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

simonbarker said:
it's fate telling you to stick with Sony! ;)
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As SsSsSsSsSsnake says I don’t/didn’t have a Sony anyway ;)
SsSsSsSsSnake said:
He cant Simon because he hasnt got a Sony to stick with but i get your point :D
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I’ve had a lemon of a Sony in the past too. In fact I’ve had a lemon of an Olympus too, maybe someone’s trying to tell me something ;)
 
snerkler said:
As SsSsSsSsSsnake says I don’t/didn’t have a Sony anyway ;)
I’ve had a lemon of a Sony in the past too. In fact I’ve had a lemon of an Olympus too, maybe someone’s trying to tell me something ;)
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Dover sole to go with it?
 
I received my Sony A7 iii on wednesday and managed to get out a walk yesterday to try it out.
I only have the standard 50mm f1.8 lens at the moment for it but i must confess i am completely Underwhelmed by it, so much so i switched to my D500 after and hour.
I have never came across a camera and lens that hunted so much in great light. The final straw was when i attempted to use the rear screen to take a picture of a flower at ground level only for it to spend around 2 minutes trying to focus on it and fail. (green grass, yellow flower)
There was even one occasion it focused on everything in the background and the subject in the green square was perfectly blurry. (and no it wasnt down to minimum focus distance as that was my first port of call.)
The EVF is very poor in my opinion to the only other mirrorless camera i have tried. (Fuji XT2)
10fps???? More like 7fps. Maybe it will achieve 10 in electronic shutter but its not even close in Mechanical. I only base that on having used a Nikon D4 and D500 for a while so there is no actual scientific proof, just my gut feeling that it seems a fair bit slower than either the D4 or D500.
I will spend more time over the weekend with it as there is always that courting period but at this moment in time i am not very impressed by it.
 
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a couple with the new FE35 from yesterday. I was mainly trying to see how it handles shooting into the sun which I quite like doing :D

@f/11
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@F 1.4
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Bigfungun said:
I received my Sony A7 iii on wednesday and managed to get out a walk yesterday to try it out.
I only have the standard 50mm f1.8 lens at the moment for it but i must confess i am completely Underwhelmed by it, so much so i switched to my D500 after and hour.
I have never came across a camera and lens that hunted so much in great light. The final straw was when i attempted to use the rear screen to take a picture of a flower at ground level only for it to spend around 2 minutes trying to focus on it and fail. (green grass, yellow flower)
There was even one occasion it focused on everything in the background and the subject in the green square was perfectly blurry. (and no it wasnt down to minimum focus distance as that was my first port of call.)
The EVF is very poor in my opinion to the only other mirrorless camera i have tried. (Fuji XT2)
10fps???? More like 7fps. Maybe it will achieve 10 in electronic shutter but its not even close in Mechanical. I only base that on having used a Nikon D4 and D500 for a while so there is no actual scientific proof, just my gut feeling that it seems a fair bit slower than either the D4 or D500.
I will spend more time over the weekend with it as there is always that courting period but at this moment in time i am not very impressed by it.
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Your experience regarding hunting in low light suggests two things..

1) a defect with the camera and/or lens

more likely....
2) you have Pre-AF turned on in the menu which makes the camera continuously pre-focus on everything.

I think it will feel slower than the D4 and D500 as there are geared more towards action / sports etc...... the comparable Sony would be the Sony A9 and not the Sony A7 III. :)

Give it time but I have a suspicious feeling your probably not going to stick with the A7 III.
 
snerkler said:
As SsSsSsSsSsnake says I don’t/didn’t have a Sony anyway ;)
I’ve had a lemon of a Sony in the past too. In fact I’ve had a lemon of an Olympus too, maybe someone’s trying to tell me something ;)
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And a lemon d750..... so thats every camera you've owned.... theres a common denominator there.
 
