Photo sharing: Sony Alpha

[fractal]

I picked up another non-native lens for the NEX-7. Soligor 200mm f2.8 in Minolta mount for about $150 . The lens is in fantastic condition and feels very solid.

It came with a nifty leather carrying case...

For my longer length shots I've been using the Sony SEL 18-200mm 3.5/6.3. It does have stabilization but is slow on the long end which requires me to shoot a higher ISO than I want for sports/action shots (especially when indoors). I'll be comparing the two over the next few weeks.

I did manage to take a few shots of hanging flowers on my deck as the sun was setting. I did some PP in LR and what I found was that I had to add a decent amount of contrast, but overall I'm pleased with these first results. The third shot I believe was in f/4 while the rest at f/2.8. The big test for this lens will be on Saturday at my daughter's dance recital.

Thanks goes out to Havoc for helping me steer down this path.

 

[havoc315]

I picked up another non-native lens for the NEX-7. Soligor 200mm f2.8 in Minolta mount for about $150 . The lens is in fantastic condition and feels very solid.

It came with a nifty leather carrying case...

For my longer length shots I've been using the Sony SEL 18-200mm 3.5/6.3. It does have stabilization but is slow on the long end which requires me to shoot a higher ISO than I want for sports/action shots (especially when indoors). I'll be comparing the two over the next few weeks.

I did manage to take a few shots of hanging flowers on my deck as the sun was setting. I did some PP in LR and what I found was that I had to add a decent amount of contrast, but overall I'm pleased with these first results. The third shot I believe was in f/4 while the rest at f/2.8. The big test for this lens will be on Saturday at my daughter's dance recital.

Thanks goes out to Havoc for helping me steer down this path.

Nice shots...
How does the size and weight compare to the 18-200?

So you gain 2+ stops in aperture, but lose a couple stops of image stabilization. But not really using stabilization when you are shooting action... If you were shooting 1/250 anyway, you can now reduce your ISO a couple stops.

Just wonder how the lens will perform compared to your modern 18-200.

With the Minolta 200/2.8, I get color, contrast and resolution matching modern premium lenses---- but the older design can give me some purple fringing CA that requires post processing.
Fortunately, lightroom can do a lot!

 

[fractal]

Nice shots...
How does the size and weight compare to the 18-200?

So you gain 2+ stops in aperture, but lose a couple stops of image stabilization. But not really using stabilization when you are shooting action... If you were shooting 1/250 anyway, you can now reduce your ISO a couple stops.

Just wonder how the lens will perform compared to your modern 18-200.

With the Minolta 200/2.8, I get color, contrast and resolution matching modern premium lenses---- but the older design can give me some purple fringing CA that requires post processing.
Fortunately, lightroom can do a lot!

Thanks Havoc,

This lens with adapter is a bit longer than the Sony 18-200 and may be a bit heavier but not by much ( at least that's my impression without actually weighing them). The SEL 18-200 was really designed for the Emount camcorder and is a hefty lens ( but can do a lot) While the Sony is metal and feels solid, there is a certain "toughness" that the Soligor has. Like you could use it to club somebody over the head, or tenderize meat and then go out and take pictures with it.

There is a lot of CA when I shot wide open into the sun and I was having trouble removing it in LR. This lens and the Minolta 50mm 1.4 Rokkor do have a certain "look" and character that the modern lenses don't. One thing I noticed - these lenses, while not as sharp don't seem to produce as much noise with the NEX-7 as my native lenses do; not sure why. They also seem to produce a more "film like" result. At the same time, I feel I'm not able to manipulate the RAW files as well as with the native lenses in PP. Some shots I took with the Soligor into the sun created so much "haze" and flare that even with extensive PP I could not create a usable image.

What I do have, however is a much faster lens at 200mm, which paired with a tri-pod or monopod or braced should give me shots I couldn't get with the SEL 18-200. I'm looking forward to playing around with it this summer and testing it at the recital.

 

[havoc315]

Thanks Havoc,

This lens with adapter is a bit longer than the Sony 18-200 and may be a bit heavier but not by much ( at least that's my impression without actually weighing them). The SEL 18-200 was really designed for the Emount camcorder and is a hefty lens ( but can do a lot) While the Sony is metal and feels solid, there is a certain "toughness" that the Soligor has. Like you could use it to club somebody over the head, or tenderize meat and then go out and take pictures with it.

There is a lot of CA when I shot wide open into the sun and I was having trouble removing it in LR. This lens and the Minolta 50mm 1.4 Rokkor do have a certain "look" and character that the modern lenses don't. One thing I noticed - these lenses, while not as sharp don't seem to produce as much noise with the NEX-7 as my native lenses do; not sure why. They also seem to produce a more "film like" result. At the same time, I feel I'm not able to manipulate the RAW files as well as with the native lenses in PP. Some shots I took with the Soligor into the sun created so much "haze" and flare that even with extensive PP I could not create a usable image.

What I do have, however is a much faster lens at 200mm, which paired with a tri-pod or monopod or braced should give me shots I couldn't get with the SEL 18-200. I'm looking forward to playing around with it this summer and testing it at the recital.

