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

[gman]

Here's one... with example pictures...

Electronic Shutters, Banding & Solving the problem - John Platt

Mirrorless cameras offer both mechanical and Electronic Shutters. It's important to understand and solve the issues electronic shutters can cause.

johnplatt.com.au

Here 1/50 and 1/100 look ok but 1/200 looks horrid.

Make of that what you will.

If things settle down here I might do my own tests, just for fun

Mine wasn't really like any of the examples, it was more like a single giant dark band coming down from the top to the bottom and repeating - just the one dark band though. I'm struggling to find anything similar online as they all look more "frequency like" if you know what I mean? lol

 

[woof woof]

I hope you can find a way around it Graham.

 

[gman]

I hope you can find a way around it Graham.

Thanks. I hope it's not the camera or else I'll be forced to look at a new model...

 

[woof woof]

As an Xperia owner anyway, Id be up for this...
However Sony phones are very expensive so I would have to wait and see what the price is...

I'm using one one of my sisters gave me. Some sort of old Samsung. It's in a lovely sparkly girly case too but for some reason Mrs WW cringes when I use it in public.

 

[nandbytes]

As an Xperia owner anyway, Id be up for this...
However Sony phones are very expensive so I would have to wait and see what the price is...

I will need a new phone at some point anyway.... just haven't been keen on anything available at the moment.
There was a sharp phone with 1" sensor that came out only in Japan it seems.
Looking forward to this sony phone assuming its priced closer to £500 than £1000

 

[JohnMcL7]

Panasonic offered a 1in phone as well although it didn't review well as the phone wasn't great, the lens was a bit slower and added bulk. The current Sony flagship (not the one with the hdmi capture) is £1200 so I'd expect one with a 1in sensor to be £1500+ at least.

I'd be quite interested in giving it a go but I bought a Fold 2 earlier this year which I find fantastic.

 

[nandbytes]

Panasonic offered a 1in phone as well although it didn't review well as the phone wasn't great, the lens was a bit slower and added bulk. The current Sony flagship (not the one with the hdmi capture) is £1200 so I'd expect one with a 1in sensor to be £1500+ at least.

I'd be quite interested in giving it a go but I bought a Fold 2 earlier this year which I find fantastic.

DMC-CM1, I had one. It was a proper brick of a phone.
I enjoyed it but lacked any support from panasonic. Also a bit big for my liking. The lens wasn't as good as the one in Sony.

 

[MrMackyB]

Panasonic offered a 1in phone as well although it didn't review well as the phone wasn't great, the lens was a bit slower and added bulk. The current Sony flagship (not the one with the hdmi capture) is £1200 so I'd expect one with a 1in sensor to be £1500+ at least.

I'd be quite interested in giving it a go but I bought a Fold 2 earlier this year which I find fantastic.

You can get some good deals, I think my Xperia 1 ii cost me around £670 after I sold the headphones that they gave away with it. I did look at the fold 2, it looked a nice bit of kit..

 

[robj20]

As an Xperia owner anyway, Id be up for this...
However Sony phones are very expensive so I would have to wait and see what the price is...

Not had a Sony phone for a very long, I'd be very interested in it.

 

[gman]

I'm still rocking a Sony XZ Premium and even the battery is still great. Brilliant high resolution screen and great reliability. I don't know what I'll replace it with when the time comes.

 

[wookie6262]

I'm still working away trying to get FTP to work the way I want it to. Is it possible to FTP all images I mark as protected over to my phone automatically. I can get it to do it with a batch but that means I have to press a few buttons, I know what a hardship. I can also get it to do every image but that isn't practical for me at a sporting event and I would have to sort through those I liked anyway so it defeats the purpose of marking them.

The other issue I am finding is that it keeps sending RAW files. I set the camera up, A9 so it shoots RAW on card 1 and jpeg on card 2. I choose card 2 to display and do an FTP transfer and all is well. I take a shot or series of shots and the play switches to slot 1 again so that the next FTP transfer is a RAW file. Total pain and I have tried every combination before just writing both RAW and JPEG to slot 1. It was easily solved on the A9 II as both slots read quickly so I just wrote the jpegs to slot 1. I must be missing something but for the life of me I can't see what it is.

