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

Merlin5 said:
Thanks guys. So if I bought a Raynox 250, I'd need this

Raynox DCR-250 Macro Attachment: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

Free delivery and returns on eligible orders. Buy Raynox DCR-250 Macro Attachment at Amazon UK.
www.amazon.co.uk

but in a 67mm filter thread if there is one with that size, and just screw it onto my 70 to 350 lens and that should work well enough for macro shots? 67mm also is the filter size of my Sigma 16mm, though the 16mm would mean getting super close.
Click to expand...


That's exactly what you'd need Lee, and that Amazon price is pretty good.
 
snerkler said:
@Merlin5 these are taken with a 150-600mm zoom lens at it's min focus distance (around 8ft from memory)

DSC_7221 copy by TDG-77, on Flickr
DSC_7071 2 by TDG-77, on Flickr




If you want the really close ups like these then you'll need a dedicated macro set up (macro lens, reversed prime etc). These were shot with a 105mm macro lens at its min focus distance (around 30cm from the sensor)

DSC_9577 by TDG-77, on Flickr

DSC_8056 2 by TDG-77, on Flickr

DSC_8759 by TDG-77, on Flickr
Click to expand...

Excellent photos. Well to be honest, I'd be happy to get the first two shots without any macro lens or adapter. I might be a bit squeamish getting as close as your macro shots. :D
 
Merlin5 said:
Thanks guys. So if I bought a Raynox 250, I'd need this

Raynox DCR-250 Macro Attachment: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

Free delivery and returns on eligible orders. Buy Raynox DCR-250 Macro Attachment at Amazon UK.
www.amazon.co.uk

but in a 67mm filter thread if there is one with that size, and just screw it onto my 70 to 350 lens and that should work well enough for macro shots? 67mm also is the filter size of my Sigma 16mm, though the 16mm would mean getting super close.
Click to expand...
I have the raynox 250 as it comes with a spring loaded filter attachment so that it can fit to a variety of different lens sizes but I can't remember what the max diameter lens it will fit. Just be aware with some lenses it can cause vignetting. Also you don't get a big working distance (distance from the front of the lens to the subject) which makes taking photos of insects tricky (although not impossible) as insects tend to be rather skittish.
 
G.K.Jnr. said:
That's exactly what you'd need Lee, and that Amazon price is pretty good.
Click to expand...

Thanks George. Ok so I'll look for one with the correct filter size.
 
Merlin5 said:
Excellent photos. Well to be honest, I'd be happy to get the first two shots without any macro lens or adapter. I might be a bit squeamish getting as close as your macro shots. :D
Click to expand...
Thanks. I remember the first time I looked through the viewfinder taking a photo of a garden wolf spider it made me jump as it made it look like a tarantula :lol:
 
snerkler said:
I have the raynox 250 as it comes with a spring loaded filter attachment so that it can fit to a variety of different lens sizes but I can't remember what the max diameter lens it will fit. Just be aware with some lenses it can cause vignetting. Also you don't get a big working distance (distance from the front of the lens to the subject) which makes taking photos of insects tricky (although not impossible) as insects tend to be rather skittish.
Click to expand...

Oh I see, so that one I linked would be spring loaded and might fit my 67mm lenses and also the 55mm filter thread on my Sigma 56mm lens too? That would be very handy!
 
Last edited:
Merlin5 said:
Oh I see, so that one I linked would be spring loaded and might fit my 67mm lenses and also the 55mm filter thread on my Sigma 56mm lens too? That would be very handy!
Click to expand...
In theory yes, but as I said I can't remember what the max lens diameter/filter size it will fit.
 
snerkler said:
In theory yes, but as I said I can't remember what the max lens diameter/filter size it will fit.
Click to expand...

No problem, you've all put me on the right path for macro shots and I can now do some more research on the max filter size for the Raynox 250. (y)
 
Merlin5 said:
Oh I see, so that one I linked would be spring loaded and might fit my 67mm lenses and also the 55mm filter thread on my Sigma 56mm lens too? That would be very handy!
Click to expand...
Looking at the responses on amazon the snap on adapter fits filter thread sizes 52-67mm
 
Merlin5 said:
No problem, you've all put me on the right path for macro shots and I can now do some more research on the max filter size for the Raynox 250. (y)
Click to expand...
Just posted it above ;) If you want to try before you buy I can always send you mine to try out (y)
 
snerkler said:
Looking at the responses on amazon the snap on adapter fits filter thread sizes 52-67mm
Click to expand...

Oh yes you're right! I just saw that comment after you mentioned it says "the Raynox macro lens itself has a 43mm diameter thread, or the snap-on adapter which comes with it will fit over the end of a 52mm-67mm lens." Perfect, means I can do macro with all three of my lenses. Only £46 so I'll buy it.
 
snerkler said:
Just posted it above ;) If you want to try before you buy I can always send you mine to try out (y)
Click to expand...

