vandechrome: HSM lenses do not have the risk of gear stripping.

fas29: Alamak korang ni awal giler... 10am is a bit early for us working people. Or at least people who like to go out on Friday night hehe.

ryzan76: The Zeiss has a very nice range, and you lose just on average 1 stop, but if you're using flash it's not a problem at all. Oh and the contrast levels and clarity will be on a different level!

Great stuff on the spiders!

SpOOkY, I like #3 (fish frying in front of junk) though #4 could be slightly underexposed for mood.

nickilala: All of them are not very wide as they are meant for full-frame. But if I had to choose, I'd pick the 24-60mm F2.8 - it's sharper than the 24-70mm F2.8 and we have not heard of it getting gear stripping problems yet.

ohzmygod: Yes some lenses will be cheaper and easier to find, especially rarities like the 200mm F2.8G HS APO, 85mm F1.4G D Limited, 35mm F1.4G, 28-70mm F2.8G, 17-35mm F3.5G, etc.

Wokay!

I'll bring my M42 adapter, you bring your M42 lenses!

Please fill up this standardized TT form:

What: check out fas29's M42 lenses and other stuff
When: 1pm Saturday 5th February 2009
Where:

Whoops thanks acc10!

What: check out fas29's M42 lenses and other stuff
When: 1pm Saturday 7th February 2009
Where: KFC Wangsa Maju

Now the question is, as somebody totally unfamiliar with Wangsa Maju, how do we get there by public transport? Is it within walking distance of the Wangsa Maju LRT station?

This post has been edited by albnok: Feb 5 2009, 04:06 PM

Looks like a moderator deleted my post linking to the thread I created for the TT.

Oh well, if you insist, it's not like the information is not here already. At least put a "post deleted due to linking to external forum" instead of making us wonder whether we dreamt that we posted it, or not. I do not see a single trace of anything here.

I wrote something after that, the least you could do is keep that part of the post that is not an external link. Fortunately there is a Back button.


Wangsa Maju Weekend TT thread!

What: check out fas29's M42 lenses and other stuff
When: 1pm Saturday 7th February 2009
Where: KFC Wangsa Maju
Who: Can contact Farhan at 014-2373625 for directions

I'll quote fas29:
From Wangsa Maju LRT, take the RapidKL bus number 301 Until you reach Carrefour.

fas29: I would not know how to CLEAN lenses of fungus. I can disassemble them lah but not repair. Hack, I did before.

SpOOkY: I live in Segambut. Don't complain. We've had quite a few TTs at the mamak at The Curve, Laundry Bar, 1 Utama KFC, 1 Utama (during fashion shows), etc.

0168257061: The CZ 135mm F1.8 street price is RM4800.

fas29: Nope, I don't have an extra M42 adapter. I sold an adapter with every M42 lens I used to have.

babylabbit: The CZ 24-70mm F2.8 SSM street price goes for around the lower half of RM5xxx. Not sure exactly how much.

awan_kelabu: Your brother's setting is:

- be at the right place at the right time with the camera looking for something nice to shoot

Just bring the camera around and keep an eye out for things to shoot!

I think the cat + shadow shot could be developed more; a better, tighter angle could help.

0168257061: The Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 (and even the F3.5) is quite popular with the Sony crowd. It's much rarer to see them using the Carl Zeiss 85mm F1.4.

edmondwwk: At the current economic situation, Sigma, Nikon and Canon have increased their prices in other countries. You can expect price increases soon. That said it will be very rare for someone to sell the F58, so just go and get it.

croomaniac: The Minolta 35-70mm F4 does produce image quality like the beercan but it doesn't look like one LOL.

vikingw2k: I tested the Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 when The Wonder bought it for his A200, and it was focusing accurately and was a good copy. So while the Tamron was indeed sharp, the Zeiss is sharper and far more contrasty.

SpOOkY: That's the old price - Sigma and Tamron lens prices have increased already.

sidewinderz: The left side of the leaf is out the in-focus area - you'll want to use a darker aperture e.g. F8-11 to get more of the leaf in focus.

