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

nandbytes said:
Can't imagine it being more than Sony or Sigma lens
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Yeah it’s got to be much cheaper than the Sony for people to buy it I think. I’ve never heard of Schneider Kreuznach.
 
snerkler said:
I’ve never heard of Schneider Kreuznach.
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Very high quality lens manufacturer, a lot of history of Cine-projection lenses along with lens for larger format photography. Similar to Rodenstock, another quality lens manufacturer. I've used plenty of Schneider lenses for high resolution linescan applications

Interesting pairing of Samyang and Schneider Kreuznach - should elevate the optical quality of Samyang, who were not reknown for class leading glass.
 
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Mr Perceptive said:
Very high quality lens manufacturer...
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Indeed.

If I recall correctly, many of the high quality Kodak Retina cameras, also, were fitted with their lenses, such as this 1B...

Retina1Bopen.jpg
 
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Mr Perceptive said:
Very high quality lens manufacturer, a lot of history of Cine-projection lenses along with lens for larger format photography. Similar to Rodenstock, another quality lens manufacturer. I've used plenty of Schneider lenses for high resolution linescan applications

Interesting pairing of Samyang and Schneider Kreuznach - should elevate the optical quality of Samyang, who were not reknown for class leading glass.
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Interesting. I quite like Samyang’s optical quality as it has character and not as clinical looking as some modern glass. It’s Samyang’s QC which has always been an issue for me.
 
snerkler said:
Yeah it’s got to be much cheaper than the Sony for people to buy it I think. I’ve never heard of Schneider Kreuznach.
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Not that i know a huge lot but schneider optics and glass are pretty well know and I have come across them more when buying filters. Like b+w filters or some IR filters claim to use schneider glass.

I think they are a German glass/lens maker. Wouldn't be surprised if their lenses/glasses are part of many filters and lenses we buy
 
Plenty info here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schneider_Kreuznach

As above, been around 100yrs +

If you're shopping very high end, none of this cheap Leica or Sony nonsense, you get SK lenses - they make all the Phaseone lenses https://www.phaseone.com/applicatio...y/studio-photography-xf-camera-system/lenses/ (so if your budget hasn't been 40-80k for a camera you might not have been shopping them!) ;)


This is about the cheapest thing they do: https://teamworkphoto.com/online-st...one-lenses/schneider-kreuznach-110mm-f2-8-ls/
 
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snerkler said:
I didn't think they'd hit the UK shops yet?
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I have noticed some folks in EU on other forums with one.
I know we are no longer in EU but wondering if anyone managed to source one. It was in stock on Panamoz couple of days ago. It's out of stock again
 
nandbytes said:
I have noticed some folks in EU on other forums with one.
I know we are no longer in EU but wondering if anyone managed to source one. It was in stock on Panamoz couple of days ago. It's out of stock again
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I'd love one but I can't afford big spends on camera gear for quite some time, funds are needed elsewhere.
 
Well my A6700 has arrived and I've given it a quick charge (no cable - really?!) and mounted the 70-350. No opportunity to do much and it's late in the day but I fired a few shots off in the garden and it's looking good so far - very nice and light setup which sits well in the hand, feels well made, noise seems really well controlled compared to the RX10 (different league really), focussed quickly and accurately. All good so far and will try and find some birds over the weekend :)

ps I'm a kn0b - thought it'd be a good idea to purchase a Raynox for macro work so picked one up on eBay, it arrived - looked good, all well. Went to put it in my kit bag, pulled out a nice soft cloth to wrap it in... and there was already one in there :headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang::headbang:
 
snerkler said:
I'd love one but I can't afford big spends on camera gear for quite some time, funds are needed elsewhere.
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Can't really afford one either at current price.
I also would like a second body for a couple of upcoming trips. Not sure what to go for.
If money was no matter then I'd have got A1ii with A7cr.
still haven't fully recovered from remortgaging so even A7cr is a stretch right now.
 
nandbytes said:
Can't really afford one either at current price.
I also would like a second body for a couple of upcoming trips. Not sure what to go for.
If money was no matter then I'd have got A1ii with A7cr.
still haven't fully recovered from remortgaging so even A7cr is a stretch right now.
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I’ve lost track, what’s your current camera? I don’t think I’d use two bodies on trips, I like a light setup when walking around so just one camera and one lens at a time for me.
 
nandbytes said:
Can't really afford one either at current price.
I also would like a second body for a couple of upcoming trips. Not sure what to go for.
If money was no matter then I'd have got A1ii with A7cr.
still haven't fully recovered from remortgaging so even A7cr is a stretch right now.
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Why not a second hand A1? I appreciate the pre-shutter is a cool addition on the A1ii, but the buffer is so good on the A1, get a large capacity card and just hold the shutter more
 
snerkler said:
I’ve lost track, what’s your current camera? I don’t think I’d use two bodies on trips, I like a light setup when walking around so just one camera and one lens at a time for me.
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A7RV, normally I just travel with single body but we are planning a road trip that'll include both wildlife and landscapes.