I can muddle through but I'd love to just wait for a break in play and all the images I had marked as protected would be there on my phone ready to tweet or stick on Facebook etc.

 

[nandbytes]

nikon Z9 specs leaked by Nikon India (this is what happens when you take the p*** with teasers for teasers, pre-pre-annoucements, pre-teaser-annoucements etc etc etc)

Nikon India leaks Z9 promo video revealing 8K/60p video, 120fps capture, 20fps Raw continuous shooting and more

The leak was posted to Nikon India's YouTube channel, but was quickly removed. The slides in the video suggest the Z9 might have more power behind it than Nikon has so far led us to believe.

www.dpreview.com

But looks like a serious piece of kit and really good. shame about the bloated body though.

 

[snerkler]

nikon Z9 specs leaked by Nikon India (this is what happens when you take the p*** with teasers for teasers, pre-pre-annoucements, pre-teaser-annoucements etc etc etc)

Nikon India leaks Z9 promo video revealing 8K/60p video, 120fps capture, 20fps Raw continuous shooting and more

The leak was posted to Nikon India's YouTube channel, but was quickly removed. The slides in the video suggest the Z9 might have more power behind it than Nikon has so far led us to believe.

www.dpreview.com

But looks like a serious piece of kit and really good. shame about the bloated body though.

It has to be a serious bit of kit, it can't afford to be half baked. I'm sure they'll make a good job of it though

 

[nandbytes]

It has to be a serious bit of kit, it can't afford to be half baked. I'm sure they'll make a good job of it though

Indeed, it's good to see them going all out but I still get the feeling they are bit late. They shouldn't have wasted time on the D780, £10K lens for F-mount etc. That really wasted effort and I think it's lost them valuable time.
Only time will tell....

 

[rob-nikon]

I haven't seen that video but I have seen others and read discussions which seem to show that matching the mains frequency can help but the previous poster was using a multiple of 50 and still had an issue. So what is the case? I don't know. As I said above I have seen banding with my Panasonic cameras but decided that I wouldn't bother trying to get rid of it as I don't want to spend too much time faffing on with shutter speeds so I just use the mechanical shutter if I think lighting is going to be an issue.

With fairgrounds it’s likely they are using 3 phase generators. If lights are on different phases (probably quite likely) I’m not sure the multiple of 50 solution would work. If lights are on different phases they could be on different sections of the AC wave. The quantity of lights operating is likely to change very rapidly. My guess is it’s a sensor reading issue and probably coupled with rapidly changing lighting.

 

[gman]

Here's a strip from Lightroom which I've shrunk so as to show a longer sequence.

You can see how large the black bar is which would scan downwards and is quite different from many of the examples which show multiple bars across the whole screen. Also, there are frames amongst it with no black bar (3, 6 and 10)

This is at 1/400, When I reduced the shutter speed to 1/250 the black bar was pretty much just as big but it was more transparent, so appeared a little smaller as well.

 

[woof woof]

With fairgrounds it’s likely they are using 3 phase generators. If lights are on different phases (probably quite likely) I’m not sure the multiple of 50 solution would work. If lights are on different phases they could be on different sections of the AC wave. The quantity of lights operating is likely to change very rapidly. My guess is it’s a sensor reading issue and probably coupled with rapidly changing lighting.

Yup. I mention larger venues and three phase above.

 

[woof woof]

Just on the subject of mains voltage and back when I was a sparky.

H&S wasn't as hot then as it is now (and even I did H&S & risk assessments in another career) and we sometimes did things no one would do now. I was once climbing up the side of a metal cage to get access to something higher up when I began to lose my grip/footing and put my right hand out to steady myself. Unfortunately my hand went straight into an open distribution box and I grabbed a busbar. The first thing I noticed was that my left hand which was gripping the metal cage started to twitch and the next thing I noticed was a funny taste in my mouth I suppose as my saliva started to boil. At that point I realised what was happening and managed to let go of everything. I fell off the side of the cage but (obviously) I lived

Happy days

 

[snerkler]

Here's a strip from Lightroom which I've shrunk so as to show a longer sequence.

