Photoclubalpha

This week sees a further round of price increases, for example the entire Intro2020 stable (including Samyang and Tamron, but no longer including Phottix which has moved to MAC Group Europe) increased prices by around 10% on August 22. However many stores still have older priced stock, it's just new...

I tried it on the A900 but not on the A99. It had quite strong moustache type distortion. However, with the A99 and also with the latest Adobe software that is lens profile corrected now so it would be a much more useful lens - there were no lens profiles when the A900 was launched and I created a f...

Earlier this year I traded my 12mm Voigtlander full frame for a 10mm (new model) which is the widest you can buy anywhere with straight lines. It is used very rarely, but when needed, it's more than useful. But it's an extreme luxury and in the course of a normal day's shooting I would not use it. I...

Most service repairs are also on hold. Earthquake issues... no sensor stock left...

Testing the MC-11 right now. Do not hold your breath... I've identified problems within minutes of getting it, and my findings have gone straight back to Sigma.

It's very easy to forget that the 24MP APS-C sensor is equal to a 56MP full frame, and therefore higher resolution than the A7RII and even than the Canon 5DSR. So of all the sensors out there, it imposes the greatest demands on the centre of the image field (for full frame lenses) or the entire fiel...

There's this new Chinese FF wide angle - http://www.ukdigital.co.uk/laowa-15mm-f ... ony-a.html. Otherwise, the Samyang 14mm f/2.8, or my favourite, which is simply the Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 zoom.

I wanted a shift lens (tilt is really not that important to me for wide angles, but could be useful in the studio... only I have parted with my 55mm Micro Nikkor for a while) and wider than 24mm. My first trials were with the Canon 20mm f/2.8 FDn, which has about the widest image circle of any such ...

The 28mm is a 26.2mm before correction. I'm not keen on 28mm in general, preferring to have 24mm available and finding 40mm-ish a better standard lens. However, with the A7R II you can simply crop if a tighter angle is really better. Sony doesn't really make the lens line-up I would want: 16 or 17mm...

Remember, I'm testing them in Canon EF mount using a Commlite adaptor. Even, they function really well on the A7RII - just the occasional communication glitch (common even with Canon lenses). They are very fast focusing, quite large, and well made along the same line as current Sigma ART lenses. tam...

Pako - the 28mm f/2 has lots of distortion for a fixed focal length, but it's not as extreme as the correction applied to for example the 24-240mm or the little 16-50mm for APS-C. I find it one of the best lenses I've got and it compares well with what I was out using today - Tamron 35mm f/1.8 and 4...

To update on this, I recently had a chance to use the new Tamron 28-300mm USD zoom (ultrasonic focus motor) on a Canon adaptor on the A7 II for a day. The lens proved excellent and could be recommended for the A900, A850, A99 or indeed for the A7 series with the right adaptor. I am sure it would als...

Can't compare with the Batis, but I can tell you the performance of the 24mm ZA SSM is transformed by using the A7RII. It hunts a lot before fixing focus on all the other A7 bodies, but just zips straight to focus and tracks perfectly on the A7RII with LA-EA4. I'd say it compares directly with the 2...

No MD, but tried the 70-210mm f4 beercan -
Section at 100% - and this is in dull light, f/6.3, iso100, 135mm focal length -
You can see the threads on the flag - sub-pixel res. Still a good lens!

I just bought a Meike battery grip (under £60 with a very good wireless remote) and that stacks up two batteries with a proper display on the camera for batt 1 and batt 2 and levels and switching. Also, I have an Expro power pack for Sony and that does the equivalent of 4 to 5 batteries.