Photoclub Alpha

Tamron’s new ultra wide angle zoom for APS-C/DX is getting a bit of a blasting from reviewers. Now, when I see this happen, I get curious. Lens testing is often badly designed for such zooms, involving test chart targets at distances which are extremely close and result in very bad figures caused mainly by a strong curvature of field (dished, ‘cap’ shape relative to the camera) when gets worse in effect the closer you focus.

Here is an article which is mainly a test review of the Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM for Sony Alpha, and also Nikon, fit (both were tested). It also deals with the Alpha 900 and D3X, the two 24 megapixel full frame cameras used to test the lenses and two comparison 50mm f1.4s.

After just a short while working with full frame, high resolution DSLRs the need for tilt lenses has really come home to me. Most lenses deliver their best results at fairly wide apertures like f8, it’s easy for detail to begin to look soft and lacking impact if you are forced to stop down to f22 to get everything sharp. Tilt adaptors and tilt lenses solve the problem. This article is repeated here after originally appearing on dPhotoexpert (and similar instrument images, in my first D3X test report for the British Journal).

Following the review on dPreview – more than anywhere else – Sony’s extremely poor JPEG engine with its associated wide radius chroma blur and strong luminance smoothing noise reduction has proved to be a dog well capable of biting its master. Definitely a dog, anyway. But this performance is not what the camera can really achieve. In fact it’s perfectly capable of delivering good high ISO shots in typical situations.

If you are on the verge of making a decision, I’m here to help your think clearly – even if it means breaking some cherished behaviour patterns. I am going to help you think of the Alpha 900 not as a logical progression from the 700, but as a different camera system entirely.

Here, for some light relief, is an Alpha 700 + 24-105mm Minolta D documentary on the press dinner thrown for journalists from all the countries of the European region when they gathered in Edinburgh for the Alpha 900 launch!

TAMRON has announced that its new 10-24mm lens will be an ƒ3.5-4.5 design – not an ƒ2.8 as some rumours had it – and will hit the shops in Nikon and Canon mounts first, on September 20th.

At the end of September 2006, I set off for a quick visit to photokina in Cologne, having parted company with Icon’s am-pro magazine ƒ2 and not really needing to report on the whole show in detail. Here’s the report I wrote then, with photos, and some thoughts for the 2008 show.

This article was originally published in Photoworld magazine April 2008. It discusses the reasons for choosing between the 18-70mm, 16-105mm, 16-80mm, 18-200mm and 18-250mm kit lens choices for the Sony Alpha DSLR system and has been updated as necessary from the original text.

If you use Sigma lenses on your Alpha, you can join the Sigma User Club UK and enter their prize competitions (anyone can join, worldwide, but you must be in the UK to enter the competitions as the prizes are given by the UK distribution company).

The parallel development of Carl Zeiss lenses for Sony (AF lenses in the Alpha mount) and independent manual focus lenses for other makes continues. The latest CZ design is a revision of the classic 18mm Distagon last seen in the Contax system, optimised for colour balance and reflection supression with digital SLRs.

Our cover photo for the Spring 2008 issue of Photoworld was taken with a Tamron 70-300mm zoom costing less than £120 from most larger retailers or internet shops. The reputation of the lens meant we had to take a look at it, because the current choice in the Sony range is limited to one ‘kit’ 75-300mm costing £179, and the new 70-300mm G SSM lens costing £600.

Today I took delivery of a Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G SSM lens. There is no doubt this is the best built Sony SAL lens I’ve handled (the CZ 135mm 1.8, 85mm f1.4 are a class above again). It weighs over 800g with its lens-hood, which is one of the most efficient deep tele hoods I’ve seen.

IT IS very difficult to find a good JPEG from the Alpha 700 pre-production model tests shot in Italy, because too few cameras were available for too short a time – and many of the journalists present were not photographers. But we have found one image you will love.

TOUGH, RESPONSIVE Alpha 700 DELIVERS STUNNING NEXT-GENERATION PICTURE QUALITY – FROM SHOOTING TO VIEWING

Sep 6, 2007

• Superb picture quality with newly developed Sony 12.24 effective megapixel Exmor CMOS sensor and brand new high-speed BIONZ processor with RAW noise reduction
• Ultra-responsive operation with fast, high-accuracy 11-point autofocus and 5fps continuous shooting
• New Quick Navigation function for instant access to camera settings
• Rugged magnesium body with dust/moisture resistant seals
• PhotoTV HD Full HD image display on new BRAVIA televisions
• 3-inch 921k dot photo-quality LCD screen and bright, high-magnification viewfinder