Changing from long tele lenses is a pain.

Tricky01 said:
Why not a second hand A1? I appreciate the pre-shutter is a cool addition on the A1ii, but the buffer is so good on the A1, get a large capacity card and just hold the shutter more
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Had an A1 and sold it. This may not be a popular opinion but A1 feels like an unfinished product (much like the A7riv i had before it). Might feel like less of a ripoff at current prices but pre-shutter is one of the reasons I want the A1ii. Otherwise I'm happy with A7RV.
 
Tricky01 said:
Why not a second hand A1? I appreciate the pre-shutter is a cool addition on the A1ii, but the buffer is so good on the A1, get a large capacity card and just hold the shutter more
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For me the main reason I want an A1 II is for the subject recognition for animals. The A7RV is incredible in this situation so a camera with this recognition but with the tracking capabilities, frame rate and blackout free shooting of the A1 would be incredible, and this is obviously the A1 II. Pre-capture doesn't interest me, but I can understand that some fine it useful.
nandbytes said:
A7RV, normally I just travel with single body but we are planning a road trip that'll include both wildlife and landscapes.

Changing from long tele lenses is a pain.



Had an A1 and sold it. This may not be a popular opinion but A1 feels like an unfinished product (much like the A7riv i had before it). Might feel like less of a ripoff at current prices but pre-shutter is one of the reasons I want the A1ii. Otherwise I'm happy with A7RV.
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Yeah, if you're taking a wide angle and tele I can understand the need for two bodies.

That is quite a statement, I've never felt like the A1 is an unfinished product. When I first had it I thought that it was everything I'd ever want, however as mentioned above subject recognition has moved on and that's the only thing I'd want to upgrade now. This obviously makes the upgrade very very difficult to justify as it's several thousands of pounds just for improved subject recognition :oops: :$
 
snerkler said:
That is quite a statement, I've never felt like the A1 is an unfinished product. When I first had it I thought that it was everything I'd ever want, however as mentioned above subject recognition has moved on and that's the only thing I'd want to upgrade now. This obviously makes the upgrade very very difficult to justify as it's several thousands of pounds just for improved subject recognition :oops: :$
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As I said it may be an unpopular opinion but that's how I felt. Even the A7iv i felt was an upgrade in a few ways to a £6k body that was supposedly the flagship. Then they didn't bother updating properly.
A1 feels like a downgrade over my A7RV. Yes the blackout free shooting with 20fps is amazing but I'm giving up the ergonomics, ibis, lcd screen, subject recognition etc. And it's not like I can't shoot action with it, I have shot plenty of birds, planes and toddlers with it.

My issue is we might be going whale/dolphin watching and if so pre-capture would be super nice for that especially if there's some amount of action.
 
nandbytes said:
As I said it may be an unpopular opinion but that's how I felt. Even the A7iv i felt was an upgrade in a few ways to a £6k body that was supposedly the flagship. Then they didn't bother updating properly.
A1 feels like a downgrade over my A7RV. Yes the blackout free shooting with 20fps is amazing but I'm giving up the ergonomics, ibis, lcd screen, subject recognition etc. And it's not like I can't shoot action with it, I have shot plenty of birds, planes and toddlers with it.

My issue is we might be going whale/dolphin watching and if so pre-capture would be super nice for that especially if there's some amount of action.
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Of course we’re all entitled to our opinions (y). For me the ergonomics of the A1 vs A7RV is a tie, but yes the A7RV has a better LCD, better IBIS and better subject recognition but I just see that as tech moving forward and I would expect that with a body a couple of years newer, but except for the LCD the A1 was top of its game at the time (imo) (y)
 
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snerkler said:
Looking at the size and weight it doesn't appear to be much smaller than the 16-35mm PZ (although I'll need to wait to see a side by side), and only 50g lighter so I'm not usre it's worth getting over the PZ unless you're doing astro?

As a current 10-20mm PZ owner I'm not a lover of the PZ :hungover:
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looking at reviews online looks to be a fair bit smaller in hand compared to the PZ.
weight is one thing but the prime will smaller to pack in bag too.

