Photo sharing: Sony Alpha

Fractal, I was hoping I wouldn't like the A7II......but you know how that goes. After playing with the XE2 again, I was like "wow" that A7II sure feels good. The AF is definitely better at tracking than the A7 was. It has a focus point setting called flexible spot with Lock-On. It works pretty good from what I've seen so far. Better than my XE2 at tracking. It's also fantastic at face detect. The only problem I've seen is when in single focus mode it'll pick the background sometimes like the A7. I somehow wish it was a little lighter and less like a DSLR shape. Mirrorless is supposed to feel light.....right? It's shape and grip remind me of the K-5 which is the most comfortable DSLR.
 
Fractal, I was hoping I wouldn't like the A7II......but you know how that goes. After playing with the XE2 again, I was like "wow" that A7II sure feels good. The AF is definitely better at tracking than the A7 was. It has a focus point setting called flexible spot with Lock-On. It works pretty good from what I've seen so far. Better than my XE2 at tracking. It's also fantastic at face detect. The only problem I've seen is when in single focus mode it'll pick the background sometimes like the A7. I somehow wish it was a little lighter and less like a DSLR shape. Mirrorless is supposed to feel light.....right? It's shape and grip remind me of the K-5 which is the most comfortable DSLR.



Be careful Harry, before you know it you might just end up falling in love with that camera lol.
 
Fractal, I was hoping I wouldn't like the A7II......but you know how that goes. After playing with the XE2 again, I was like "wow" that A7II sure feels good. The AF is definitely better at tracking than the A7 was. It has a focus point setting called flexible spot with Lock-On. It works pretty good from what I've seen so far. Better than my XE2 at tracking. It's also fantastic at face detect. The only problem I've seen is when in single focus mode it'll pick the background sometimes like the A7. I somehow wish it was a little lighter and less like a DSLR shape. Mirrorless is supposed to feel light.....right? It's shape and grip remind me of the K-5 which is the most comfortable DSLR.

OK, so you are keeping the A7ii, not the XE2; but you still have the XT-1?

I'm still in a holding pattern to see what the New Year brings. Until then I continue to enjoy my NEX-7 ( which is approaching 100,000 actuations )
 

Harry never falls in love with a camera. He just has a series of casual affairs, but he is afraid of real commitment.

Hey Havoc, don't tell my wife! :cool1:

Mike and Fractal, here is a quick shot of Rosie sitting around the watering hole. This is an unedited RAW converted to Jpeg @ 12800. LR imports with a chroma NR set at 25 I think. The Sony has terrible chroma noise. The noise pattern of Canon and Fuji are more natural looking.

This is unedited. Taken with the Zeiss 35

1/125 f2.8 12800

Unedited 12800 test by Harry Shields, on Flickr
 
Hey Havoc, don't tell my wife! :cool1:

Mike and Fractal, here is a quick shot of Rosie sitting around the watering hole. This is an unedited RAW converted to Jpeg @ 12800. LR imports with a chroma NR set at 25 I think. The Sony has terrible chroma noise. The noise pattern of Canon and Fuji are more natural looking.

This is unedited. Taken with the Zeiss 35

1/125 f2.8 12800

Unedited 12800 test by Harry Shields, on Flickr

Not bad. It's a very "shadowy" pic, and noise is always worst in shadows. I find the chroma noise on Sony pretty well controlled, as long as you use the default LR setting.
You definitely need some more NR for that image for anything but tiny size viewing. But I'm betting if you push the slider up to around 30-35, you will get a nice balance of detail and noise.

Anyway, my Xmas bonus was a little bigger than I expected.... hmmm, what photography goody should I treat myself too...
 
Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to the Sony Alpha crew!


DSC03794-XL.jpg
 
So I've decided to jump to the a6000...just have to wrangle up the funds. I would just need the body so it shouldn't be too crazy if I look around Craigslist.

Still love shooting with my 3N, this was a hike with my cousin. It was difficult to get anything crazy sharp with all of the mist:

Breakneck Ridge Hike by raddie99, on Flickr

Mountain Face by raddie99, on Flickr

and this was a school event my little princess:

Cookie Swap (13 of 21) by raddie99, on Flickr

Cookie Swap (10 of 21) by raddie99, on Flickr

Cookie Swap (7 of 21) by raddie99, on Flickr

Cookie Swap (6 of 21) by raddie99, on Flickr

Cookie Swap (3 of 21) by raddie99, on Flickr
 
Congrats on the A6000 - I can't imagine you won't love it...I certainly loved my NEX-5N, but the move to the A6000 was definitely one I'm very glad I made - all the same things are good about it that I liked on the 5N, plus the several areas where it's just fantastically better - namely controls & menus, customization, overall resolution, high ISO performance, and focus speed/tracking.

