hi everyone. are you joining the alpha workshop?

http://www.sony.com.my/microsite/AlphaSupe...hasuperworkshop

should have taken in RAW for future tweak. 

should have taken in RAW for future tweak. 

Alpha as to A6k? 

I have a Zeiss Jenna Tessar 50mm f2.8 .  Works great but getting the lens setting to home at infinity requires a bit of calibration.. I ignore that ..  Now I switch to Contax G Zeiss with autofocus adapter.. much nicer.

Carl Zeiss Flektogon 35mm F2.4 MC DDR, an M42 lens, on my A700.


Focuses to 19cm close. Not sure if it did, in this picture.


This was probably at 19cm.


Bigger shot showing that Zeiss look.


This was the Zenit Industar 61 L/Z 50mm F2.8 Macro. Tiny, tiny lens!


I also have a Peleng 8mm F3.5 circular fisheye, originally in T-mount, with an adapter to M42. M42 lenses can be adapted to A mount without using any glass - it's just a plain metal ring, and retains infinity focus.


Left to right: Peleng 8mm F3.5 circular fisheye in M42 mount, Minolta 50mm F1.4 (in A-mount), Jupiter-9 85mm F2.0 in M42 mount.


Jupiter-9 85mm F2.0, on my A900, I think.

I have to say though, that the era of fun with M42 lenses on A-mount bodies has long passed since we can find auto-focusing variants now for cheap, that have much better optical quality, e.g.:

Peleng 8mm F3.5 - too wide, use Samyang 8mm F3.5 instead
Zenitar 16mm F2.8 - not wide enough on APS-C, use Samyang 8mm F3.5 instead
Any 50mm - the Sony 50mm F1.8 DT SAM focuses closer!
Any 50mm F2.8 macro - the Sony 30mm F2.8 DT SAM is wider for APS-C
Jupiter-9 85mm F2.0 - the Sony 85mm F2.8 is autofocus and sharp wide open
Carl Zeiss 135mm F3.5 - nothing in that range, but 135mm is a bit long for APS-C

Note that I say APS-C because M42 lenses back then were mostly budget options for APS-C users, even though all M42 lenses were full-frame compatible. On FF though, the Peleng/Zenitar/50mm/135mm all make a lot more sense, but by that time you might already afford a better lens.

Guys, Would like to know more on how can we snap a moon surrounded by clouds? is there a way to do it?
this is mine
Am a noob in shooting. Would like to learn more

Seized? You can't go get it anymore?

I thought it's seller responsibility to properly declare the items. Wait a sec, are you sending out of the country or it's coming into the country?

1) i dont understand this part.

2) face detection. for all the people saying very weird and funny stuff. the face detection metering was introduced in A550 (i uses it) and YES, it will overwrite watever metering mode you are on, and replace with Face-zone metering (no written facts bout it) but thats how it behave since A550, about 4 years back. and it only works best if you did not have many stuff overwritten, eg,  exposure compensation.

Face metering will set the face exposure to 15%(or up to 20%)grey... that is when human face has prefect exposure. (thats how you use spot-AEL mode available in most camera that most people dont know) but the face detection doest that automatically for you.

and i also hope sony will comeout with a new menu to OFF metering overwrite during face detection. anyway i leave it off all the time, only on it during video mode and in videomode the face-metering doesnt overwrite the selected metering.... mmmm

you mention you are not a professional photographer, but i really advise you to seek some professional teaching (a proper one, not an idiot which will mislead u even worst)

from the sample photo you posted, shows your subject are in shadow area... so the face detection will brighten the whole image to cope with the face exposure.
i) set flash mode to slowsync flash and fire it... it will turn out really really nice. (i leave my camera in slowsync mode all the time, it doesnt matter when u use daytime,coz it will work like normal flash when there too much light)
ii) activate DRO to level5, some might not like it... remember to set it back to normal.
iii) turn on to HDR mode, but control the ev stop, 2-4stop is gentle for human skin(i stick with 3eV). 5ev is a little too much.

iv) how professional ppl does it, use a reflector.

3,4) due to sensor size. its a very technical thing as many company  is still working around this. due to the DOF cause by large sensor, most of the time the sensor itself cant see the faces to even 50% detectable, unlike smaller sensor camera, which can detect face from 3 meter to infinity due to the large DOF...

the best way to cope with it is to understand how(behavior) the camera face detection works and learn to cope with it.

and softskin works best when the face area is large enough, if its just a small face in the photo, the face itself its not really that sharp that requires more softskin rite? jkjk

5) i think you can define shortcut keys for that

6) i agree with you, i hope they come out with new firmware to address this and add in a new function to set this sleep timer in remote mode.

7) due to new system getting bigger and bigger and more shit is added in.. soon it will be like nikon menu  . but try the '"FN'"' key, most of the used and important feature are there.

8) like what newbie mention, your comparison of photo is not fair due to backlighting. i doubt any camera in the world can fix that issue either.

Thanks!

Today's spam:
DSC00904 by bdrc, on Flickr

DSC01102 by bdrc, on Flickr

DSC01123 by bdrc, on Flickr

Exact same pose lolz.
Yeap that's me, with Nikon and Tokina lenses.

Condition? Just so you're clear, normal "wireless" flash isn't really "wireless" at all - it depends on "preflash" signals (or IR beams, depending on tech used) from the commander flash (or in the case of my old A200, the build in flash) to tell the "slave" (off-camera flash) what to do.

In this case, like all other optical slave flash, the "slave" must be in a position where it could see the signals coming from the commander, which means both flashes must be within line of sight - or at least in a position where it could "see" the preflash signals.

I *think*. I'm a bit rusty on this so I might be wrong so please correct me if I am.

If you want to overcome that limitation you will need:

a) A radio transmission system (like phottix or cactus).

b) A long hotshoe-hotshoe cable, or pc-sync if your flash supports it.