You can see how large the black bar is which would scan downwards and is quite different from many of the examples which show multiple bars across the whole screen. Also, there are frames amongst it with no black bar (3, 6 and 10)

This is at 1/400, When I reduced the shutter speed to 1/250 the black bar was pretty much just as big but it was more transparent, so appeared a little smaller as well.


View attachment 334116

It’s likely it’s due to fairground lights flashing as opposed to constant light giving you banding problems more associated with what you see when using flash.

 

[gman]

Yup. I mention larger venues and three phase above.

I've got access to a place with three phase that runs LED floodlights, big tungsten ceiling ones and fluorescent lamp strips. I'll go do some tests and see what happens, although I've taken lots of photos there with my phone and never had a problem?

 

[gman]

It’s likely it’s due to fairground lights flashing as opposed to constant light giving you banding problems more associated with what you see when using flash.

How would flashing cause this issue though? Or is it the combination of flashing and say three phase which has made it a super black band? lol

 

[snerkler]

How would flashing cause this issue though? Or is it the combination of flashing and say three phase which has made it a super black band? lol

I'm only hypothesising as without being able to test in that situation I can't say for sure. However, the principle of why you get banding with flash is because the flash is quicker than the scan time, meaning that the light of the flash is on for part of the sensor scan and not for the other part. If the lights at the fairground flashed on and off faster than the sensor scan (but slower than the natural flicker of the LED) it could cause banding at that phase the light is off. Depending how long the light is off and where about in the sensor scan it occurs would determine where in the frame and how big the banding would be.

 

[woof woof]

24mm f1.8 Viltrox on the rumor site.

Sony Tidbits… | sonyalpharumors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYOF_e16vCo Viltrox 24mm 1.8 Review // Forget SONY & SIGMA!? Does Sony's a7S III Cut It as a Stills Camera? (Hugh Brownstone). Wedding Photography with the Sony FE 50mm F1.2 GM Lens | #BeAlpha Live Replays Tamron 11-20mm test at DC.watch. Recommended Cameras for...

www.sonyalpharumors.com

Direct to the review on Youtube.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYOF_e16vCo

 

[woof woof]

I've just bought the Sony 24mm f2.8 G.

It's compact and light and seems to be well made. The aperture ring is quite stiff so shouldn't move accidentally too easily and even the clickless option seems stiff enough to use in hand if it's not to be relied upon when the camera is going in and out of a bag. Oh, and the aperture markings line up with the little marker perfectly when going in both directions, unlike with my 20mm f1.8. The switch is in an awkward position for me and I kept fiddling when trying to use it with the camera to my eye but I doubt I'll be using it clickless so I'm not bothered. There are plenty of reviews and what I've seen so far seems in line with what I've seen online. It's fast and accurate to focus even on my creaking old A7 and it is IMO sharp into the corners from f2.8 and very sharp indeed anywhere you'd put a main subject or indeed over the vast majority of the frame. There is vignetting but IMO it's not epic, and there's significant barrel distortion for a modern lens but the corrections correct all this very well should the need arise to apply them, I don't think they will always be needed though this depends on the composition and your preferences. It focuses quite close and even closer when you switch to manual focus and it seems to resist flaring and ghosts very well. All in all despite the barrel distortion I think it is a very good lens.

As things are difficult at home at the moment I haven't been able to go out with it and all I've managed is to do a decentering check, it's very good, and take some pictures around the house and garden.

I already have the 20mm f1.8 but I fancied this lens as it's compact and light and I quite like a 24 and 35 or 50mm as a two set lens to take out and this lens will go very well with the also compact Sony 35mm f2.8.

PS.
The bokeh seems quite nice for a 24mm too.

 

[Deleted sulking member 63079]

I've just bought the Sony 24mm f2.8 G.