FRACTAL - lovely Christmas scene! The bridge really makes the setting.
 
Congrats on the A6000 - I can't imagine you won't love it...I certainly loved my NEX-5N, but the move to the A6000 was definitely one I'm very glad I made - all the same things are good about it that I liked on the 5N, plus the several areas where it's just fantastically better - namely controls & menus, customization, overall resolution, high ISO performance, and focus speed/tracking.

FRACTAL - lovely Christmas scene! The bridge really makes the setting.

Thanks Justin!

On another note - Steve Huff just reviewed the A7ii and named it his camera of the year. It's a typical Huff review - enthusiastic, more "real world", short on technical data and a bit over the top but gives a good feel for what to expect from the camera. He now owns the A7s and the A7ii. The thing that surprised me the most, and this was in the comments section, was that the A7ii has better AF than the Nikon D800 and the Canon 6D he tested. He also praised the accuracy of the A7ii AF. Harry, if you are reading this I would love to hear your take on the A7ii AF.

Finally, a couple shots from Christmas morning;

DSC03939-XL.jpg


DSC03943-XL.jpg
 
So I did something a little different here and I think I like it. I ended up applying noise reduction to just the sky with some Photoshop layer masking trickery and fell like the sky is a lot smoother than it normally would have been.

NYE Diagon Alley Style by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr
 
So I did something a little different here and I think I like it. I ended up applying noise reduction to just the sky with some Photoshop layer masking trickery and fell like the sky is a lot smoother than it normally would have been.

NYE Diagon Alley Style by Mike Sperduto, on Flickr

Neat perspective! Sky looks good and smooth.

I find the Color slider in Noise Reduction ( Lightroom ) does a great job of smoothing out skies as well.
 
Neat perspective! Sky looks good and smooth.

I find the Color slider in Noise Reduction ( Lightroom ) does a great job of smoothing out skies as well.

In the past Ive used the noise reduction in LR but for this one I wanted to mess around with layer masking since its a technique ive not used much. I don't think id have time to layer mask an image with 30 different layers to get the "perfect" picture though :lmao:



So another week and another idea in my head. Latest thought is to keep my A99 and just enjoy it and build up some glass for now. Just recently sold my Rokinon 14mm UWA so as of now all I have is my Sigma 50mm f/1.4 and my old Sigma 70-300 so an update to my glass is sorely need.

Harry brought to my attention a review Tom Bricker did on the Rokinon 12mm fisheye and we all know how much I loved my old Rokinon 8mm fisheye :rotfl2:
Ive missed that lens ever since I sold it, was the sharpest lens and the picture quality and colors were great out of the lens. The part I miss the most is the manual focus believe it or not. Once you dialed in the focus (which took me a while to figure out being a newbie) you never have to touch the focus and is perfect for ride like Big Thunder where the ride vehicles are moving at an accelerate speed, say by by to an AF lens trying to grab focus going that quick. Lastly its a lens I can keep even if switching to the A7II(9) eventually, just throw on the cheaper adapter and off you go with no worry about AF.
 
In the past Ive used the noise reduction in LR but for this one I wanted to mess around with layer masking since its a technique ive not used much. I don't think id have time to layer mask an image with 30 different layers to get the "perfect" picture though :lmao:



So another week and another idea in my head. Latest thought is to keep my A99 and just enjoy it and build up some glass for now. Just recently sold my Rokinon 14mm UWA so as of now all I have is my Sigma 50mm f/1.4 and my old Sigma 70-300 so an update to my glass is sorely need.

Harry brought to my attention a review Tom Bricker did on the Rokinon 12mm fisheye and we all know how much I loved my old Rokinon 8mm fisheye :rotfl2:
Ive missed that lens ever since I sold it, was the sharpest lens and the picture quality and colors were great out of the lens. The part I miss the most is the manual focus believe it or not. Once you dialed in the focus (which took me a while to figure out being a newbie) you never have to touch the focus and is perfect for ride like Big Thunder where the ride vehicles are moving at an accelerate speed, say by by to an AF lens trying to grab focus going that quick. Lastly its a lens I can keep even if switching to the A7II(9) eventually, just throw on the cheaper adapter and off you go with no worry about AF.

Mike,

Do you have LR and PS though Adobe's Creative Cloud or on your desktop? I have LR 4 downloaded but am considering signing up for CC.

I agree with you on the Rokinon fisheyes, very sharp. I love my 8mm. The only issue with the NEX-7 is purple vignetting that I have to wrestle with in LR.
 
Mike,

Do you have LR and PS though Adobe's Creative Cloud or on your desktop? I have LR 4 downloaded but am considering signing up for CC.

I agree with you on the Rokinon fisheyes, very sharp. I love my 8mm. The only issue with the NEX-7 is purple vignetting that I have to wrestle with in LR.

