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

Always wanted to get a Epson A3 photo printer and start printing but a) don't have the room at the moment and b) struggling to find the time these days as my weekends are spent looking after the baby.

There's quite a few factors including time and the fact my photography has taken a back seat which has got me looking at the Fuji system.

Back in my DSLR days my favourite setup was the D7000, grip and the Nikkor 17-55mm f2.8.

I usually have an A3 printer and at the mo it's an Epson R2880. The quality is good but honestly it's like having a high maintenance Italian GF. When it's good it's very good but much of the time it's a freekin nightmare. And it isn't cheap either. Walking into my little print room (the spare bedroom :D) I never know if it's going to be heaven or hell and I would caution anyone looking at an Epson to research it first and go into it prepared to put the time in. The dark print issue was the first thing to hit me and now I never ever trust it, ever. I always do a little thumbnail test print first to check everything is good to go. I'll never have another Epson.
 
@woofwoof at this rate we need a new thread name something like the 4 musketeers or pre Fuji owners blimey glad I am happy taking and printing pictures ;):banana:

We do seem to meander somewhat. Such is life :D

And while we're going off topic but on the subject of just about any kit being good...

I cleaned my cameras and lenses today and as I always do when I've finished I took test shots and one was out of the window with my MFT GX7 and 17mm f1.8 at f4 and +1.7 exp. comp to try and lift the shadows a bit. The histogram edged off the right but I thought not by so much that it couldn't be brought back. In CS5 I loaded my usual presets, dialled in +70 fill light to boost the room to natural levels and painted the outside world with the adjustment brush -2.67 exposure and -67 brightness. All this took less than 2 minutes and the result is better than anything I got from my Canon 5D.

Today kit isn't a problem :D
 
Does anyone here use a field monitor?

I bought an Aputure VS-1 FineHD a few weeks ago for use when videoing, but I'm finding I like it when out shooting landscapes as well. I think I like it so much because my eyesight is awful and having a larger screen makes it easy to see detail before pressing the shutter :) Anyone else do this?

I ordered another photography tool as well this week (should be here today), a new Sony action cam.

I've had the AZ1 for a while and really like it, but from today will have the new X3000r - an action cam with optical stabilising. Can't wait to put this through it's paces :)
 
I usually have an A3 printer and at the mo it's an Epson R2880. The quality is good but honestly it's like having a high maintenance Italian GF. When it's good it's very good but much of the time it's a freekin nightmare. And it isn't cheap either. Walking into my little print room (the spare bedroom :D) I never know if it's going to be heaven or hell and I would caution anyone looking at an Epson to research it first and go into it prepared to put the time in. The dark print issue was the first thing to hit me and now I never ever trust it, ever. I always do a little thumbnail test print first to check everything is good to go. I'll never have another Epson.
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I've followed a few of the printer discussions and Canon seem to be getting good reports and if I do snap one day and hit the Epson with an axe I think Canon would be pretty high on the list to replace it.

Since we redecorated all my A3's are piled up on top of the wardrobe :(

 
I've always liked to print but every time I print it different from what on my monitor drives me mad
 
I know mate, it's doing my head in trying to decide, one minute I'm ready to give it all up then next I'm not. What I might have to do is wait until the Sony A9 comes out.

Doing-my-head-in describes me when...buying a car, camera, in fact anything that involves buying & selling pricey items.
For over a year I've been researching, thinking about getting an easy to carry compact that would complement my Sony kit.
As my pre-used iphone 4S had developed an intermittant ring-fault and brought things to a head, I jumped & bought an iphone 6S 128gb at the weekend; seems to take pretty decent snaps and so solves two things that were doing-my-head-in.
Then I went and gardened just to escape technology LOL
 
I've always liked to print but every time I print it different from what on my monitor drives me mad

Are you using proper colour profiles to get your image looking how you want it before you print? A monitor will display an image slightly differently to how the printer will output colours. Alternatively, if you use someone like DSCL for your prints you can download their colour profile and apply it to your images before you upload.
 
I've always found the handling of the A7 line to be a little lacking v some of the competition but did appreciate the larger grip on the A7ii, picked up a cheap L Grip for this one I've bought now though and its amazing how much difference a few mm of extra metal makes to the ease of handing!
 
