Hehe! dun care the noise lah hahaha.

relax y so serius lol looking forward for his feedback then...

This post has been edited by loyatttt: Apr 16 2011, 11:23 AM

loyattttt: hi, welcome, sorry bout the rudeness of some people here. it just.... erm, i have no idea why also hahaha. well review sometimes are a little bias or something exaggerate... but i will stick to the main point/question.

but a little about me first, i do not work under sony, but i got a small privileged to able to play with some of their camera for a period of time to understand them. i own other camera system too.

bout the AF system, yes, sony A900/850 is very reliable, as much as D700. for the canon system, (i hope no canon fanboy lurking here) even 7D sophisticated AF module has inconsistency compare to older Alpha A550 (base on some comparison review, again, review might be bias, but it was the first time i ever saw a review that 'side' alpha then canon... funny). i do not want to go into too technical, but (i hope u are not that lazy) you could head over to youtube, and find video on A900 vs 5DmkII AF test. it was surprisingly the A900 can lock better in many condition compare to 5D2. another point is that, the A900 has extra 10 hidden af assist point to help the 9 main af point.

as for noise, if u are concern, during that era, it wasnt the best, but with 24mp, after u size down to 50% (still a 12mp photo) the noise is much less notice-able and comparable to D700 12mp photo.

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Added on April 16, 2011, 12:06 pmits better if u can provide us with more specific point or question tq

This post has been edited by ieR: Apr 16 2011, 12:06 PM

Who's going PC fair? I'm on my way there now lol..

Just woke up -,-

chiahau, go do survey for us, i going tomorrow only

so many people complaint about tamron 17-50, ie back foucs, slow focusing during night time...
what do you all think ?


This post has been edited by limcloon80: Apr 16 2011, 12:33 PM

I bought my AP set for 1320 leh. Touch wood nothing happen.

@porkchop - will do.. Will update on the way there then lol.

@limcloon80 - For Sony mount, less problem compared to others, shrewdly. Slow focusing for Sony is not actually accurate, I can shoot low-light without F58am quite decently. Well, unless you compare with the 135mm f1.8 or 70-200G, the Tamron's focusing at low light is quite decent..

where u hear? many of sony user is happy with their tamron, for one, me example, now my tamron with a friend (chiahau) and he is very happy about it.

if u take the issue from review site, yea, because review site took canon/nikon mount to review, those 2 mount uses built in motor, tamron older generation motor sucks, hence 'slow' also, they compare it with sigma 1750 which is HSM, and 1k more expensive. paying 1k for faster af, worth it?

sony version rely on body af motor, which is very reliable, if u are using A55/580 new generation, the motor is now more agressive faster.

loyatttt:

Hey, you gotta tell us what you expect, so we can tell you whether it meets your expectations or not.

I can tell you a Lamborghini Murcielago is a GREAT car, but I don't know you're looking for a 4 seater, so it's not so great is it?

I've had an A900 for 2.5 years now. I shoot low-light musical performances without using flash, events, weddings and street photography.

It has no problems with artificial light, and no problems with flourescent light.

There are no banding issues with the A900.

The outer focus points are sensitive in low light provided you give them a point of contrast e.g. an eye. Just don't expect it to focus on a plain wall. Coincidentally though, the A900's center AF point has FIVE sensors and is one of the few that can focus on a plain wall in low light.

In comparison the Nikons max out at 2 sensors per focus point (cross sensor) and the Canons max out at 3 (cross sensor + F2.8 sensor). The A700, A850 and A900 have dual cross sensors and a F2.8 sensor in the center.

In short, the center AF point is dead reliable and fast no matter where you are. However the outer points are all single line sensors, and single line sensors only detect detail in one orientation. So you can focus on a flag pole using a horizontal line sensor, but a vertical line sensor will not lock focus on this flag pole. Unless you turn your camera sideways.

This is inherent to all line sensors in all cameras - it's not a Sony thing. A smart thing that the older Alphas had, was to have diagonal line sensors.

Dynamic range and color on the A900 is fantastic. Of course, dynamic range relies on you relying on Sony's idea of metering. In high contrast situations, Alphas will prefer to underexpose so that it keeps the detail and color on the highlights.

The downside of this is that when you underexpose, and you increase exposure in Photoshop or any RAW editing software, is that the gain is increased and thus you get noise.

So, faced with a giant lamppost behind somebody's head, you can choose to screw the lightbulb and just press the AEL button on the person. So the person is correctly exposed, no noise, but the lightbulb is saturated in white.

Color is also fantastic - you get a lot more color tones especially in faces compared to Nikon (which has less color in order to achieve less apparent noise - that's why all these high ISO shots have faces that are one shade of brown) and Canon (which mutes the reds and greens, hence the duller look).

The other thing I love is the button layout and ergonomics. The A900 is operable using the right hand and the buttons are all there, even on the vertical grip. Heck the joystick is there in full size, on the grip. The vertical grip feels the same as the camera grip - on other brands, the vertical grip is shaped like a brick and has very few buttons. So you have to relearn your button layout and know that you cannot access all functions when using the vertical grip. This is not an issue at all on the A700/A850/A900 vertical grips.

jimlim007: If you can't wait pick up a cheap A33 and you get fast video AF right now.

This post has been edited by albnok: Apr 16 2011, 05:07 PM

albert: i think is 2.5 year? lol, coz when i first meet u at april 2009, u already using it....

ieR: Ah, you're right, a miscalculation on my part - had it since October 2008.

yuhi: i think i wont go for A850 or A900 may b the upcoming ones. since i still have to fund. haha...

This post has been edited by eddybeh: Apr 16 2011, 05:39 PM

Besides A77, what are the upcoming models that would replace A900? apparently there will be 2-3 FF models in 2012 eh?

Nandos! by zstan, on Flickr

I miss eating this....

liquiddog: ya, probably 2 more coming up but dunno is it going to happen since japan macam ini. XP

finally collected my F42 flash from sony service centre@the curve this morning...sony replaced a whole new unit for me!...

now i realise to balance ambience and fill in light isnt as hard as i thought coz previous my flash is really damn defective!...

now time to pickup my flash strobing skills!...

any idea what can i do with a single flash??...any creative ideas??...

ahpingko: we can do wireless with 1 external oso la... do strobing with macro? XP

Pc fair...so so only....show girl, ok lah...take few photos, will upload later

eddybeh: yup, enough time for u to start funding, and change lenses to FF.

liquiddog: ever since the tsunami. canon nikon sony pentax, panasonic, toshiba kodak, fujitsu, all their roadmap is changing, we do not know what the future holds from japan. either u can wait, or u cant. most of us here have been waiting for A700 replacement since 2010 (when they show the NEX mockup)

ahpingko: congrats! a lot! 1 light is start of all strobing.