Photoclubalpha

I have the Sony version, which has a big fixed lens hood, or at least very hard to remove :-) I understand this kind of lens is inherently low in contrast and soft in detail. If I boost contrast and sharpness a lot the results start looking like the images from my other lenses. It's very sensitive t...

With a damaged A350 and some important unrepeatable events approaching I reluctantly bought an A550 as a spare-cum-slight-upgrade to the A350. If I hadn't broken my A350 I would have waited for something like an A560 or an A750. I was originally reluctant to get the A350 because it lacked MLU, but i...

Can you get accessories for it? Having macro and telephoto extensions would be fun!

The easiest way of geotagging is to take advantage of the cheapness of taking another digital shot. So for any set of photos you want to geotag take an extra orientation shot of surroundings with easily identifiable landmark. In the absence of landmarks just photograph the location display of your f...

Don't forget the only autofocus mirror reflex lens! (500mm f8)

David Kilpatrick wrote:Can't get that close to Kelso heron - they are pretty canny about standing across 100 feet of Tweed, or in the middle of jungle-overgrown bits of the Teviot just before it runs into the Junction Pool. I guess that is Water of Leith?

It is the Water of Leith. My guess is he was about 50 feet away.

Here's a local Edinburgh Heron caught a few days ago with the Sony 500mm f8 mirror lens on a Sony A350, ISO 200 1/640th sec, camera on monopod. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3594/3609669097_f56d3535e3.jpg The URL below clicks you through to the original image size. http://farm4.static.flickr.com/35...

It's very difficult to know exactly what the AF seizes on in these kinds of shots. When doing my own focus tests with other lenses I got inconsistent results which varied with focal length until I set up a more exact test. I used a textured surface like your pebbles, but instead of the knife lying f...

Oh good! Now I don't feel nearly so deprived at not being able to afford an A900

Virtually unusable in the studio? My portable studio is set up with radio triggered flashes set manually. The A350 (and I presume the other Alphas) puts out the proper PC flash trigger control via any cheap hot shoe converter using the central pin or the PC socket which many have, and despite some r...

However---when thinking about it---an increased inner diameter, i. e. a bigger hole in the donuts, would not reduce depth-of-field; it would just reduce brightness. For the DOF to become shallower, it would take the outer diameter to increase. -- Olaf Actually, that's not true. With a normal lens, ...

Can anyone correct my arithmetic or reasoning here? Nobody can. Because both your arithmetic and your reasoning are perfectly correct. It's your metering that's off. According to my measurements, the outer diameter of the AF Reflex's entry pupil is 71 mm; the diameter of the secondary mirror is 32....

I have other lenses which operate at 250mm and 400mm, and often use them at f8. Extrapolating from those other lenses I get the distinct impression that Sony's 500mm catadioptric reflex lens has a sharper shallower DoF than I'd expect from an f8 lens of that focal length. It occurs to me that since ...

Since my posting on the topic of back focus with the SAL 50mm f1/4 lens, I've acquired the 500mm f8 reflex lens. It too back focuses, and has such a shallow DoF that focusing is extremely critical. Using manual focus there is no perceptible range of movement where the correct focus indicator comes ...

Since my posting on the topic of back focus with the SAL 50mm f1/4 lens, I've acquired the 500mm f8 reflex lens. It too back focuses, and has such a shallow DoF that focusing is extremely critical. Using manual focus there is no perceptible range of movement where the correct focus indicator comes o...