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!

shootkk, on one hand, you only have one full-frame lens.

On the other hand, you only have one APS-C lens.

uner: Woi Mustaza! Long time no see!

If you do get the A200, get the 50mm F1.7 and the F58. I'll see you around Laundry, maybe!

Though, if you do stick with the D60 there is always the Nikkor AF-S 35mm F1.8G DX, price not known. For that, I am jealous, and I hope Sony has an answer to that.

uner, the 35mm F1.8 AF-S should not cost more than the D60. I think. Or else D60 owners will think twice about it LOL.

Though, at Laundry, the 50mm on APS-C is a very nice range when you're standing close to the barricades.

LOL about sitting next to the budak yang best!

dinraxxx, the D60 cannot auto-focus Nikkor AF-D (without SWM) lenses (as well as Tamrons before TypeII and Sigmas before HSM.) The D90 can. So you might enjoy using a 50mm F1.8 on the D90... but the same lens on a D60 is manual focus only.

luzzio, I like the color tone of the third picture!

ryzan76, I love the tone of the old man in songkok! It's very like a silver print. (Minus the minor artifact on the lady in the bottom-left corner.)

fansoption: The reason is so you can quickly turn it back to default front position without pressing any buttons. However to get out of front position you will have to press.

The F58 has NO buttons to unlock rotation at all.

signither, sounds like you might want to get the F58 and 50mm F1.4, and sell the F42.

NewCell, set your WB to Cloudy. It might bring out the color better. Of course, it would be best to shoot in nice afternoon daylight where the color is best.

fas29, I use RawTherapee. It's freeware and has a good feature set, including a "processing queue" and profiles so you can just do the settings for one picture and put that same setting for other pictures.

bysquashy, nice #2!

ahtsong, so far no reports on the Sigma 10-20mm having gear stripping. DPReview also has a review on the Tamron 10-24mm!

suchap69, you can send it to your local dealer but they also need to send it to Sony Service Center in Midvalley Northpoint.

Of course, if you can find an otai camera repair shop, they will be able to fix it. Most Sony lenses are very simple internally as it's based on the Minoltas without SSM or electronic aperture control. It's probably some grit stuck in the focusing helicoid (the metal screw inside.)

Wonka, nice #1!

I had GP 2700mAh lemons. I'd been using GPs and Sanyos before this all the while. Changed to Energizer 2500 mAhs and Eneloop 2100 mAhs.

dingenius3: Go find out what is similiar to the Alpha Shooting Vest, its price, including shipping, and customization, and top it up to its retail price.

I think you'll come to a similiar figure.

Wonka, you should save up for a Sigma 30mm F1.4.

fas29, show us a picture!

fas29, it might be that the flash was not in TTL. If you use an adapter it will certainly not have TTL. Also, angle is important - if you shoot the wrong angle, even with TTL, you'll get a bright stripe across the top of your image.

Wonka: The Sigma 30mm F1.4 as you know has a much better angle. That alone justifies it because you can leave your kit lens at home!

I'd say it is sharp; don't know how sharp compared to the Sony, but definitely sharp.

fas29, if you shoot at a very close distance but put the bounce head up at 45 degrees, you will get the bright stripe of light (meaning it's not tilted up enough.)

kucingfight, don't forget the dedicated ISO and Drive buttons on the A200!

signither, I like #3!

The Wonder, looks like the tiger is swimming in green goo!


Rewind back to when I used the 50mm F1.4 mostly.

SpOOkY, I always liked bokeh that looks 'painted' instead of 'Gaussian blurred'. The beercan gives me that in large doses!

SpOOkY, my Minolta 50mm F1.4 (like the F1.7) tends to add bright-lined borders to out-of-focus discs. We call this brightline bokeh and it is a bad thing.

I had to blur it out just a bit to reduce the harshness.

The dreamy/blurry feel is usually in the areas that are nearly in focus. This is usually attributed to spherical aberration.

Interestingly, the 50mm at F4 starts to look beercan-like in bokeh.


Minolta 70-210mm F4, at 210mm F4

I notice that the Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM has similiar painted properties, but at F2.8 the paint brush looks a bit Gaussian-blurred. Stop it down to F4 or so and it starts looking a bit more 'solid'.

Most classic Minoltas from the era of the beercan will give a similiar rendition, e.g. 35-70mm F4, 28-135mm F4-4.5, 28-85mm F3.5-4.5, 135mm F2.8...

electron: The 35-70mm F4 pictures do look like a 70-210mm F4's. It's just very short.

signither, I'm always on A mode, auto ISO (on the A700 and A900, that can be set to ISO200-1600.) On the A200 you'd want to increase ISO since Auto ISO won't go that high.

