Photo sharing: Sony Alpha

[Hockeyman]

Dinosaur by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr

 

[Hockeyman]

ISO 5,000, pretty noisy but still very presentable. I wouldn't have even dreamed shooting with that on my A55


Charity's First Mickey by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr

 

[havoc315]

ISO 5,000, pretty noisy but still very presentable. I wouldn't have even dreamed shooting with that on my A55


Charity's First Mickey by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr

Looks really good. ISO 5000 is noisy in the shadows but perfectly usable. And within the realm where some noise reduction software can really improve/fix the image.

And a very cute picture of your daughter.

Here is recent ISO 3200 of my daughter.... No real noise issues after just lightroom noise reduction:


lilly7bday-95.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

And an ISO 6400 jpeg (so the camera already applied noise reduction) I took yesterday:


untitled-155 by Havoc315, on Flickr

 

[havoc315]

untitled-118.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

 

[fractal]

 

[fractal]

Nice low-light photos gentlemen! ^^^

 

[havoc315]

Nice low-light photos gentlemen! ^^^

Thanks. Yes, perhaps the A99 can't quite match the D610 or the 6d etc.... but still does very well with low light compared to APS-C.

This is a shadowy ISO6400... boosted in post, so it's more like ISO 8000 or so... after running it through Topaz DeNoise.


untitled-138-Edit.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

 

[Hockeyman]

Electrical Parade by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr

 

[fractal]

 

[Hockeyman]

Looks really good. ISO 5000 is noisy in the shadows but perfectly usable. And within the realm where some noise reduction software can really improve/fix the image.

And a very cute picture of your daughter.

Here is recent ISO 3200 of my daughter.... No real noise issues after just lightroom noise reduction:


And an ISO 6400 jpeg (so the camera already applied noise reduction) I took yesterday:

For some reason it didnt look as noisy while in LR bu noticed it after I put it up on Flickr. Im still happy with how Mickey and my daughter came out though, but the background can use some help. Still impressive over my A55

 

[Hockeyman]

A few notes now that I got to spent some quality time with my new camera and lenses.

My A99 seems to have some lag/buffer slowness when I switch over from taking a shot to viewing the photo. Not bad but enough to annoy me sometimes when I want to view a shot real quick to adjust settings really quick. Battery help up pretty well. Would be at the park from rope drop until 3-4 and still have some juice left with my spare fully charged ready to go.

I also noticed that my pictures look great when I review them in view finder and or LCD screen but when I load into LR they didnt look so hot. I know the camera shows me a jpeg review but some of the pictures are way off. Not sure If I need to mess around with some LR settings. Yesterday I switched from just RAW to RAW+JPEG at Epcot so ill see how if that does anything once in LR

Love the Sigma 50mm f1/.4 lens I got and really has me possibly considering the 35 Art lens once money allows me but after this trip It has showed me that I really need something wider and also something with some length also. The Minolta lens 24-75 didn't fair so well, a lot of the pictures came out with a lack of contrast and a lot of green ghosting at night and needed some extra PP love.

Overall though im happy I upgraded and think it was worth it in the end for sure. Just need to focus on glass now

 

[havoc315]

For some reason it didnt look as noisy while in LR bu noticed it after I put it up on Flickr. Im still happy with how Mickey and my daughter came out though, but the background can use some help. Still impressive over my A55

I've noticed, at high ISO, low light, and particularly somewhat shallow DoF... Noise is most problematic in the out of focus areas. Your focal point is on Mickey's head, and it appears totally noise free. Your daughter is slightly in front of the focal plane, and you can see a bit of noise in her face. And yes, a lot in the background.

Did you apply any NR in Lightroom? I find luminance between 30-45, usually takes care of the A99 noise between 3200-8000. I will tend to use other NR software, like Topaz, for super high ISO. Anything above 6400, even sometimes at 6400, I consider using Topaz. But typically 6400 and below, I just use the luminance slider in LR.

So any more dark ride pics to share?

Your dinosaur shot looks good. Did you use auto ISO, or you intentionally set 3200? You easily could have bumped up the ISO a bit more, but if you wanted the dark menacing shadow, it looks great.
End up using AF or MF on dark rides?

And btw, what do you think of the 24-85? Looks like you've been using it right... Stop is down and it really delivers great results, especially for the price point.

