Congratulations achew!

5za9, nice jumping moment in #2 but the effect is not suited to the picture.

e-jump: Yes, the F58 is still RM11xx.

Zeegon: No, it is correctly exposed.

Seng_Kiat, there is a difference when shooting black-and-white in camera, shooting color and converting in Photoshop, and shooting using real black-and-white film.

amadeo, where you pointed the arrow at, is what I don't like about the Tamron 90mm F2.8 Macro. But it rarely shows up and in very specific conditions only lah.

colbert89, dSLR (that's the name of the shop) in Subang Parade.

ryzan76, nice macro raindrop shot!

neo_lam, if it is from the same guy who has a Carl Zeiss 135mm F3.5 and a 35mm F2.4 I think you should know better and tune him out.

amadeo: I have no idea, but in some situations such artifacts happen because there is a light baffle at the back of the lens (a rectangular 'crop').

Another way it could appear is if there is something in front of the focus point, possibly a slice of grass very near the lens.

My Zeiss 135mm F1.8 has such a baffle, and it causes some of the OOF discs to have slight 'cuts' which are more apparent when shooting full-frame. (Look at the top part of the picture.)



cjlai I curi your picture for this example, since it's so nicely taken...

Minolta 135mm F2.8, with rear light baffle:


neo_lam: Lantak them lah, enjoy your lens since you have it.

nickilala, you need to find some place with a nice background. The distance to the background will affect how it looks also.

You can get bokeh out of any lens really, but it helps if:

- the lens is focused closer
- the background is further away
- the lens is zoomed all the way in

noprob, pardon the confusion - my shot was from the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8. cjlai's picture is of the Minolta 135mm F2.8.

Seng_Kiat, nice ant capture; it's usually very hard to get ants in focus because they run so darn fast. Another thing that would really help is to flash and use a darker aperture (F11 or darker.)

achew, there are many ways to reduce the effect of the on-body flash signal.

1) use a shutter speed that is faster than the flash sync speed of your body, thus triggering HSS (1/200s would be sure for the A200/A300/A350)
2) use a piece of overexposed, developed film negative over your pop-up flash
3) use a darker aperture e.g. F11
4) use a lower ISO e.g. ISO100

The moment you enter HSS mode, the signal is totally not captured by the camera. Of course, the downside is the fast shutter speed, which will reduce ambient light... but you can do 1/200s F1.4 ISO1600 to bring up the ambient light.

On the other hand, you can make daylight appear to be night, using 1/800s F11 ISO100...

If you can find a strip of exposed negative (usually the black end of a film) you won't need to do any of the steps above.

tanjq87: The crossed XX version is the first version to come out, which is supposedly sharper. ExxonMobil sued Minolta for using the crossed XX so newer versions came with the XX separated.

Crossed XX is rarer and commands a collector value.

The crossed XX version of the 50mm F1.7 is prone to sticky aperture blades; don't know about other lenses though.

achew, all Canons require that you have a 580EX I/II or a ST-E2 transmitter on the camera, to trigger an off-camera flash.

I'm not sure about Nikon and how easy it is to remove the popup flash from showing, but the D40/D40x/D50/D60 do not have wireless commander capability.

tanjq87, the beercan should be pretty sharp. I've felt it to be sharper than the kit lens but never did any formal tests. If your 16-105mm is indeed sharper, then it might hint that it is, indeed, based on the Zeiss 16-80mm design...

mushpop: Like this?



(This shot above actually has more frames in between but I skipped them for clarity between frames.)



You'll want to burst at 5 FPS at least and merge them in Photoshop.

This post has been edited by albnok: Mar 10 2009, 01:05 PM

mushpop, no you don't need to lower EV; that's for a multiple exposure which Sony Alphas cannot do.

Just shoot normally with Drive mode set to Burst. If you can, use a tripod, so you don't have to align the pictures later.

My friend was driving, and his A700 was in the Crumpler 7 Million, on the front seat. He suddenly braked hard because a car swerved in front of him.

The bag rolled forward onto the floor. The A700's screen was facing upwards.

Later that night he discovered that it had cracked. The Crumpler bag was padded everywhere except the top!

