clivengu, honestly, a diagram of the aperture blades doesn't explain much.



See how the hills are out of focus, on the F1.4 side, while both are clear and sharp on the F22 side? That makes a lot more sense.

---

Added on May 23, 2009, 3:48 pmHiroBoroi, it would be even better if they could return the Minolta Dynax 7's feature, the DOF calculator, for all Distance Integrated lenses:



(Left side picture.) It shows on the rear screen when you press the DOF preview button. Very handy for getting to hyperfocal focusing distance!

This post has been edited by albnok: May 23 2009, 03:48 PM

AlphaBeta, some people don't particularly like the Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 bokeh. As in, not the shallow DOF, but the quality, texture and 'painting' of the bokeh.

Not to say I love the Carl Zeiss 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 DT bokeh, but it gives good bokeh. Though, still too contrasty... I prefer Minolta's approach to bokeh, make it 2-dimensional and with flat brushstrokes. I don't like how Sigma lenses make the brushstrokes Gaussian blurred and very blocky.

dingenius3, that's a picture of mcline007 calling his broker LOL!

Seng_Kiat, with the hotshoe converter, wireless manual, wireless TTL and on-camera TTL will not work. I have an optical slave trigger but I think it's genuinely dead; I tried this:

Optical slave trigger -> ISO to iISO adapter -> F58
...and...
Optical slave trigger -> Sunpak PF20XD

Both didn't work so my optical slave trigger must be dead. Cheap Made In China stuff anyway.



Also bear in mind that it does not have the tightening ring on standard* ISO hotshoes, so it can slide off the camera anytime. I think it is meant for Type B umbrella clamps. Type B clamp picture here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Flash-Shoe-Umbrella-Ho...417153009r30321

Note that the tightener screw is on the mount itself.

* there is honestly nothing standard about the ISO hotshoe other than the shape, especially where pin layout and how to secure the flash is concerned

The Wonder, hot sun, great vibrant colors!

cassplayer: OMG who has the Minolta 35mm? There are four, the Minolta 35mm F2.0, Minolta 35mm F1.4 (Original), Minolta 35mm F1.4G and Sony 35mm F1.4G. My friend has the 35mm F1.4 Original.

chiggy, eh, Bukit Jalil Park!

weigie, that motor-keep-running is a symptom of your lens having gear stripping. Send your lens in.

accab:



Left: The Minolta 75-300mm F4.5-5.6 (Original) is the "big beercan".

Right: The Minolta 70-210mm F4 is the "beercan".

SpOOkY, nice #1 #3 and #4!

From a shoot more than 1 year ago; here's stuff from the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan on the A700!


#1 - 150mm F4. Delicious bokeh! The green lateral chromatic aberration actually accentuates out-of-focus greens pleasantly.


#2 - 120mm F4.


#3 - 75mm F4.


#4 - 130mm F4 featuring Ahmike and a bit of DRO!


#5 - 70mm F16 on the Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 DT kit lens. I like this film-ish color.


#6 - Now, for something wider.


#7 - chiggy on the way up to a poisonous place.

Kul | Mo0, the poisonous place is Leos Trading, Ampang Park.

I think the baby beercan (Minolta 35-70mm F4) was a term invented here. While the bokeh and rendition* looks very much like pictures out of the beercan, and the styling is the original Minolta, I wouldn't call it a baby beercan simply because there are no baby beercans that store beer.

As you can see, even the lenses that are longer than this 35-70mm aren't quite the same size as a 350ml can:


Left to right: Minolta 85mm F1.4G, Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5 (D), Minolta 35mm F1.4G, Vivitar Series 1 28-105mm F2.8-3.8, F&N canned drink.

* I do not like to use the term Image Quality because a lot of people only look at sharpness when you talk about image quality, when there is also LCA, spherical aberration, OOF disc rendition, background contrast, liquid color, etc. to be considered. That said the beercan has very good image quality!

This post has been edited by albnok: May 24 2009, 07:13 PM

SpOOkY, I like #1 and #8 (though a bit later would be better.)

cassplayer, that's the Minolta 35mm F1.4G! KJ has the Minolta 35mm F1.4 (Original).

Later as in, when the bird was a bit further from the tree.

weigie, you should have used as bright as your lens would go, when indoors.

If F11 = 0.8s
F5.6 = 1/5s
F3.5 = 1/13s

vikingw2k, AUTO mode and Program mode on any Alpha will not choose F11 unless it is very bright. It will go wide open except in the case of F1.4 lenses where it will choose F2.0.

vikingw2k, no, it won't choose F11.