Bigfungun said:
I received my Sony A7 iii on wednesday and managed to get out a walk yesterday to try it out.
I only have the standard 50mm f1.8 lens at the moment for it but i must confess i am completely Underwhelmed by it, so much so i switched to my D500 after and hour.
I have never came across a camera and lens that hunted so much in great light. The final straw was when i attempted to use the rear screen to take a picture of a flower at ground level only for it to spend around 2 minutes trying to focus on it and fail. (green grass, yellow flower)
There was even one occasion it focused on everything in the background and the subject in the green square was perfectly blurry. (and no it wasnt down to minimum focus distance as that was my first port of call.)
The EVF is very poor in my opinion to the only other mirrorless camera i have tried. (Fuji XT2)
10fps???? More like 7fps. Maybe it will achieve 10 in electronic shutter but its not even close in Mechanical. I only base that on having used a Nikon D4 and D500 for a while so there is no actual scientific proof, just my gut feeling that it seems a fair bit slower than either the D4 or D500.
I will spend more time over the weekend with it as there is always that courting period but at this moment in time i am not very impressed by it.
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The FE 50 is known for its relaxed approach to AF, I believe its a fair bit quicker when its updated. So I think thats the first thing to get done...
https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/lenses-e-mount-lenses/sel50f18f

As said earlier in the thread, I used the Sony 35 1.4 and fired at 8 or 10 FPS, 15 shots @ F1.4 of a target moving toward me and every single shot was in focus. I was impressed and tbh Im not so sure my D750 and Sigma 35 ART would've gotten that hit rate. Again, the flower shots on my tests on this page, instant lock.

With regards 10FPS, its definitely 10FPS, are you using a UHSII card in slot 1 (bottom slot). Otherwise, compressed RAW, continuous AF, continuous shooting: High+ otherwise you'll get 8FPS.
 
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More A7 and Voigtlander 35mm f1.4...

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I like this lens, I wish it was sharp into the extreme corners but for a whole image no one is going to notice the 100 or so pixels in the very corners.
 
woof woof said:
More A7 and Voigtlander 35mm f1.4...

I like this lens, I wish it was sharp into the extreme corners but for a whole image no one is going to notice the 100 or so pixels in the very corners.
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You mean to say you don't compose your subject in the extreme corners, take 100% crops of it and print them A1 size? :eek::eek:

You need a lesson in couch photography me thinks...
 
haha :D

When I first got this lens I compared it to my Rokkor 35mm f1.8 and Sony 35mm f2.8 to see how it performed as some of the reviews had been less than flattering and I'm sure I did indeed post 100% crops here :D but for non forum geek stuff this lens's only issue is the bokeh at f1.4-2 or so where it has a distinctly old lens look with messy backgrounds.
 
The Laowa 10-18 is certainly looking like an interesting landscape option. Some comments suggesting a $600 target price (so £600 probably) but certainly a reasonable price for the ultrawide range. Being manual focus and 4.5-5.6 isn't an issue either for what I'd use it for as mountains generally don't move very quickly :0)
 
I've read a couple of reviews of some of their other manual lenses and people seem to be saying that they're very well made. I hope this one is too.
 
stevelmx5 said:
The Laowa 10-18 is certainly looking like an interesting landscape option. Some comments suggesting a $600 target price (so £600 probably) but certainly a reasonable price for the ultrawide range. Being manual focus and 4.5-5.6 isn't an issue either for what I'd use it for as mountains generally don't move very quickly :0)
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Don't we have to import Laowa lenses? I don't think any dealers here sell them.

4.5-5.6 could be an issue in low-light situation.
 
nandbytes said:
Don't we have to import Laowa lenses? I don't think any dealers here sell them.

4.5-5.6 could be an issue in low-light situation.
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I don't know off the top of my head but they had a big stand at the photography show (I tried out their 9mm APS-C and ultra macros and they're excellent) which suggests that they are either looking to sell within the UK or at least work with importers like Intro2020 possibly.

The majority of my wide angle work would be tripod based and F8 upwards so low light isn't an issue. Obviously, if you want to hand hold in lower light you're going to be bumping up the ISO but even the FE 12-24GM is only F4 so not a huge difference but potentially nearly 3 times the price.
 
stevelmx5 said:
I don't know off the top of my head but they had a big stand at the photography show (I tried out their 9mm APS-C and ultra macros and they're excellent) which suggests that they are either looking to sell within the UK or at least work with importers like Intro2020 possibly.

The majority of my wide angle work would be tripod based and F8 upwards so low light isn't an issue. Obviously, if you want to hand hold in lower light you're going to be bumping up the ISO but even the FE 12-24GM is only F4 so not a huge difference but potentially nearly 3 times the price.
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Well if its sharp from wide-open like 12-24mm then its less of a problem.

I can't quite figure out if this has a filter ring...
 
nandbytes said:
Well if its sharp from wide-open like 12-24mm then its less of a problem.