Moral of the story:

1) fasten the seatbelts even for your camera bag
2) don't put the screen upwards in a 7 Million
3) put some padding, perhaps a shirt, in the top flap

GrimmReaper, very good choice! In KL, there's Boeing Sg. Wang who stocks Sony and Sigma for Sony mount, while Leos Trading Ampang Park and YL Camera Pudu Plaza stock Tamron for Sony mount.

No shop I know so far has stock of the Sigma 30mm F1.4 but it can be ordered and it will come rather quickly.

Do let us know if yghsin has it, I had no idea!

Zeiiiiiissss!

Don't know who was looking for an extra flash foot, but here goes:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MINOLTA-MS-2-FLASH-F...1742.m153.l1262

Go to Kelana Jaya LRT, cross the overhead bridge, and take any RapidKL that says Bandar Utama.

Or go to KL Sentral, go to the bus station downstairs, and wait for the Bandar Utama bus. Forgot the number.

Or take a cab from Taman Bahagia LRT station.

Or take the Metrobus 99 from Pasar Seni, Asia Jaya, Midvalley, SS2, Uptown etc.

chiggy, love the keybored green one!

dinraxxx: Raydawn is a cheapo filter brand lah, I used to get a few to break from Leos Trading last time.

armyshinoda: Since you want to get the 28mm and 50mm, you might as well combine both into the Sigma 30mm F1.4, which gives you the 'normal view' of the 28mm and the brightness of the 50mm F1.7.

The A200 is RM1450 with kit lens; the Sigma 30mm F1.4 is RM1500.

achew, going up to full-frame can be easier if you do this:

1) buy a full-frame ultra-wide first, to be used as your standard zoom on APS-C

E.g. Tamron/Minolta/Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4, Minolta 17-35mm F3.5G, Carl Zeiss 16-35mm F2.8 SSM

2) buy a full-frame telephoto

E.g. Minolta 70-210mm F4, Minolta 80-200mm F2.8G HS APO, Tamron/Sigma/Minolta/Sony 70-200mm F2.8

3) Only after you get a full-frame, will you need to get a standard zoom on FF, e.g.:

- Minolta 28-135mm F4-4.5
- Minolta 28-85mm F3.5-4.5
- Minolta 24-50mm F4
- Minolta 24-85mm F3.5-4.5
- Minolta 28-105mm F3.5-4.5
- Minolta/Sony 24-105mm F3.5-4.5
- Minolta/Tamron 28-75mm F2.8
- Tamron 28-105mm F2.8
- Minolta 28-70mm F2.8G
- Sigma 28-70mm F2.8
- Sigma 24-60mm F2.8
- Sigma 24-70mm F2.8
- Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 HSM
- Carl Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 SSM

Then again, it is not necessary to have a standard zoom all the time as you will find the 50mm F1.4 to be very useful in a lot of conditions!

Bear in mind that macro will be less magnified; 1:1 on FF is like 1:1.4 on APS-C only.

babyakuma, the MFD of the kit lens is 38cm from the sensor plane to the object. If you want something that can focus very close there is:

- Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 (20cm)
- Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 (20cm)

These lenses literally let you touch the subject and still focus.

nickilala, that's the beercan; the big beercan is the 75-300mm F4.5-5.6 (the Macro wording would be on 300mm.)

The beercan is identical in size to a real beercan (our Malaysian coke can-size one doesn't count...)


This post has been edited by albnok: Mar 12 2009, 01:08 PM

achew, I'm not suggesting you change to FF one shot!

I'm suggesting you buy wider versions of FF lenses so that you'll be prepared for FF when you switch.

Oh I forgot, if you want an ultra-wide, the Sigma 12-24mm F4.5-5.6 EX DG will also work on full-frame, and has the world record for widest rectilinear lens.

GrimmReaper, depends - as you know, the F1.4 will take you to dark places that a F2.8 will not suffice in, and 30mm will surprise you in how versatile it is. I would not buy this lens for bokeh per se.

nles: Here's something more interesting; try stacking them as bricks filling up the entire picture, or as towers. And don't slant your pictures unless there is a strong reason to do so.

gabriellai: Of course! Your pop-up flash is the primary wireless trigger, if that's what you mean.

sidewinderz: HOLY S---!!!

Mustang in Malaysia? I thought those engines were not allowed here or some shit like that!