You wife may have accidentally set your cam to the ADOBE RGB color space. That will give you the _DSCxxxx filename. Set it back to SRGB and you will be back to normal.

clivengu : Your A100 can still be used. Set to ISO 800 and with the help of a flash, you can still get decent pictures. Just remember to overexpose your shots a little and it should be fine. Noise can hardly be seen.

A big part of wedding photography is communication with the couple. Let them know well before hand how and what you are going to do. Ensure that they tell all their friends and relatives that there's a OP there so that you will have an easier time. You still need to jostle for space but it will make life a little easier for you.

I really think that to cover a wedding really well, couples will need at least 2 photographers. One to tag with the bride and one to tag with the groom. Ideally a team of 3 photogs with experience will be best. One to cover the groom, one for the bride and a third for the crowd and candid snipe shots.

Sandisk. More reliable than the other more common brands.

moo : On your pic... I feel that's it's a pretty standard shot. Nothing really to comment. Background also kinda boring - no colours, no interesting objects. Would have liked the face and hair to be sharper though...

soket : Haiya!!! Why waste the shot??!! Should have focussed on the girl in bikini and leave the palm in bokeh mah.... then only you gt a true skodeng shot... unless you have a second shot with the girl clearly in focus? hehehehehehe...

Why is everybody looking for a mid tele prime and I'm looking for a wide angle prime? Somewhere around 20mm on FF would be nice!

135mm on aps-c is really quite long. It's about 200mm on FF terms. To get approx. 135mm view, the 85mm would be about there.

You would be hard pressed to find good usage for the 135mm on aps-c if you are indoors. You hardly have enough distance to back away! If you are inside a typical bedroom then you might as well keep the 135mm in your bag.

How often do you really use high ISO? Go back and view ALL your shots taken on the A300 and see how many percent of your shots is taken using ISO 800 and above.

The colors and sharpness of the image on ISO 100/200 for the A300 is hard to beat. Do you guys realize that the A100 ISO 100 shots can easily trounce ISO 100 shots on the A700 in terms of sharpness? The a300 has the same CCD sensor and CCD is the reason why the sharpness is there on low ISO settings. CMOS sensors need to have sharpening dialled it to match. I know coz on my A850 the sharpness setting is +3 all the time while on my A100, I never dial in any sharpness setting.

If you do not normally shoot low light, I would suggest that you hold onto the A300 a bit more and see if Sony will release a replacement for the A700 later in the year or not. That will be a more suitable upgrade for you I would think. Unless of course you're dying to have 7 fps and the auto HDR feature.

achew : I don't want anything more than 24mm in focal length. Even 24mm is kinda 'oklar... acceptablelar.." for me. I want a 20mm focal length. That's when it's really WIDE! hehehehehe...

Reason being is that the 20mm will do wonders in landscape and can be a fun a creative lens when doing environmental portraits on the FF of course.

Then if I mount it on my A100, it becomes a like a 30mm view that can do street shots and small groups easily. Thus I can go on a full day travel with just that 20mm lens and my 2 alphas with no problems!

This sounds a lot like a gear stripping problem. Have you tried mounting any other lens to your A200? If your body works fine with another lens, then it's confirmed that it's a lens gear stripping problem.


I'm afraid that there's no way to solve this problem. You can take 2 pics - one with faces and another without. Frankly I find that putting a face in every shot is not going to get you nice pics. It messes with the focal point of your pic.

It's like - do you want to see the scenery or do you want to see your face? If you want to see scenery then your face will actually detract from the whole pic. If you wanna see your face then to get your face big enough for a decent shot, the scenery is going to suffer. You can choose one or the other. You CANNOT have your cake AND eat it too!

Actually for an even more budget concious wedding setup you could go like:

A850 - RM 6k
HVL-F58AM - RM1050
KM 17-35mm F2.8-4 - RM1300
Sony 50mm F1.4 RM1100

Optional : HVL-F20AM - RM350

Total : RM9800 inclusive of the F20AM flash.

You could forego the tele lens and replace it with A PARTNER that has :

A700/A550/A7x0
HVL-F58AM
SAL16105
KM 70-210mm F4 beercan

With this setup, you can save your wallet a bit and cover the event better because you have 2 persons shooting.

With the 17-35mm and a 50mm on a FF you do not really need the 28-75mm lens.

On the topic of zoom and prime lens:

Zoom lens:

1. Lets you vary the focal length to suit your composition.
2. Convenient to use.
3. Can cause lazy photog syndrome - meaning you get used to just standing in one place and zoom in/out to snap pic.
4. Usually cannot beat the wide aperture offered by primes.

Prime lens:

1. Cannot zoom.
2. Will force you to move around to find a suitable composition before snapping pic.
3. Large aperture leads to shallow DOF and may cause beginners some frustration.

The thing is, it is way easier to start with a zoom lens but if you rely too much on the zoom, you may find yourself being limited in your creativity.

Starting with a prime is tougher. Prime lenses will force the photog to really move around. Get closer or further away from the subject and try different angles. It works wonders in helping you be creative in your shots. Since you have to move around a lot you will not get numerous shots taken from the same place as you are more likely to get with a zoom.

A large aperture on a prime lens can also lend itself to learning about how aperture affects your DOF and exposure better than a zoom which usually is not too bright except on the widest focal length.

On different focal lengths on primes and APS-C bodies:

Why it is difficult to start with a 50mm prime on an APS-C body? It's because the crop factor will effectively mean your 50mm lens will now give you a 75mm view. 75mm is too long for most application except for portraits.

That's the reason why on APS-C bodies, the 50mm sees much less usage. Try a 30mm prime and things will be much better. 50mm used to be the kit lens in the days of film. Film means that all the SLRs are FULL FRAME thus the 50mm is quite versatile. It can be used to shoot small groups to street shots to protraits too if you can get close enough.

Once you get the hang of it, you may find that zoom lenses hold less attraction for you. Like achew has found, he prefers to use his 50mm, 90mm and 135mm primes. In fact these three primes can effectively replace a 70-200mm zoom range and let you have a better or simliar aperture ratings and is less bulky. Of course the price is that they are less convenient as you have to swap lenses every so often.

If you have the time for lens swapping, I can bet that the primes will net you more creative shots than a zoom can given the same situation.

Prime lenses keeps you on your toes while zoom lenses tend to keep you rooted to one spot. E.g. you are shooting a wedding and you notice that the bride and groom is starting their very first dance as a married couple. You are some distance away from them:

Situation 1: You only have a 50mm on a FF or a 30mm on an APS-C
In this situation you will run to the couple and shoot. As you move around the couple for the shots, you will definitely have shots from a lot of different angles. Maybe some from a lower angle, some from a higher angle etc. You have to keep moving as the lens forces you to do that and at the same time you have to constantly think of how to compose your shots so that they are nice to look at.

Situation 2: You have a 70-200mm F2.8 zoom
You will perhaps move just a little closer and rely on the zoom to bring the couple into the frame. When using the zoom, most of the time you would be in one place and not moving. You shoot, varying the focal length but most of your shots WILL be from the same spot but with VARYING focal length. You cannot get too close as it would be difficult to use the lens. Overall your shots will not have as many different angles and you would most probably have used more tele zoom to remove unwanted background distraction.

Of course this does not mean you cannot be creative with a zoom lens but if you are not careful, a zoom lens can make you lazy because it is so convenient.