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

woof woof said:
I'm p'd off. I bought a laptop from Currys but it died during setup, they're out of stock and are going to refund me, slowly, taking up to 14 days to do so.

Anyway. I'm having problems finding a 17" laptop of the same or better spec than the one I have with a built in DVD but there do seem to be some available without. Is there any big drawback to not having a built in DVD?

The biggie for me could be loading CS5 as I have it on DVD but looking at Adobe's site I think I can download it. Other than that my sister often gives me films on DVD that I have to play through my pc so I'll have to find another way to see them. The main thing though is being able to somehow load CS5.
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Cheaper/more expensive also available.
 
Thanks guys.

I'm just puzzling over the merits of HDD and SSD at the mo as many don't even have a HDD these days. I'm hoping to order something today or tomorrow as the screen on this one is jumping all over.

I'll update asap and thanks for the kind offer.
 
Love my new Wotancraft Pilot bag, it's beautiful. Real quality and is very well thought out. It's a really lovely colour and is actually darker than in my photos. It's waxed canvas and I like the sort of brushed velvet effect it has. A really nice touch is that the strap never gets tangled as you can see by the swively bit. The dividers are nice and firm and customisable and I can flip the top flap to protect the camera LCD. It has enough pockets and mesh bits including a secret pocket that a thief would struggle to know exists. The add on pouch comes with its own strap so can be used as a separate shoulder bag. And it takes my tripod with and without the cover. Plenty of space inside.


Wotancraft 18 by Merlin 5, on Flickr


Wotancraft 4 by Merlin 5, on Flickr


Wotancraft 16 by Merlin 5, on Flickr


Wotancraft 17 by Merlin 5, on Flickr


Wotancraft 10 by Merlin 5, on Flickr


Wotancraft 9 by Merlin 5, on Flickr


Wotancraft 3 by Merlin 5, on Flickr


Wotancraft 15 by Merlin 5, on Flickr
 
Nice.

I left my A7 at home today and just took my TZ100. Normal service will be resumed soon and the A7 will be in use again as I've got an old film era prime coming :D
 
woof woof said:
Thanks guys.

I'm just puzzling over the merits of HDD and SSD at the mo as many don't even have a HDD these days. I'm hoping to order something today or tomorrow as the screen on this one is jumping all over.

I'll update asap and thanks for the kind offer.
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SSD every time for main storage, HDD for backup.

If you're thinking about a 17" laptop that you'll never travel with then you could consider an all-in-one: https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/gr...s26082-using-code-at-dell-refurbished-3774763
 
ancient_mariner said:
SSD every time for main storage, HDD for backup.

If you're thinking about a 17" laptop that you'll never travel with then you could consider an all-in-one: https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/gr...s26082-using-code-at-dell-refurbished-3774763
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I've just ordered an Acer with 17" screen, i5, 8gb ram and a 1TB SSD. It seems to be a better spec than my current Samsung so hopefully it'll be ok and hopefully the screen wont jump about quite so much.

As I've said before, I used to be well up on this stuff, tech support and all... but I just haven't kept up and these days I have no interest in it so I find it hard to focus when I need to buy a new one. It might as well be a hand bag for all the interest I have in computers these days.
 
Barrysprout said:
In fact I'm sure I've got a Samsung external DVD recorder in a cupboard somewhere. It's a full size drive with power supply. If it's just for occasional use though it would do the job. If I can find it and you want it I'll put in freebies if you cover the postage.
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Thanks Barry but my nephew has one he's going to give me so you can save the hassle of boxing it up and posting it. Thanks again though for the offer.
 
woof woof said:
I've just ordered an Acer with 17" screen, i5, 8gb ram and a 1TB SSD. It seems to be a better spec than my current Samsung so hopefully it'll be ok and hopefully the screen wont jump about quite so much.

As I've said before, I used to be well up on this stuff, tech support and all... but I just haven't kept up and these days I have no interest in it so I find it hard to focus when I need to buy a new one. It might as well be a hand bag for all the interest I have in computers these days.
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I used to build PC's and do a bit of repair work many years ago ... not built one for probably 15 years or more though.

Was having a nosey through the sales section this afternoon and nearly fell out of my chair when I saw a post from someone selling a used graphics card ,,,, £680 ..... :eek: ..... I wouldn't spend that on a new laptop.
 
