Hi Kevin,

Yes, I do, I do see!! : ))
By some miracle of heavens autumn seems to have been contained and frozen right on that spot. That must have taken the nature some hard work when everything around is springy green and sprouting.... : )

Thanks for sharing.

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Hi David,

A twirling and waltzing tree! Thanks for giving us a glimpse of the nature's dancing hall, David. What a joy! : ))

It's got just the right moves.

Must be heart-breaking to part with that Hasselblad. It feels stranggely good to hold that brand sometimes.


Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz

And you want to get rid of the Hassy, why?

Dusty

Hasselblad has great offers on 31 to 39 megapixel backs and kits now. Phase One has a stack of good pre-owned kit. This one is pretty old now, Phase One P20+ back on a 1990s 500CWX, and I got it very cheaply from a professional who was going to trade up to a new model. They offered only £1000 for the back, so adding a normal price for the Hasselblad body and a film back, I got medium format 16 megapixels for about the same price as an A77 with 16-50mm...

But - no instant return mirror; heavy; clumsy; hard to carry; 45 degree finder (Kiev) is great for some shot and bad for others; eats huge batteries fast, even new ones; to take close-ups I have two extension tubes and keep having to change them as the 80mm only focuses down to portrait distance, not useful for much else. Frame cropped from 56 x 56mm down to 37 x 37mm - wide angle almost impossible. In the end it belongs on a tripod and I do not often work like that.

They are worth twice as much as I paid, on eBay, because the results are really very good. Common sense says I could take identical shots on my A900 or A77 but I don't, I take different shots. So I'm wondering about getting a better pre-owned MF kit, one with a larger imager and larger file size such as 31 or 49 megapixels, and also one with built-in metering as everything is guesswork. And then again, I am also wondering whather just using the Alpha 900 in a different manner would keep me in MF 'mindset' and save a lot of cash.

David

I guess we all succumb to these feelings from time to time and I've also noticed tempting offers from Pentax and Hassy on their digital MF kit. However, in the past I've owned Rollei 6003/6008i cameras with various lenses and it was a real effort to take them out in the field because of their weight. Which rather defeats the point of what can be quintessential landscape cameras. And in my opinion the IQ fron my a900 is comparable. Indeed, for must circumstances other than unreasonably high ISO - and I doubt 30-40Mp MF backs would offer much advantage here - it is perfect. If you need to get into the f22 type DOF realm for landscape without worrying about diffraction you can always invest in one of the new Schneider PC-TS lenses even if they dont at present go as wide as the Nikon tilt-shift and are about 50% dearer at around £2,400. But they are available in Sony fit. Certainly still a lot cheaper than going the MF route since in the a900 you have a camera which gives MF quality images up to at lesdt A2 print-size ifnot bigger.
http://www.robertwhite.co.uk/products.asp?PT_ID=784

Not from this year, but we'll be there soon

Gee, I wonder what Ansel Adams or Mathew Brady would think of that! Have we gone soft? Are the photos just not worth the effort in these days when we can get them all free in an instant via the web?

Dusty

Not soft, just older and more protective of my back! And, as I said, the IQ is as good or better on the a900 IMO.

The IQ on the 900 is as good as a 16 megapixel MF back when I use an MF lens on the camera (I only have Pentacon and Kiev lenses I can fit, but these yield a quantum leap compared to even the best Minolta/Sony primes). But I've used backs ranging up to 66 megapixels, and I could not argue that the A900 IQ matched these. The biggest single difference is the AA filter. The purity, intensity and clarity of the bare sensor (with just an IR filter) is worth having.

The problem for 35mm format makers is that lenses have such strong aberrations, a bare sensor would produce many images with unacceptable CA. Most MF lenses are primes and have no discernible CA, so the lack of an AA filter only causes a few problems like moiré effects. If there was a company which did it, I would love to see what the A900 did without an AA filter - but it would probably need special raw converter to cope with it, and in-camera JPEGs would be wrongly processed.

David

Here is my contribution. It was taken yesterday with nex5 using the pancake+fisheye adapter (auto HDR function was applied):



Cheers

Marcell

Very interesting shot with the 16mm +fish-eye adapter Marcell. That adapter is on my wish list at the moment.

Here is another autumn shot from me. Taken this morning on a near perfect November day to walk in the beech woods of Worcestershire.


Piper Hill - November Beech 6 by Birm, on Flickr

Tamron 17-50/2.8 and Nex 5.

I went Saturday to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and I too the new SEL 55-210 with me. I want to try it more, and open a thread on the "Lens Lore" forum, but I'm not ready yet -not enough samples... In any case, I'm happy with this lens and I think I'll be even happier when I'll be able to use it on the NEX7 (better handling due to the EVF...)

Hi Birma, : )

Lovely, calming colours...


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Hi Pako, : )

You're enjoying the novelty of a new lens with some bright, autumn colours. Nothing like closeup of leaves to assess the transition autumn brings upon our nature... Tiny details of veins and dry spots haven't gone amiss through your new lens's glass.

Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz

I'm afraid the Winter part arrived yesterday, had to do a 100 mile drive over Carter Bar down Redesdale to Newcastle then Darlington. It was -4C at 8am, -2C by Otterburn, and the frost was melted by the time I reach Belsay. Here's the view from near Otterburn military camp:



Alpha 77, 16-80mm - did not take the filter off, should have done for direct sun. But compared to warm sunshine on some days last week (and quite a mild dull wet morning today) yesterday was very crisp, clear and freezing.

David

Early Morning at Knole Park

A900 and Zeiss 24-70

Hi David, : )

Your frosty shot indeed embraces the last phase of autumn... It's an impressive sight. Shot with the A77 and the CZ 16-80, it also speaks well for daytime shooting quality.

Thanks for sharing.


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Hi Caporip, : )

Great lighting through the tree and the thin layer of mist on the ground. Ethereal...


Thanks for sharing,

Yildiz