I wasn't too bothered with the metering actually. I just used manual and adjusted the shutter speed & aperture until I get this desired effect (it was a rare occasion where I had some time to spare...). I had tried higher shutter speeds also, but I ended up with the sky being too dark for my liking. I thought this shot was just nice, almost completely blacked out the details on the dragon.

man...how u know he is using evaluative metering??
by the exif i oni know there is a 5 there in the metering mode....

I used DRO to boost the details in the shadows. Meaning you will not get completely darkened off shadows. And the +5 indicates that the DRO was set at the highest level (meaning the camera was trying to extract the most details out of your photo). But you have to be careful because if your shot was underexposed (on purpose or otherwise), then DRO will induce a significant amount of noise into the shot.

DRO only works on jpeg files though. It doesn't have any effects on the RAW files.

oic. next time if got TT u show me more la ok.

unless u are based in sabah...then cnnot lo.

Owh ok. If your intention were to make the dragon completely black out then you can try the method I've mentioned just now. Speaking of composition, it's somehow like hanging there. Anyway nice idea to frame it with the rising sun.

guys...quite worry bout our Alpha system.....
coz recently heard tht Canon support the HD video recording fucntion....
many old-alpharian hop into other brand......
and other brands got many lenses for them to choose....
jz wanna wish tht enginner of Alpha pls design more extra function and lenses for us....

This post has been edited by neo_lam: Feb 13 2009, 01:37 AM

i dun need the HD video recording as i dun record video ..

Quite weird to record video on camera

Hehe...and you gonna buy them all?I mean the lenses

agreed 100%...not necessary needed....better incorporate better options eg:LCD hood,better LCD reso or anything which makes using a DSLR much more fun....

Well, you wouldn't know how many lenses you will be getting in future right? It's good to have a lot of choices rather than having a few choices

This post has been edited by vikingw2k: Feb 13 2009, 01:45 AM

Yup,that's right,but at the moment the range of lenses is more than enough for me And yea,I don't talk gears,I love photography,that's it

If you don't talk gears, you would have just stay with a PnS instead of upgrading to DSLR. It takes two to tango and the two main elements to tango in photography is the photographer and equipments

Good point,but I didn't mean that.I will only get those gears which enough for me,obviously PnS wasn't enough for me that's why I came into dslr world,not fancy about those high tech high end lenses,maybe I am not that rich to talk about these?I not sure

You'll start to fancy bigger and longer lenses once your wallet grow fatter, just like how you fancy DSLR over PnS once your wallet grew fatter

It's all about budget. Once you have the budget, you might consider to upgrade. If you don't have the budget, you'll give thousand of excuses to not to upgrade.

True also My next target is tamron 1750 maybe? For event photography? Earn some extra pocket money maybe

That's a sweet lens. Good lens for walkaround, weddings and event photography. Just make sure you test kaw kaw before buying as some of the copies suffer from back / front focus

I just got myself back a Tammy 17-50mm f2.8. My forth time owning this lens. Still loving the transformers focusing sound effect

Oic,should find 1 sifu together when busying this. I thought of getting it after mastering the flash skills. At my age I think some of my friends especially female friends are getting marry soon,time for me to earn $$

its true tht we cant own all the lenses....
my next target also would be Tamron 1750....nice lense....

Yes, I could try to underexpose the shot even more if I wanted the silhouette completely black. But like I said, the sky would had been too dark for my taste. Either that, or I wait for an even later time to shoot this same photo (which I wasn't too keen on). It was a setting sun, not a rising sun for this shot. But yeah, thanks for your tips. Will keep that in mind.

... and talk about gears. It is true that both Canon & Nikon had came out with video recording for some of their dslr cameras. And I foresee this trend will continue to grow. It was like what happened with liveview just a couple of years ago. Look at where the liveview technology is nowadays! Sony didn't go with the convention when they created their own liveview system. The innovation in Sony's liveview system was that it uses a separate, smaller sensor to generate the liveview picture stream. This enables the Sony cameras to focus just as fast in liveview mode as normal, non-liveview mode. You will notice that the liveview system used by Canon & Nikon will always entails a certain amount of focusing lag because they employed the actual image capturing sensor of the camera (hence defeating the conventional, much faster AF system in these cameras in the process).

Of course, in adopting the liveview system that Sony used at the moment, they paid the price of their liveview system not being able to record any video in HD mode (since the picture streamed in the liveview mode is not a high resolution stream).

So there you have it. The reason why it will not be easy for Sony to simply just add in HD video recording into the present crop of alpha cameras. But we may never know. Perhaps the next incarnation of alpha cameras will use another method to achieve HD video recording. You think Sony will want to sit still and do nothing about this new fad? I won't bet my money on thatt.....

One thing for sure, I won't decide on a camera because it has HD video recording or not. The same reason I won't decide on a camera based on if it has liveview or not. I simply don't use it enough to put it as a main reason to get a dslr. I want video, I will get a proper video cam. If I want liveview.... well, I don't really want liveview!

... again about lenses. Don't worry lah, Sony's lenses line-up is already bulging up. Sony already has the most desirable line-up of Carl Zeiss autofocus lenses that users of other systems can only drool about. The CZ2470 + A900 combo alone had caused quite a lot of working pros to switch system or maintain a 2 system working line-up. Read about it on the net. I didn't make this up myself. I think even albnok witnessed with his own eyes a working pro (who was using a full fledged Nikon system) who bought an A900.

Bottom line is, don't worry about who is jumping ship to which system. The important part is you and I are enjoying our times taking photos with our cameras. That's what count. Let Sony worry about other people not picking up the Alpha system. We are already on board, so lets relax and enjoy photography!

OK, I'm too long winded liao. Just want to release a long essay upon you guys before I hit the sack. Good night guys.

SpOOkY: Sunlight is not 2600-2800K! That's tungsten/incandescent bulb light.

chiggy, I find it odd since daylight is 5500K or so. The flash should be slightly warmer at maybe 6500K.

Superb shot, lehtung! The crocodile is kinda cute jumping up and reaching for it like that!

sidewinderz: A brighter lens will let the camera detect focus faster.

I am a night shooter but F2.8 is not bright enough; gotta have at least F1.8.

neo_lam: Use Live View to set the Kelvin WB - it is really helpful! Once you get the hang of it, you'll know that 4500K M6 is a flourescent tube, for example, or 2700K is an orange bulb...

0168257061: The Carl Zeiss 16-35mm F2.8 SSM ultra-wide angle full-frame lens is supposed to have a higher price point than both the 24-70mm and 70-200mm lenses. The price is not released yet, but my personal estimate is RM6xxx. Remember that it's a Zeiss and they've always been strong on wide-angle lenses. The Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6G SSM has already started selling elsewhere, so it should be very soon that the 16-35mm would be for sale.

And yay, I made it to page 2!