I had pirated pirate: versions of LR and CS6 on my computer for a while but went legit :littleangel: and signed up last year for CC

I don't thing I had that issue with my 8mm on my A55 but its been a while or wasn't that noticeable
 
So another week and another idea in my head. Latest thought is to keep my A99 and just enjoy it and build up some glass for now. Just recently sold my Rokinon 14mm UWA so as of now all I have is my Sigma 50mm f/1.4 and my old Sigma 70-300 so an update to my glass is sorely need.

Harry brought to my attention a review Tom Bricker did on the Rokinon 12mm fisheye and we all know how much I loved my old Rokinon 8mm fisheye :rotfl2:
Ive missed that lens ever since I sold it, was the sharpest lens and the picture quality and colors were great out of the lens. The part I miss the most is the manual focus believe it or not. Once you dialed in the focus (which took me a while to figure out being a newbie) you never have to touch the focus and is perfect for ride like Big Thunder where the ride vehicles are moving at an accelerate speed, say by by to an AF lens trying to grab focus going that quick. Lastly its a lens I can keep even if switching to the A7II(9) eventually, just throw on the cheaper adapter and off you go with no worry about AF.

The A99 is a great camera. I miss some things about it, though overall, I'm quite happy with the change.
You need to ask yourself what about your photography gear really needs to grow or change..

If it's simply a matter of wanting something smaller, than the A7 series might be your answer. But in terms of body, you are saving about a half pound with the A7ii. So only you can decide how meaningful the weight savings would be.

In terms of image quality... I can't explain it, but if you look at the dpreview comparisons between the A99 and the A7ii --- They look very very close. Considering my D750 using a cousin of the same sensor, it doesn't make sense to me. The D750 is noticeably better at the mid and high ISOs. So the A7ii should be noticeably better than the A99, but I don't see it, even when comparing raw files on dpreview.

Anyway, beyond size.. what's lacking. Would your experience improve more, would you get more enjoyment, out of better glass or a different camera body.

For me, the biggest shortcomings of the A99 were some gaps in the Sony lens lineup, the so-so ISO performance for full frame, and the mediocre system.
I still happily chose it over the D600 and the 6D, which has similarly mediocre AF systems, even if they had better lens lineups. The 6D has better ISO performance, but the D600 and A99 both had better dynamic range. And truthfully, when I bought the A99, I didn't quite fully feel the constrictions of the A-mount lens lineup.
When the D750 was released, it really answered my shortcomings with the A99 -- the best AF system of any camera, even better IQ than the A99, etc.

Still, within the A-mount world, there is some great glass, fairly affordable. I still truly love the Minolta 100/2.8 and 200/2.8. These are simply phenomenal lenses, much cheaper than "new" lenses, but optically nearly flawless. I never found an affordable ultrawide that I truly loved for Sony, but you might be on the right track with the new 12mm.

You're lucky to have a somewhat limited lens selection -- If you chose to change brands, you could do so without much pain.

Personally, my take:
The Nikon D750 is the best full frame camera currently out there in terms of traditional still photography. The Nikon lens lineup is superb, especially in terms of ultrawide. (the 14-24 is the gold standard but out of my size and price range. But even the affordable 18-35 is great optically). The camera is fairly small and light -- it weighs only 200 grams more than the A7ii. The IQ is second to none, among 24mp cameras. The AF is the best of any camera, period. The OVF is large and bright, and better for tracking action than EVF. 6.5 FPS is the fastest outside of the super expensive professional dSLRs.

The A7ii looks to be the best in terms of more compact full frame-mirrorless. There are strong arguments that mirrorless is better for video than traditional. Obviously, live view is much better than any traditional. And EVF has a lot of big advantages over OVF. While in theory, the IQ should be about the same as the D750, in every comparison I've seen (dpreview, imaging-resource, and DXO testing), the D750 looks noticeably better. The AF may be improved int he A7ii, but I suspect the D750 is still noticeably better. But these tradeoffs may be worthwhile for someone who wants smaller, who wants EVF, live view. You are gaining quite a bit.

Keeping the A99 is really the best option, if you have a limited budget and mostly want to improve your image quality and take different types of shots. That way, you can use your budget towards great glass. A truly good telephoto lens, macro lens, ultra wide -- these really open up different types of photography. There is nothing WRONG with the A99 image quality -- it's still better than any APS-C camera. Keep it below ISO 10,000 or so, and you are still doing great. It's still got the great EVF, great live view. What would you really be gaining by switching to the A7ii? A slight bit of IQ, a slightly smaller body.

And of course, the next few months will possibly bring a Canon 6dii or 5div, a Sony A9 or A99ii, etc. So there might be other options to consider as well.

Now for myself..... My wife is expecting a nice bonus and said she would buy me a lens. How do I break it to her, that the lens I "need" is $2,000...
 