 

[Hockeyman]

My middle daughter having fun at Legoland

Cay Lego go round by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr


My mom with the lego stud lol

Mom and the Lego Stud by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr

 

[havoc315]

A few notes now that I got to spent some quality time with my new camera and lenses.

My A99 seems to have some lag/buffer slowness when I switch over from taking a shot to viewing the photo. Not bad but enough to annoy me sometimes when I want to view a shot real quick to adjust settings really quick. Battery help up pretty well. Would be at the park from rope drop until 3-4 and still have some juice left with my spare fully charged ready to go.

I also noticed that my pictures look great when I review them in view finder and or LCD screen but when I load into LR they didnt look so hot. I know the camera shows me a jpeg review but some of the pictures are way off. Not sure If I need to mess around with some LR settings. Yesterday I switched from just RAW to RAW+JPEG at Epcot so ill see how if that does anything once in LR

Love the Sigma 50mm f1/.4 lens I got and really has me possibly considering the 35 Art lens once money allows me but after this trip It has showed me that I really need something wider and also something with some length also. The Minolta lens 24-75 didn't fair so well, a lot of the pictures came out with a lack of contrast and a lot of green ghosting at night and needed some extra PP love.

Overall though im happy I upgraded and think it was worth it in the end for sure. Just need to focus on glass now

In terms of reviewing pictures --- Up until the A99, I always turned off auto-review. But on the A99, I discovered it actually pays to keep auto-review on, maybe set for about 5 seconds. Because the image is instantly -- NO LAG -- displayed right in the EVF after you take it. You get the image instantly to review as you take it, the only "lag" is that after 2 seconds, the jpeg settings get applied. So click the button -- instantly see an unprocessed version, and if you wait 2 seconds or so, you see the processed version. Want to switch back to "live view" -- just half-press the shutter button again.

Not sure why your pictures are looking better in the LCD than in Lightroom. Assume you're using Lightroom on a laptop.... How's the monitor on your laptop?
Or is it a matter of the images looking worse when you pixel peep? Any image always looks sharper when down sized. A totally out of focus image can look sharp on a tiny LCD screen. And remember, the A99 -- 24 mp, is producing images that are larger than your 16mp A55. The images you've posted all look fantastic.

I'm not surprised about the green blobs on the 24-85. That's an issue with bright lights in many of the older lenses. Has to do with the older film era coatings on the lenses. They create more reflections in the lens. From my daughter's birthday party last week, each candle created a ghost (Minolta 50/1.7):


lilly7bday-139.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

I am a bit surprised that you found it lacking in contrast, though maybe you're spoiled by the great Sigma lens, lol. Granted, I always increase contrast in almost every shot in post. The A99 may actually be producing slightly less contrasty images than the A55, or it could be my imagination. I am finding myself needing to add a bit more contrast, a bit more often.

Anyway, your images have been looking great.

 

[Hockeyman]

In terms of reviewing pictures --- Up until the A99, I always turned off auto-review. But on the A99, I discovered it actually pays to keep auto-review on, maybe set for about 5 seconds. Because the image is instantly -- NO LAG -- displayed right in the EVF after you take it. You get the image instantly to review as you take it, the only "lag" is that after 2 seconds, the jpeg settings get applied. So click the button -- instantly see an unprocessed version, and if you wait 2 seconds or so, you see the processed version. Want to switch back to "live view" -- just half-press the shutter button again.

Not sure why your pictures are looking better in the LCD than in Lightroom. Assume you're using Lightroom on a laptop.... How's the monitor on your laptop?
Or is it a matter of the images looking worse when you pixel peep? Any image always looks sharper when down sized. A totally out of focus image can look sharp on a tiny LCD screen. And remember, the A99 -- 24 mp, is producing images that are larger than your 16mp A55. The images you've posted all look fantastic.

I'm not surprised about the green blobs on the 24-85. That's an issue with bright lights in many of the older lenses. Has to do with the older film era coatings on the lenses. They create more reflections in the lens. From my daughter's birthday party last week, each candle created a ghost (Minolta 50/1.7):


lilly7bday-139.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

I am a bit surprised that you found it lacking in contrast, though maybe you're spoiled by the great Sigma lens, lol. Granted, I always increase contrast in almost every shot in post. The A99 may actually be producing slightly less contrasty images than the A55, or it could be my imagination. I am finding myself needing to add a bit more contrast, a bit more often.

Anyway, your images have been looking great.

I have auto review off but would be good to use in some situations but on rides like Haunted Mansion where Im short on time I would just have to turn it off. Just one of the things I still need to play around with along with the other millions settings on the camera.