Very kind of you Toby. :) Don't worry though, I'll go ahead and buy it and I can always return it to Amazon if for any reason I don't get on with it.
 
snerkler said:
Just posted it above ;) If you want to try before you buy I can always send you mine to try out (y)
Click to expand...

Hey Toby, thinking on it further, I can either go ahead and buy it from Amazon and save you the hassle of sending it for me to try, or were you thinking of selling yours?
 
Merlin5 said:
Hey Toby, thinking on it further, I can either go ahead and buy it from Amazon and save you the hassle of sending it for me to try, or were you thinking of selling yours?
Click to expand...
No I'm keeping mine. I don't really do macro these days which is why I don't have a dedicated macro lens, but it's nice to have the raynox "just in case" (y)
 
snerkler said:
No I'm keeping mine. I don't really do macro these days which is why I don't have a dedicated macro lens, but it's nice to have the raynox "just in case" (y)
Click to expand...

No problem Toby. :)

Lez325 said:
You cannot beat a Macro lens though @Merlin5

maybe coinsider one at a later date? I started witha Raynox and soon got bored with it

Les :)

One from a dedicated macro lens ( 70mm f2.8 Sigma ART ( which will be up for sale soon as I now have a 90mm f2.8 Sony ) :)

winter diamonds by Les Moxon, on Flickr
Click to expand...

Very nice photo Les(y) I was youtubing about macro photography last night. I'm not sure how much of it I'd do. The Raynox could be fun to use occasionally but it seems to really get into it I'd also need a ring light, and/or a flash or dual flash, and a diffuser. I think I'll see how I get on with just the Raynox to start. My F1.4 primes might work well with natural light. But I suspect using my 70 to 350 F4.5 to 6.3 will be difficult to get good exposure without artificial light unless it's a really really sunny day.

But with your F2.8 macro lens, are you getting most macro shots without any flash?
 
Last edited:
woof woof said:
My internet is crawling again today :(
Click to expand...
Mine’s down since last night’s thunderstorm. With Plusnet. Luckily I can use phone as a hot-spot.
 
Miraculously and strangely I'm back up to speed now. It all changed in a few minutes so I assume Virgin plugged something back in :D On demand TV from Virgin and Amazon were slow too.

Yesterday and earlier today pages here were taking 5 minutes to load and looking at other sites I normally look at, news and cameras and shopping, nothing to stressful, some were just unusable as the ads and pictures just stopped the pages loading.
 
I'm interested in the examples and discussions a page back. I've never really bothered with bird and bug photography but I took this the other day using a MFT GX80 and 45-150mm lens.

wErXF3p.jpg


That was about as close as I could get without scaring them off and this is the 50% crop I kept.

EVQslMG.jpg


I'll have to have a think if I want a longer lens for my Sony or if I'm happy enough carrying my A7 and a MFT with a long lens.
 
Last edited:
Sony A1 :love:

www.cined.com

Sony A1 Lab Test - Rolling Shutter, Dynamic Range and Latitude | CineD

We test the Sony A1 in our CineD Lab for rolling shutter, dynamic range and latitude using internal 8K, 4K and external ProRes RAW recording.
www.cined.com www.cined.com

"As anticipated, the Sony A1 shows state-of-the-art consumer camera results in the lab test in all disciplines: rolling shutter, dynamic range, and latitude, using the internal codecs. This camera clearly shows that old paradigms like the need for large pixels to achieve good dynamic range are not true anymore. After all, we are talking about a 50 megapixel sensor here!

To me it seems rather clear that as long as these cameras use the current 12bit sensor read out architecture for video we cannot expect much more than these results. Just for your reference, the benchmark so far is the ARRI ALEA Mini LF which exhibits about 2 stops more in the dynamic range and latitude discipline."

Golly :D
 
Last edited:
Merlin5 said:
No problem Toby. :)



Very nice photo Les(y) I was youtubing about macro photography last night. I'm not sure how much of it I'd do. The Raynox could be fun to use occasionally but it seems to really get into it I'd also need a ring light, and/or a flash or dual flash, and a diffuser. I think I'll see how I get on with just the Raynox to start. My F1.4 primes might work well with natural light. But I suspect using my 70 to 350 F4.5 to 6.3 will be difficult to get good exposure without artificial light unless it's a really really sunny day.

But with your F2.8 macro lens, are you getting most macro shots without any flash?
Click to expand...

I rarely use flash as f2.8 is wide enough even on overcast days Lee

But I am an awesome photographer ha ha :) :).
 
Merlin5 said:
No problem Toby. :)



Very nice photo Les(y) I was youtubing about macro photography last night. I'm not sure how much of it I'd do. The Raynox could be fun to use occasionally but it seems to really get into it I'd also need a ring light, and/or a flash or dual flash, and a diffuser. I think I'll see how I get on with just the Raynox to start. My F1.4 primes might work well with natural light. But I suspect using my 70 to 350 F4.5 to 6.3 will be difficult to get good exposure without artificial light unless it's a really really sunny day.

But with your F2.8 macro lens, are you getting most macro shots without any flash?
Click to expand...

