It's not the STF because the STF has only 5 pins. However it is a SSM/HSM lens because of the locking screw drive slot.

Banzai_san: Nice #1 (though feet cropped.)

ianho: The Sigma 105mm F2.8 Macro is what he used to take a picture of the lens. The hint is in the 86mm filter thread.

Anyway it's the Sigma 150-500mm F5-6.3 APO DG OS HSM since it has a 86mm filter thread. The A-mount version of the 50-500mm F4-6.3 has no HSM, while the new 50-500mm F5-6.3 OS HSM has an even bigger filter thread!

wingster: The Minolta 50mm F1.7 RS is not plastic mount.

cassplayer: Nice sample!

ahpingko: To get more in focus, use a darker aperture e.g. F8-F11. There must be enough light or else there will be camera shake/subject shake due to wind.

Scary lah the second Furby picture. LOL!

fansoption: Nice #1 and #3! (Not referring to the cat series.)

ieR: MF Check LV is the default LV on every other brand including Canon/Nikon.

noelle69: Great shot! Love the realism in the browns.

ieR: ...yes? They can zoom to whatever gives a 100% pixel view.

The A550 has 7x zoom in MF Check LV because the screen is 640x480 and the resolution is 4592x3056 pixels. 4592/640 = 7x. 14x is 200%.

The Canon 50D does 10x magnification in Live View.

wingster: No, RS = ReStyled which replaces the small ribbed focus ring with a thicker rubber focus ring, and changes the shell material slightly. The mount is still metal! Who told you RS is plastic mount?

The RS is anything after the Original series. The Minolta 35mm F1.4 Original did not have the G designation - in fact, the G designation did not come until the RS series.

fansoption: No I meant the flower series.

ahpingko: Good attempt! Try going even lower and bring it outdoors. Make sure everything is in focus (use F11) and then it should look very realistic.

ieR: Your D90?

You can't zoom in as much because the D90 only has 12 megapixels giving a lower magnification at 100%.

Nice diamond story though!

ieR: 4288 / 640 = 6.7x. Remember the D90 has a weaker pixel density.

wingster: Here's a shot of the Minolta 35-105mm F3.5-4.5 RS metal mount:



The 35-105mm is a cheap lens, only one step up from the 35-70mm F3.5-4.5 RS.

Goodnight!

freddy manson: Yup, the kind you can only get at night!

Mikeshashimi: Yeah man, this is why I went for the A100 - I wanted to use it with F1.4 lenses in darkness! That was the 135mm F1.8 at ISO3200 with EV 1- (effectively, ISO6400). You can do it too, just remember to bring your camera out at night!

cjlai: Do you have a bigger version of that? It's obviously a merged packshot as many of these lenses never appeared in the same packshot.

noelle69: The shot could make it more obvious that it was shot in the morning, like if we could see morning colors!

boyzone: Congratulations! Does it AF fine? Is it the 400mm F5.6 APO or without APO?

fansoption: A lot of these seem to be just skodeng pictures of insects. What is their story? Are they enjoying the fresh morning air?

naimadam: I like #2, how the branches are lines going across the frame, so it's not just some skodeng picture of a bird.

wingster: Congratulations!

zstan: What time were you there? I was around about 7-8pm Sunday.

cjlai: Wow the 170-500mm is so much smaller than the 150-500mm!

ieR: Nicely lit! Same goes for the previous one with the rimlight.

mastering89: Of course you can use your A350 to trigger multiple flashes. However you cannot have ratio groups.

Channel is not the same as group.

Channel = Channel 1, Channel 2, Channel 3, Channel 4
Group = CTRL, RMT, RMT2

The F42 can be in RMT group. The F58 can be in RMT or RMT2 group (and if it is on camera, CTRL group.)

If your camera is set to Channel 1, and the flash is in Channel 2, (or any different channel) you cannot trigger it. You can only set the camera's Channel by putting the flash on camera... so if you put the flash on camera, and set flash to Channel 2, the camera will change to Channel 2 also.

The F20 will only send in Channel 1 so you might as well always be in Channel 1, unless you have 2 flashes setup on a subject, and somebody else has 2 more flashes setup on the same subject, but both of you don't want to share, so you can both pick different channels.

Both flashes use 4 AAs. Flash sync speed is fixed and determined by the shutter's physical movement speed. On camera, you cannot use HSS when flash is in bounce mode, but if you use the flash wirelessly, you can use HSS and bounce it off the ceiling!

