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

woof woof said:
My oldest car is my 2001 MX5. We went to Saltburn in it recently and there was a horrible rattle from the back on the way home. I thought the exhaust internals had fallen apart but when I looked it was the heat shield which had rusted and disintegrated, it crumbled to the touch. It's going in for a new one on Friday.
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Oh, knocks and rattles and noise is the norm! :ROFLMAO:

Can't really hear much else aside from those things!
 
snerkler said:
I found tracking in the Tamron fine except for dogs running fast towards the camera, but every lens I’ve had struggles with this, although the 70-200mm f2.8 GM II has been the best. When I say struggles, I mean a hit rate under 90%.

I’ve seen several reports of the 70-200mm GM having AF issues though, I think both Manny and Jared reported a couple of issues. Nothing to get unduly concerned about I don’t believe, just not perfect.
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I saw Manny’s issue with back focusing, it was another one of his videos that I saw the tracking success at
View: https://youtu.be/SVgwkuZUWGQ
 
imattersuk said:
Don't rule out the Sony 70-200 f4, do you really need f2.8 ? It's a very underrated lens, plenty of examples on flickr to study, could be worth going for a mint used one to see how you get on with the 70-200 range. The Mk1 f2.8 really isn't very good, focus issues and it's not only heavy but very unbalanced. I can walk around for hours with the A7IV and 70-200 f4 or f2.8 Mk II on a wrist strap holding it with 2 fingers. Kind of regret selling the f4 as it was fantastic bang for buck.
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That might be worth checking out, particularly if combined with the 85 1.4. I also noticed that it’s included in the Sony summer cash back offer with £200 cash back, so a new one might be comparable to used prices.
 
Pandster1981 said:
Interested in opinions - I’m thinking of buying a 70-200 f2.8, and want to stick to Sony lenses.

I mainly shoot portraits, a bit of sport, and the rest landscapes and family photography.

I can either sell my 85mm gm and get the 70-200 gm ii, or keep the 85mm gm and get the 70-200 gm i.

What would you do?
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Everyone will have a different opinion, personally for me I would much prefer the 85mm f/1.4 for portraits, family photography etc. While a 70-200 because of compression can have a nice look I shoot wide open a lot and there is quite a big difference between f/1.4 and f/2.8.

70-200mm would be a more versatile option for sport.

I wouldn't personally be buying the original 70-200mm at this point, their would be a strong argument for saying that the Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 which is a fair bit cheaper is a better lens.

If it was me and I thought I needed a 70-200 I would probably just wait until I could just buy the 70-200 GMII without having to sacrifice the 85mm.

I have the Tamron 70-180mm can't really fault it, although to be fair I have used it on only a handful of occasions.

I see someone mentioned the 70-200 f/4, I had that lens for a while, wasn't personally impressed with it. A.F is a bit pedestrian, image quality is okay, the Tamron beats it hands down for both. The 70-200 f/4 is being replaced soon as well with a new model.
 
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snerkler said:
I'd hope a mechanic would know what it is :oops: :$
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I'm not so sure. At the moment I'm using a small family owned garage manned by men who all look like they should have retired years ago. I think they might know the ins and outs of a Morris Minor but I'm not so sure about newer stuff and mods.

Only kidding. I'm sure they'll know (typed with fingers crossed.)
 
nandbytes said:
Depends on your budget of course but I consider laowa macro lenses to be fun since they can do 2x macro.
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I’m liking the look of the Laowa 65mm 2x Macro, I see that it has no electrical contacts does the camera need to be put in a certain setting to release the shutter? Also, will focus aids (peaking, zoom etc) still work?

Edit: scrap that, I think the 65mm is APS-C
 
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snerkler said:
I’m liking the look of the Laowa 65mm 2x Macro, I see that it has no electrical contacts does the camera need to be put in a certain setting to release the shutter? Also, will focus aids (peaking, zoom etc) still work?
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The camera and lens work as normal but you don't get aperture settings in the exif.
 
snerkler said:
I’m liking the look of the Laowa 65mm 2x Macro, I see that it has no electrical contacts does the camera need to be put in a certain setting to release the shutter? Also, will focus aids (peaking, zoom etc) still work?

