Photo sharing: Sony Alpha

[vandort]

Thank you so much for sharing your pictures, Justin. I have really enjoyed looking at them.

I am not even sure which specific are my favorites; there are so many great shots! You've also shown that A550 and the 18-250mm lens are great combination.

 

[MICKEY88]

 

[MICKEY88]

 

[zackiedawg]

Nice Mickey...your namesake is the best of the bunch!

Here's another wild n crazy A550 shot. This is a spontaneous shot in my front yard at around 1:45am a few nights back. I was playing with a few capabilities of the camera - one was high ISO capability, and the other was the HDR mode. Interestingly, the HDR mode not only increases dynamic range, but it also can work to reduce high ISO noise since you are blending two photos.

Now normally I wouldn't use high ISO for a night shot, but here's the thing - by using the high ISO, I could use a shorter shutter speed of only 3 seconds, while using a much smaller aperture for better depth of field...more desirable in landscapes as it is. That's hard to do at night - low ISO and small aperture equals really long exposures. With ISO1600 already being quite reasonably low noise and high detail, the A550 is already solid - but use HDR mode at +2 and the dynamic range, detail, and low noise are pretty cool:

My yard was basically dark - you couldn't see where you were walking. The distant lighted area is a clubhouse parking lot which was very bright. The scene would have been a night shot metering nightmare or either too dark shadows or way blown highlights.

I was impressed...tons of detail, tons of depth of field, tons of dynamic range, and virtually no noise.

I have a feeling auto-aligning HDR will be coming to all cameras soon. Pentax has a non-aligning version, and now Sony's can align. Soon others will probably start making 5+ shot HDR bursts with self-alignment. You can do all this in post processing...but to be able to do it on the fly right in camera is fairly nifty!

 

[vandort]

Fantastic shot, Mickey88! What lens did you use for your shoot?

 

[vandort]

Amazing shot, Justin! You know that you are giving all of us camera envy! Right?!

 

[zackiedawg]

That's a good thing, right?! It's good to know Sony is improving and listening...the A550 directly addresses either shortcomings or weak points on the A300/350 very nicely. I absolutely love my A300 and it's served me well - but the A550 is definitely the next generation. Those of you with A700s are already a class above the entry levels, so nothing to worry about yet, unless you want a second body for fun. Hopefully the followup to the A700 is as much a leap up as the A500/550 is to the A300/350!

Appreciate the comments too. Happy to share my fun with the new cam, until a few more A500/550 users start to pop in here!

 

[vandort]

Justin,
Of course camera-envy is a good thing. I also have an A300 and I am very excited to see what you are able to achieve with the A550. Thank you for sharing!

 

[MICKEY88]

Fantastic shot, Mickey88! What lens did you use for your shoot?

it was one of the 1st 2 lenses in my siggy, I basically carried my 2 A700s one with my 28-75 2.8,, the other with my 80-200 2.8

hmm according to the exif data on my website, it would have been the 28-75

Photo Info

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dimensions:2848 x 4272
Original file size:6.22 MB
Image type:JPEG
Color space:sRGB
Date taken:20-Feb-09 15:28
Date modified:9-Mar-09 18:45
Shooting Conditions

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Camera make:SONY
Camera modelSLR-A700
Focal length:75 mm
Focal length (35mm):112 mm
Max lens aperture:f/2.8
Exposure:1/1000 at f/3.2
Flash:Not fired, compulsory mode
Exposure bias:0 EV
Exposure mode:Auto
Exposure prog.:Aperture priority
ISO speed:ISO 100
Metering modeattern
Digital zoom:Not used

 

[MICKEY88]

Those of you with A700s are already a class above the entry levels, so nothing to worry about yet, unless you want a second body for fun. !

that is good to know, I hope to get 1-2 more years out of the twins

 

[STEAMBOAT209]

My first picture in Disney on Manual setting, only because the lens went out of sync with the auto focus. The only way the camera would work was on manual setting and I was not prepared for the balance of the trip to be on manual. A little blurry, i'm still learning on manual. I forgot I had to focus, LOL

 

[vandort]

My first picture in Disney on Manual setting, only because the lens went out of sync with the auto focus.

Do you know what happened?

 

[STEAMBOAT209]

Do you know what happened?

