ahpingko: If it's underexposed, just increase the EV in camera. Also be aware of your WB - the shot of the dry box is a bit blueish/greenish.

fabianz03: Did you set a different WB instead of AWB? Since Auto will go back to AWB.

freaky_deity: The 18-200mm has a 62mm filter thread. 50mm F1.8 DT SAM has a 49mm filter thread. You can look at your lenses and see for yourself!

hafeez71: All the shots are a bit loose. Zoom in and pick a subject.

gizmo_pony: Would prefer her looking up but what the heck.

Kul | Mo0: I wonder too why this thread doesn't C&C automatically. If you don't tell people to, they won't. Personally I find the picture very corny.

noprob: Wah gayut. But it works.

porkchop: They took out the screw drive motor from the D40. However for enthusiast models the A700 and A850/A900 are lighter (I've posted about this before.)

cjlai: Nice Bee-in-flight!

clivengu: A flash has slightly different color temperature when shooting at lowest and strongest power. So it tells the camera e.g. 6400K or 6600K.

gizmo_pony: Step down a bit for more sharpness.

ahpingko: Go into Quick AF LV and change your WB until the floor is white.

IwanAGP: Those are the retail prices. Ask and you might get the street price which is cheaper.

fansoption: Could still use more DOF. #14 looks obscene LOL.

ahpingko: You have a switch on top of your A550 between OVF and LV. Use the LV mode.

Anatomy Of A Gear-Stripped Lens

Some of us with old screw-driven Sigmas, the Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 DT kit lens, and even my Tamron 200-400mm F5.6 LD 75DM, have experienced gear stripping - that is, the internal gear track of the lens has broken, usually a few gear teeth on a plastic track. What does this mean?

I'll open my gear-stripped Tamron 200-400mm to show you! I've sent this to repair before, but they said they were out of parts (this is the first generation of this lens, and the second-generation 200-400mm was then made obsolete with the Tamron 200-500mm F5-6.3.

The symptom of a gear-stripped lens is simple - mount the lens on camera, turn it on, and the camera will focus the lens to infinity... and it will start vibrating and making a loud whirring sound there. The reason is that the gear cannot catch onto the teeth because it is broken. You can then change your camera to manual focus, and then turn it towards close focus. Auto focus may work, but if you miss and the camera hunts, it will get stuck at infinity and vibrate again.

Note that this does not only happen to Alpha-mount lenses - Nikon F-mount lenses can get it too. Also, this was a good reason for Sony to dump the 18-70mm for the Sony 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 DT SAM which has a in-lens motor and would not face this problem. Likewise for the Sigma lenses with HSM - they would not face this problem.


Anyway, the A-mount is rather simple from the back - there is a black shield piece (in between the metal mount and the rear optics.) You need to remove this first.


Note that the information chip gets in the way - so you gotta pull it aside without breaking it. Here, the black shielding piece is removed. The black-colored metal piece with two silver screws close together, is the aperture lever, and the other black-colored metal piece with two widely spaced silver screws, opens and closes the aperture blades by transferring motion to the aperture pin.


After removing the metal mount, I could remove the gears - here, it changes the gear ratio to a much slower one. Note the large gear in the bottom-right - this is in contact with the gear track. The screw drive of the camera connects to the shaft in the top-right. All metal.


I then removed the rear lens collar bit, and viola! Here's the broken gear track. The broken teeth are in the top-right corner. The hole is where the aforementioned large gear transfers rotation to the lens.


In theory, I could drive a nail down where I have marked it in red, to prevent the lens from getting to infinity (and thus getting stuck on the broken gear teeth.) However, my later pictures will show you why it can't be done.


The screw drive shaft, and the aperture uh... pin.

This post has been edited by albnok: May 9 2010, 04:10 PM

I then removed the outer part, with the focal lengths marked. As it turns out, the gear track is on that big long plastic tube in the top-left!

If I had embedded a nail, it would have stopped the big long plastic tube from rotating.


I removed the big long plastic tube with the gear track. This is almost as long as the lens, when retracted! No wonder the gear track is not made of metal - if it was, it would make the lens a lot heavier, and the focusing would be slower due to the weight.

Slightly out of focus, and to the right, is a rod that grabs onto a pin that pulls the focusing group nearer or further, to focus.