I can't quite figure out if this has a filter ring...
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It looks like a fixed petal hood and convex front element (like the Samyang 14mm) so there won't be any screw on filter ring.
 
stevelmx5 said:
It looks like a fixed petal hood and convex front element (like the Samyang 14mm) so there won't be any screw on filter ring.
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fixed petal hood doesn't necessarily mean no filter ring (eg. CV15). But you are probably right its likely it won't have it. I just had my hopes up because the initial rumour said it would have a filter ring :(
 
Riz_Guru said:
Your experience regarding hunting in low light suggests two things..

1) a defect with the camera and/or lens

more likely....
2) you have Pre-AF turned on in the menu which makes the camera continuously pre-focus on everything.

I think it will feel slower than the D4 and D500 as there are geared more towards action / sports etc...... the comparable Sony would be the Sony A9 and not the Sony A7 III. :)

Give it time but I have a suspicious feeling your probably not going to stick with the A7 III.
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I checked the pre AF also and it was off. Sometimes it was fantastic but on those other occasions it was just plain frustrating.
From what i was lead to believe though the A7 iii should be more than a match for the D500 in the focus / speed department.
I will persevere for a while yet as at the moment it might be the £200 lens thats the issue.
 
Bigfungun said:
I checked the pre AF also and it was off. Sometimes it was fantastic but on those other occasions it was just plain frustrating.
From what i was lead to believe though the A7 iii should be more than a match for the D500 in the focus / speed department.
I will persevere for a while yet as at the moment it might be the £200 lens thats the issue.
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I am not sure I would agree with the Sony A7 III being a match for the D500. However you have to remember the Sony A7 III is full-frame. :)
 
twist said:
The FE 50 is known for its relaxed approach to AF, I believe its a fair bit quicker when its updated. So I think thats the first thing to get done...
https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/lenses-e-mount-lenses/sel50f18f

As said earlier in the thread, I used the Sony 35 1.4 and fired at 8 or 10 FPS, 15 shots @ F1.4 of a target moving toward me and every single shot was in focus. I was impressed and tbh Im not so sure my D750 and Sigma 35 ART would've gotten that hit rate. Again, the flower shots on my tests on this page, instant lock.

With regards 10FPS, its definitely 10FPS, are you using a UHSII card in slot 1 (bottom slot). Otherwise, compressed RAW, continuous AF, continuous shooting: High+ otherwise you'll get 8FPS.
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Ah so its only 10fps under certain circumstances? I can live with 8 if needed.
Cheers for the heads up on the update.
 
So!

A) Which UHS II cards are y'all using?
B) Who's shooting compressed vs uncompressed RAW? Anyone noticed much difference in DR in post?

Lastly!

What's everyone mapped their custom buttons etc to? Genuinely curious to see how others shoot!
 
ohms12 said:
So!

A) Which UHS II cards are y'all using?
B) Who's shooting compressed vs uncompressed RAW? Anyone noticed much difference in DR in post?

Lastly!

What's everyone mapped their custom buttons etc to? Genuinely curious to see how others shoot!
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B) Been shooting compressed since 2013, unless you want to for some odd reason under expose by 5 stop (i.e. basically shoot blind) and then pull out by 5 stops then you may just run into the issue.
Also on newer bodies (starting with A7RII) the sensor have dual gain and are not ISO invariant which means its a good idea to shoot at the correct ISO.
 
nandbytes said:
B) Been shooting compressed since 2013, unless you want to for some odd reason under expose by 5 stop (i.e. basically shoot blind) and then pull out by 5 stops then you may just run into the issue.
Also on newer bodies (starting with A7RII) the sensor have dual gain and are not ISO invariant which means its a good idea to shoot at the correct ISO.
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Eh? If anything, the rII onwards ARE ISO-invariant. The only thing holding the Sony bodies back from being truly ISO-invariant are the compressed raw files..

https://m.dpreview.com/articles/7450523388/sony-alpha-7r-ii-real-world-iso-invariance-study
 
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I have just ordered a Sony SF-G64 SDXC Class 10 UHS-II U3 for slot 1 and for slot 2 I will use my Sandisk Extreme Pro 64gb SDXC I

At the moment I have not had a chance to compare compressed to uncompressed raw. My plan is to use uncompressed all the time and switch to compressed when I need the extra fps.

Custom buttons? I'm still lost with all the camera functions so need to work that first :) then I'll decide what to program on them....so I'm also interested on what other people are using.
 
nandbytes said:
compressed RAW files are a non-issue

How can it be ISO invariant when there is a second gain around ISO 640 giving it more dynamic range... :thinking:
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Some state that they are ISO invariant over and above a certain ISO (y)
 
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