It will only choose F11 if the shutter speed is fast enough for the focal length; supposing it was at 18mm, multiply by 1.5x and it would need a shutter speed of 1/30s at least.

You can try this on any Alpha. It will not stop down unless the shutter speed is faster than 1/30s at 18mm wide.

achew, no, it depends entirely on how bright the place is. It might not choose F11, it might choose F4.5 or any aperture depending on how bright it is.

Program Mode works like this:

1) Set aperture to brightest and ISO to lowest of Auto ISO range (e.g. 300mm F2.8 ISO200)

2) Calculate reciprocal of focal range as your "needed shutter speed"

For an APS-C body, 300mm * 1.5 = 450mm equivalent, so 1/450s is what is used. But that doesn't exist so they round it up to 1/500s.

3) If shutter speed is faster than "needed shutter speed", stop down the aperture so that the shutter speed is correct.

Let's say at 300mm F2.8 ISO200, it meters at 1/8000s. So it picks F11, so it becomes 300mm F11 ISO200 1/500s.

4) If shutter speed is slower than "needed shutter speed", increase ISO so that the shutter speed is correct.

Let's say at 300mm F2.8 ISO200, it meters at 1/30s. So it increases the ISO to the maximum defined by Auto ISO, let's say ISO1600 - now it's at 300mm F2.8 ISO1600 1/250s. Sure, it's not able to hit 1/500s... but that's where Super SteadyShot helps!

As you can see, Auto ISO prefers to use a good shutter speed to avoid having to use Super SteadyShot much.

On the A900 however, Auto ISO is a bit more relaxed... at 135mm for example, it picks 1/100s as the "needed shutter speed" instead of 1/160s.

---

Added on May 25, 2009, 12:18 amAny of you with an Alpha can try it out; put your camera in P mode or Auto mode and walk around the house.

The camera will not pick F8 or darker unless you take a macro shot of a lightbulb!

In fact, if weigie had used Auto or P mode, the camera would've selected F3.5 or whatever brighter aperture the lens allowed in such a condition. Given that the shutter speed doesn't even hit 1/30s (it was 1/13s if using F3.5 at such lighting conditions). Honestly, P mode is very useful to avoid such situations where you forget to set your aperture again!

This post has been edited by albnok: May 25 2009, 12:18 AM

creepydslr, what I meant by that, is:

Supposing you were out in bright daylight, and you had a F2.8 lens and were using ISO200, you might for example get 1/8000s when pointing at the sky in Aperture Priority. So if you choose F11, the shutter speed would be 1/500s.

In bright sunlight, there is the classic Sunny F16 rule:

Set your lens to F16, and your shutter speed to the ISO. For example if you were using ISO200 then your shutter speed should be 1/200s. On old film SLRs, some might not even count to 1/200s!



My old Olympus OM-2000. So, in such a case, I'd choose 1/250s instead. (1/125s is orange because that is the flash sync speed.)

This is true manual exposure mode (not the metered manual that everybody thinks is manual, but isn't truly manual if you're still setting your aperture and shutter to make your meter read 0. You might as well be using A mode for this!)

So, based on this Sunny F16 rule, that's how I estimated that a F2.8 lens on ISO200 could give 1/8000s... because at F16, ISO200, the shutter speed would be 1/250s.

tanjq87 has got it right.

Honestly, a lot of people are:

- wasting their time in M mode when they should be in A mode
OR
- wasting their time in A mode when they should be in P mode
OR
- wasting their time in P mode when they should be in Night Scene mode

Once you understand what M, A, P and Night Scene mode do, you'll know which to choose for which situation. Yes, I wish I had a Night Scene (slow sync flash) mode on my A900!

There are benefits of using P mode.

For example, you're in a dark place so you use Aperture Priority, ISO1600, F1.4.

The next day while driving you see an interesting scene, maybe a plane flying against the rising sun, while stopped at the red light. You quickly take the camera out of the bag and grab a shot. It will probably be overexposed!

I have shot landscapes and architecture at F11, walking about in sunny KL. Then later at night while crossing a flyover, I take out my camera to take a picture of some VIP getting police escort (from above). I had my 50mm so I assumed there would be no problem... until I clicked and it went click-WHIRRRRRRRRRR-click.* Very slow shutter speed, because I forgot to set it back to F1.4 when I put the camera back in the bag!

Obviously, the moment was gone.

WHIRRRRRR = SteadyShot sound

AlphaBeta, yes, P mode is more useful than most people think. Try it, to get an idea of what aperture your camera will choose.

You'll be surprised to discover Program Mode will shoot wide open a lot, as you yourself would prefer to. Of course in very bright conditions it will stop down so if you want to override it, use Program with Aperture Shift (PA) mode.