My thumb is holding that pin. Here it is at minimum focus distance. If I let go, it will roll down, and focus on infinity.


Fully extended. The gold-plated track tells the chip what the focal length is.


I also peeled off the label on the focus ring, but I could not unscrew the screws (they were too tight) so I couldn't open it any further.

My initial plan was to stop the lens from going to infinity, but seeing how it wasn't possible (the focus ring would've been my last hope) I ended up reassembling the lens but leaving the screw drive shaft out. So there is a hole where the screw drive used to be, and the camera will try to spin its screw in there if in AF. Focus confirm, autoexposure and SteadyShot work fine. I just have to manually focus, but at least it doesn't have the annoying gear-stripped symptoms. Also, since there is no screw drive, manual focus is very, very smooth!

Ah, but the 16-80mm is compact and very sharp. What can you get for RM2300 with the same aperture, compact size and focal length?

hazril: A bit magenta-ish (probably due to the roof or tablecloth.) Good candids but #2 and #4 might not fancy them being shot mid-sentence.

cassplayer: Nicely done, good color!

Banzai_san: No problem!

wingster: You were probably using a combination of settings that causes the flash to fire at a higher power. To make it easier for the flash, use a high ISO, bright aperture, slower shutter speed and use a diffuser pointing forwards if there is a high or dark ceiling.

The Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 is a lot chunkier, and it has its fair share of build quality problems also (loose front part). Some people prefer range over the average 1 stop of light.

Ah, interesting point on the weight difference.

Zeiss 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 DT = 445 grams, 62mm filter thread
Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 Di II first generation (without VC) = 434 grams, 67mm filter thread
Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 Di II (with VC) = 570 grams, 72mm filter thread

However when holding them both, the first-generation Tamron is a fair bit chunkier.

wingster: Depending on the diffuser the angle is set differently; read the accompanying instructions.

Stofen - 45 degrees up
Lightsphere - 90 degrees up (totally pointing up)

Kul | Mo0: That is called zoom creep. It does not happen to every copy though.

Kul | Mo0: To make matters more confusing, there is a Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 Di II New (without VC) for Nikon F-mount, just for the D40/D40x/D60/D3000. The VC version replaces this but retains the in-lens motor which, if you've heard the Canon version, is quite buzzy.

The VC version is bigger and heavier by 136 grams. You gotta put the moving VC element and the actuators in and those add weight.

SSS for all other lenses, of course!

d4rkholeang3l: Add a little bit of low-radius Unsharp Mask on the bottom.

mastering89: Nice! Now only if it was out of focus a bit to look like the background... the D90 shot is overexposed by 1/3rd of a stop (from the EXIF) and the umbrella has blown highlights.

The Alphas tend to save highlights when metering, hence you can still make out detail in the umbrella. The rest is just weaker DRO+ compared to ADL set to High. On the A450-A900 you can use DRO Level 5 to get the same effect of brighter midtones.

I have edited your A350 shot:



I pulled up the midtones to simulate ADL/DRO Level 5. Notice that the umbrella's highlights are still there.

Nice one on the bullet train!

fansoption: For #2 and #3 you still need to pick one subject.

wingster: The Tokina 50-135mm F2.8 is not in A-mount but it's okay since they haven't gotten round to making in-lens motors for A-mount. The Sigma 50-150mm F2.8 with HSM would be more appealing.

cassplayer: I like how your cars go the other way - could be one way to differentiate your shots from Kul | Mo0's!

mastering89: Here's another version, with even stronger pulled midtones:



And here's something from the A700 with DRO Level 5:

hazril: That is exactly right! I loved the sunny blue skies of Kuching and the many pockets of green!

Kul | Mo0: DRO Level 5 only looks bad when you use it on a person who is in deep shadow. If you are in such a situation, use DRO Level 5 and increase your EV so that the faces are brightened. Supposing:

You can try this quite quickly - DRO Level 5, EV 0, and then DRO Level 5, EV +3. Major difference in the tonality. Let's say:

Sky = nearly highlight
Face = shadow
Black surface = dark shadow
DRO works on shadows, pulling it up. This is quite like HDR minus the large radius unsharp mask.

If you did say +1 EV:

Sky = highlight
Face = midtone
Black surface = shadow
DRO pulls only the shadow and doesn't affect the face that much.

