Vietnam shot with A7xx!

[bakubo]

Finally, fully enjoyed your many observations of Vietnam in your frames!

The photos are with Sony gear. This trip was a bit different than the way I usually do things though. I usually carry my daypack when I am walking around. I have the A700 + 18-250mm around my neck and the daypack has my 11-18mm, 50mm f1.7, water bottle, Lonely Planet book, lens cleaning microfiber cloth + lens brush, and several odds and ends (small flashlight, small bottle of hand sanitizer gel, etc.). When in a city I also carry around a map, but it is often just a simple one from a hotel or one I got at the train station. I also have a small compass with me. Well, this time in Vietnam it was so darn hot and humid during most of the trip I just couldn't bear to wear the daypack while walking around for hours. Most of the time I just carried the A700 + 18-250mm so I only took a few photos with the 11-18mm. In the evening I usually went out with just the A700 + 50mm f1.7 or 24mm f2.8.

[alphaomega]

Thanks for the pictures Bakubo. Just proves that the A700 may be a few years old now, but still a very capable camera nevertheless. It was a major move forward by Sony when it was brought out and greatly enhanced by v.4 update. Whatever else is released it will produce as good results now as then. I intend to hold on to my A700. I also have the Sony 18-250 and have been very satisfied with the results. The AF is also fast and accurate and the lens compact and reasonably light for its range.

[aster]

Finally, fully enjoyed your many observations of Vietnam in your frames!

The photos are with Sony gear. This trip was a bit different than the way I usually do things though. I usually carry my daypack when I am walking around. I have the A700 + 18-250mm around my neck and the daypack has my 11-18mm, 50mm f1.7, water bottle, Lonely Planet book, lens cleaning microfiber cloth + lens brush, and several odds and ends (small flashlight, small bottle of hand sanitizer gel, etc.). When in a city I also carry around a map, but it is often just a simple one from a hotel or one I got at the train station. I also have a small compass with me. Well, this time in Vietnam it was so darn hot and humid during most of the trip I just couldn't bear to wear the daypack while walking around for hours. Most of the time I just carried the A700 + 18-250mm so I only took a few photos with the 11-18mm. In the evening I usually went out with just the A700 + 50mm f1.7 or 24mm f2.8.

Thanks for the details on the photographer-related aspect of the trip, Henry.

I'm just curious and definitely not trying to pry when I wish to ask you this question, only as a Sony customer with Sony camcorder and an Alpha with maybe yet an other DSLR in mind:

If Sony came on board the DSLR marketshare with a good design, stabilized body parts and buttons, hence a good interface with the appropriate features and fast / accurate lens functions that will satisfy any present A700 owner in the near future, would you steer the wheel towards Sony systems abandoning what you replaced it with? Or would you move on with yet an other brand still?

The question is not in favor of any brand actually, I'm not biased towards any brand out there but I wish to know if your mind would be in peace with the idea of having yet an other investment in a brand you had multiple unsatisfactory services or equipment...when you see something good is about to arrive, that is.

Thnaks, : )

Yildiz

[bakubo]

I'm just curious and definitely not trying to pry when I wish to ask you this question, only as a Sony customer with Sony camcorder and an Alpha with maybe yet an other DSLR in mind:

If Sony came on board the DSLR marketshare with a good design, stabilized body parts and buttons, hence a good interface with the appropriate features and fast / accurate lens functions that will satisfy any present A700 owner in the near future, would you steer the wheel towards Sony systems abandoning what you replaced it with? Or would you move on with yet an other brand still?

The question is not in favor of any brand actually, I'm not biased towards any brand out there but I wish to know if your mind would be in peace with the idea of having yet an other investment in a brand you had multiple unsatisfactory services or equipment...when you see something good is about to arrive, that is.

I still have the A700 and A100 and all my A-mount lenses and a flash. I don't have any plans to get rid of the lenses and flash. I would like to sell the A700 and A100 though. The A700 has the control wheel problem so it might be hard to sell. At the moment I am just holding on to it since I have an A-mount macro lens, but don't have one in Canon mount. I rarely use the macro lens, but occasionally do.