Gouki: The A700 cannot use the F20 to trigger other flashes. Also, the Channel on the F42 is just to receive, not send...

This post has been edited by albnok: May 19 2010, 01:37 AM

mastering89: Only the A700/A850/A900 can use the F58 as a controller (trigger), on camera. A350 cannot, you have to use the pop-up flash.

The F42 CANNOT be a controller.

Yes CTRL group on F58, is only applicable when the F58 is on body.

If you have 1 F58 on the A700 set to CTRL, and another F58 set to CTRL but not on camera... it won't trigger the off-camera flash. Because the off-camera F58 needs to be either RMT or RMT2. It will know its relative power based on what you set on the F58 on camera e.g. ratio = 16:1:4 means CTRL is 16x more powerful than RMT and RMT2 is 4x more powerful than RMT.

Banzai_san: I guess I'd prefer in #1 that the people not be intersecting with the island.

shootkk: Nice #1 (minus the top right corner.)

lwliam: It's always AF-A, AF-C, AF-S or MF. However the A100/A700/A850/A900 allow you to change AF-A to DMF.

ieR: Congratulations!

Banzai_san: The only time I ask for EXIF is to find out why somebody is complaining about soft/blur pictures.

MikeShashimi: Whoa extreme closeup! Could be warmer, from the blues in the whites of the eyes.

zeipher: I actually quite like #3 and #4!

lwliam: Sweet! clone out the stand lah.

lwliam: Well done!

Now, if you could bring it outdoors to a blue sky background and stop it down so it looks like you were there instead of shooting a toy model. Hmmm!

ieR: The highlight from the left could be just a bit lower.

cassplayer: Nice uh... green/pink/yellow-casted girl!

Kul | Mo0: Oh man, the blue stripe is pretty, though maybe reminiscent of Olympus Four-Thirds lenses...

ieR: Snooting, depends - if it's the proper reflective barn door type then you should be getting the wide-angle light going forward. If it's just the straws then you lose light.

Yes, I have used a 1.4x teleconverter with APS-C lenses to get full-frame coverage, at the penalty of 1 stop. No vignetting shows.

hazril: F4 at 50mm and 200mm will have the same DOF at the same distance. It's when you move 4 times further away from the subject, to get the 200mm shot framing the same subject and same size, that DOF becomes deeper on the subject.

You can try this easily - shoot something at close range with the 18mm at F5.6. Do the same at 70mm F5.6 at the same distance. Crop the 18mm to the angle of view of the 70mm and change the resolution of the 70mm shot to match the cropped 18mm shot.

You will find that both have the same DOF. So ieR is not completely correct on this one.

Perspective and scale of the background to foreground is what gives the idea that the 85mm F1.4 has more bokeh than the 50mm F1.4. Due to the narrower angle of view of the 85mm, it enlarges the background more than the 50mm does.

ieR: Same framing, different focal length, (therefore, different distance) then you'll have different DOF.

wingster: Perhaps for a model you would not suffer from the effect of shallow DOF on FF - but you'd feel it when shooting crowds!

cassplayer: Thumbs up for always pushing what the kit lens can do before we all forget!

mastering89: Could use deeper DOF even if the background is not as out-of-focus - try it, you'll find it might have a more 3D look because the subject is in focus while the background is flat.

How did you get the SSS mechanism?

Kul | Mo0: Excellent graphic!

fansoption: The flowers are getting too familiar so I was glad to see the ice.

prazole: Lovely edits. I like the dog shot!

shukrie: Excellent use of shadow and highlight on her, and having a middle gray background helps!

ieR: Try what I told you and you'll get it. Like I said, longer focal length just means larger background magnification. Not free whole of May.

Kul | Mo0: Interesting flower, probably more so from directly above.

Banzai_san: The midtones could be darker (drag the middle slider in Photoshop Levels) to give a moodier look.

fas29: Nice #1, #2 and #7! Would be cool if #6 was wider to show the dull place it was in.

Uzumaki NaruTo: Would prefer bottom-left to be brighter.\

Mikeshashimi: If you waited a bit more it wouldn't flare so much.

fansoption: I have to say #10 is the most interesting because it causes a reaction! I like #3 also and how 3D #4 looks.

ahpingko: I like the last sunset! The horizon is slightly tilted yes.

gizmo_pony: Multiple flash function only works on camera.

zstan: You didn't do a very clean masking so it does look fake.