If you use DxO Optics Pro for example, and you first set DxO Fill Light to Strong 150%, then you pull the EV up, you can see a big difference in how the face tones are affected.

Faces with DRO Level 5:






mastering89: This is the best tutorial you can read, about bringing up your midtones and how to mask them:

http://www.ronbigelow.com/articles/neutral...ral-density.htm

Yes, the F36, F42, F56 and F58 can be off-camera wireless flashes.

For DRO+ it does the exact same thing I did, but with less exaggerated effect.

wingster: The difference in weight between the 50-150mm and the 70-200mm F2.8 is a lot! I can't wait for somebody to take the plunge and get this.

mastering89: DRO only brightens the shadows (read my reply to Kul | Mo0.)

DRO correctly exposes the highlights (meaning, without overexposing, unlike the Nikon D80 onwards, which has a tendency to make blacks become gray!) Everything else is brightened accordingly.

The shirt is an official Sony Alpha shirt - it comes with some packages of Alphas being sold. Some dealers even sell it with Alphas for dunno how much. You can often see salespeople at camera shops wearing this!

On a side note, more of these shirts were spotted here. Can't repost the pictures here as those aren't my pictures to begin with.

neo_lam: You could, in RAW.

This post has been edited by albnok: May 10 2010, 12:18 AM

neo_lam: Try it - you'll find that JPG compression is what killed the detail. JPG compression gets heavier in the shadows.

mastering89: Nice!

clivengu: It only works when in Flash WB or AWB.

readone_sapi: Nice!

jimlim007: Pick a subject and shoot it. Or else pick geometry and represent it. Or do both.

LOL #1 of The Mummy looks like Sunway Pyramid! Looks like Asians only.

readone_sapi: Nice! Looks very like a glass spoon.

Wonka: I like #1 (and #3, reframed...)

cjlai: #4 is nice; #5 if cropped to just a square around the circle.

zstan: About the first landscape: Nice color, but not the most interesting composition. Cat #1 and #4 tells the story best.

neo_lam: Wah, the real thing! Imagine if you ran down to the guy in the bottom left and framed him against the missing pharoah.

lwliam: Get lower and use less obvious lighting to make it look more real!

destfull: Video height (720p/1080p) is currently tied to vertical resolution divided by 3 (10 fps * 3 samples = 30 fps). I still haven't gotten round to finding the source for this. ISO performance in JPG may be tied to the firmware, but hardware ISO performance as measured by DxO is determined by pixel surface area and the strength of the color filtration array (hence why the A850/A900 can resolve more different tones in one color compared to high-ISO champions.)

destfull: Of course it could also be related to physical and mechanical limits. The hardware would need to read 10 FPS and hold the aperture lever, mirror and shutter open.

Also it would cause a higher TDP (processing, sample rate). TDP is often quoted to be what limits the contrast-detect AF processing.

Interesting that the NEX3 does not seem to have a SD/SDHC label - did your A550 say SD and MS?

jamesies: Nice, looks like Gandalf the Gray!

readone_sapi: I guess I still like the first one best.

Soony: Prices in the EU are always crazy high. Wait for the USD price.

Uzumaki NaruTo: Nice concept; could use deeper shadows though.

mastering89: Do you need 105mm at F4.5? If you can figure that out, you can figure out which one to keep.

MechaHerc: I thought so initially with the NEX-5, but it quickly grew on me. I really like the flash door.

Banzai_san: They are not going to abandon the A-mount - there is a lot of premium sales in the G and Zeiss lineup. Also, until we can confirm this, contrast detect AF is still weaker than phase detect AF - if you've ever tried the GF1/E-PL1 you'll know that once you've locked focus, and you half press again, it will cycle and look for focus again! Phase detect is able to see that you're in focus and not refocus.

Kul | Mo0: But the EP-1 (same size as the GF-1) is bigger than the NEX!



readone_sapi: Since you have a clean white background, you could move the spider about in Photoshop.

IwanAGP: Without the person in the white shirt it would be cleaner.

ieR: Lookatme for Miss Tourism!

ieR: No I mean, the first Miss Tourism shot, she should've been looking at you.

ianho: I'm shooting Moonshine at Laundry Bar, The Curve, at 9:30pm. So I won't get to join you guys.

lencent: I almost saw a face:

lencent: Google "digital graduated ND".