Depending on light conditions, anywhere between F1.4 and F2.2.

The tricky part, however, is white balance...

The Wonder, yes stopping down does reduce brightline bokeh considerably.

Wonka, get yourself a Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 and it will be the same thing, but with Super SteadyShot inside.

This post has been edited by albnok: Feb 18 2009, 09:01 PM

The D90 has video. That's really all the justification you could need.

Of course, there is that rolling shutter, which is really annoying, but if you don't see it, good for you! It bothers me when I see people walking in a D90 video and they look like flickering holograms! This is not in the dark - it happens in bright daylight too!

Rolling shutter happens because every frame is not exposed all at the same time, but scanned from top to bottom. So if you move fast from left to right within the one frame, you will be distorted diagonally.

The Canon 5D MkII has better video with an external audio jack. But it still has the rolling shutter. The D90 is manual focus only in video.

So should you jump now, or wait for Sony's new models to come out, and see how they do video? The A700 and A200 are due for replacement as both are nearly 18 months old.

When the A700 and A200 came out, those did not have Live View, while the earlier D300 and 40D had Live View. Sony came back with the A300/A350 and its autofocus in Live View is a lot faster than any other camera using Contrast Detect AF, even the D90. So if you HAVE TO HAVE video NOW, go ahead...

Sony announced a new Exmor-R backlit sensor, which would be a lot cleaner at high ISO. So again, best to wait.

This post has been edited by albnok: Feb 18 2009, 10:33 PM

I go to a lot of gigs with bands rocking out - do I want video?

...not really. I still want to take pictures. If you've ever recorded a video of a performance, you'll know you have to position yourself in a place that is far from people, because the mike will catch people talking. I won't be able to talk, either. It will catch my shutter sound, too!

It gets very tiring too - that's why you'll see it mostly on a tripod at most performances.

I used to use my left hand to hold my phone, to record videos, while shooting with my right hand. As a result, the video was too shaky so no point lah. So I ended up using my phone to record video while I loop the strap to my belt, so it kinda hangs out my pocket capturing audio for audio's sake. Most bands don't look too interesting on video, unfortunately, unless they hit a solo.

Crossbone, the 28-85mm obviously has a better range, while still giving that Minolta look.

I would save up for the Sigma 30mm F1.4 - now that has true walkaround potential and you can leave your kit lens behind.

Is it that big a difference, between F3.5 and F4, and between F4 and F4.5?

No really, it's not. Only when you put on a F1.4 and use it where you need all the shutter speed you can get, then you'd mind two-thirds of a stop difference. I have a F1.4 and a F1.8 lens and when I use the F1.8 lens in low light, it bothers me that it's not bright enough!

jimlim007 - yes, you get shallow DOF with a dSLR, unlike on HD camcorders. But you will have to manual focus, mostly, and if the subject moves you'll have to keep refocusing.

The D90:
- can change lenses
- has a shallow DOF

The HD camcorder:
- has a deep DOF (like a digicam)
- has a powerful bright zoom (10x zoom, constant F1.8 or F1.6!)
- has much more controls for recording video
- has motorized zoom (if you try to turn a zoom lens ring, you will introduce wobble)

If I was a filmmaker, I would love the shallow DOF of the D90, but hate the rolling shutter wobbly jelly image. My friend skipped the D90:
http://guber.terapad.com/index.cfm?fa=cont...82598&from=list

There ARE, of course, motorized zoom lenses for SLRs - the Minolta xi series was such. It was slow and funny to use for SLRs... but put the same lens on a camcorder, and it will make sense!

Cool stuff achew!

crazeoneeighteen, I've got a few colleagues with the D90. Manual focus, if you plan out the focus distances (to shift focus from one person talking to another) can be pulled off. The limited duration is not a problem as it's unlikely you'll have a 5 minute shot without cuts. And people usually mike audio separately and merge them later.

But the thing that really bothers me is the rolling shutter. One way I might work around this, is to have everybody walk in slow mo and I'd speed it up in post.

Of course, you'd want to use the D90 for candid videos. Of which, the mike is horrid.

hkhk: You might've been shooting in strong colored light with AWB - normally with AWB and no flash, it will set the WB nearer e.g. for tungsten light it might go down to 3500K or so. But when a flash is on, and AWB is used, it will always use the flash WB of 5500K.

Thus, the WB is actually wrong, or rather, the camera is following the WB of the flash. If you try setting Tungsten WB, your flash will appear blue instead!

That's why I use a colored gel over my flash, to make the flash color and ambient light match in WB.