Photo sharing: Sony Alpha

[zackiedawg]

Some wide-angle fun with my A300 out in the boiling hot swamps...the skies were sporadically cloudy, but a nice clear blue otherwise...it seemed a perfect opportunity for an Infrared look:

And some normal wide stuff too:

Here was a little baby alligator in a tank - from underwater, he had his head sticking above the surface, and was a mirror image of himself:

(Pretty much all above shot at 10mm, except the gator at 24mm).

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I have the Sigma 70-300 and love it. I am still new to all of this digital SLR stuff, but I have been very pleased with this lens as well. I was recently at the MN Arboretum and came upon a hummingbird. I did not have this lens on and couldn't switch lenses fast enough without losing the shot. I had the 18-70 mm lens on and shot with that. I have to crop those images so that I can get them up. I was in the right place at the right time with the wrong lens!!

Tammy

That's so frustrating! I've had things like that happen more than once. But it's great when you've got the correct lens at just the right moment!

Wow you have a great setup. I've used the 70-300G once and it is awesome. I've been very interested in the 135/2.8 too, but I'm going to have to butter my wife up enough to get her to give me the Sigma 70-200 for Christmas (oh and a 1.4x TC for it too )

Thanks Code! I've considered a TC for my 70-200 and may try renting and see if I like it. I think it would be nice to have along when I want to only take the 70-200 but am worried I might need the extra reach.

Since I got the A700 body only on a spur of the moment decision- I went in not having any clue what lenses I wanted but needing something right away. I ended up trying a few and that's an understatement. Most that I got I had fun tracking down as used lenses and was able to save some $$$'s - including the 16-80. The small bummer was buying my 70-300 last Christmas when Sony had a discount and then finding it marked way down at the CC liquidation. Of course they had never had that lens before at a store near us! But I was very happy with it so that eased the pain.

 

[vandort]

I leave for Disney this weekend and I have been struggling with the decision of which lenses I should take with me on this trip. What lens do you take with you on your trips to WDW?

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I leave for Disney this weekend and I have been struggling with the decision of which lenses I should take with me on this trip. What lens do you take with you on your trips to WDW?

All of them. What lenses do you have?

My top choices in order would be:
16-80 zoom - which would be on my camera the majority of the time.
135mm 2.8 prime - b/c it's a favorite lens I love using and it's small and light weight.
50mm or 30mm fast prime - for dark rides as well as general use.
70-300 zoom - mostly for AK.

Then if I still had room I'd like an ultra wide zoom.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

In MN this evening with storms all around and a few minutes of sunshine.

 

[ColleenG]

WOW! That is AWESOME! ^^^^^

 

[MICKEY88]

 

[vandort]

All of them. What lenses do you have?

My top choices in order would be:
16-80 zoom - which would be on my camera the majority of the time.
135mm 2.8 prime - b/c it's a favorite lens I love using and it's small and light weight.
50mm or 30mm fast prime - for dark rides as well as general use.
70-300 zoom - mostly for AK.

Then if I still had room I'd like an ultra wide zoom.

Thanks for the input, Kathy.
My lens are:
16-80mm zoom (I agree with your comment. This will be on my camera most of the time.
70-210mm f4 (beer can)
70-210mm 4.5-5.6 (thinking I should leave this home)
100 macro (1:2.8 (32)) (I don't know about this one?)
100-300mm 1:4.5 (32-5.6) (?)
28mm (1:2.8(22))
50mm (1.7 (22))

I have a few lenses that fit within the 16-80mm range that I won't take. I have a couple of teleconverters, an assortment of filters and tripods. I'm planning on taking a travel tripod (which is lighter weight).

What would you suggest?

After what you've said about the 70-300mmG lenses, it sounds like a great lens.

Thank you!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

WOW! That is AWESOME! ^^^^^

Thanks Colleen!

Thanks for the input, Kathy.
My lens are:
16-80mm zoom (I agree with your comment. This will be on my camera most of the time.
70-210mm f4 (beer can)
70-210mm 4.5-5.6 (thinking I should leave this home)
100 macro (1:2.8 (32)) (I don't know about this one?)
100-300mm 1:4.5 (32-5.6) (?)
28mm (1:2.8(22))
50mm (1.7 (22))

I have a few lenses that fit within the 16-80mm range that I won't take. I have a couple of teleconverters, an assortment of filters and tripods. I'm planning on taking a travel tripod (which is lighter weight).

What would you suggest?

After what you've said about the 70-300mmG lenses, it sounds like a great lens.

Thank you!

So much depends on how much room you have. You don't have to carry all of what you bring into the parks each day- just what you think you want depending on where you'll be. My mindset is if I own it, have room in my bag, am willing to carry the weight and think I may have a use for it I should bring it b/c it won't do any good sitting at home.

I would definitely bring the 16-80, one of the telephotos zooms (beercan or 100-300) and the 50mm if I wanted to do some dark ride shots. I really like the beercan lens but if you like your 100-300 also then it's pretty well overlapped. Combined with your 16-80 you'd only have a 20mm gap which isn't bad.

