Photoclubalpha

I know for sure that the Minolta 70-210mm was not farmed out during the period that metal lens shades were issued with the lens. I saw it being assembled at Sakai, beside with the 28-135mm (in fact, I think it was our visit from the UK and the comments made by Minolta staff about the cost of this le...

Oh well - refund within ten minures. Store tested it. It doesn't fire.

David

At least with the 580, 700, 900 or one or more of the herd....



£299, and the first time I've ever seen a complete kit with the ringflash and the twin flash heads together for sale.

David

Hanimex, like Allied Impex who owned the Soligor brand, sourced their lenses from various suppliers but always at the cheaper end of the market. Soligor went to Kino Optical for their C/D range after Vivitar had a success with Kino's high end optics and superior anodised barrel finish. Hanimex never...

I can't be sure on this one, because there were dozens of small-shop makers assembling the stuff for different labels. I would suspect from the look of the lens that it's not a Sigma, Sun/Panagor, Kino, Cosina, Chinon, Tomioka, Miranda-Soligor. Most likely a Hoya (Tokina) design with all the compone...

The A99 beats the A900 in every situation except taking studio flash shots at ISO 100 (which is why I still have an A900 and don't have an A99). Basically - if I can use an A99, I can equally well use an A7 or A7R. In practice I find those awkward for the studio. Regret not having an A99 but I can n...

It would be great to allow 36 megapixel JPEGs to be hosted here but I can't afford the bandwidth penalty which would happen, and also we would end up with too many text links only as members would want to post full size images. 1200px now looks better even on my MacBook, when I set up the original 1...

Sorry, I missed this. That's a typical wet cleaning mark. It is caused by the swab dragging over the sensor and leaving a residue. The solution is wet cleaning by someone who knows how to wet clean. Ideally Sony sensors should not be wet cleaned and should never be cleaned by any operator unaware of...

With so many devices now having much higher resolution screens, I have increased the size of images displayed to 1200 x 1200 px, and the size of images with a link you can click and open immediately to 3600 x 3600 px.

Here's one of our silk poppies (opium poppies) from Shirley - using the Sigma 105mm OS macro. We have been doing tests and it's pretty conclusive that despite this having OS, it's inferior to using the SSS on the A580 - SSS has a near 100% success rate but OS does not. The lens is good but I'd rate ...

Amazing, luminous, pure colour - great.

The lenses marked S and C are the new reprogrammable models build to new standards - the 120-300mm ay be be around yet. We have one in Nikon mount and print a report on it in the July/Aug f2 magazine.

David

I intend to publish something about this in due course, but here, for your information, is list of all current Sigma lenses which include OS when sold in Alpha mount - and are therefore very suitable for use on E-mount adaptors and non-sensor stabilised bodies. AF 105mm F2.8 MACRO EX DG OS HSM AF 15...

I have some interesting views now after spending a week shooting in southern India with the A7R, then returning and acquiring an LA-EA4. I had already done some interesting shots using the Samyang 24mm TS loaned on test, and my own Canon FD 20mm with a Kipon shift adaptor (I find that a landscape fr...

Not here. I may not even test one unless specifically asked to, and even then, I'll need to find a film-maker to work with. There was a certain level up to which I could write with reasonable authority even about video modes - at this level, I can't write with basic knowledge, and may prefer to drop...