Beercan on Alpha 900

[David Kilpatrick]

Well, I'm surprised and happy. Even wide open this lens covers the field extremely well.



http://www.pbase.com/image/103443082

Full size ISO 640 shot (cropped on one end, but full res - JPEG 8 as there was so much detail it was going to be 12 MB otherwise).

David

[Dr. Harout]

Nice details, but not as I have seen with your shots with KM 17-35/2.8-4 D.

[David Kilpatrick]

Try this one - I believe the details are better than the 17-35mm, there is huge difference in the contrast of the situations and subjects.



Have a look at the full size, navigate round it and view all the different people and kids doing things, look at their shoes, their bags, their clothes, hair, what they are eating and drinking!

http://www.pbase.com/image/103444084

24.5 final megapixels is a pretty amazing tool. Given that this is a 23-year-old lens (and not a mint example, it's quite heavily used) I am knocked back by the result. I have not increased the contrast, or corrected the slight CA, or added pp web sharpening (which means that some uninformed Canon folk will that it is 'soft'!). It's actually one of the most detailed shots I've had from any digital camera. The 70-210mm could do this on the A700, I just did not expect it to cover the full frame as well as it does.

Some of the 17-35mm shots were very contrasty and brightly lit (especially the Wynd alley shot), the capybara has been strengthened in contrast as it was very flat and in overcast light.

David

[Dr. Harout]

Oops, I missed that detail. