08MAY2018 – Photo – Lichen on Monument
Tag: Sony A7 cameras
04MAY2018 – Photo – Voigtlander 10mm In a Stand of Trees
This lens can do some goofy things in the wrong places.
My Undiscovered Country in Sony Shooting
Where I work there is a formal, company sponsored photo club. They have a budget and they have funded events where they go together to an arboretum or a museum and talk about equipment and techniques. They have a charter and code of conduct. They include everyone and value everyone’s contribution. They give out tee shirts at the end of the year.
I don’t belong to that club. Life’s too short. I get together with about four or five guys who work there at lunch time. We’ll go to a park or walk down the street or try to find a building that’s interesting. We also occasionally take over a conference room during the lunch hour and throw our personal off hours photo results up on the big screen that usually features power point presentations of diversity training or unconscious bias hectoring or whatever else Big Brother needs us to absorb that week.
And some of these guys are pretty good. It’s spring, and from a photographic point of view there’s finally a reason to live. Normally we would already have gone out on a lunch time jaunt to see the dogwoods and weeping cherry trees in bloom. But this year several of these guys have been shanghaied into a shift change to work on a big engineering project. All of that ends on Friday, May 11th. To celebrate my brethren’s release from bondage I’ve scheduled an outing for the next Wednesday to a park that we hope will feature birds and bees and flowers and trees. Maybe even a few butterflies. And to make it interesting for me I’ve reserved a few lenses from a rental company for two weeks starting May 11th. I’ve rented the Sigma MC-11 EF to E mount adapter and the Sigma EF mount version of their 150 – 600 Sports zoom and their 180mm f\2.8 macro lens. I watched a video that the The Camera Store guys made testing out the MC-11 with Sigma EF mount lenses on one of the modern (A9 or third generation A7 cameras) Sony full-frames. They rated the autofocus performance almost exactly as good as Sony native glass. Now there is a catch. It’s only warranted to be that good with certain lenses. The Art and Sports series are covered. So the 150-600 is in that group. The 180 macro is not. I spoke to the rental company and they didn’t know one way or the other. But they did say I should try it. Of course I’m the one paying for the privilege but I figured it was worth a shot. So in about two weeks I’ll have something to say about the A7 III, the MC-11 and birds in flight. Sony has never allowed me to even try such a photographic feat but here we are, a brave new world. And with any any luck the 180 macro will prove to be good for butterfly shots. Currently my only long macro is the Minolta 200mm f\4. But it’s screw drive and if I want autofocus I have to use LA-EA4 with its “translucent mirror.” For me that’s something of a compromise. If the 180mm and the MC-11 combination turns out to have pretty good autofocus I will most probably buy those two items and retire the 200 mm to static macro and short telephoto opportunities with the LA-EA3.
So this is just me salivating in anticipation of the opportunity coming up in a couple of weeks. To say that I’m impatient would be the greatest example of understatement since Jack Swigert said “Houston we have a problem.” So stay tuned. If you’re a Sony shooter these tests will give you information on options that aren’t currently available in the native Sony e-mount ecosystem. And, even if they were, the cost would be prohibitive even to someone with my gear obsessed psyche.
Sony A7 III – A Camera Review – Part 1
I’ve had the camera for about a week. I went out today to get some first impressions. The first thing I notice is the difference between the A7S and the A7 III is the autofocus. It’s night and day. I used center point AF. Whatever I pointed at was instantaneously in perfect focus. No hunting, no off-focus just dead on crystal clear. Now granted, this is in bright day light. But if you’ve ever shot the A7S you know that even under these conditions the photo had a more than even chance of being at least slightly out of focus. I took it as standard operating procedure that magnified manual focus was absolutely necessary for guaranteed perfect focus. Of course, think of what that means for a moving subject. It meant you couldn’t get the shot. So, the A7 III is a revelation.
The next thing I noticed was how convenient it was to have the viewfinder stay in magnified mode after autofocusing a view. Now I can make sure that if the scene is ultra-crowded with competing focus targets that the right one was selected. Or if something has moved I can re-focus without having to re-engage the magnify steps. This is especially nice for macro work or distant objects.
The next thing was an item I noticed while inspecting the images on the computer. The 24-mp files are amazingly croppable. This contrasts with the 12-mp A7S files. I’ve attached an extreme crop of a flower. The focus was excellent and the crop has tons of detail.
And finally, looking at the images on the computer they seem to have a very nice look to them. Of course, the A7S produced nice files too but these look very rich.
These are just my first thoughts. Later on I’ll review the various functions on the camera and how they work or don’t work for my shooting needs. But right now I have to say that except for extreme low light or star photography I can’t imagine using the A7S instead of the A7 III.
Sony A7 III – Oddball Test
I was taking a bunch of test shots with the A7 III today. As I mentioned earlier the longest Sony lens I have with native e-mount is the 55mm f\1.8. I saw an opportunity to test out the autofocus at a long distance with a moving subject. Because I took this at about 150 feet away I cropped this thing to a ridiculous extent and it shows but also notice that the fox is in focus. Pardon the poor quality of this jpeg (figuring out the new Capture 1 for the A7 III) but this tells me two things.
