A900 crop vs. A700 - 2

[bfitzgerald]

Don, why not re-read the remarks you left in your post above, now who is trolling about. Who is the one insulting others?
Frankly I don't care how you rate my equipment, or how expensive it is, all you do is bang on about junk most of the time, we know what counts, end results. (and you aint half as good as you think you are either!)
Also you might want to grow up a bit, adults can agree to disagree without banding about personal insults, and degrading others.
This forum would be a much better place without your constant head banging.

[bossel]

... my 3300+ posts with nonsense...

I agree

[bfitzgerald]

We'll have to get Don some of this stuff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diprivan

[Lonnie Utah]

I am sure Barry and Lonnie can easily replace my 3300+ posts with nonsense, landscapes, and portraits of family members.

As opposed to the same 3 pics of rocky the squirrel that you seem to post over and over? Got any of Bullwinkle the moose?

FEED THE TROLL! FEED THE TROLL!

[Lonnie Utah]

Here you go, keep digging.

[bfitzgerald]

What about some more fish shots
Or more repeated urban graffiti

[bossel]

Today is my lucky day, I just poured myself a glass of wine! Cin Cin!

Oh, and Don, take care the door doesn't hit your back on the way out

[David Kilpatrick]

Two hours ago I pmd Don, after this last outburst, and set up to delete his account and all posts. I warned him that I could only delete all posts. I then went to weed my garden - I had a rosebed set up in March, but because a few really attractive poppies came up too, I didn't weed it and the whole thing got taken over by ground elder. Don reminded me of that and I went and spent an hour mowing and an hour clearing the bed right out so I could see the roses again.

Then I came back in again, to find an insulting pm from Don (insulting two or three others, insulting me) basically saying that his repeated posting was to put right 'nonsense' from me and if I 'did the right thing' and reinstated the original thread he would stay. Then he sent me another pm asking to be removed, so I had no hesitation and pressed the OK button. It is not reversible.

David

[harvey]

The original post referred to 200-300mm,
David

Actually, 200-450mm covers my interests.

As to one of your other points I'm not bothered if other cameras get you a little more
resolution due to higher pixel density.

The big picture seems to be that cropped A900 at the end of your exisiting lens range is going to get you acceptable images in this comparison.

I was interested in the cricket comparisons and I can see the point about wider field of view based on the Airshow shots I was recently taking with a fixed focal length. I'm not sure it would be practical to zoom to get the same thing with a zoom lens unless the lens keeps focus. It would be more useful to me to have autofocus points further out so you can catch something moving laterally into the centre of the frame rather than focus and adjust the framing to get the subject off-centre.

A more controlled (harder and time consuming) comparison of the same image would give you a real handle on the relationsip between the sensor pixel-density and image quality. I doubt it will be significant enogh for me to get another camera (at least for this specific reason).

I have been really busy so didn't have much time to consider all the comments people have been making.

Harvey

[David Kilpatrick]

I realise that you referred to 200-450mm, my mistake in quoting that. I also realise that the air show and related subjects benefit from the larger framing area of the A900 - certainly one thing you do not need to be doing is zooming out when following a subject just to keep it in frame, and the A900 offers more leeway. You are probably lucky you were to busy to check the original thread (which will not make so much sense with Don's posts now removed) as it became really unpleasant, so did '-2' earlier today before Don was permanently removed.

I had a go today with the A350 and 500mm f/8. That was extremely difficult. The equivalent field of a view of a 750mm turns out to be VERY hard to target at a moving subject (ducks on the Tweed, nothing more ambitious) and with only 5.33 degree of diagonal coverage, no wonder. The focus issue gets worse with the reflex lens, as it automatically forces the use of the central sensor only. Continuous focus jitters around like mad, so does AF-A, and AF-S demands that you jab the shutter the moment the beep confirms focus, or the subject will have moved out of the focus plane.

However, though nearly all the shots were wrongly focused, one test of the Kelso town clock showed that I had focused on the hands, but the real point of focus was the glass covering the face. This is maybe 2-3 inches difference at 100ft.

clock500mm.jpg (97.19 KiB) Viewed 6311 times

This shows the ACR window with the full frame and the section I have cropped out at 100%

clockdetail100pc.jpg (41.58 KiB) Viewed 6311 times

Clearly the 500mm f/8 mirror is extremely sharp, though I had poor results from the A900. Here it has resolved enough to reach the limit of 14 megapixels. I think I will use the A900 micro AF adjust for the first time, so far it has not been needed.

sparrow500mm.jpg (156.31 KiB) Viewed 6311 times

This is on the A350 with the 500mm reflex at absolute minimum focus. Sparrows had taken over the supermarket coldstore trolleys parked in the supermarket yard (presumably some food always gets on them) and I was able to get close. But this is the limit with this lens, larger scale of subject not possible. On the A900 it would be an even smaller part of the frame.

Gustav (Kingfisher) has the only correct answer - A700, A900, 200mm, 300mm whatever - the solution is not the format or the lens, but being able to get in the right position relative to the subject. With wildlife that could mean a hide, with events and sports it could mean getting a press pass or special facilities from organisers.

David

[pakodominguez]

Then he sent me another pm asking to be removed, so I had no hesitation and pressed the OK button. It is not reversible.

David

Auch!
this is very sad.
It was hard sometimes to stand Don's etat d'ame, but it's harder now that I realize all the amount of valuable information he brought here is just gone. Dam Don!

:-/

[sury]

I have an outside possibility to see an air show this Saturday. These are my long lenses: Tamron200-500, Sigma APO70-300, Beercan and Pentax 300/f4 with M42 (non chipped) adapter. These are my bodies: A900, A700 and A100. I used Tammy and A100 couple of years ago.

With A100, I found that the long end was often too long (due to proximity) and typically forced to zoom out. FWIW, I have also taken pictures of air show with my KM Dimage A1/A2, Olympus14-B (3X converter) and a custom bracket with good results.

I am tempted to take A900 and keep A700 just to be on safe side. Only trepidation is to carry the weight. Am I better off carrying another lens than body? Inquiring minds want to know. I could use any advice on body/lens combination that I should carry. There are no visual obstacles for this airfield in Salinas, CA, USA.

With best regards,
Sury

[David Kilpatrick]

Pako, re Don, agreed. In amongst the mess was some valuable information, including many links. However, Don's last email to me threatened to replace the links to his own sites with abusive messages unless I deleted all his posts. He has threatened to do this before now. I've had it with trying to restrain his attitude, whatever the loss.

Sury, the airshow is difficult. The Tamron is a monster compared to the 70-300mm and does not really zoom back out much. With a Sigma 120-400mm or 140-500mm (or even better 50-500mm) the A900 on its own would be versatile. I would take both A900+Tamron and A700+Sigma. I would not try using the Pentax but it may have great quality which you just want to experiment with.

David

[pakodominguez]

Pako, re Don, agreed. In amongst the mess was some valuable information, including many links. However, Don's last email to me threatened to replace the links to his own sites with abusive messages unless I deleted all his posts. He has threatened to do this before now. I've had it with trying to restrain his attitude, whatever the loss.

David

no backups?

just kidding...

[sury]

Sury, the airshow is difficult. The Tamron is a monster compared to the 70-300mm and does not really zoom back out much. With a Sigma 120-400mm or 140-500mm (or even better 50-500mm) the A900 on its own would be versatile. I would take both A900+Tamron and A700+Sigma. I would not try using the Pentax but it may have great quality which you just want to experiment with.

David

That sounds like a good combination to try though heavy load to carry. I may carry along the Pentax for some experimentation.

With best regards,
Sury