wow, is poison me+

aik already have the 50mm.. why asking which to get?

u want poison?

This post has been edited by kopitiam: Feb 16 2011, 10:18 AM

yeap, the minolta 50mm f1.7 do tend to flare, but know how to work around it and it is a wonderful lens to work with. all 50mm lenses are incredibly sharp at its sweet spot.

the plus point og the 50mm f1.7 minolta is of course the possibility of going full frame in the future, as well as the much superior built quality compared to the sony 50mm f1.8 DT. metal body and metal mount speaks volumes in terms of built quality and ruggedness.

popfish: yes, i wont refer it as sharp color, but a minolta color (sweet saturated) and metal build doesnt mean better (atleast better then plastic build of 50F1.8) hence ppl uses these points to say its better choice. to me, its just a smarter choice, not a better one.

u see, metal build, means heavier. the 50F1.8 is a lot lighter! and future more, it has SAM, anytime in future u might get a SLT (since 70% of future alpha is base on SLT) and u will love it when u record video with a SAM lens!! and the coating for 50F1.8 is better with flare control and it is more contrasty (boost AF lock also).

so doesnt it makes the 50F1.8 even better future proof choice?

if u come to kuching dont forget to find me. want to poison myself with encik zeiss

mentioning about sweet spot, 50F1.8 definately has its sweet spot at F2.
while the KM50F1.7, u might get a sharp unit at F2, and u might not, u might get a unit with sweet spot only at F2.8 or F2.5

thanks for the info ier.

some minor changes for your blog article (mostly on grammar). and special mention to the term 'k'. if you use k in SMALL letters, it usually means 'thousand'. (eg. 1k=1000) The K in Kelvin is in CAPITAL, which refers to the unit used for temperature. anyway i am just being picky.

White Balance(WB)

White Balance is a very complicated and wide topic. In the old days, during the film era, people require color filters to adjust the white balance in films. But today, it becomes an Automatic feature in a digital camera. An expensive DSLR will be equipped with a more sophisticated algorithm (program codes) to identify ambient light to select a more accurate WB for it.

But take note, WB affects almost every little setting you tweak on your camera, especially those who love high ISO, slow shutter speed, wide aperture and flash. I will talk about this in the advanced flash topic.

WB is measured by Kelvin (i think its name after the guy who discovered it)(read this on why it's called Kelvin), measuring from 2000K to 10K (not all cameras are capable to reach full scale though, some can only set from 2500K to 9900K)

2500K - very strong orange tungsten light
2800K - strong orange tungsten light
3200K - yellowish tungsten light
4500K M6 - flourescent light (most flourescent tubes are green even though our eyes don't see it)
5500K - flash (depending, some flash manufacturer is 5800k or 6000k)
6500K - daylight (or daylight-balanced flourescent light)
9900K - strong blue stage lighting or evening light

Pre-set White Balance

Let's talk about presete WB mode first, and AutoWB later, because it has indirect involvement with preset mode, so let's get the basics of preset mode first.

Commonly a DSLR will have 6 preset WB. (some has more, which i will not talk about it because all this info you can get from the camera manual book.)

The 'it' here refers to the camera.

• Daylight
where it reads more blue under the sun, and turn the Kelvin high to balance back (6500K-7000K)
• Shade
where it will ignore the skyblue (more blue tint) and use appropriate WB for under the shade (usually 6000K)
• Cloudy
where it will ignore the sky and use appropriate WB for under the shade (usually 5000K)
• Tungsten
under normal tungsten lighting condition, it's preset to 3200K. It won't go below to 2500K
• Fluorescent
as mentioned above, most fluorescent tubes are green even though our eyes don't see it (4500K M6)
• Flash
it will lock at 5500K because the flash light is at 5500K (or other temperature depending on the flash manufacturer, eg. Nikon)

Automatic White Balance (AWB)

Now, for the AWB. AWB does not automatically scale from 2500K to 9900K, it will not. The current technology/algorithm AWB will only allow to pick from the preset WB. (but correct me if i am wrong, because i don't own a professional body like the Nikon D3s so i do not know if a Pro body does automatically scale from 2000 to 10k)

So when it meets a tungsten lighting ambiance, it will only be able to select the preset tungsten WB. It also means that the lowest Kelvin it can go is 3200k. hence if you are in a very strong tungsten lighting, your photo will still turn out very tungsten-ish (orange-ish), its not a good or bad thing, because some people would love to show others how nice the ambiance light is. but for product shooter, or serious event shooter, it is still a wrong white balance. they will go custom and set it to 2500k if requireed to do so, or shoot in raw and PostProcess it later.

So when you pop up the flash, it will automatically switch to flash WB lock at 5500K. So even if you are in a tungsten lit room, the WB is lock at 5500k, it will not turn to tungsten WB at 3200K, because your 5500K flash will turn out blue. another key issue is that the area that is not lit by the flash, it will be in very deep tungsten orange color (eg. background will be very tungsten-ish). So many of you will surely captured photo in restaurant with clear subject and really tungsten background. it is normal.

Same goes with an external flash being mounted on the hotshoe. the AWB will lock at FlashWB 5500k.

I did mention that White Balance is a very wide topic, but this part seems short to read, well, i have not added the Flash and environmental issue yet, this will all be discussed in another advance topic.

still drooling over pam's pic at f2 with a850

can u post the over sharp picture?

This post has been edited by kopitiam: Feb 16 2011, 10:26 AM

is there any sony body can set the WB manually.. i meant set the value not capturing from the ambient light..

A300 can... A550 can, A55 can, A580 can, A700 can, A900 can

zstan: yea, i made a lot mistake in "u" typo too... hahhaa bad habit >.< and thanks

This post has been edited by ieR: Feb 16 2011, 10:28 AM

not yet purchase(going to be)

tats y

blur in this 50f1.7 or 50f1.8 ( but can't get both )



a850 ff

This post has been edited by popfish: Feb 16 2011, 10:34 AM

guys. is it worth it buy lens from USA?

35mm is 199.99 only. and based on currency exchange, its RM600 plus a bit only. still cheaper than here!!

but the thing is maybe cannot claim warranty and cannot test lens. =/

go buy 50f18 since have warranty

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Added on February 16, 2011, 10:35 amhow much the transport cost?

This post has been edited by kopitiam: Feb 16 2011, 10:35 AM

ok. mr carl zess

This post has been edited by popfish: Feb 16 2011, 10:35 AM

free.

my cousin at USA nao.

but dunno need wait how long only he can pass the lens to me if i buy through him (he at penang)

It's quite simple really. If you are planning to go FF pretty soon then the 50mm f1.7 can be a very good budget lens that operates fine on both APS-C and FF bodies. It's built like a tank and thus will last until you have saved enough to replace it.

If you're not really aiming for FF then the 50mm f1.8 is the choice as it has newer coatings and better bokeh and fits the APS-C bodies. You'll get warranty too if you buy new.

Picture quality is about the same if you're not into pixel peeping or too particular in getting 'Minolta' colours.

mine cannot ar.. even no AEL button..
make it so simple to use..

but i'd prefer 50 1.8 better as it retains the circular aperture few steps down. minolta 50 1.7 at f2.2 already show aperture shape.

zstan : not worth it, zaloon selling for rm6xx only. for that u get 1 year warranty. warranty is very very very important .

ok. maxuum fans sure they have lots suggestion