Uzumaki NaruTo: Yes you can defish with DxO and other programs.

clivengu: I don't have a F42 anymore so I don't have a size reference to make a flash gel holder.

Nashakir: That's better, a lot cleaner than your green grass/blue skies/lamp posts series.

vincyuee: Unfortunately, it means your A550 thinks your memory stick is a fake.

Oh yeah I forgot to mention, there are a fair bit of fake memory sticks out there, which is one of the few fake Sony items there are. Not even underwater set LOL.

noellee69: Cheaper filters add flare and reduce contrast. So I'd put only a top-range filter on a top-range lens. Also, you don't want to scratch your front element - Zeiss lenses come as an assembly so they can't change just the front glass, they change the entire glass group (using the same lens shell made by Sony.)

farex, nice shot!

kysham: Cheap filters cause flare but good filters can kill flare that shows on a naked lens; filters no matter what can cause ghosting in various levels.

ThadThad: Congratulations!

Cinnabarian: Love your nick! For the rest of us here, cinnabar is the official color of the Alpha logo (much more accurate than orange!)

lwliam: Nice, though I would prefer one tight crop of the domes itself as the bricks already look very interesting. Something like a telephoto shot with compressed background.

Nashakir: Cleaner composition.

kfthoo: The Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 is a really fun lens, because it can focus on whatever it is touching!

Zeiss 135mm F1.8!


Shallow. Note that the guitar and face are in about the same plane of focus.


ISO3200, redone with DxO Optics Pro Elite. Note the bokeh has undergone channel-specific variable Gaussian blurring i.e. my STF attempt.

finejava: Except the A900/A850. If the A900/A850 had more obvious APS-C markings, or was able to mask off the FF region, it would make the 16-80mm much more usable on it. Right now it is a pain to frame any APS-C lens on the A900.

Eh, your 50mm F1.4 would be real nice on FF!

lwliam: Yeah notice the bricks? You could rotate the horizon slightly and crop a 3:2 shot from this.

cjlai, somebody has posted how to add the focus confirm chip to the Opteka 85mm F1.4!

This post has been edited by albnok: Jan 22 2010, 02:24 PM

hazril: Hot dang, and I thought I was getting a good deal for Keep filters at RM20 last time! (For reverse macro using superglue.)

Any metering mode works. Just compensate if you think it's got it wrong.

ieR: The 16-105mm reaches F5.6 at 55mm.

Izwan898: The F20AM has a wide-angle panel but not a diffuser.

Nashakir: The 50mm F1.4 does have cats eye bokeh but only really obvious on a full-frame camera.

Kul | Mo0: Congratulations!

e-jump: Eagerly waiting!

hokc77: Interesting green tinge!

The Alpha system is 25 years old! Nice article about how the mount has progressed:

http://www.photoclubalpha.com/articles/alp...ears-1985-2010/

e-jump: You don't need a polarizer filter for that!

And yes, the 55-200mm is so-so with bokeh. Your PL might be making it worse though. That said, I like the picture of the dude in blue - the colors are very striking while still controlled.

kevinwcw: Main thing that the F58 that no other flash of any brand has, is the Quick Shift Bounce (sideways swivel). So you can use the built-in diffuser panel while in portrait mode (with any other flash it will become a thin strip.)


Right is F42 in bounce mode; notice the diffuser becomes useless here.


The F42 (below) needs a third-party diffuser while the F58 can go solo.

More reading here.

Seng_Kiat: As high as you can send to the printers.

hafeez71: Nice #2!

achew: New figurines?

This post has been edited by albnok: Jan 25 2010, 12:31 AM

signither: Yes they are the same.

bysquashy: Gotta love the Star Trek design of the Minolta 600mm F4 G HS APO!

MechaHerc: Better to get the A550. The KM 5D and 7D have the First Black Frame problem - make sure if you buy it, that the FBF is fixed. The A100 is noisier than any other Alpha (but it's also got crispier CCD output.)

Braynumb: Canon does not have AF with Zeiss ZE lenses!

And don't be a sheep. If somebody jump means you must jump ah?

I find it quite silly that there are people here who tend to follow without knowing why. One fella sells his 16-105mm, then another fella with a 16-105mm also wonders why but decides to sell anyway. One fella gets a split focusing screen, suddenly a lot of people want it, but they don't understand what it is for and when it cannot be used.

lwliam: Of course!

Carl Zeiss 16-35mm F2.8 SSM
Carl Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 SSM
Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM

Nikon's trinity is with the 17-35mm F2.8 AF-S instead - the 14-24mm F2.8 is unique to Nikon.

lwliam: Unique as in, there is no Canon 14-24mm. The 14-24mm is not quite considered 'in' the holy trinity the way the Nikkor 17-35mm is (the 24-35mm end of the 17-35mm comes in very crucially for emergency un-distorted shots.)