Edit: scrap that, I think the 65mm is APS-C
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You need to enable "release without lens" setting because as far as the camera is concerned there's no lens mounted.

Peaking, magnification etc will all work.

You basically have a MF lens with no EXIF.

They recently released a 90mm f2.8 macro and 85mm f5.6 macro for mirrorless.

The 85mm f5.6 is really interesting since it does 2x macro plus you'll need to stop down a lot for macro any way. So it's a small lens made mainly for macro shooting.
 
woof woof said:
The camera and lens work as normal but you don't get aperture settings in the exif.
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Thanks, just looked and apparently auto zoom doesn't work so I'd need to access this manually.
nandbytes said:
You need to enable "release without lens" setting because as far as the camera is concerned there's no lens mounted.

Peaking, magnification etc will all work.

You basically have a MF lens with no EXIF.

They recently released a 90mm f2.8 macro and 85mm f5.6 macro for mirrorless.

The 85mm f5.6 is really interesting since it does 2x macro plus you'll need to stop down a lot for macro any way. So it's a small lens made mainly for macro shooting.
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I saw the 85mm but the f5.6 did put me off as I thought it could be a multipurpose lens, albeit primarily macro.
 
snerkler said:
Thanks, just looked and apparently auto zoom doesn't work so I'd need to access this manually.
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Yes, if there's no coms between the camera and lens the camera doesn't know you're turning the focus ring. I have mine set to the centre button on the back. Pressing it calls up the focus square and you can move it about and pressing it again calls up the magnified view.

My Voigtlanders have coms but a lot of manual lenses don't. None of my Chinese lenses have it. It's no biggie imo.
 
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snerkler said:
Seems cheap.
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I find LCE's pricing all over the place, each store seems to price them slightly differently. I've seen a 24GM for £750, but now most are £900-1k, I got my A7R3 for £899, not seen one lower than £1200 since. I've seen a boxed, mint X-Pro2 for £600, but today a really bad condition one turned up for also £600.

Sometimes you get lucky, but they go quick when they are that cheap. That lens is probably gone by now, as to get it, you need to send a message to request the link, and the 1st person who send that message in, gets 1st dibs. As they are now closed now for business for the night until 9am tomorrow. It is almost certain you won't be the 1st one now if you message in at 7pm when that went online at around 4pm.

I once sent a message in 5mins after a Fuji body that has been converted to IR selling at £99....but it was already spoken for. I thought that would be too niche and I had a chance but nope!
 
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Bristol LCE does seem to be consistently cheaper than the other branches for some reason.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I have noticed this too! that £600 X-Pro2 was from there, my A7R3 was from there as well.
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Maybe they work on higher volume / smaller margins. I think the managers have a lot of autonomy, it's an employee owned company.
 
When they send a link they also take it off the website for the same amount of time so it gives the person wanting to buy first refusal in a way. I have always found them very open to an offer (except the Strand store) and have had a good few bargains from different branches.
 
Very tempting. I wonder why it's cheap.

I've probably asked this before but I can't remember.

Can you include ISO's lower than 100 in auto ISO on later bodies?

With my A7 I can't so I have to remember to switch to ISO 50 manually if hitting the max shutter speed.

Oh and that's another thing. I hope Sony include higher ISO settings on future cameras even if only with the electronic shutter.
 
woof woof said:
Very tempting. I wonder why it's cheap.

I've probably asked this before but I can't remember.

Can you include ISO's lower than 100 in auto ISO on later bodies?

With my A7 I can't so I have to remember to switch to ISO 50 manually if hitting the max shutter speed.

Oh and that's another thing. I hope Sony include higher ISO settings on future cameras even if only with the electronic shutter.
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I don't think you can on the Riii. Unless it's an electronic shutter thing rather than auto ISO...?

