clivengu: Provided you do it properly it will give accurate results. However from reading countless threads over forums with people showing their results... I can see that a lot of people are doing the test wrongly.

Also, Google LensAlign...

I could afford the vertical grip but I don't have space in my bag, and it is not going to help if I go street-shooting (which is what I do a lot...)

neo_lam: Cropping #5 would look nice.

nickilala: Interesting moody shot!

Str33tBoY: Yes, the A500/A550/A700/A850/A900 all have much better low-light performance than the A300. You can shoot at ISO1600 comfortably with all these bodies.

Seng_Kiat: Love the first shot, the uncle looks very silver-ish!

hkhk: Film SLRs are not expensive now - RM300 for a auto-focus electronic-shutter one and RM600 for a manual-focus mechanical-shutter one. 50mm lenses were and are the cheaper lenses, as well as the 28mm F2.8 lenses.

Banzai_san: The A500/A550 has a similiar grip to the A100/A200/A300/A350, not the A330/A380.



hokc77: Wow at #1!

hokc77: Nice results from the 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM!

nickilala: No problem.

achew: For the A850, you could work in Wide Area AF as it uses the extra hidden AF Assist sensors. If you find that it still cannot lock, point at the center and press down on the middle of the joystick to use the center AF point - this will definitely focus.

That said kids are hard to shoot, so don't worry. I would have gone wider on the shots with the kids and cake (and take from above, to get both the kids and cake in almost the same plane of focus.)

Good shot of #1 though, it's often hard to get kids to look at the camera!

I use 90% 0.3 pixels for sharpening fine detail, and 22% 33 pixels for increasing general contrast and pop.

achew: In Wide Area AF it will just pick any combination of AF points that work. Try it!

I find Wide Area AF usually kinda knows what I'd want to focus on. The point of Wide Area AF is that you don't recompose and cause user-induced focusing shift error.

http://www.mhohner.de/recompose.php

clivengu: Wide Area AF works better on the A850/A900 because it has extra AF Assist sensors which the A700 does not have. In good light though, Wide Area AF is very usable on every other Alpha.

cjlai: Eh, all Sony lenses focus to infinity by turning clockwise from the front. Some Sigma lenses go the other way.

I don't think you'll short the body, unless the lens has a DIY mount (which happened to my Dynax 7; the plastic around the ADI pins melted.)

lildaredevil906: Easier still, turn off the camera and turn it on again (or press the lens release button shortly). The lens will reset to infinity.

lwliam: Nice catch!

lwliam: On the contrary, SSS is active no matter what shutter speed. You can hear the rumble at 1", and if you turn it off when using the beercan at 1/50s your pictures will appear to have double images due to handshake. So yes, SSS is always working.

clivengu: It appears that your F2.8 sensor is touching the outer part of the box. (It's the size of the spot metering circle.) If you notice, the closer you go to the test chart, the more accurate your focusing. Am thinking of having a TT in PJ next week, with hopefully a nice agenda, so we'll test your lens then.

Haha, nice catch!

shootkk: I would have guessed it to be 50mm - it is neither wide nor tele in perspective. Though, the WB is a bit blue - you'll want to set Daylight WB when cranking up the DRO Level 5 juice.

Kul | Mo0: Am glad to see you have a finetuned lineup (again?)

clivengu: Next week is good - I'll be away till Sunday.

suchap69: Well usually it only comes with the A230/A330 - very few people buy it first-hand. People don't seem eager to sell it either. marushin loves his!

hazril: I am liking this more, though it would be better with a cleaner background without the cable.

SHOfrE3zE: Yes, you need to enable a custom function in your flash. Hold down the Fn button for 3 seconds on the F58, then navigate to the one which says M and change it to PASM.

vcvx: You cannot use rear curtain with wireless but I am not sure about the off-camera cable.

I am knackered. Had a good full-day hands-on with the A550 on Friday; will report properly soon! Didn't sleep at all due to a competition.

Briefly, it is a superb camera, and a very solid replacement for the A350. Control-wise it is very much a Live-View-centric camera. It feels very different. I practically did not use the optical viewfinder at all due to the superb LCD gainup in sunlight.

A famous A700 owner is deeply poisoned but he also acknowledges that it does some things really well, while the A700 has its own pros.