I returned the camera to the photo shop, so they could see how it was acting and the sound it was making while trying to auto focus. It would make a loud clicking sound that I thought was damaging the camera, but the shop owner said it would not, just that it was trying to focus and it couldn't, since it was out of sync. He said it was rare, but does happen once in awhile. they had to send the lens out to be re-calibrate the lens. It came back working just fine. I first thought it was me trying to take a picture that I didn't have the right settings on the camera.

 

[polkadotminnie]

I took some indoor (low light) cheer competition photos this past weekend. They came out a little too yellow. What kind of things can cause this? Hopefully, I can post a few samples later.

 

[MICKEY88]

I took some indoor (low light) cheer competition photos this past weekend. They came out a little too yellow. What kind of things can cause this? Hopefully, I can post a few samples later.

that's a white balance issue, no biggie you just have to adjust the white balance with your software

 

[polkadotminnie]

that's a white balance issue, no biggie you just have to adjust the white balance with your software

Thanks, I will try that. I thought it might be that. I am new to shooting in manual mode. I have been working so hard trying to learn about the exposure and what setting will work best for low light sports that I did not think about the white balance.

 

[vandort]

I went to a local orchid show today and my 100mm macro lens got a work out. I thought that I would post a some
of my shots.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Finally getting caught up on this thread......

I thought that it was time that I posted a few more pictures from our trip.

A bat in the rain:

Congrats Heidi on your win in the Weather photo contest. I love this photo!

Justin, I also appreciate your pictures of Boca Raton for a number of reasons. I live in Michigan and the trees are now bare and Boca Raton looks really nice right now. Justin, I also like the composition of your pictures. I've been considering a UWA lens and your pictures with your Tamron lens are very nice. I would interested in other comments you have about your lens. I'm sure that Kathy may also have some comments on UWA lenses for a Sony DSLR body, which would be helpful.

Sorry - I did see this while we were on our trip to WDW and meant to reply a little sooner after we got back. I have the Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6 which is a very popular UWA and for good reason IMO. I like shooting wide on shots and have a lot of fun with this lens. The range is nice on the APS-C cameras. I think I have a relatively sharp copy but they are known to have some problems so it's important to check out a new lens and see if it's one of the keepers. There is a newer edition of this which has a constant f3.5 aperture but I'm not any more familiar with it than to know it exists and is a little bigger, heavier and expensive. Having a faster aperture is always nice though.

Now we also have a Sony 11-18 f4.5-5.6 in the house. After DH was threatening to borrow my camera a little too often I found a used A100 on an ebay auction so he could see if he really liked using a DSLR. I lucked across a package that included the 11-18mm for a price that I figured I could sell the lens by itself and it would cover the cost of the camera and 2 other lenses that came with it. Everything I had read told me I would not like the lens. But then I tried it and have been going back and forth between selling it or the Sigma! It has a smaller range, isn't quite as fast as the Sigma and has a plasticky feel although it does have a metal mount. It's the same size as the Sigma but has a much wider hood that makes it appear bigger. Pretty much everything you read in the reviews is correct. But the colors it produces differ from the Sigma and are appealing to me. It's a difference that could be dealt with in post processing but the less I have to do there the better I like it. In buying new I personally would have a hard time with the $200 premium. But everytime I decide to sell it I can't quite pull the trigger. However my reason is really subjective to me and the price I paid for it. I almost exclusively use the UWA in bright daylight so the f stop doesn't matter so much. And I can deal with the 3 less mm's b/c of the little extra pop to the colors that I see. I do think the Sigma is actually a better lens and would make that my recommendation. If I hadn't developed this perverse relationship with the Sony I'd be happy as a clam with the Sigma. For myself I'll have to put the names in a hat to decide which to sell. I may have solved my problem in a different way but that's for another post. If I were going to pay the price of the Sony new I'd be looking at the updated Sigma.

I know Justin really likes his Tamron so maybe he'll have something more to add. There's another Sigma user or two that might comment as well but they also might have their hands full with some triplets and such around the Christmas tree.

I'm always a sucker for industrial sunsets:

Me too - nice shot!

Really like the perspective of the two above photos. Also very nice showing of the A550's capabilities in the first.

What island is this? At first glance it reminded me of Saba but does it go with your St. Maarten photos?

It looks like an awesome cruise you were on - just beautiful photos. And congrats on your new camera!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

From our trip to WDW a couple of weeks ago.

 

[runskyhy]