Faster shutter speeds thanks to the 2.8 aperture, and narrower depth of field when you want it. 200/2.8 does produce a ridiculously small DOF unless you are really far from the subject.

I can't speak to the Soligor or Rokkor lenses. I suspect they don't quite match the optical quality of the Minolta Maxxum lenses (which is another reason they are so much cheaper).

Now, in 2014.. we are finally seeing 3rd parties make top notch lenses, like the Sigma ART series. Traditionally, 3rd party lenses were cheap lower quality lenses. Minolta Maxxum lenses were obviously 1st party lenses at the time, and many are exceptional.
Optically, they really only have 1 drawback -- Digital lenses use different coatings than film designed lenses. The coatings on those film lenses sometimes cause reflections back onto the sensor, causing some CA/color fringing. All my Minolta lenses suffer from this to some degree when wide open, some lenses worse than others. My 200/2.8 has a moderate amount of purple fringing in high contrast areas wide open, but it's just requires a tiny correction in light room (boost the purple CA slider to about a 5), and it is not a problem stopped down. But if I combine the 200/2.8 with a 2x teleconverter, the purple fringing gets extreme -- Even at F8, I need to set the Lightroom slider on 10-15 to get rid of the purple fringing.

Other than the purple fringing, my high quality Minolta Maxxum lenses are really optically nearly perfect. They lack the quiet focus of modern lenses. Sony doesn't provide in-camera JPEG corrections for them, but I rarely shoot JPEG anyway.

Anyway, some recent Minolta Maxxum lens shots:

untitled-21-2.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

Macro shot by Havoc315, on Flickr

citifield-231.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

untitled-10.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

baseball-202.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

 

[Hockeyman]

Rise and Shine by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr

 

[fractal]

nice shots Havoc! ^^^

thanks for the explanation on the lens coatings.


Last evening I did a quick comparison test between the Soligor 200mm 2.8 and the SEL 18-200mm (f/6.3 @ 200mm).

From my front stoop my aim was my lamp post. I used ISO 200 for each shot and adjusted the shutter speed to get to "0" exposure reading. Both are handheld. The Soligor shot went off at 1/640 of a second and despite looking very shaky in the viewfinder the shot came out decent.

I zoomed to 200mm with the SEL and kept the camera in manual focus. With OSS, the image stayed true in the viewfinder. At f/6.3 I dropped my shutter speed to 1/250 sec and was still slightly underexposed. Here's the result...

The Soligor image is obviously softer but it was also taken at f/2.8 vs. f/6.3. I wanted to test the lenses at equal ISO and I ended up being somewhat impressed with the SEL and the power of OSS. It seems the real benefit for the Soligor will be in darker situations shooting at a moving target. That however remains to be seen as I don't have AF with the prime lens which I'm sure will make things more challenging. Using a tripod will also make a big difference. Another surprise to me was the "wider" view of the SEL. Both of these images are the RAW files untouched and converted to JPG. I know I had the SEL zoomed out to 200mm so I'm not sure why I have a wider field of view. Perhaps it's the adapter on the Soligor?

 

[Hockeyman]

Downtown West Palm Beach by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr

 

[havoc315]

nice shots Havoc! ^^^

thanks for the explanation on the lens coatings.


Last evening I did a quick comparison test between the Soligor 200mm 2.8 and the SEL 18-200mm (f/6.3 @ 200mm).

From my front stoop my aim was my lamp post. I used ISO 200 for each shot and adjusted the shutter speed to get to "0" exposure reading. Both are handheld. The Soligor shot went off at 1/640 of a second and despite looking very shaky in the viewfinder the shot came out decent.

I zoomed to 200mm with the SEL and kept the camera in manual focus. With OSS, the image stayed true in the viewfinder. At f/6.3 I dropped my shutter speed to 1/250 sec and was still slightly underexposed. Here's the result...

The Soligor image is obviously softer but it was also taken at f/2.8 vs. f/6.3. I wanted to test the lenses at equal ISO and I ended up being somewhat impressed with the SEL and the power of OSS. It seems the real benefit for the Soligor will be in darker situations shooting at a moving target. That however remains to be seen as I don't have AF with the prime lens which I'm sure will make things more challenging. Using a tripod will also make a big difference. Another surprise to me was the "wider" view of the SEL. Both of these images are the RAW files untouched and converted to JPG. I know I had the SEL zoomed out to 200mm so I'm not sure why I have a wider field of view. Perhaps it's the adapter on the Soligor?

Nice test, but try 1 more test:
Remember, OSS isn't very helpful with action either. And irrelevant if the light is good enough.

So try both lenses with identical exposure settings. In good light, try them both at 6.3, 1/500, and the same ISO.

If the 18-200 is still sharper, than the Soligor is really only a low light lens.

I was shooting into action today... My sons Taekwondo blackbelt test. Just finished loading 400 shots to lightroom with a number of lenses. I'm simply amazed at the sharpness and detail I got out of the Minolta Maxxum 200/2.8. Of course I missed focus at times, but when I nailed the focus, incredible results. Put my other lenses to shame.