TriangleStudio, I like the murky look on your first picture, as it tells me that she is in a dirty city (and the cars help to tell me this.)

ryzan76: OHAI down there!

fas29: Haha the colonel blown up on a fisheye is too cute!

chiggy: Great stuff (though I prefer the first set, and her amazing 'muka cop'! I love the Zeiss color, it has always been punchy in the right places.

Also, do you use the F42 at 105mm when shooting with the kit lens?

dinraxxx: Dude man I hope you're alright!

nickilala: Yes, a flash used and pointed at the right angle will make your pictures sharper.

luzzio: Nice color tone!

vandechrome: chiggy's adapter, like mine, only reports one focal length (50mm F1.7) no matter what lens is on it.

There is one with 4 focal lengths but switching between them requires you remount the lens and tap the shutter button to cycle through focal lengths.

From here http://www.eadpt.cn/eadpen.htm:

v1rtual: The Sony 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 DT is sharper than the Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 DT.

firz: The D700 has some nice things going for it;
- pop-up flash which can use Nikon CLS
- Live View with Contrast-Detect and Phase-Detect AF
- ability to use F-mount lenses
- ability to auto-expose with Ai-S lenses
- weather-sealing
- good high ISO noise control (this does not mean noise is not there, though...)
- higher FPS

Meanwhile, for the same price you can get a Sony A900, which has:
- 100% coverage viewfinder with 0.74x magnification (the D700 does not have this, that means when you shoot, you always get 'more' outside what you framed... for example, there's suddenly a tree branch in the corner when you didn't see it in the viewfinder.)
- Intelligent Preview (allows you to tweak exposure/WB settings including when flash is fired... which Live View cannot do.)
- ability to use A-mount lenses (Minolta AF, Sony and Carl Zeiss ZA) and M42 lenses with an adapter (Nikons cannot use M42 lenses due to back flange distance.)
- controls are all on the right hand (on the D700, the ISO button is out of place on the top-left corner.)
- image stabilization in body
- weather-sealing (Sony does not make strong claims about this)
- can use the HVL-F58AM quick-swivelling flash!
- 24.6 megapixels for much more detail

If you've ever shot a picture to be printed big, you'll know that you need more megapixels. In the studio and shooting landscapes, the A900 will pawn the D700.

The D3 is great and all, but I wasn't all that impressed. You can't change ISO when holding the camera in portrait mode and your right hand is on the portrait grip! (You have to press the ISO button with your thumb WHILE turning the rear dial.)

vikingw2k: Ted Adnan has always had (and still has) 2 dSLR systems since he got the A100. He kept some Nikkors and he still has two Carl Zeiss 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 DT lenses. So 'migrating' is not the right term.

neo_lam: RM2500 sounds like the correct street price.

KTCY, thanks for the search-and-replace. Yes, the A900 is awesome for certain applications. I didn't say Alpha is always the best, there are some criteria or requirements where another system will do better. If you asked me how a KM7D is better than an A700, I would tell you, but that doesn't mean I'd prefer the 7D.

neo_lam: Lots of things - bokeh, Zeiss, Minolta, ergonomics, AF/MF system, SteadyShot...

cjlai: HOT DAMN! The Mirage filter! I didn't remember what it was called. Superb filter that is.

Some of your shots are a bit bluish. I like #8!

firz: The A700 with firmware V4 has similiar image quality to the D300 even on higher ISOs. Everything else is down to ergonomics and price;

The D300 has this over the A700:
- 100% viewfinder (ironic, but the D300 does cost much more than the A700...)
- higher FPS
- Live View with Contrast-Detect and Phase-Detect AF
- ability to use F-mount lenses

The A700 has this over the D300:
- ability to use A-mount lenses (Minolta AF, Sony and Carl Zeiss ZA) and M42 lenses with an adapter (Nikons cannot use M42 lenses due to back flange distance.)
- controls are all on the right hand (on the D300, the ISO button is out of place on the top-left corner.)
- image stabilization in body
- can use the HVL-F58AM quick-swivelling flash!
- the battery grip is more ergonomic and has all the buttons of the normal grip (on the D300 battery grip, the joystick is shrunken)

vikingw2k: Wow, strong words from some guy who paid a lot more to go into a system that doesn't autofocus, doesn't let you MF on something outside the center, has really really bad AWB, adds infrared purple to anything you shoot and doesn't have any telephoto lenses.

