ryzan76, the WB is out... people are having difficulty noticing that the lens is silver LOL.

Banzai_san, if you shoot a concert/gig in a restaurant/bar, you will be better served by a Sony A700 and a 50mm F1.4, because often, you must use ISO1600 in such places.

That said, I used to shoot in such places with an A100 and I was alright with shooting in such places at ISO800.

Banzai_san, I shoot a lot of gigs and I can say that 135mm is a bit too long on APS-C cameras especially at bars. I would prefer the 85mm, it's much smaller and lighter.

At 135mm there are no lenses that go F1.4 - brightest is still the Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA, going for RM4800.

At 85mm/90mm, there are a few options:
1) Carl Zeiss Planar T* 85mm F1.4 ZA - superb, very sharp, but costs nearly RM5000.
2) Minolta 85mm F1.4G - superb, sharp, very good bokeh, around RM3000 second-hand.
3) Jupiter-9 85mm F2.0 (M42 lens) - a bit soft wide open, but good for portraits. Good bokeh with 15 aperture blades! Should be under RM600 second-hand but it is manual-focus only.
4) Tamron 90mm F2.8 Macro - sharp, but honestly F2.8 is not bright enough for bar performances even at ISO800. The chances of motion blur will be increased so you might want to burst a few shots, but that might not be the best way to catch an expression! Should be RM13xx.

The A100 is not as usable as the A300 at ISO800, while the A700 is good at ISO1600.

However, I would still recommend the Sony 50mm F1.4, which can be gotten new for RM10xx or so. Get a seat at the front row and you're set. Take your time to save up for a bright telephoto prime lens.

About shooting gigs with a F1.4 lens and depth of field

Flash not used for these 3 shots:


50mm F1.4 on A700

From certain angles, you will get shallow DOF. Use this creatively, to your advantage!


50mm F1.4 on A700

Shot from the front, where the guitar and face are almost at the same plane of focus.


50mm F1.4 on A700

If the subject is further away, the depth of field will be deeper.

Think of it as shooting portraits of the performers - it's perfectly fine not to have all of the subject in focus. Did you buy a camera to stare at pixels, or to make art?

achew, no, you would not focus to infinity. There is always a spot in most 'photographer zones' that let you get everybody with one focal length and just flipping between landscape and portrait mode. Try bringing your 50mm and 90mm to a low-light performance and you will know what I mean! At that point the F1.4 will become far more important than being able to zoom.

If you go to a big concert, it will be well lit, and even a F5.6 zoom lens will do.

tanjq87, F1.7 and F1.4 is just 2/3rds of a stop away. However, sometimes, even my 135mm F1.8 is too dark at ISO1600 so I switch to the 50mm F1.4.

chiggy, if you get 1/25s at F1.4, you should get 1/15s on the F1.7. It's two dial clicks away.

Radeon, a fashion show has a long, big stage - most gigs do not. Guitarists usually have cables and they need to be within the monitor range to know how they sound.

Banzai_san, if you expose correctly there will be less noise.


135mm F1.8 1/5s at ISO6400 on the A900

To the human eye, she was practically unlit. You can tell by the lower overall contrast, that there was no light shining on her.

And if you can't take noise, turn your picture into black-and-white:


135mm F1.8 at ISO6400 also. This is the crowd area which is very dark.

And yes, the A700 is a lot better at focusing in low light due to its additional F2.8 sensor. Its center AF point is a lot faster to focus.

Are you talking about concerts specifically or gigs? At gigs I can just walk to the front and kneel on the floor. At concerts you may not be allowed to bring a camera in. With Super SteadyShot you really do not need a monopod for shooting gigs... if anything, motion blur from the performer will show up before your own handshake does.

All shots from Laundry Bar, The Curve except the first one, at No Black Tie (which is considered a very well-lit place.)

This post has been edited by albnok: May 6 2009, 06:01 PM

Woi Seng_Kiat you forgot aaa christ_0205's A350 was stolen.

tanjq87, most of these places usually do not allow flash photography. Or you could tell that it is rather rude when it's a dimly-lit place and suddenly your flash goes BOOM!

The F58 and F42 both take 4 seconds to recharge. I carry both to weddings and stuff because the F58 can overheat if you blast too many in a short period of time, so I quickly swap the F58 with a F42 and continue shooting.

If you don't plan to do creative wireless flash/studio stuff, then you should just have 1 F58 - this will be better for events.

tanjq87, the 30mm on APS-C is a very nice focal length, much, much nicer and easier to use than 50mm, though 50mm gives a nicer crop for shooting gigs. Will be sure to invite you for the next TT for an enlightenment on this focal length!

I find it funny that I see little or no pictures from those expressing intent to jump ship. Do you guys even take pictures with your camera?

If your pictures are nothing to be proud of, is it your camera's fault?

Good story 5za9!

Even a free KEEP bag will fit your gear, I kid you not.

Take note that if you do go for the Crumplers make sure you add your own padding to the top - the 7 Million top flap is not padded and impact on it (if the bag lands upside down) has damaged an A700 screen before.