Screenshot 2025-03-01 at 13.25.03.png
 
nandbytes said:
looking at reviews online looks to be a fair bit smaller in hand compared to the PZ.
weight is one thing but the prime will smaller to pack in bag too.

View attachment 446854
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Yeah, looks a bit smaller. Not sure I'd be willing to lose the flexibility of the zoom for such a small difference, but then I wouldn't buy the 16-35mm becasue of the PZ anyway ;)
 
snerkler said:
Looking at the size and weight it doesn't appear to be much smaller than the 16-35mm PZ (although I'll need to wait to see a side by side), and only 50g lighter so I'm not usre it's worth getting over the PZ unless you're doing astro?

As a current 10-20mm PZ owner I'm not a lover of the PZ :hungover:
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Let me know if you are looking to get shot of the 10-20 - it’s likely I’ll be in the market for one soon :)
 
dibbly dobbler said:
Let me know if you are looking to get shot of the 10-20 - it’s likely I’ll be in the market for one soon :)
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Will do, although it's unlikely it'll be soon as there’s nothing out there I’m aware of the will give a 15/16mm fov that’s so small and light.
 
First shot I processed with the A6700 and 70-350 :)

Not great light today so actually a good test - the eye AF worked well (whilst not being infallible, missed a reed bunting in amongst reeds :rolleyes:) and the high iso performance is massively better than the RX10iv (more than enough to compensate for the narrower maximum aperture IMHO).

Anyway here's the shot - the middle one is sharp as the eye AF picked it out, the other two not so much but not the camera's fault!


3 Cormorants by Mike Smith, on Flickr
 
snerkler said:
Finally some nice weather for a proper dog walk :clap: Not the best light for photography (harsh shadows), but what a lovely walk :)

1.

A7R02948 by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr

2.

A7R02952 by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr

3.

A7R02958-Edit by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr

4.

A7R02963 by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr

5.

A7R02964 by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr

6.

A7R02969 by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr

7.

A7R03038-Edit by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr

8.

A7R03051 by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr
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Not bad. Needs more Betty.
 
So, night skies Friday night was good. Great to get out again & catch up with some mates - the missus also went food shopping after she finished work too :)

Saturday had a high tide sunrise which I got a shot from. Then we drove into & then walked into Bath for a market, some shops & some street photography. In the afternoon I fitted my number plates after the DVLA paperwork came through & my boy popped around & we done some of his first car modifications :) A few beers Saturday evening.

Sunday morning I got up to drag the Escort out for a breakfast car meet. First time since 3rd November! She wasn't happy about that - Took a good hour and more to get started - Killed a new jump pack down to 19% power & ended up just running the Focus for 45 minutes with the batteries connected :rolleyes: Got there in the end though. Few tweaks to timing etc and things seemed okay again. Missed the meet, but had a drive to mum's for coffee & biscuits :) Grabbed a few okay photos, drove about 8-10 miles then filled up with £60 worth of Momentum ready for the next time. Which hopefully will be next weekend & not next year :ROFLMAO:

All in, a very enjoyable & bright sunny weekend which I think we've been overdue for several months!!
 
LeeRatters said:
So, night skies Friday night was good. Great to get out again & catch up with some mates - the missus also went food shopping after she finished work too :)

Saturday had a high tide sunrise which I got a shot from. Then we drove into & then walked into Bath for a market, some shops & some street photography. In the afternoon I fitted my number plates after the DVLA paperwork came through & my boy popped around & we done some of his first car modifications :) A few beers Saturday evening.

Sunday morning I got up to drag the Escort out for a breakfast car meet. First time since 3rd November! She wasn't happy about that - Took a good hour and more to get started - Killed a new jump pack down to 19% power & ended up just running the Focus for 45 minutes with the batteries connected :rolleyes: Got there in the end though. Few tweaks to timing etc and things seemed okay again. Missed the meet, but had a drive to mum's for coffee & biscuits :) Grabbed a few okay photos, drove about 8-10 miles then filled up with £60 worth of Momentum ready for the next time. Which hopefully will be next weekend & not next year :ROFLMAO:

All in, a very enjoyable & bright sunny weekend which I think we've been overdue for several months!!
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Nice, sounds a great weekend I bet it was great to get out in the Escort. I got out on the bike last weekend, first time in months. I was thinking about going out today but far too much salt on the roads. :confused:

Betty's off to the orthopaedics tomorrow, she has a bad shoulder but hoping it won't need an operation.
 
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