But hey, a Leica IS nice to look at...

I never said the D3 or D700 is bad. Quote me if you can find such a claim. But you must recognize that no camera has EVERYTHING.

KTCY: More AF points are useful to avoid recomposing. Recomposing can cause your image to be out-of-focus:

http://www.mhohner.de/recompose.php

If you only focus on the center, you'll be fine.

Your comment could be interpreted in many ways. Make it specific if you want it to be interpreted as you meant it to be.

Ah yes, Hoya multi-vision! Tried one in a shop named dSLR in Subang Parade. Didn't know Kenko made one, too!

lehtung, it helps to shoot ONLY when the moon is really solidly white. That's when there are no clouds and you can get a faster shutter speed.

Also, if you noticed, mizivincible's moon is not a full moon... the sun is hitting it at a slight angle which gives the 3D effect on the craters on the top-right.

If you want, you can actually combine a few moon exposures to give the 3D effect across the whole moon.

This post has been edited by albnok: Feb 10 2009, 12:58 AM

chiggy, I've found that my GP charger which does 30 minutes is not quite as reliable; it often refuses to charge batteries the first time round. There would be a blinking red light on 1 battery while the other 3 charge just fine (steady red, then green.)

This is despite the GPs being fresh out of the box. I only experienced this with 2700 mAh GPs and often 1 of 2 batteries just would not charge. This is why I switched to 2500 mAh Energizers and 2000 mAh Eneloops.

The benefit of fast chargers is, you don't get the batteries too hot by charging over a long period of time. Probably the optimal fast charger would be between 1-2 hours. I also have access to a 2 hour GP charger, and it's not fussy at all about batteries - it just charges them reliably.

Of course, if a charger is rated for 30 minutes with 2300 mAh batteries, it will take longer than 30 minutes for 2900 mAh batteries...

Minor pet peeve: I get annoyed when people pronounce Ultra-Wide Angle as ooowaaa.

"Albert, which ooowaaa you think is good ah?"
"Huh ooowaaa?"
"Ooowaaa lah!"
"What how do you spell that?"

I don't get my Fish-Eye pronounced as FEEE, fortunately!

So don't say, "You think GP two seven oh oh mah good ah?"

SpOOkY: Strange, shooting RAW+JPEG would give the same shutter speed and yet the JPEG should be underexposed (especially if DRO is on) because it will go into highlight-preservation mode.

If anything, you'll have to bring up the shadows in the RAW processor.

The pictures are indeed strange - usually, you'll want to underexpose so you can bring the shadows up, but if you overexpose, highlights would be lost! So that must mean your camera has amazing highlight recovery.

Well I don't know, never tried to overexpose too much really. I end up underexposing and using Shadow Recovery instead of overexposing and setting a negative EV.

SpOOkY: No, if a highlight is too bright, you use Highlight Recovery. If a shadow is too dark, you use Shadow Recovery.

Traditionally we are told that highlights cannot be recovered as well as shadows, which is why it is good to check the histogram after shooting to note any blinking highlights/shadows.

dark lenanza: Yes, we seem to live near the Bermuda Triangle. All ships get lost there.

lehtung: Generally you'll want the curves to appear closer to the center and peak like a hill. If they are all on the left or right, that means it's either under or overexposed.

Also, if you see that the hills are not balanced (blue hill more to the left, red hill more to the right) that means your white balance might be off.

raist86: Try using AF-S; once it locks it should not refocus upon recomposing.

But wait! Recomposing is BAD! Use the outer AF points instead!

http://www.mhohner.de/recompose.php

It is a very different lens on the A900, I assure you that. And once you put it on, you'll know that it was really really meant for full-frame.

That IS spooky, SpOOkY...

I see dark lenanza is lost at sea too.