Yes, a T-shirt would be good. Whatever bag it is, remember to feel around the external part of the bag to check the padding thickness. The 7 Million (not sure about the 6) has a zippered netting compartment so you can insert your own padding.

Or you could also look at the Sony LCS-SC5 - very well padded even on the top, and fits all your stuff comfortably.

Whoops forgot Kul | Mo0, no wonder I felt something was amiss when I typed that. I did have a progression from bigger to medium to smaller bags. Right now the LCS-SC5 optimally carries 5 of my favorite lenses.

achew, my friend's 7 Million was sitting in the front driver seat. He braked hard and the bag rolled forward onto the car floor. His A700 screen cracked as it was facing up near the flap.

Kul | Mo0, I think it is time you visit my article on how to cram lenses in bags of different sizes. Here's my recommendation:


(Note that the F42 will fit in the front pocket, where the fisheye and prime is. This is a Lowepro Nova Mini AW.)

So you fit the 75-300mm lying down first along the bag's length, then the A200 + kit lens goes in sideways so that the kit lens is parallel to the 75-300mm and the grip sticks up (and is easy to quickly grab.) You can add minor padding in between the tele and camera.

If you need to expand your lenses further, you can send your F42 pouch to a cobbler to add a belt strap. That's what I did! The F58 pouch already comes with a X-shaped belt strap.

More ideas here:
http://www.glaringnotebook.com/default.asp?id=999

Seng_Kiat, the first picture is too cold and the saturation isn't strong. Though I would shoot somewhere in between (if picture #1 is around 2500K while picture #2 is 3500K.)

Kul | Mo0, the Travor one with the recessed shutter button is the one that you should look for as it has all the buttons of the original. Only downside is you have to manually switch batteries. I haven't heard of complaints for these clones yet so, so far so good lah. The A700/A900 however should use the original battery grips as they have the full button layout.

That said, although the A900 grip is very tempting since over 50% of my shots are portraits, it is going to increase total weight. My camera and lens weigh about the same at the moment, but if the lens is much heavier a grip would help. Also, the SC-5 won't fit a camera with grip very well. Just as well that it's not my style to attract attention with an obvious big camera.

Congratulations instructor kysham, now we can literally legally call you sifu!

I would avoid old out-of-warranty Canon 5D MkI bodies, it has a tendency for the mirror to drop out. Its AF performance isn't great either.

The A700 can be gotten for RM3200 and you get a very nice Mini-Bravia 3" 640x480 screen and Super SteadyShot and wireless flash ratio control, and equivalent noise performance to the 40D and D300.

168257061, when I tried a 40D with a Sigma 50-150mm F2.8 indoors in mixed tungsten/flourescent light, I got some weiiird color. Tried tungsten and flourescent WB and neither looked alright, either.

This post has been edited by albnok: May 9 2009, 04:28 AM

ryzan76, I like the second picture of your second nephew! The earlier shots with harsh light are not flattering to his forehead.

christ_0205: MMM muffins. Yes please!

Seng_Kiat, as discussed over at Dyxum, they speculate that the A700 won't be have a replacement right now just because it's older (although, if they replace it now, they'd better have improved features).

This post has been edited by albnok: May 9 2009, 05:54 PM

Wow, the thread has been severely off topic in the past 10 pages. I was kind of expecting talk about Sony Alpha as it is, after all, the Sony Alpha thread...

sidewinderz, the Canon 40D only achieves 6.3 FPS (never 6.5 FPS, refer here) when the shutter speed is 1/1000s or faster. If your shutter speed is 1/60s, you only get 5.125 FPS! Is it faster than 3, 4 or 5 FPS? Yes. But its use is limited. I used both a 40D and an A700 to attempt to capture an arrow escaping a bow. Neither worked well because you need something way faster to capture enough 'subdivisions' of time. The Casio Exilim F1 at 60 FPS, now that is the tool for the job for getting enough frames 'in between'.

In the end I just hit burst mode while waiting for the archer to shoot. The supposed 6.5 FPS did not offer any help at all in getting the arrow.

Shots of balloons exploding are NOT done with high FPS cameras. They use precisely-timed electronic flashes that are synchronized to an audio mike that picks up the sound of the gun firing (with the exact delay).

ASAP, nice - I like how you've processed them to look like muted slide scans.

chiggy: Your Sigma is more than enough to take portraits.

sidewinderz, the front page states the specifications as what Canon claimed, and Page 13 tells what DPReview discovered:



A lot of brands round up their specifications, e.g. a 70-200mm F2.8 could really be a 75-185mm F2.9! The same goes for ISO, if you compare older cameras to a lightmeter, you will find that the exposure does not match.

Pentax is probably the only brand which really sells their lenses without rounding up. They have a 55-300mm F4-5.8, 43mm F1.9, 21mm F3.2 (the marketing departments of other companies would declare them as 55-300mm F4-5.6, 42mm F1.8, 20mm F2.8 respectively.)

hokc77, nice high-key! That's something we don't see much around here...

This post has been edited by albnok: May 11 2009, 10:17 AM

There's a TT tonight, at Pelita next to Wisma Central, next to KLCC, 7pm onwards. msiddiq is in town!