I also tried the CX520E Handycam. This confirms what a video form factor is about, and why video dSLRs have a long, long long long way to go...

SpOOkY: The 7 FPS is in the Drive menu! Also, never found a need for a top LCD (that said, you can turn the main screen upwards...) The menu is designed around Live View. Rear dial didn't bother me at all.

I also used the A550 in bright sunlight - the light sensor makes the LCD gain up. It is very usable in bright daylight.

The A700 does not have a top LCD but it lets you change all that too - important thing being dedicated buttons. That said Quick Navi means you don't need so many buttons or reach for a hard-to-reach button.

For example, the Drive button on the A700 is nearest to the hotshoe and this makes it harder to reach - with Quick Navi, you just press C (or any button) and move the joystick to select the Drive mode on the screen. Then you roll the front dial or press down on the joystick to open the Exclusive Diplay.

Banzai_san: Yes, they are different.

I tried DxO Optics Pro Elite 5.3.5 on my A900 cRAW files. Definitely cleaner. However I don't like the interface at all - it feels very 'slippery' like I don't have exact control. Plus the exporting bit was a bit complex when re-exporting the same file, different edit. So I ended up going back to Rawtherapee because I am just much more familiar with their workflow.

ieR: The Auto HDR on the A500/A550 takes 2 shots not 3 and combines them. The two shots can be 1 to 3 stops apart, as you set.

Also, the viewfinder of the A500/A550, at 0.8x magnification and 95% coverage is bigger than the A300's.

Yes, you can change AF point on the A500/A550 using the D-Pad.

Isepunye: Your friend's A700 may have oxidized contacts. Rub the top of the flash hotshoe with a blue ink eraser.

ohzmygod: The A500 isn't in shops, but you can order it (same like the A380.)

hezda: Congratulations!

kenv09: Your Alpha manual warns you to format the card using the Alpha instead of the computer.

countdracula: Yes ask them to try the Sony 30mm F2.8 DT SAM! It already has a retail price but we've yet to see other dealers bring it.

amadeo: Currently, smashpop uses mostly the Sony 11-18mm F4.5-5.6 DT and Tamron 17-50mm F2.8.

AlphaBeta: Undeniably, the professional-level offerings from Canon and Nikon have more features, but if you need an autofocus Zeiss or say the 135mm F2.8/T4.5 STF, you have no choice.

AlphaBeta: This, most simply, shows how the STF works optically:



Note that unlike the Defocus Control or Soft Focus lenses, it does not add a layer of haze or soften the out-of-focus area. Instead, every single out-of-focus point is graduated from the center. Thus there is never an out-of-focus thick stripe with bright outlines (bad bokeh!)

Also, the front element is oversized so that all OOF points are perfect circles (the 135mm F1.8 in the comparison, gives cat's-eye bokeh the further away from the center.)

AlphaBeta: Eh, Pentax makes very feature-ful bodies with very desirable compact pancake lenses! Their K7 is an APS-C wonder. Go try one, seriously.

The K7 has a redesigned grip. That said, if you ever look through the menus you'll be convinced!

ieR: The A300 and A330 have the same viewfinder magnification - 0.74x. The A550 has 0.8x.

AlphaBeta: The Pentax K7 is waterproof, and so are their new range of WR lenses, including its kit lens.

0168257061: All lenses wide open have circular out-of-focus discs. The "circular aperture" designation means it will still stay circular 2 stops below wide open, e.g. the 50mm F1.8 will still produce circular OOF discs at F3.5.

AlphaBeta: There is an Antartic landscape shooter who says the A700 keeps on going while the Canon 5D MkI goes flat after 5 shots.

wei_joice: In wireless, it will trigger even if there is an oxidization problem on the camera's hotshoe. Make sure WL is on, on both camera and flash. Make sure both camera and flash are set to the same channel (clean camera hotshoe, then attach flash, and activate WL from body - this will set the camera channel to the same channel as the flash. By default it is Channel 1 of 4 but you might've used another flash that could change your body channel.)

cjlai: Superb stuff with I assume, the 500mm F8?

achew: Wah, so supportive? She wants you to take more portraits of her I suppose. But yes, please do, especially with the Tamron, for the depth of field!

cjlai: SWEET! That's rare; I've only seen the Tamron 200-500mm around.