Comments for Photoclub Alpha

Comment on The tortoise and the hares? by admin

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:11:52 +0000

I have removed that comment as I think I am misinterpreting the sensor size from the photo, and from a further picture sent from PMA it looks normal APS-C – I also think the Sony statement I have now included is not very clear. It an HD-video capable sensor, not an HD sensor as such.

There has been some comment on the lack of doors on the mockups/prototype sides. It is quite possible this is to improve weathersealing and that the cards, interface and battery are now all access from the bottom of the camera!

David

Comment on The tortoise and the hares? by alphaomega

alphaomega — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:27:59 +0000

Thanks very much for throwing some light on the possibilities this new A7XX may offer. I was particularly interested in this comment relating to sensor size of the forthcoming A7XX: “So, you are either about to see an 18 megapixel HD sensor which imposes an additional crop factor to achieve 2:3 35mm 14 megapixel format and thus turns your wide-angle capability into yesterday’s forgotten functionality, or a camera which shoots in 16:9 ratio for stills. Of course, the perfect HD answer would be for the sensor to be 26mm x 14mm -ish not the usual 23.5 x 15.5mm -ish ratio. Then you would get even more panoramic angle out of the circle of coverage from your 16-80mm, 11-18mm and that new Sigma 8-16mm you plan to buy.

But your portrait shots will look a touch etiolated.”

I am fairly confident that a 16/9 18Mp sensor would suit most of my photography and when I require 3/2 for say architecture, 14Mp would still be more than adequate if the sensor performs as well as or better than the A550.

I would definitely look closely at this camera when released and reviewed. I am just sorry that the rear screen cannot be tilted up/down as on the A500/550.

Comment on Alpha Silver Jubilee – 25 years 1985-2010 by MichelvA

MichelvA — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:45:47 +0000

Great article. What a wonderful mount the A-mount is! Minolta was obviously very innovative, too bad they missed it at the switch to digital. Now with Sony on the wheel the future looks very promising. Many new Sony users don’t know anything about this heritage, Sony should do something about that. Thanks again David!

Comment on Alpha Silver Jubilee – 25 years 1985-2010 by alec

alec — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:19:55 +0000

Excellent article. Many thanks Mr Kilpatrick.

Comment on New accessories for Sony Alpha range by floz

floz — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:07:07 +0000

Ok, just to let you guys know — I went ahead and bought a AC-PW10AM. And, you guessed, it plays nicely with the A900 !

Comment on Sony GPS-CS1 tracker and software by Sony GPS-CS1 tracker and software | Photoclub Alpha « Site Super Tracker

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 04:03:27 +0000

[...] Today found this great post, here is a quick excerpt : Back at home, with the CS1 still switched off after its dayâ€™s work, you plug it in to your PC via a USB cable supplied, and the GPS Image Tracker software automatically launches and extracts the positional log file. … Read the rest of this great post Here [...]

Comment on Sigma classic 400mm tele quick rechip by admin

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:38:24 +0000

The old chip has no further use. There are no electrical functions in the lens. It’s all mechanical. The chip just provides identity, the camera knows where the lens is focused by doing calibration – that’s when you switch on (and off) it sets the focus to infinity before doing AF – it’s telling the camera what lens is fitted, then the camera gets the ‘reading’ at infinity, and uses the number of rotations of the drive to work out what’s happening. Of course with modern SSM (focus motor in lens) designs there’s a lot more feedback, same goes for eight-pin contacts and chips (xi and D lenses). But the original 5-pin chip like this does not actually get any data from anything happening in the lens.

David

Comment on Sigma classic 400mm tele quick rechip by Maggy

Maggy — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:15:01 +0000

I’m sorry but I do not understand. Shouldn’t you solder the cable from the old chipboard onto the new chipboard in order to have functioning AF and aperture control?

Comment on Alpha’s Silver Jubilee by johnb74

johnb74 — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:30:56 +0000

I was very interested to read David’s history of the alpha system, however there is an omission which concerns me. In 1984/5 I took out a provisional patent on using infra-red communication to link a flash or incident light meter and a camera. Exposure information was transmitted directly to the camera and the shutter could be fired from the meter. I sold the patent to Minolta and they brought out the Flashmeter IV and the 9000 camera which could be used together. Sadly they didn’t engineer the system as flexibly as I had planned and users had to purchase the expensive meter as well as an attachment to fit on the flash shoe of the camera — I still feel that this was why the system didn’t achieve the sales I had hoped for. In addition the Minolta version had a serious flaw in that out-of-range information wasn’t communicated properly to the camera, For example, if the meter suggested f/2.0 at 1/250 and the camera had a f/2.8 lens, no error message was created and exposure was made at f/2.8 and 1/250.
My system required a very simple light receptor which communicated by an infra-red beam to a receptor on the camera and then the camera’s own computer processed the exposure information. Out-of-range exposures would then trigger an error message on the camera. As described in the patent, the system could be used on video as well as still cameras.
I feel this is another example of how far in advance of other makes Minolta were and how they so often failed to interest the professional world.

Comment on Alpha Silver Jubilee – 25 years 1985-2010 by Tweets that mention Alpha system Silver Jubilee | Photoclub Alpha -- Topsy.com

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:03:16 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by seyDoggy, Howard Stanbury and pako dominguez, David Kilpatrick. David Kilpatrick said: Alpha Silver Jubilee – 25 years 1985-2010 http://bit.ly/8dc0YV via @AddToAny [...]