm trying to do is get the Milky Way etc...

Thanks guys
 
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Well I sold the 5dsr yesterday for £100 less than I paid for it ..... still not going to bite on this master g though......
 
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