For the Nikon lenses, you'll need to look for the old Nikon Ai-S lenses with aperture rings. At least, that's whats being normally used by legacy lens fans. eBay is a good place to start. Most of these lenses are very cheap anyways.

50s are pretty alright for non-stabilized shooting... a shutter speed of 1/60 hand-held is fine most of the time, and if you need to go faster, the ISO abilities of the NEX more than compensates for it.

If you use a 3rd party lens or a Sony A-Mount lens w/LA-EA2, you won't get stabilization / OSS. Unless you use a A-Mount Sigma OS lens. Focal length beyond ~100MM will be hard to handhold.

If you have the money for the SEL18200, it's a great lens. Good quality, pleasant bokeh, and great OSS.

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Added on December 15, 2011, 12:58 amAs usual, Sony Malaysia jacks up the price *cue SEL30M35...* Street price of 3350 sounds reasonable (USD1000, conversion rate now 3.2). Fantastic thing, out of my budget though.

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Added on December 15, 2011, 12:59 amDamn, that sucks Hope your cleaning service gets rid of all that oil. One of the inherent problems with legacy lenses... thankfully, I've yet to experience that with the legacy lenses I have bought and used before.

This post has been edited by axii: Dec 15 2011, 12:59 AM

US users reported that the fix is just application of some lubricant on the loose offending piece.

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Added on December 15, 2011, 1:55 pmI guess it'll only be available here in January. Sony Malaysia doesn't even have the SEL50210 listed on their web! Strange that they would put up the Zeiss 24/1.8 first. Maybe they think it will appeal to more people...?

This post has been edited by axii: Dec 15 2011, 01:55 PM

That's so sad Best bet is to bring it back to Sony. The Sony Service Center is now located at The Curve. They'll let you know how much it is to fix it, if there is a charge.

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Added on December 15, 2011, 2:00 pmJudging by the trend of Sony Malaysia where they increased the price of the SEL30M35 macro to be MORE expensive than the kit lens compared to other countries, I think the SEL50F18 is going to be RM999 or more. Street price will be much cheaper, hopefully.

This post has been edited by axii: Dec 15 2011, 02:00 PM

I don't get how a rack of lamb connects to Bali. All I know is it makes me damn hungry!

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Added on December 16, 2011, 12:33 amThe problem with this DIY bounce is it's only usable in small, low ceiling spaces. Power of the F7S is so low already, getting it to bounce will suck up even more light. Great job anyways! Much better than stock direct flash.

This post has been edited by axii: Dec 16 2011, 12:33 AM

Difference between the cheap adapters and the expensive ones:

1) Focus on Infinity - Cheap ones normally focus beyond inifinity. Will generally require some modification / shaving to fix.
2) Quality - Cheap ones could be plastic mounts.

If you can test the adapters before buying, do so.

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Added on December 16, 2011, 2:09 pmBoeing / Tarita offered it to me at RM1,100. MSRP is RM1,199. I bought mine from Studio Zaloon - RM980. Maybe because I bought with a 5N Body.

This post has been edited by axii: Dec 16 2011, 02:09 PM

The V5 firmware only adds support for the LA-EA2 adapter.

Careful with the pingpong ball diffuser: because most pingpong balls are not pure white, you will get a color cast on your shots. It might come out slightly warmer.

My hood is always on. I look at it this way; if anything happens, and i drop my lens, the hood is the first thing shielding the front lens element.

Give a call to Sony, and they will up it. Grain of salt though; heard this from elsewhere.

If you have lightroom/photoshop/any gfx editor with crop, you can just crop out the equivalent area. That's what the PDzoom is doing anyways, in-camera: cropping out a smaller area. It takes a bit more work, but it'll be more flexible, if in the end, you wanted a wider shot.

The AF Microadjust only applies to A-mount lenses using the LA-EA2 adapter. It's currently a bug on the NEX-5/3/C3 that you can select it. Normally, on NEX-5N, without the LA-EA2 adapter, the Microfocus Adjust setting is not available.

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Added on December 18, 2011, 9:55 pmBalance wise, when you have larger lenses / adapters, you no longer support the camera by the body, but by the lens barrels itself. Personally, I feel much comfortable holding the camera by the lens adapter (LA-EA2), than the body itself. Still much lighter than a DSLR! The pancake balances perfectly with the body, and feels very much like a compact P&S. One hand hold, point, shoot.

This post has been edited by axii: Dec 18 2011, 09:55 PM

Nice job! Another thing I dislike about the bounce card... you will go blind after some use, since you are technically bouncing the flash back into your eyes! I'll post pics of my own DIY bounce / diffuser later. It's a small plastic container, lined with foil inside, and a hole cut on top.

