Photoclubalpha

Lens artifact?

Glare looks to be the culprit...

Did this effect repeat itself in other panos? Or was this a one-off experience?

So far this is the first pano and as of now it is one off. Glare may be likely since a similar pattern "flare" appears in the middle (slightly to right) of the image. Almost the candy cane shaped lens flare.

Sury

Thank you CHOLLY et. al, for staying with me. I made two mistakes which I fixed today and was able to get the focus points move around and lock the focus. The AF was in A instead of C and it was I who tried to be clever by half. Reading that, A will auto detect to either S or C, I presumed it will go to C. When I moved the button to C, the lock on was enabled and I was able to move the focus points. Also changing AF priority to AF instead of balanced emphasis made sure that I don't click if it not focus locked. I think I got the hang of the focus module settings. It was too cold to go outside for similar composition and this is farther away but still locking was achieved.

Thank you.

It has been nearly a month since your last post on this topic... so Sury; how is it going with the A77II?

Have you had the opportunity to go out and really play with it? Shoot it under a variety of different conditions? Really give it a good work out?

What do you think so far?

I have been using the camera but did not get a chance to do BIF or any other challenging conditions due to inclement weather, albeit a welcoming one since we had drought for the last 5 years or so. Mostly the shooting involved birthday parties at home and they have been very good. I am really appreciating the fact that quite a few of the shots that required some flash do not need flash. I think there a 1/3 to 1/2 stop difference in the final image versus live view. I took a birthday party photos with exp. compensation at +1 (a mistake on my part) and quite a few photos came out overexposed. I have yet to test with 1/3 compensation. But now I have a good feel for what to expect which makes it easier to adjust knobs. Before the start of the thread, I was completely at a loss. Now, not as much and should improve as I experiment more. In all fairness, the learning experience has been a combination of knowing the camera and improving my own techniques (more likely lack thereof). I will post some shots soon. I have no doubts about the camera and what I underestimated (due to my own fault if one to be assigned) the (re)learning involved with a more sophisticated tool.

Sury

I'm not sure if you have the Gary Friedman ebook or not:

http://friedmanarchives.com/alpha77II/index.htm

Best book available for your camera and EXTREMELY helpful.

ENJOY!

Not yet. Seriously considering acquiring it.

Sury

I took the camera and only 16-80 to my Peru trip. I have posted a series of photos here
http://www.photoclubalpha.com/forum/vie ... =17&t=8860

The only problem I had was that the exposure compensation was on the rear dial and
being in the habit of using it for changing Aperture, in the beginning of the trip, somehow
I dialed exposure compensation by +1 and had quite a few photos overexposed (the light was
bright and hard - due to time of the day). Though managed to recover most of them as you
can see from the above thread, the exposure compensation on rear dial was a hard lesson.
The overexposure was not consistent since I could not find the problem with few chimping
sessions I had. Now I keep an eye on that dial with more paranoia than before. For the most
part, I went with A mode shooting keeping aperture at f5.6. Except for that small "detail",
all in all I was very satisfied with the camera. I am still figuring out the focus points. I am still
having problem to get the focus on the center point. It keeps saying focusing on the point nearest
to the center. I do want to thank all of you for your valuable insight and feedback during my
discovery process.

It was an experience to use 16-80 since I always had a long zoom with me on my trips. Learning
to live with a short telephoto took some getting used to, honestly. There were some situations
where I could have used a longer zoom but looking back, I may not have had time to change the
lenses.

With best regards,
Sury

I'm sounds like your camera and lens choice worked for you. On a side note, my experience with the A77ii is that the raw files respond well in LR to exposure correction. I shot some indoor pictures of my niece's graduation using iso 800 and an exposure compensation of -2 to keep the shutter speed up. (no tripod and I'm not used to shooting indoor events like this so I'm sure there are better ways to do this) Here's one example at 300mm f/5.6 which isn't the sharpest f-stop for this lens.

Hi Sury - I'm sure there must be a way to restrict it to just the central focus point. I've not had an A77 to be certain. Perhaps another A77 user will chip in?

Hi Sury, the easy way to vary focus point is by the Fn button and joystick. Press the Fn button then move the selected function to focus area. Press the joystick in to select. Move up down to the mode wide, zone, centre, flexible spot etc. Wide and centre are obvious but I usually use zone which gives you a close group of sensors. Using the joystick you can move the group about to suit. Flexible spot enables you to chose any single sensor.

Not sure how you managed to get exposure compensation on the rear wheel. Unless you have customised a button somewhere, you have to press the +/- button then rotate the wheel. The beauty is that you can see the effect in the EVF. In settings go to option 2 then down to live view display and set to on.

Hope this helps.

Mike,
You can program Dial Ev Comp (Gear 7, 2nd from top) to Off Front Dial and Rear Dial. It came with Rear Dial as factory default.
I did not know how to "deprogram" till I stumbled upon the above menu option. My normal mode would have been Fn and select
the exposure compensation. In M mode only, the rear dial becomes A setting (in my camera). I had Live View Display was set to off and therefore I missed the effect of my mistake.