Mike.P said:
I used to build PC's and do a bit of repair work many years ago ... not built one for probably 15 years or more though.

Was having a nosey through the sales section this afternoon and nearly fell out of my chair when I saw a post from someone selling a used graphics card ,,,, £680 ..... :eek: ..... I wouldn't spend that on a new laptop.
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Have you looked at the *selling* price of cards recently? I have a pre-order in for an RTX3060 from Overclockers for £380, and a few founders edition cards at RRP came & went within a few minutes at Scan today. It's getting better, but high end cards are crazy prices. The 2080 in the classifieds is a 3 year old design that can still perform well, but should be about half the price it's selling for right now, if it weren't for the crazy situation.
 
woof woof said:
I'm p'd off. I bought a laptop from Currys but it died during setup, they're out of stock and are going to refund me, slowly, taking up to 14 days to do so.
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They'll probably make a little interest on that
 
ancient_mariner said:
Have you looked at the *selling* price of cards recently? I have a pre-order in for an RTX3060 from Overclockers for £380, and a few founders edition cards at RRP came & went within a few minutes at Scan today. It's getting better, but high end cards are crazy prices. The 2080 in the classifieds is a 3 year old design that can still perform well, but should be about half the price it's selling for right now, if it weren't for the crazy situation.
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I keep looking but I don't upgrade for the same reason. Plus I'd probably not see a great difference in speed
 
dcash29 said:
They'll probably make a little interest on that
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Good luck to them if they can, I'm getting next to nothing these days. Years back I was getting more interest in a building society than my monthly wage but those days are maybe gone forever.
 
At Cadwell Park tomorrow if any of you fancy a racing event. It’s side cars etc
 
I found this mildly interesting...

fstoppers.com

3 Forgotten Camera and Lens Features I Wish Manufacturers Would Bring Back

Modern cameras and lenses are small marvels of consumer technology, and over the years, we have seen all sorts of features come and go along the journey to today's products. Here are three features that never quite caught on that I wish would come back. 1. Push-Pull Zooms The original Canon EF...
fstoppers.com fstoppers.com

I have a push pull zoom but I don't like it, I prefer the twisty ones.

Other than that.

For modern AF lenses I miss end stops and lens markings.
 
woof woof said:
I found this mildly interesting...

fstoppers.com

3 Forgotten Camera and Lens Features I Wish Manufacturers Would Bring Back

Modern cameras and lenses are small marvels of consumer technology, and over the years, we have seen all sorts of features come and go along the journey to today's products. Here are three features that never quite caught on that I wish would come back. 1. Push-Pull Zooms The original Canon EF...
fstoppers.com fstoppers.com

I have a push pull zoom but I don't like it, I prefer the twisty ones.

Other than that.

For modern AF lenses I miss end stops and lens markings.
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I will admit I do so much prefer real manual focus compared to this focus by wire stuff!!!

But push/pull.... The Contax 80-200 is push/pull & I don't mind it tbh - In all honesty, I'm not using it regular though.
 
I only use my 70-210mm push pull about once a year, if that, but I usually fully extend it (that's where I always use it) before I mount it on the camera.

I do quite fancy that cheap 50mm f1.4 as I've wanted a modern 50mm f1.x manual lens for a while and it'd make a change from the Voigtlander 35mm f1.4. I do have the 40mm f1.2 and 50mm f2 though and should really settle for those. That'd be the sensible thing. Spending more on another 50mm would just be silly.

The sample pictures do look ok to me.

PS.
It seems to have a quite long minimum focus distance though.
 
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Lez325 said:
Still in love with my combo Sony a7Riv + Sony FE 200-600mm

DSC00688 Just shake the water off this by Les Moxon, on Flickr


Les :)
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Looking like a good combination, Les. I'm still seriously considering selling my a7R3 & a6600 kit and getting the R4. At the moment I have 3 kits - a7c, a7R3 & a6600.
I'd then have the a7R4 and use the a7c for trekking and trips away in the moho where we have to travel light.
 
Mike.P said:
To be honest I have had one in my basket for a couple of weeks but I am still struggling with the 24MP on the A9.
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Try gigapixel AI may be?
It's no substitute for a proper high res body but if you have captured good amount of detail after cropping it does a good job of upscaling.
 