Hey Thompson! The ping pong ball is easy.. just cut a hole that fits the flash!

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Added on December 20, 2011, 11:35 amStudio Zaloon has started pre-orders, availability in end January. RM4,499, body only.

This post has been edited by axii: Dec 20 2011, 11:35 AM

Highly likely! Getting some better glass first to complement the sensor. Kit lens does not do it justice!

Full-frame Hybrid NEX rumor incoming:
http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sr4-sony-ap...nex-7/#comments

A NEX that fits both A-mount and E-mount with adjustable sensor flange? Looks damn interesting if it's true. Feels damn bad if its true too! (LA-EA2)

From xitek, for those that read Chinese:
http://forum.xitek.com/showthread.php?threadid=950656

Hello hanz,

When it comes to Macro photography, it's very normal to use Manual Focus instead of AF. With AF at such close distances, it is very difficult to focus exactly on the point that you want, which you have already discovered. It'll be hit and miss. Switch to Manual, or better, DMF mode, and from there, adjust it.

Menu > Camera > AF/MF Select > DMF or MF

With DMF selected, the camera will attempt to AF first; when it has focus confirmation, you can then turn the focus ring to adjust your focus, while still holding half-shutter. Once you have decided on your focus, full depress the shutter.

On your issues with the small and thin depth of field (only center is in focus, rest blurry), this is a common factor in macrography. The closer you are to the subject, the less depth of field there is, hence creating the slice of sharpness across the center. To overcome this, you will need to use a larger Aperture setting. I presume you have shot all of this pictures with the Aperture wide open (3.5). Try going beyond F8, till F13 to get better results. The larger the aperture number, the more depth of field you will get.

To easily control the Aperture, switch to Aperture Priority Mode. With this mode, you can manually adjust the Aperture size, while the camera determines the Shutter Speed.

Menu > Mode > Aperture Priority

Do note, that with a larger Aperture, you will need more available light. If there is not enough light, the camera will compensate by increasing the ISO or slowing the Shutter Speed, hence making it harder to hand-hold and shoot your objects. I recommend a Tripod, to keep your camera still while the camera dials in a long, slow shutter speed. The flash will not help here, as being this close to your subject, the lens itself will obscure the path of light from the flash.

So in short:
More Depth of Field = Larger Aperture = Higher ISO / Slower Shutter Speed

Another thing to keep in mind: The NEX prefers to up ISO levels first before increasing anything else. If your ISO is set to Auto, more likely than not that the camera will increase it all the way to 3200, before actually decreasing shutter speed.

Hope I helped.

Nice shot The Raynox really does wonders for RM200~250. For all those who want to try some macrography and don't want to spend RM1k on a dedicated macro lens, the Raynox is a cheap and high quality alternative. Don't bother with Close-up filters, go for the Raynox I say. You pay RM50~150 for a set of + Closeup filters, doesn't really justify it, especially when you have to stack the filters and get all the nastiness out of that (CA, PF)

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Added on December 29, 2011, 1:51 pmThat would be tough to do! With the Raynox, depth of field really shrinks down. I have a Raynox, and I can attest to that. Even stopped down to F22, you barely get anymore DOF than F13. This coupled with the kit lens, he was really close to the subject. Any closer and I'm sure the dragonfly would have been frightened away. A limitation of the lens, not the user.

Of course, some bugs really love to be part-time models

/Edit
Just remembered after hitting post: One tedious technique to get everything in focus is by using "Focus Stacking". This is achieved by taking a few shots at different focus areas, and later stacking all the images together to get one picture with the subject completely in focus. Not very viable in insect macros though, as this requires a tripod, and quite a few shots to get right. Hand-holding will be very, very difficult.


Tamron SP90

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Added on December 29, 2011, 2:01 pmI must have caught her at good times then! Of the two times I met her, she was very friendly and helpful to me.

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Added on December 29, 2011, 2:12 pmI second that. ITS A ZEISS, goddamnit, ZEISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Comparatively, it's cheaper than other brands:

Sony Zeiss Distagon T* 24/2.0 RM38xx
Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G ED RM6xxx
Canon EF24mm f/1.4L II USM RM6xxx

Used the 1.4s from Nikon and Canon. Those are full frame lenses, so on crop sensor, it would be 1.8/2.0 equivalent. Correct me if I'm wrong, which I may very well be.


This post has been edited by axii: Dec 29 2011, 02:12 PM

Nice shot

Marumi DHG, RM150~

Nope, nothing of that sort, even for NEX-5 / 7.

YN-460s will fire by optical slave via S2.

Sonia wireless trigger can be activated through optical as well. Will skip pre-flash by learning mode.

There are lots of workarounds to fire flashes optically.

This post has been edited by axii: Jan 4 2012, 04:49 PM