The LR thing is weird, Ill review the picture in camera and it looks good, contrast looks good, colors look good, im overly happy with the results. Then in LR after it loads the picture it looks noticeably different, not so much as the focus and sharpness, but more so in the coloring and contrast.

 

[havoc315]

I have auto review off but would be good to use in some situations but on rides like Haunted Mansion where Im short on time I would just have to turn it off. Just one of the things I still need to play around with along with the other millions settings on the camera.

The LR thing is weird, Ill review the picture in camera and it looks good, contrast looks good, colors look good, im overly happy with the results. Then in LR after it loads the picture it looks noticeably different, not so much as the focus and sharpness, but more so in the coloring and contrast.

It could simply be the calibration of your monitor, is it the same computer you use for processing at home? I'm particularly surprised about coloring. Though there are some fluorescent lights, and sometimes bouncing flash, can create color issues, in most cases I've found the AWB on the A99 to be excellent. In some many cases I start to fiddle with the white balance in Lightroom, only then to revert to the SOOC white balance.

Took me some time to get used to, but you can keep the auto review on, even when you have no time. Just give the shutter another quick tap after you take the picture, and you're right back in live view. Though I'm still getting used to it, so sometimes it takes me a half moment to realize that I'm looking at the last shot. But I do find it is useful to get the instant appreciation of the shot you just took, without having to push the review button or chimping with the LCD.

 

[Hockeyman]

It could simply be the calibration of your monitor, is it the same computer you use for processing at home? I'm particularly surprised about coloring. Though there are some fluorescent lights, and sometimes bouncing flash, can create color issues, in most cases I've found the AWB on the A99 to be excellent. In some many cases I start to fiddle with the white balance in Lightroom, only then to revert to the SOOC white balance.

Took me some time to get used to, but you can keep the auto review on, even when you have no time. Just give the shutter another quick tap after you take the picture, and you're right back in live view. Though I'm still getting used to it, so sometimes it takes me a half moment to realize that I'm looking at the last shot. But I do find it is useful to get the instant appreciation of the shot you just took, without having to push the review button or chimping with the LCD.

Same laptop and monitor ive always been using. I always kicked around the idea of one of those calibrators but my photos have always seemed to come out fine color wise so I never bothered. I think it might be a LR issue, the coloring isnt really off but duller than when I saw on my camera.

Going to check out the auto review for sure.

PS. I totally love the OELD view finder and focus peaking. I used FP on a lot of the dark rides and it helped a lot. Got some good ones on Spaceship earth and Nemo yesterday, HM, Little Mermaid and Pan on Sat.

 

[havoc315]

Same laptop and monitor ive always been using. I always kicked around the idea of one of those calibrators but my photos have always seemed to come out fine color wise so I never bothered. I think it might be a LR issue, the coloring isnt really off but duller than when I saw on my camera.

Going to check out the auto review for sure.

PS. I totally love the OELD view finder and focus peaking. I used FP on a lot of the dark rides and it helped a lot. Got some good ones on Spaceship earth and Nemo yesterday, HM, Little Mermaid and Pan on Sat.

Pan is, IMO, the absolute hardest dark ride to shoot. It's quick, the vehicle is a bit jerky, and it's very dark. So can't wait to see your shots.

 

[Hockeyman]

Pan is, IMO, the absolute hardest dark ride to shoot. It's quick, the vehicle is a bit jerky, and it's very dark. So can't wait to see your shots.

I got a few semi decent shots on Pan. A few I shot with ISO 8,000 and are pretty noisy but will still post them. I think Dinosaur is a little harder to get versus Pan, not only is it more jerky but there are fewer opportunities to get shots off because its so dark.

 

[havoc315]

I got a few semi decent shots on Pan. A few I shot with ISO 8,000 and are pretty noisy but will still post them. I think Dinosaur is a little harder to get versus Pan, not only is it more jerky but there are fewer opportunities to get shots off because its so dark.

Good point. Don't think I ever even tried with Dinosaur.

I'm sure the Pan shots will look great after some careful noise reduction. If you send me the raws to play with, I've wanted to try a couple different NR methods.
I want to try duplicating the shot into a second layer. Applying extreme noise reduction to one layer, but then masking our the subject. (applying only moderate noise reduction to the subject). That way, the background gets extreme noise reduction, without any concern for detail loss. While the subject still preserves lots of detail.