It's compact and light and seems to be well made. The aperture ring is quite stiff so shouldn't move accidentally too easily and even the clickless option seems stiff enough to use in hand if it's not to be relied upon when the camera is going in and out of a bag. Oh, and the aperture markings line up with the little marker perfectly when going in both directions, unlike with my 20mm f1.8. The switch is in an awkward position for me and I kept fiddling when trying to use it with the camera to my eye but I doubt I'll be using it clickless so I'm not bothered. There are plenty of reviews and what I've seen so far seems in line with what I've seen online. It's fast and accurate to focus even on my creaking old A7 and it is IMO sharp into the corners from f2.8 and very sharp indeed anywhere you'd put a main subject or indeed over the vast majority of the frame. There is vignetting but IMO it's not epic, and there's significant barrel distortion for a modern lens but the corrections correct all this very well should the need arise to apply them, I don't think they will always be needed though this depends on the composition and your preferences. It focuses quite close and even closer when you switch to manual focus and it seems to resist flaring and ghosts very well. All in all despite the barrel distortion I think it is a very good lens.

As things are difficult at home at the moment I haven't been able to go out with it and all I've managed is to do a decentering check, it's very good, and take some pictures around the house and garden.

I already have the 20mm f1.8 but I fancied this lens as it's compact and light and I quite like a 24 and 35 or 50mm as a two set lens to take out and this lens will go very well with the also compact Sony 35mm f2.8.

PS.
The bokeh seems quite nice for a 24mm too.

Turning the click off is for video so you can smoothly move between apertures, so no need to use it if you're only taking photos anyway.

 

[woof woof]

Turning the click off is for video so you can smoothly move between apertures, so no need to use it if you're only taking photos anyway.

I might just know this.

But the clickless option may be useful to stills shooters who are a bit OTT about these things for example even a small amount of "click" action jolt can affect you when focusing close and deciding you want to stop down a bit as a tiny movement can throw your positioning and focus off.

 

[Deleted sulking member 63079]

I might just know this.

But the clickless option may be useful to stills shooters who are a bit OTT about these things for example even a small amount of "click" action jolt can affect you when focusing close and deciding you want to stop down a bit as a tiny movement can throw your positioning and focus off.

Also in effect allows part-apertures, as the blades close continually throughout the turn So does have some advantages for photos as you say.

 

[woof woof]

Also in effect allows part-apertures, as the blades close continually throughout the turn So does have some advantages for photos as you say.

I looked at the part apertures but I'm not sure it matters so much with this lens as there are already plenty of mid stop stops. I haven't had a lot of time with it but my initial thought is that there's not a lot if anything to gain from declicking the aperture stop/midstop wise but the smoothness of operating could be useful for someone like me who may use the lens for the odd detail shot and even use it with a close up filter and of course when doing this DoF is very thin even with a 24mm so stability can become an issue when shooting handheld.

 

[LeeRatters]

Also in effect allows part-apertures, as the blades close continually throughout the turn So does have some advantages for photos as you say.

When I used to use the Samyang 24/1.4 for astro I used to set it in between apertures anyway as I didn't want the next full stop

 

[woof woof]

Just a few test pictures.

1/60, f2.8 and ISO 2,500.

100% from that.

There's noise in this one but it was taken at ISO 10,000.

I was holding the camera low and tilting it upwards, as you can see with the verticals, but distortion isn't an issue (for me) with the corrections applied.

 

[woof woof]

As it's quiet...

A7 and Sony 24mm f2.8 at f2.8.

At f2.8 it's too sharp to post a 100% crop including your partners face

I hope the sharpness survives the posting process. Sharpness isn't really a reason to buy this lens but at least it'll be sharp enough for whatever I want.

 

[woof woof]

Tamron 35-150mm f2.8...

Tamron 35-150mm Reviewed by Matt Granger and Chris Turner | sonyalpharumors

The new Tamron 35-150mm lens will start shipping out this week on October 29 at BHphoto. Adorama. Fotokoch DE. Foto Erhardt DE. Wex UK. Park UK. Matt Granger posted the full review of this lens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIl77L9iLWo And here is Chris Turners review...

www.sonyalpharumors.com

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIl77L9iLWo

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyIKyY5tAJc

 

[LeeRatters]

Had anyone got the recent ish Sigma 35mm f/2?