The A99 is a great camera. I miss some things about it, though overall, I'm quite happy with the change.
You need to ask yourself what about your photography gear really needs to grow or change..

If it's simply a matter of wanting something smaller, than the A7 series might be your answer. But in terms of body, you are saving about a half pound with the A7ii. So only you can decide how meaningful the weight savings would be.

In terms of image quality... I can't explain it, but if you look at the dpreview comparisons between the A99 and the A7ii --- They look very very close. Considering my D750 using a cousin of the same sensor, it doesn't make sense to me. The D750 is noticeably better at the mid and high ISOs. So the A7ii should be noticeably better than the A99, but I don't see it, even when comparing raw files on dpreview.

Anyway, beyond size.. what's lacking. Would your experience improve more, would you get more enjoyment, out of better glass or a different camera body.

For me, the biggest shortcomings of the A99 were some gaps in the Sony lens lineup, the so-so ISO performance for full frame, and the mediocre system.
I still happily chose it over the D600 and the 6D, which has similarly mediocre AF systems, even if they had better lens lineups. The 6D has better ISO performance, but the D600 and A99 both had better dynamic range. And truthfully, when I bought the A99, I didn't quite fully feel the constrictions of the A-mount lens lineup.
When the D750 was released, it really answered my shortcomings with the A99 -- the best AF system of any camera, even better IQ than the A99, etc.

Still, within the A-mount world, there is some great glass, fairly affordable. I still truly love the Minolta 100/2.8 and 200/2.8. These are simply phenomenal lenses, much cheaper than "new" lenses, but optically nearly flawless. I never found an affordable ultrawide that I truly loved for Sony, but you might be on the right track with the new 12mm.

You're lucky to have a somewhat limited lens selection -- If you chose to change brands, you could do so without much pain.

Personally, my take:
The Nikon D750 is the best full frame camera currently out there in terms of traditional still photography. The Nikon lens lineup is superb, especially in terms of ultrawide. (the 14-24 is the gold standard but out of my size and price range. But even the affordable 18-35 is great optically). The camera is fairly small and light -- it weighs only 200 grams more than the A7ii. The IQ is second to none, among 24mp cameras. The AF is the best of any camera, period. The OVF is large and bright, and better for tracking action than EVF. 6.5 FPS is the fastest outside of the super expensive professional dSLRs.

The A7ii looks to be the best in terms of more compact full frame-mirrorless. There are strong arguments that mirrorless is better for video than traditional. Obviously, live view is much better than any traditional. And EVF has a lot of big advantages over OVF. While in theory, the IQ should be about the same as the D750, in every comparison I've seen (dpreview, imaging-resource, and DXO testing), the D750 looks noticeably better. The AF may be improved int he A7ii, but I suspect the D750 is still noticeably better. But these tradeoffs may be worthwhile for someone who wants smaller, who wants EVF, live view. You are gaining quite a bit.

Keeping the A99 is really the best option, if you have a limited budget and mostly want to improve your image quality and take different types of shots. That way, you can use your budget towards great glass. A truly good telephoto lens, macro lens, ultra wide -- these really open up different types of photography. There is nothing WRONG with the A99 image quality -- it's still better than any APS-C camera. Keep it below ISO 10,000 or so, and you are still doing great. It's still got the great EVF, great live view. What would you really be gaining by switching to the A7ii? A slight bit of IQ, a slightly smaller body.

And of course, the next few months will possibly bring a Canon 6dii or 5div, a Sony A9 or A99ii, etc. So there might be other options to consider as well.

Now for myself..... My wife is expecting a nice bonus and said she would buy me a lens. How do I break it to her, that the lens I "need" is $2,000...

I feel me wanting the A7II is more of a "want" than a "need" and that I do get swayed into shiny new things, lol. I know that I wont be making any gains in IQ or ISO performance and if there are any they would be negligible. So really a move to the A7(9) line would be me making the switch and pretty much starting over and building a collection around E Mount. I really would benefit from better glass than a body that would be more of a lateral move.

One point you made with the limitations of the A Mount is one of the reasons im back to the mind frame of sticking with MY A99 versus switching and using FE lenses, the selection of FE lenses is stick slim and what is out there is very expensive and not to mention some of them aren't getting the most stellar reviews either.

A9 and A99II would throw a wrench in my plans but with my budget I really need more glass right now. Im trying to keep my budget around $1,000-$1,200 max and to start that 12mm is $500.
 
He is what I have
50mm f1.4
70-300mm

What I want
12mm fisheye
upgrade to my 70-300 daughter is starting softball so would be nice to have a good quality lens
something with some range 24-70,16-35
A nice lens for portraits

Dream lenses
Sigma 35mm art
Tamron SP 15-30mm f/2.8
 






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