Not a scenario that I've ever had happen to me though I don't think, so not something I worry about or take notice of. Since getting the Riii I am either at 100 on a tripod or auto handheld generally so ISO normally wants to go up rather than down. And tbh, I don't often take any notice of what ISO it picks....!

I was editing some sunset village walkabout stuff the other week. One particular image was exposed nicely, looked good, I think I darkened the sky as was shooting a house into the sunset, lifted the shadows I expect. And it wasn't until much later, even after going in 100% for general editing, that I even noticed it was at ISO 2500 the image looked that good and clean.
 
LeeRatters said:
I don't think you can on the Riii. Unless it's an electronic shutter thing rather than auto ISO...?

Not a scenario that I've ever had happen to me though I don't think, so not something I worry about or take notice of. Since getting the Riii I am either at 100 on a tripod or auto handheld generally so ISO normally wants to go up rather than down. And tbh, I don't often take any notice of what ISO it picks....!

I was editing some sunset village walkabout stuff the other week. One particular image was exposed nicely, looked good, I think I darkened the sky as was shooting a house into the sunset, lifted the shadows I expect. And it wasn't until much later, even after going in 100% for general editing, that I even noticed it was at ISO 2500 the image looked that good and clean.
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Whilst playing with the Syoptic 50mm f1.1 I hit the max shutter speed at ISO 50 several times and it can happen at ISO 100 with the other wide aperture lenses I have. After testing these lenses I'll only take a very small percentage of pictures that'll be affected but that makes it more difficult to remember to manually knock it down to ISO 50. I don't know what the A7 does to create ISO 50 but the results after processing seem better using ISO 50 than 100 with these wide aperture lenses. The answer for me would be to be able to include lower ISO's in auto ISO or be able to shoot faster than 1/8,000.

I've also been thinking about that Laowa 35mm f0.95 which looks very nice if a bit big. I have wide aperture 50mm lenses but of course they have a different FoV and the positioning and perspective will be different to using a 35mm. A compromise could be to use the Voigtlander 40mm f1.2 a bit more as I haven't used it for a while. I might dig it out and take it out the next chance I get,
 
woof woof said:
Whilst playing with the Syoptic 50mm f1.1 I hit the max shutter speed at ISO 50 several times and it can happen at ISO 100 with the other wide aperture lenses I have. After testing these lenses I'll only take a very small percentage of pictures that'll be affected but that makes it more difficult to remember to manually knock it down to ISO 50. I don't know what the A7 does to create ISO 50 but the results after processing seem better using ISO 50 than 100 with these wide aperture lenses. The answer for me would be to be able to include lower ISO's in auto ISO or be able to shoot faster than 1/8,000.

I've also been thinking about that Laowa 35mm f0.95 which looks very nice if a bit big. I have wide aperture 50mm lenses but of course they have a different FoV and the positioning and perspective will be different to using a 35mm. A compromise could be to use the Voigtlander 40mm f1.2 a bit more as I haven't used it for a while. I might dig it out and take it out the next chance I get,
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You must go outside when it's brighter than when I go out :) Which you probably do in all honesty.

I've been out quite a bit on my own lately so I've been using the 40/1.2 more than the 35GM.
 
LeeRatters said:
You must go outside when it's brighter than when I go out :) Which you probably do in all honesty.

I've been out quite a bit on my own lately so I've been using the 40/1.2 more than the 35GM.
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The area isn't well known for glorious blinding sunlight but it can happen as can low in the sky sun and general glare. Sometimes it is possible for me to hit the max shutter speed with a f1.8 lens.

Just looked at a day out in Staithes when I took the Syoptic 50mm f1.1 and I hit 1/8,000 six times at ISO 50 out of 83 pictures taken but obviously not all at f1.x, normally I wouldn't be taking a lot of pictures at f1.x but this was when I'd just got the lens and wanted to try it out.
 
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