I do not have good feelings toward Sony/KM because every single one of their cameras I have bought has had problems (2 KM, 2 Sony). The KM 7D bodies and A700 were the worst with poor QC, bad parts, and/or defective designs. The many Minolta, Canon, and Olympus cameras I have owned over the years never had a single problem. The problems started when Konica bought Minolta. Then Sony bought KM so, I suppose, they got parts, machines, employees, and maybe factories so in my mind Sony and KM are pretty much the same thing. After the 2 KM 7D bodies had so many defects I thought I would probably not buy anything else from them, but then Sony bought them out so I started having second thoughts. Then Sony created a huge amount of goodwill with me when they said they would refund my money for the 7D. Later I bought the A100, A700, a couple of lenses, and a flash.

Still, if I was to get rid of the A700 and A100 I might get an A55 to have a body to use the stuff I have. I will consider future Sony stuff, but it has been a long time since they made anything that interests me much, at least for my main camera. I do prefer IBIS for lenses less than about 200mm (on APS-C) since it works with any lens so that is still a good point with Sony. For longer lenses the stabilized vf of ILIS is very nice. My experience with 3 Canon DSLRs though is that Canon has thought through their camera designs better and implemented them without so many bugs and anomalies, at least in the features that I usually use.

I have a thread that I started that I am trying to keep updated with my thoughts and discoveries as I start using the 60D more and the A700 less:

http://www.photoclubalpha.com/forum/vie ... 128#p48128

[aster]

Thank you very much for taking the time to reply, Henry. : )

I'm following the new thread on your experiences with the Canon 60D from the moment you started it.

We'll see, altogether, what tomorrow will bring from the Sony camera developers...


Yildiz

[alphaomega]

Interesting thoughts by bakubo above about his problems with KM and Sony DSLRs and his gradual shift back to Canon and D60 in particular. I must admit that my experience has been different. I bought my first A700 when it was released and it was passed to my son just over a year ago. He takes up to 10,000 pictures a journey and the camera must have taken well in excess of 100,000 images without ever exhibiting any faults. My first A350 was passed to my wife and she must have added several thousand pictures for a book project and never has she been let down summer or winter. I have a new A700 and nearly new A350 as well as A550. The second A350 did exhibit problems with rear display in cold weather, but I never lost a picture. The A550 is fault free. The new A580 has just been acquired but works perfectly in test. Bakubo must have been unlucky or I have been lucky. I have great confidence in my Sony equipment based on my experience so far and see no reason for changing gear. I am equally confident in my Panasonic LX2 and 3. No problems to date.

[bakubo]

Yes, no doubt many people got good ones.

My first KM 7D was defective out of the box with a tilted sensor and was sent in for repair the first week. Came back and not fixed. Sent back and KM decided to replace it with a new one after I got Phil Bradon involved. The second one had ongoing AF problems and was sent in to KM several times while I had it. Never fixed. Then it also developed the FFB problem. Sent in to Sony. Wasn't fixed. Sent in to Sony again. Sony gave me a refund after sending an email to someone higher up in the org (that a kind person privately gave me). The whole 18 months I had it was very frustrating because it didn't work right even one day out of that time.

My A700 was okay for the first ~3500 photos and then developed the control wheel problem. I was the first one to report this on dpreview 2 years ago. As soon as I posted people started replying and said they had the same problem. Of course, some said they didn't have the problem. Tried all the "solutions" that people suggested and they didn't work -- they might for a few hours or a day or two, that's all. Sent it in to Sony to fix it. It came back and a couple of months later the problem returned. I have had the A700 for over 33 months and it has had this problem for 2/3 of the time. It has also had the sleep mode firmware bug from day one and it has been very annoying for the way I use my camera and depletes the battery. I reported it to Sony and hoped it was fixed in the v4 firmware, but it wasn't. I also posted about this problem on dpreview almost 3 years ago.

[bakubo]

Let me add something. I know it is so easy for any of us to identify our choice of camera (or any other object) as a symbol of our self worth. That often means that anyone who has a different opinion about a camera or has some criticism of it is somehow criticizing the people who own that camera. So many people take this stuff personally. As I have said for many years though I don't care about brands. They all have their good points and bad points and sometimes what I see as a good point another person may see as a bad point and vice versa. Please remember that any criticism I may have about Sony or Canon or any other camera is not about you.