Braynumb: Yes, for focus confirm.

There was only one other mount which Carl Zeiss made autofocusing full-frame lenses for - the contax N Digital. It was the world's first full-frame dSLR (and using CCD)! The body reminds me too much of a Nikon F4. Sadly this was discontinued in 2005. Don't hope to find any of these N-mount lenses, they are obscenely rare (and the slightly more common C/Y mount is very rare, too.)

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/...n-digital.shtml
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0202/02022505...gitalinhand.asp

Contax was a brand developed by Zeiss Ikon to counter the Leicas. So in that sense it was a system developed by a lens company, instead of a camera company developing lenses!

Somebody else asked what the T in T* stands for - apparently, Tarnung:


From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contax.

Yes the Zeiss Ikon is a film rangefinder.

Yes, you can 'push' film by processing it longer e.g. 8 minutes instead of 4 minutes. This was common practice with some black-and-white films which have no fixed ASA value but work approximately best at ASA400. Black-and-white films have the most flexibility; color negatives in between; color positive slide film has the lowest flexibility and latitude.


Minolta 50mm F1.4 on Minolta Dynax 7 with Lucky ASA100


Minolta 58mm F1.2 MD (modified mount) on Minolta Dynax 7 with Kodak BW 400 CN


Vivitar 24mm F2.0 on Olympus OM-2000 with Kodak Gold ASA 400 (one of my favorite shots, with film you won't use burst mode)

Instead of noise it has grain and it usually looks alright.

Oh, and the Contax N Digital does look quite like the Konica Minolta 7 Digital:


Here's the Nikon F4:


And the Contax N Digital again:


signither: No idea but when it was under warranty it was free. Let us know!

ReaperOfSoul: Your masking isn't done well. Use a gradient instead. Also, do multiple exposures instead of one RAW - that will increase tonality.

This post has been edited by albnok: Jan 26 2010, 12:19 PM

kysham: It does.

You use ASA400 film with the camera set to ASA800 (thus causing the meter to underexpose 1 stop.) Then you push the film 1 stop up effectively giving it ASA800 exposure.

Digital sensors work the same way - your base ISO is either ISO100 (CCD) or ISO200 (all Alpha CMOS dSLRs) and every other ISO is just an underexposed and then amplified signal.

Braynumb: Your scanner might have Digital ICE:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_ICE

Congratulations on making it to the exhibition!

clivengu: Actually if you're talking about classic cameras, I like them clean with just shutter, ISO and aperture dials.


Minolta X300 with Seagull 50mm F1.8 MD lens. Aperture Priority capable camera.

tanjq87: Congratulations!

achew: I have to credit the light the most - the sunlight was really nice. A lot of us forget to shoot when the light is great!

kevinwcw: That is considered high contrast actually.

Create another layer, adjust the levels, then mask it to the original image.

hanzo: Eh, change of nick?

signither: The F20AM isn't that powerful bouncing up. Try 1/4 power with your F58 which is almost like the F20 at full power and see if it's sufficient given the ISO.

signither: Depends whether your ceiling is tall and the lights are bright LOL. Go around the office with the F58 at 1/4 and see if it's good enough; if it is, then the F20 will do. However the F42 will be sweet for a 2-light setup.

Soony: Use the Flash EV compensation on your camera, and set the F58 to manual, to get 2 different power levels.

MechaHerc: Softer, but not that much; the shell that the flash head is in, is its own diffuser. The surface area is still very small though.

alex_cyw1985: Yes, the A500 can be found in Lowyat Plaza, one floor up. Forgot the name of the shop but it's an aisle, 90 degrees from the kopitiam in the middle.

Fighteden: Then you tell him that Canon used Sony screens.



This is a Canon EOS 300D.

Canon also uses Sony CCDs in their point-and-shoots.

How about who really makes his Canon flash? Is it really Canon, or is it Panasonic?

I tried to fix one of those plastic Canon 50mm F1.8 Mark II lenses before:


This is the part that drops out.


This is the part where the lens group fits into.

The plastic hooks inside broke.

How about this for weak?


Canon 580EX flash.


The bottom half of it.

kevinwcw: Yes, the A450 has 0.83x magnification while the A500/A550 has 0.8x magnification. Do note that due to the new LCD, it is dim when the camera is not turned on (like the Nikon D80.)

hiansitt: The Canon 50mm F1.8 MarkII and 580EX was at my friend's shop. He asked me to try to fix both of them for fun since I like to tinker with cameras. I took the picture of the 580EX at my friend's shop on his Canon 5.

The 580EX is in no way 'disassembled' - the screw 'holders' on the top part broke off!

The picture of the 300D is from a camera repair shop, which was indeed disassembled.

So at home I had a group photo with my F56, a broken SB-28 and a broken 580EX:


This post has been edited by albnok: Jan 28 2010, 12:39 AM