Mike.P said:
To be honest I have had one in my basket for a couple of weeks but I am still struggling with the 24MP on the A9.
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I thought that moving from the A7RIV to the A9ii but I've found that the A9ii crops really well and I haven't missed that extra MP half as much as I thought I would. YMMV
nandbytes said:
Try gigapixel AI may be?
It's no substitute for a proper high res body but if you have captured good amount of detail after cropping it does a good job of upscaling.
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I tried gigapixel but found PS upscaling to be on par so would just use that if I ever need to.
 
snerkler said:
I tried gigapixel but found PS upscaling to be on par so would just use that if I ever need to.
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I didn't find that to be the case, though I believe more recently PS have updated their upscaling algorithms to be better than they were when I bought gigapixel.
Might be worth going back and re-evaluating both I guess.
Plus topaz changed their business model which wasn't great tbh. I didn't like thier approach.
I do like Denoise though....
 
nandbytes said:
I didn't find that to be the case, though I believe more recently PS have updated their upscaling algorithms to be better than they were when I bought gigapixel.
Might be worth going back and re-evaluating both I guess.
Plus topaz changed their business model which wasn't great tbh. I didn't like thier approach.
I do like Denoise though....
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I've no idea what their model is tbh, but all I did in PS was increase the image size and for me this gave me pretty much the same results as gigapixel. I did think gigapixel was going to be better than it is.
 
snerkler said:
I've no idea what their model is tbh, but all I did in PS was increase the image size and for me this gave me pretty much the same results as gigapixel. I did think gigapixel was going to be better than it is.
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I'll try both and report back :)
 
Trouble is I am cropping 70/80% a lot of the time to get the framing I want, when I do it with the 7D MKII I obviously get a lot more MP to play with and even the K-1 with 36MP FF gives my 1/3rd more (although that's a mute point most of the time because it struggles to track a snail never mind BIF)

As an example this was one from this morning, it's a 70% crop and tbh I would have gone in a lot more if shooting with the 7D II but it totally falls apart if I go closer with the A9 file.

Tried Gigapixel and it really doesn't help, are you supposed to use it on the RAW file before editing or the jpeg after?

DSC02110_Jpg by Michael Pursey, on Flickr
 
Mike.P said:
To be honest I have had one in my basket for a couple of weeks but I am still struggling with the 24MP on the A9.
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This is massively cropped from the A9 and 200-600. Probably 80%+. Holds up pretty well When viewed at full quality. I think the forum upload makes it look worse than it is. Yes I’d like more resolution too, but I’d rather have blackout free shooting, 20fps and amazing AF.


AB16397A-94C2-4156-8681-B101D9FCCC65.jpeg
 
Mike.P said:
Trouble is I am cropping 70/80% a lot of the time to get the framing I want, when I do it with the 7D MKII I obviously get a lot more MP to play with and even the K-1 with 36MP FF gives my 1/3rd more (although that's a mute point most of the time because it struggles to track a snail never mind BIF)

As an example this was one from this morning, it's a 70% crop and tbh I would have gone in a lot more if shooting with the 7D II but it totally falls apart if I go closer with the A9 file.

Tried Gigapixel and it really doesn't help, are you supposed to use it on the RAW file before editing or the jpeg after?

DSC02110_Jpg by Michael Pursey, on Flickr
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Are you saying you can crop more heavily with the 7Dii than you can with the A9? If so that doesn’t sound right, FF should crop better than APS-C. I can get useable images with a 1:1 crop on the A9ii, depending on the lens used of course (y)
 
Shooting erroneously in crop mode seems to be a common theme for me with my Sony cameras. This time I was trying out my new to me 400mm F2.8 GM for the first time. I must have twisted the ring in front of the focus ring and activated crop mode. I did wonder about how tight players seemed at the half way line. Still came away with some good shots despite being out of practice with sports photography and new to shooting it on the Sonys. The 400mm F2.8 is amazing and at least as good as I thought it would be.
Lismore v Ross High by Simon Wootton, on Flickr
 
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Mike.P said:
Trouble is I am cropping 70/80% a lot of the time to get the framing I want, when I do it with the 7D MKII I obviously get a lot more MP to play with and even the K-1 with 36MP FF gives my 1/3rd more (although that's a mute point most of the time because it struggles to track a snail never mind BIF)
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As an ex Pentaxian for more years than I care to count, this made me laugh in wry sort of way.
Having said that, I still love all my Pentax glass, will never get rid of them even though I struggle with manual focus sometimes now..
 
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