Bokeh will be different due to the lens design. Also, the 24-70mm F2.8 lenses can focus much closer.

Of course, I would prefer the Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM's bokeh over the Carl Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 ZA SSM's bokeh... I also quite like the Nikkor AF-D 80-200mm F2.8's bokeh.

Also, the sound of SteadyShot depends on the focal length used LOL.

achew LOL yeah! Though I had it in my bag already so I didn't even have time to check aperture. But yes, with flash, M is preferred (though I would still like a good Slow Sync mode.)

This post has been edited by albnok: May 25 2009, 02:30 AM

djpianz, er... do you mean WB Bracketing or EV Bracketing? For WB Bracketing it only takes one shot and makes 3 pictures with different WB.

For EV Bracketing, it takes 3 pictures and you must use a tripod or set your camera on a stable surface.

djpianz, you would have to get a shutter release cable (either wired or wireless.) Sony sells the RM-S1AM and RM-L1AM but there are cheaper China-made ones out there:

Wireless:
http://www.lelong.com.my/Auc/List/2009-05D...-Minolta-7D.htm

Wired:
http://www.lelong.com.my/Auc/List/2009-06D...D-7D-Camera.htm

Unfortunately there isn't a way to wirelessly roll the dial. I guess, a heavy tripod is in order.

nabelon, pixel peeping aside, I still think it's a great shot. Love the color, but the Whaletail is a bit distracting.

Yes, the A100 has stronger DRO+ effect. It also has DMF, MLU, DOF preview, M42 support in A mode... but the A200 has better noise control and AF speed, and supports a Sony battery grip. Some users reported that faster CF cards allowed over 3 FPS.

The A230/330/380 supposedly has a stronger DRO effect also. We'll see.

As for scrolling, the Alphas have always had the embedded thumbnail, so when you scroll through, you always see a full-resolution thumbnail, not a (annoyingly) shrunken pixelated preview like on the Canon 40D/50D. Nikon doesn't pixelate their thumbnails either so I'm not sure why Canon can't do it. And it is responsive enough to stop scrolling when you stop pressing the arrow key LOL.

Funny thing is, film SLRs didn't use to cost that much unless they were top-of-the-line;

manual focus SLR = RM400 (Olympus OM-2000 level)
auto focus SLR = RM600 or less (A200 level)
hi-spec AF SLR = RM2000 or less (A700 level)

You can ask your parents/uncles/aunties what they bought. Did they have a F2.8 zoom lens? No, it's more likely you'll see a Cosina-made OEM body (Nikon FM-10, Olympus OM-2000, Yashica FX-3, etc.) with a 28-80mm kit lens.

MechaHerc, of course, you can use the Sunny F16 rule on digital. Though of course, you always have a meter if you have a battery in your dSLR so no point also lah. Unless you want a strict no-chimping manual mode challenge.

The point of knowing the Sunny F16 rule, is so you don't have to use a light meter.

Old mechanical shutter film SLRs can shoot without batteries. Experienced photographers can just look at the light and say, "hmmm, I have ASA 100 film loaded, so I'll set the shutter speed to 1/125s, and the light is kinda shady so F8 will do." The light meter is inside the photographer's brain!

Later, electronic shutter film SLRs came out, and those needed batteries to fire the shutter. Those had meters already. At this time it was still the manual focus era before Minolta invented current AF.

Now, your dSLR already has a meter. If there is no battery, there is no meter reading. But if there is no battery you cannot shoot!

So, since there's already a lightmeter, you might as well use it. It is fun to do it Sunny F16 style sometimes. Or Lomo camera style (typical Lomo cameras do not have a light meter, so the shutter speed is fixed at 1/100s and F8.0 - you're supposed to change film for different light conditions.)

Another technique to learn, to get good exposure, is the Zone Metering System popularized by Ansel Adams. The A100 had Spot Metering AEL Toggle, which really helps with learning this technique.

vandechrome, beautiful portrait! I like the many tones, the richness in the skintones etc.

ieR, having seen both what an 18-250mm and a 75-300mm can do, I remember the 18-250mm being sharper.

My travel kit is an ultra-wide (architecture), bright standard prime (street) and a telephoto (anything else) that is not too heavy.

I went to Penang with just this:
Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX
Minolta 50mm F1.4
Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan

Note that these are on full-frame so a APS-C set would be:
Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC
Sigma 30mm F1.4 EX DC
Sigma 50-150mm F2.8 EX DC II HSM

I brought a flash in my clothes bag but if I was using a camera with pop-up I would not bring a flash. Unless there were wireless-flash enthusiasts with me.