I use a close up filter which I suppose is Raynox on the cheap and maybe not as good... be aware that with these screw on options at close distanced DoF is very thin and although a f1.4 prime will allow you to get closer with a Raynox (or similar) you'll almost certainly be stopping down and without flash desperately battling against higher ISO's and/or falling shutter speeds to get deeper DoF.
 
Stephen L said:
Mine’s down since last night’s thunderstorm. With Plusnet. Luckily I can use phone as a hot-spot.
Click to expand...
Discovered last nights lightning had fried my router. Luckily I had a spare I had bought for a rainy day, and it’s all fine now.
 
woof woof said:
I use a close up filter which I suppose is Raynox on the cheap and maybe not as good... be aware that with these screw on options at close distanced DoF is very thin and although a f1.4 prime will allow you to get closer with a Raynox (or similar) you'll almost certainly be stopping down and without flash desperately battling against higher ISO's and/or falling shutter speeds to get deeper DoF.
Click to expand...

Not if you have an a7Riv you don't. Handling iso is what it does very well
 
Lez325 said:
Not if you have an a7Riv you don't. Handling iso is what it does very well
Click to expand...

That's the one thing I wish aps-c did better, higher ISO. My Canon is full frame and I suppose I could use that with the nifty fifty and the Raynox for some things, but I mostly want to use the Sony.
 
Merlin5 said:
That's the one thing I wish aps-c did better, higher ISO. My Canon is full frame and I suppose I could use that with the nifty fifty and the Raynox for some things, but I mostly want to use the Sony.
Click to expand...

your canon 5Dii unfortunately will be worst than the Sony A6600.
I did wonder why you kept the canon around. you'd be better off selling your canon stuff and buying a macro lens with the money.
Something like the laowa 65mm f2.8 which is small and goes to 2x magnification.
 
nandbytes said:
your canon 5Dii unfortunately will be worst than the Sony A6600.
I did wonder why you kept the canon around. you'd be better off selling your canon stuff and buying a macro lens with the money.
Something like the laowa 65mm f2.8 which is small and goes to 2x magnification.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I really should sell it, I've just been lazy and not bothered yet. Also keep thinking that one day I might put the Canon on the tripod for some landscape and make use of the full frame sensor but in all likelihood I probably won't. I'll Google some info on the laowa 65mm.
Do you reckon I could get around £500 for the Canon, 50 and Tamron 70 to 300 or a bit more?
 
Merlin5 said:
Yeah, I really should sell it, I've just been lazy and not bothered yet. Also keep thinking that one day I might put the Canon on the tripod for some landscape and make use of the full frame sensor but in all likelihood I probably won't. I'll Google some info on the laowa 65mm.
Do you reckon I could get around £500 for the Canon, 50 and Tamron 70 to 300 or a bit more?
Click to expand...

as for the laowa I'd start with Duntin Abbot, his reviews are a bit boring but very detailed (probably what it should be like tbh!)
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKtd4QoeplQ


I do not think canon has any benefit compared to A6600 for landscape. in fact A6600 has nearly 2 stops more dynamic range at base ISO with more pixels which is far more useful for landscapes.

not sure about the prices of older canon bodies tbh but for a FF setup £500 doesn't seem like a bad start.
 
5DII?

IMO just about anything will give a 5DII a fright. I'm pretty sure my MFT cameras are "better" or at least I think my MFT files are nicer to process and give better results. I would expect any modern APS-C camera to give a 5DII a fright. Not that it isn't a nice camera, but I just wouldn't be too worried about a modern APS-C camera being eclipsed by it.

I do like going out with a prime and having a close up filter for close up shots. The results will not be as good as a dedicated macro lens but could well be good enough and a Raynox should be better than a close up filter. Also, I do think that cropping is a good option as long as the file is still big enough for the final use.
 
Lez325 said:
Well I think it's does a good job to iso 5000
Click to expand...
It does perfectly fine compared to any other FF. The difference is so minimal that's not even worth worrying about. Any capable noise reduction software would deal with it easily.

Also noise pattern on A7RIV is much nicer to deal with than on older bodies. All in all its perfectly fine.
 
Last edited:
Anyone use Freewell filters, they have an Indiegogo campaign running which had me interested, but it was for the VND range which I don't really want. It did get me browsing their website and I'm thinking of getting a 3 filter kit..
 
MrMackyB said:
Anyone use Freewell filters, they have an Indiegogo campaign running which had me interested, but it was for the VND range which I don't really want. It did get me browsing their website and I'm thinking of getting a 3 filter kit..
Click to expand...
I did see them and were intriguing.
but I am bought into H&Y revo rings. can definitely recommend these.
 
nandbytes said:
It does perfectly fine compared to any other FF. The difference is so minimal that's not even worth worrying about. Any capable noise reduction software would deal with it easily.

Also noise pattern on A7RIV is much nicer to deal with than on older bodies. All in all its perfectly fine.
Click to expand...

Agreed :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top