- The autofocus is very, very good.
- I’ve got to get some longer native e-mount lenses.
Sony A7III – The Eagle Has Landed
Camera Girl signed for the camera today. Tonight, I’ll set it up and see what I have to do to get a Capture 1 upgrade for that camera. I think I’ll take some pictures of my grandson playing soccer tomorrow morning, to test out the autofocus. If I can’t get the Capture 1 update I’ll have to go with jpegs. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I’ll know if this camera is the end of a long road of Sony waiting.
4MAR2018 – Photo – The Mallards Are Back
The Mallards are back in the puddle. How far could spring be? Well Camera Girl did just tell me that it is flurrying outside so…
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A Little Flurry of Sony News
Sonyalpharumors.com has upped the odds of the A7 III being announced tomorrow (26FEB2018) to 75%. Of course the calculus of rumor mongering is far from an exact science, but in this case I think he’s probably right. And just to sweeten the occasion Sigma has announced an FE mount lens. It is an Art Series 105mm f/1.4. And it looks like a beast with its own tripod mount. Looking toward the horizon I hope after the announcement it won’t take long to learn if this new camera has good autofocus. One interesting development in the rumor is the fact that the autofocus system has more contrast detect points than phase detect ones. This continues a change in direction from the A9 which had many more phase detect than contrast. I’ve always thought the contrast detect points were much less functional so I see this as a bad sign. Time will tell.
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What Am I Missing in the Sony E-Mount Lens Line-Up?
A few years ago the answer to this question would have been everything. Especially for the new full-frame 7 series cameras, the line-up was woefully poor. In the last three years Sony (and Zeiss) have really stepped up to the plate and launched a goodly selection of high end lenses for the FE (full-frame e-mount) cameras. In fact at this point the wide angle options are pretty much complete. For the normal range there are several excellent options including a 50mm f/1.4, an 85 f/1.4, a 100mm macro and the recently added 70 – 200 F2.8 G Master zoom.
What is left? Telephotos. Now, Sony has added a 100-400mm zoom. But I would say that Sony is lacking a telephoto zoom that reaches 600mm. If I were a sports photographer I’d be looking for a 600mm F/4. But that is a very expensive lens. I think what would be appropriate is for someone like Sigma or Tamron to produce an e-mount version of their existing 150 – 600mm zooms. This would provide the compromise between price and capability that a large number of amateur wildlife and sports shooters would be willing to pay for. In fact I know that if Sony produced this lens it would probably be too expensive. So it is a natural fit for these two third party manufacturers.
The other thing that I would like to see Sony produce is a 200mm macro. I currently use the Minolta version with an adapter but since it’s a screw-drive focus system it either has to be used as a manual focus on the LA-EA3 or with the “translucent mirror of the LA-EA4. Both of these are compromises. I also think the chance of Sony manufacturing this lens is zero. So once again I think this is a good opportunity for Sigma. They already have a long focal length macro and this would probably only require adapting it to the e-mount. This lens probably won’t have as many buyers as a 150-600mm zoom. But I throw it out there because I’m greedy and annoying.
There is a rumor on Sonyalpharumors.com that Sigma is about to announce a major effort to break into the FE market. The initial offering has been guessed to be a 35mm f/1.4. This is a lens that Sigma has done a good job on already in their Art Lens series. Whether it would require a major modification to work on the e-mount is a question.
So if we assume Sigma is looking to get the maximum bang for their buck in the Sony ecosystem then they should go for some of the open focal lengths that they already have technology for. In that case both the 150-600 and 200mm macro are lenses they already make and represent gaps in the Sony line-up.
If you’re listening Sigma, get busy. You make money and I get to stop complaining. A win-win.
You’re welcome Sigma!
The Camera Store Reviews the Sony A9 Camera
The Camera Store up in Calgary Alberta, Canada does a lot of good reviews of Sony equipment. Chris concentrates on the photo side and Jordan addresses the video aspects of each camera. They’ve been fairly enthusiastic Sony users without succumbing to fanboy-like blindness to the shortcomings of mirrorless cameras in general and Sony in particular.
This review is fairly late in the game for the A9 but I think time has given them a little perspective on the camera and I think that is why they have nailed the real significance of the A9. They realized that the true niche that the A9 fills is the perfect wedding camera. The silent shutter, excellent autofocus, fast sensor readout and 20 frames a second guarantees that the perfect shot of the bouquet toss or the kiss or the toast won’t be missed.
And waiting until this late date allowed them to compare the A7R III to the A9 and see when the A7R III provides a cheaper but adequate option and where it doesn’t. It’s a long video (about an hour) but it’s pretty good.
Some of the highpoints is the recognition that the fast sensor read of the A9 effectively eliminates rolling shutter problems whereas the A7R III cannot. Offsetting this advantage is the lack of good video options in the A9. This is attributed to the soon to be announced A7S III or A9S options. And finally there is a discussion of how the use of any Sony e-mount camera as a sports or wildlife camera is handicapped by the lack of native long telephoto lenses. This lack may soon be corrected. Nevertheless it explains why the A9 hasn’t managed to convert large numbers of Nikon and Canon sports shooters yet.
Very interesting discussion.