 

[woof woof]

I probably would have got one but from what I've read and seen it's not worth getting one to replace my Sony f1.8. The Sigma does look physically very nice though.

 

[gman]

I'm only hypothesising as without being able to test in that situation I can't say for sure. However, the principle of why you get banding with flash is because the flash is quicker than the scan time, meaning that the light of the flash is on for part of the sensor scan and not for the other part. If the lights at the fairground flashed on and off faster than the sensor scan (but slower than the natural flicker of the LED) it could cause banding at that phase the light is off. Depending how long the light is off and where about in the sensor scan it occurs would determine where in the frame and how big the banding would be.

Ah now I see! Thanks for explaining that.

 

[woof woof]

I'm impressed with the build, handling, focus and IQ of the Sony 24mm f2.8 and although I have the 35mm f2.8 I do keep looking at the 40 and 50mm f2.5 G's, but of course only one would make sense.

These lenses also made me think of the f4 or there abouts primes that were the smaller and cheaper options some time ago although these new G's aren't exactly cheap.

I do think they are attractive for anyone wanting a small well made lens with good image quality for when f1.x isn't a priority.

Anyone tempted?

 

[Matt.]

Does anyone have any thoughts on good lenses options for hiking where size/weight is important. I've used a 5Dmk2 and 24-105 F/4 for years but it died and I wanted to go a little smaller and newer so have a A7 IV on order.

24-105 F/4 is pushing it size wise, but I may still try it.
24-70 F/4 is a good size but quality doesn't seem great. It might be worth a compromise though.
24mm F2.8 is interesting as a small option.
24mm F1.4 is interesting as a mid size/weight option of high quality.

A little zoom is useful but it's quite tempting to look at primes for those days where I want to carry a smaller setup.

Build quality is important to me as the kit will be used and abused whilst out hiking. Protecting it perfectly is not realistic.

I might take my old setup to a shop and compare size/weight of some of these options.

 

[woof woof]

There's always the long existing Sony 35mm f2.8.

 

[snerkler]

I'm impressed with the build, handling, focus and IQ of the Sony 24mm f2.8 and although I have the 35mm f2.8 I do keep looking at the 40 and 50mm f2.5 G's, but of course only one would make sense.

These lenses also made me think of the f4 or there abouts primes that were the smaller and cheaper options some time ago although these new G's aren't exactly cheap.

I do think they are attractive for anyone wanting a small well made lens with good image quality for when f1.x isn't a priority.

Anyone tempted?

I'm not tempted no. I tend to be a zoom shooter primarily and if I use primes I use them for their subject isolation so want f1.8 or faster.

Does anyone have any thoughts on good lenses options for hiking where size/weight is important. I've used a 5Dmk2 and 24-105 F/4 for years but it died and I wanted to go a little smaller and newer so have a A7 IV on order.

24-105 F/4 is pushing it size wise, but I may still try it.
24-70 F/4 is a good size but quality doesn't seem great. It might be worth a compromise though.
24mm F2.8 is interesting as a small option.
24mm F1.4 is interesting as a mid size/weight option of high quality.

A little zoom is useful but it's quite tempting to look at primes for those days where I want to carry a smaller setup.

Build quality is important to me as the kit will be used and abused whilst out hiking. Protecting it perfectly is not realistic.

I might take my old setup to a shop and compare size/weight of some of these options.

It's always a compromise unfortunately. I have both the 24-70mm f4 and the 24-105mm f4, the latter is definitely the better lens. That being said I've found the 24-70mm better than reports had me believe and am happy with the results. I do tend to opt for the 24-105mm though, and if I want wider then the 16-35mm f4.

 

[snerkler]

The Z9 looks impressive. A few bold statements stood out for me; 1) The world's best AF, 2) The first truly blackout free shooting, and 3) Fastest scan time

1 is a bold claim and I'm not sure how you go about proving such a claim, but the second is interesting. On my A9-II I can't tell that extra frames are added to make up for the blackout, but. I'm interested try a truly blackout free to see what that's like. I wonder if this is somehow linked to 3), and if so it suggests we're getting close to a global shutter?