I had the Canon 9000 pro printer only thing is Canon do not really handle panoramic very well changed for he Epson 1500W then a few months ago the Epson SC-P600 best printer i have evert had by a mile and a lot easier for Pano shots
 
I've always found the handling of the A7 line to be a little lacking v some of the competition but did appreciate the larger grip on the A7ii, picked up a cheap L Grip for this one I've bought now though and its amazing how much difference a few mm of extra metal makes to the ease of handing!

I did the same a few months ago - the bracket hasn't been off my camera since ;)
 
I had the Canon 9000 pro printer only thing is Canon do not really handle panoramic very well changed for he Epson 1500W then a few months ago the Epson SC-P600 best printer i have evert had by a mile and a lot easier for Pano shots
Don't you find the Epsons need a lot of love and attention?

Just on the handling, I don't have a problem. For decades my cameras were just an oblong box so the A7 seems like something from the space project.
 
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I've got an old-ish Canon A4 printer which prints excellent quality but, as with most (all?) Canon printers, constantly bleeds ink so if not used for a month, still gets through ink, and Canon ink isn't cheap but 3rd party ink seems to fade a lot faster.

Would love an A3 printer, but with internet prints being so cheap nowadays, hard-pressed to find a good reason to shell-out for one.

Seems a bit of a waste having 42mp and printing out 10x8's, but I got the R2 mostly for cropping rather than printing billboards.

I've also set my C1 to "general day to day shots" so drops to 18mp to save on HDD space :D
 
Ooo - which reminds me, am I missing something, or is there no way to quickly switch between JPG/RAW? Even using Fn button it's JPG quality, but won't let me go to RAW without entering the proper (excuse for a) menu.
 
Don't you find the Epsons need a lot of love and attention?

Just on the handling, I don't have a problem. For decades my cameras were just an oblong box so the A7 seems like something from the space project.
No not at all infact my main reason for changing from the Canon was after it had stood maybe a week and I printed a new image I always got a drop maybe 25mm in size of black ink usually just the first image but really annoying

The new Epson is odd in that the ink cartridges remain still of the head if it had one thing I could change would be that it printed just a bit faster.

From LR using the iMac I tick 16 bit printing and go straight from the dng file, before I started using proof print I did get some iffy results of both brands but with paper profiles the issue is largely gone :)
 
Would love an A3 printer, but with internet prints being so cheap nowadays, hard-pressed to find a good reason to shell-out for one.

The thing I like about home printing is that although it can be expensive and a PITA at least you have control and if you want a print today you can have it today, if you don't run out of ink :D

The only print I've paid to have done was a disaster. It was a picture of a car taken in the mid afternoon and the print that came back was so dark it looked like it was taken at twilight and was completely unusable, and no it wasn't a calibration issue at my end.
 
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No not at all...

Great stuff. Maybe the newer ones are better but I'll deffo research anything I buy in future before I buy. The reason I got the Epson R2880 was that a camera shop in Middlesbrough sold them and recommended them. It does give very good quality prints but it just needs to much attention, reliable plug and play it isn't.
 
Great stuff. Maybe the newer ones are better but I'll deffo research anything I buy in future before I buy. The reason I got the Epson R2880 was that a camera shop in Middlesbrough sold them and recommended them. It does give very good quality prints but it just needs to much attention, reliable plug and play it isn't.
I miss RGB in Middlesbrough though being fair they put me on the Samsung gx dslr and when it was not really doing what I wanted never helped moving over to Canon

The R2880 was certainly one of Epson printers most popular for the home market and still fetch a good used price on eBay

Did you know that often Epson will give 25% off a new A3 printer if you supply your present printers serial number made my deal better value:)
 
AFAIK they shut the shop and moved to an industrial estate to carry on the printing. I've no idea if they're still going or not or under what name. Do yo know anything?

On the Samsung DSRL one of my sisters bought a twin lens kit but I can't remember who from. Maybe them. I always thought it was lovely and looked and felt much better made than my Canon's. When she sold up and went mirrorless it only went at a bargain price.
 
Yes the print business moved though I believe it closed fairly quickly the rumour at the time was Canon stopped supplying as they would sell white box stock.

The Samsung was a very good quality body the only issue was terrible availability of glass for it hence my sale, though they intimated when I bought it they would do a trade for Canon if required
 
Which side lol
 
What be good on that
 
i think they will stick with 24mp and up the frame rate to at least 8fp. perhaps touch screen.
 
I really like the 42.2mp cropping ability but not so much working with the files due to my Mac being so old.
I wouldn't mind 24mp.
 
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