I too would leave the second 70-210 at home.

The rest would be if I had room:
The 100mm macro could also be used as a fast telephoto (albeit slow focusing) so it does have some versatility. It might be fun to play around with for macros, in some of the shows for closeups and for portraits of your family members.

I'd probably skip the 28mm since you have the 16-80 but it's small so if you did bring it it could be used at shows, character meals or even on some of the "brighter" dark rides and is nice b/c it's wider than the 50mm.

And as you can tell I'd give the thumbs up to the 70-300G to anybody considering it.

Have fun on your trip and I hope we get to see some pictures!!!

 

[vandort]

Thanks, Kathy. I'm just finishing my packing. I agreed with all that you said. I have a Canon padded back pack that I am going to take and a smaller Case Logic padded case that holds even my biggest lens. So, I'll take most of my lenses and then select one or two to take with me every day.

To send off, I'll include a picture of my family in front of the castle.

I'll be back in a couple of weeks.

 

[vandort]

Well, I'm back from WDW with 11 GB of pictures. It will take me some time to review all of them, but I thought that I would post a few today.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I was thinking this thread needed a bump up. Nice pictures Heidi! My favorite is the castle with reflection. Nice look from the Gorilla too!

Have fun with the 11GB of pictures!!!! I look forward to seeing more.

 

[vandort]

And of course, the amazing candy lady:

 

[vandort]

Here are a couple of pictures from the Animal Kingdom Lodge:

 

[vandort]

I probably took the most pictures at Animal Kingdom for this trip. I love to take pictures of animals and landscapes.

I did take many pictures of the "tree of life". I find it captivating. This is one shot of an owl in the tree:

The Komodo Dragon.
He is only an adolescent. I can't imagine how big he is really going to be when he grows up.

This is not real sharp, but I like this photo of the hippo.

A picture of a female gorilla:

 

[sdshutterbug]

I've been looking through these and waiting until I had enough posts to add my own here! No Disney pictures yet (and probably there will never be - I think I'm switching to Canon in December. I love my Sony but Canon has better noise handling and a much wider array of lenses to choose from). Here are some of my favorite shots with my a200 (click through to Flickr and click "more properties" to view EXIF data)

Long exposure of Lake Ontario, Oswego, NY


New York State Fair from the ferris wheel


Dead horseshoe crab on Cape Cod


My kitten Casey


Yup, that's Billy Joel!


Crowd shot at Billy Joel / Elton John concert

 

[MICKEY88]

I've been looking through these and waiting until I had enough posts to add my own here! No Disney pictures yet (and probably there will never be - I think I'm switching to Canon in December. I love my Sony but Canon has better noise handling and a much wider array of lenses to choose from). Here are some of my favorite shots with my a200 L]

although canon might handle noise better than your A200..the newer Sonys do a great job of noise handling, and Sony is coming out with more and more lenses, plus there are still the minolta lenses to be found..

 

[zackiedawg]

although canon might handle noise better than your A200..the newer Sonys do a great job of noise handling, and Sony is coming out with more and more lenses, plus there are still the minolta lenses to be found..

Exactly!

SDSHUTTERBUG, unless you want to go full frame very high end, in which case Canon has the crown right now...in the mid-level arena you might at least want to wait to see the A500 and A550...they really appear to be game-changers in the high-ISO noise control arena, and in some other really nifty features too (like 7 fps burst, and manual focus preview live view). Early samples from the A550 show noise control at ISO6400 significantly better than the A200 is at ISO3200...and even usable at ISO12800! So far, only the Nikon D300 has done that kind of performance from APS-C sensored cameras, and it's priced significantly higher than the A500/550 are debuting at.

By all means, go with what you are comfortable and happy with - but since you're already invested in Sony somewhat, I think you'd be at least doing yourself a service to check out these two before making a final decision!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Absolutely beautiful pictures you are creating with your A200 sdshutterbug - thanks for sharing!

I agree with what MICKEY88 and zackiedawg commented on since you already are shooting with Sony. The new camera's really appear to have substantial high ISO capabilities with jpgs if your A200 isn't suiting your needs. Also, regarding lens selection have you determined that there is something that isn't available with Sony/Minolta and 3rd party lenses that you need but can't get? I know I was given that advice when I was getting the Sony but I haven't had a problem in that regard myself. Sometimes I wish there were less so I wouldn't be tempted! The argument for Canon having more lenses is very true but it's only important if they are something you need. And Sony and 3rd parties are continuing to bring out more lenses for the Alpha mount.

Either way - have fun with your camera!

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I probably took the most pictures at Animal Kingdom for this trip. I love to take pictures of animals and landscapes.

I did take many pictures of the "tree of life". I find it captivating. This is one shot of an owl in the tree:

This is not real sharp, but I like this photo of the hippo.

I agree about shooting at AK - there's so much there. One of our next trips I want to spend more time with the tree of life since I haven't yet. And I like the photo of the Hippo. I am always facinated by the viewing area and watching those animals underwater. Also, there's no other way I'd want to try to get a picture like that!