Features, performance, etc. are all important, but for me the NUMBER 1 thing is being free of defects. Poor quality control, defective parts, and buggy design is inexcusable to me. Although there are some things about the A700 that I would prefer be different if it didn't have the control wheel problem and the sleep mode bug (this one is minor compared to the control wheel problem) then I would probably wait until next year to see what Sony might have. Although the technology and features have moved on since the A700 came out 38 months ago I would be okay using it a bit longer. As it is I am just tired of the 18 months using a defective 7D and the 33 months (most of that time) using a defective A700. I remember well the 40 years of using all my other cameras that were defect free and never gave me any problems. Time will tell if my new 60D continues to work well like my 30D and 300D did.

I was really fortunate that Sony stepped up to the plate and refunded my $1500 for the KM 7D. I have always somewhat disagreed with the common saying "you get what you pay for" because it isn't always true. Well, my KM 7D and Sony A700 were my most expensive cameras in 40 years and they were both the worst cameras I have ever owned (from a QC perspective). I suppose I could contact Sony again about my A700 but it has long been out of warranty (it was "fixed" the first time because it was in warranty). I don't want to spend a few hundred dollars to have them "fix" it again, but if they said they would do it for free then I might. Tell me though, if I did that and they "fixed" it again would you with a clear conscience be able to sell it to someone as a fully working A700? Technically it would be true and maybe the second time they "fix" it would really fix it or maybe the problem would return again a couple of months later.

[Birma]

Hi Henry - I finally got around to taking the journey around Vietnam through your pictures . It looked very hot and humid, but maybe this was just me thinking of your descriptions of when you were there. As always, you have a great variety of very interesting pictures, with the personal connection to your subjects that I like, and look forward to now, so much. I'm also following your Canon 60D thread with interest and so add another one to the "please keep posting here" vote .

[bakubo]

Hi Henry - I finally got around to taking the journey around Vietnam through your pictures . It looked very hot and humid, but maybe this was just me thinking of your descriptions of when you were there. As always, you have a great variety of very interesting pictures, with the personal connection to your subjects that I like, and look forward to now, so much. I'm also following your Canon 60D thread with interest and so add another one to the "please keep posting here" vote .

It was very hot and humid. A couple of days in Dalat and the last 3 days in Hanoi at the end was the only time that was bearable. The rest of the time was bad. I have been to that part of the world many times (Thailand 4 times, Vietnam twice, Cambodia, Laos) and other places that are usually hot and humid, but my feeling was that this particular trip was the worst. Very uncomfortable, but I still often saw Vietnamese wearing jackets.

[bakubo]

Ossie just made a trip to Vietnam too and he has a thread and some nice photos here:

http://www.photoclubalpha.com/forum/vie ... =17&t=5169

[bakubo]

Here are 2 more of the slides I scanned last month. This is in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam in 2000. I was in a small boat in this waterway when he came along with his water buffalo and went by while he was standing on the back of one of them. These are from the first time I was in Vietnam, not the 2010 trip.

[bakubo]

Vietnam had changed quite a lot from my trip in early 2000 to the trip in late 2010 -- almost 11 years. I much preferred Vietnam and the people in 2000.

Here are 3 more scanned slides I did last month from the trip to Vietnam in 2000. They are in the Mekong Delta:





I like how the woman on the back of the bicycle peeks around the man to get a look at me.



I sure like shooting digital better. Scanning old slides and negatives is so much work and it is so difficult sometimes to get good color. I am not really satisfied with the color of these or the ones I posted here yesterday. Sometimes I just give up and decide to change to B&W when I work with scanned photos.

[Birma]

I like the 2000 shots Henry, especially the guy riding the buffalo . I agree that the scanning process is a real pain; hooray for digital!

[Greg Beetham]

I like the guy moving his ‘farm tractors’ to a new location Henry, I’d like to see a modern farm tractor do that one. Btw I’m always amazed that there are apparently no crocodiles in that area, it’s an ideal habitat for them and it’s not that far from the north Oz New Guinea area for a sea going croc.
I think those moments in time are definitely worth preserving, I like the wooden plank dory’s, sort of clinker style construction, I wonder how the planks are shaped and bent and fastened to the frames?
Greg