 

[havoc315]

Barely stopped down on these... around 3.2-3.5..
Medium ISO... Most of my lenses only look this good at 5.6-8 and low ISO.

blackbelt-105.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

blackbelt-79.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

blackbelt-70.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

 

[Hockeyman]

Jupiter Rocks by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr

 

[fractal]

Beautiful shot Mike! ^^^

Let me now tell you about my daughter (and son's) dance recital this past Saturday. As you may or may not know, I purchased a Soligor 200mm 2.8 primarily for this event. The event is held in a classic early 20th century renovated two level theater and it's usually a full house. My wife got the tickets a few weeks ago and told me she was not happy with the seats she got. Typically we sit 10-15 rows back, so now I'm thinking we are even further back. OK - 200mm on my APS-C sensor should work - especially if I can shoot at f/3.5-4.

So I left my house with the following gear;
Sony NEX-7
Soligor 200mm 2.8
Sigma 19mm 2.8 ( for group shots after the recital ).
monopod
extra battery

Last minute I decided to bring a 50mm lens. Not sure why - but I was torn between the Sony SEL 50mm 1.8 and the Minolta Rokkor 50mm 1.4. I decided on the SEL because it has OSS but then changed my mind and took the Minolta since it was faster and with a monopod I didn't need stabilization. I hurried out the house with joyful anticipation of watching my children dance on stage and trying out a few of my new toys. That quickly changed when my wife led us to our seats. We were not 20 rows back - we were 2 rows back! "I thought we had bad seats?" I asked her. For her, bad seats meant that our group of 9 would be split up among different rows and section - but they were all up front. I decided to take an aisle seat on the left section.

As I sat down with the Soligor on my camera, the recital began. The lens was useless at that distance and I started to panic. I decided to switch to the Minolta 50mm - now I was fumbling in the dark, taking the adapter off of the Soligor, juggling with the Minolta, trying to put on the adapter on that lens, finding a spot for the Soligor, putting the Minolta on the NEX-7 - I missed half of the first routine . With the Minolta now on the camera I started to regret not having the Sony 50mm with autofocus. I was all manual focus ( which I would have been with the Soligor ) but the stress of the situation had my wishing for the help of AF like a little boy crying for his Mama. I used Focus Peaking a lot and love it, but it's not perfect. I found myself shooting then constantly checking the results. Some good, some not. More panic setting in. I remembered I had the Sigma 19mm. "too wide" I thought. "Yeah, but the wide view will make focusing more acurate" I countered to myself. Next thing you know, I was fumbling again - taking off the Minolta for the Sigma - my wife glaring at me like "what the h*ll are you doing?".

At that's how it went for the rest of the show. I was switching between those two lenses. I was enoying the AF of the Sigma and hoping I could crop the 19mm shots without too much loss of IQ but the lighting was challenging. The focus length of the 50mm was a bit tight but much better for where I was sitting. But will I lose too many shots do to being off focus? The recital itself was great ( but long ); we came home late and I stayed up later processing the pictures in LR. I used all types of PP style. Sometimes dramatically reducing contrast, other times upping it. Sometimes going for an HDR look ( which I thought brought out the expression of the faces better ) other times going for a more "out of the camera" look. I also did a few B&W with little NR. The grain - especially from the Minolta, I actually found appealing. In my next post I'll put up a few of my favorite shots.

 

[fractal]

These are with the Minolta 50mm 1.4 Rokkor

 

[fractal]

These are with the Sigma 19mm 2.8. I did have to do a good bit of cropping on most but overall I thought the images held up.

 

[havoc315]

Fractal....
Your shots are nothing less than spectacular. Great work.

 

[fractal]

Thanks Havoc!

Despite all the initial stress, by the end of the 5 hour (yes - FIVE HOUR!) recital I was having quite a good time and got in a great grove. I knew I was hitting more and more shots. My only letdown was not being able to put the Soligor through the paces.

 

[HPS3]

Fractal, I think they turned out great. I get nervous taking stage shots also. Usually fumbling lenses too. I think if I shot a good bit of that type, I would buy a 6d or d610 just for the AF speed.

I really like the one with overhead stage lights. I'm a huge fan of B&W.

 

[HPS3]

A7 / 28-70

This is the Carnival Dream which loads at the Riverwalk on the Muddy Mississippi in New Orleans.


Carnival Dream New Orleans by Harry Shields, on Flickr

 

[havoc315]

Trinity Church with Freedom Tower in the background..

I really need a better ultrawide angle lens.

Freedomandtrinity.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

 

[havoc315]

Trinity Church with Freedom Tower in the background..

I really need a better ultrawide angle lens.

Freedomandtrinity.jpg by Havoc315, on Flickr

 

[HPS3]

Havoc, what are you using? I just picked up an old Tokina RMC 17 f3.5 that's pretty sharp at f5.6 and smaller. I got a PK mount but it was made in A mount also. I won it on Ebay for $150 shipped in great cond. they usually sell around $180-$200.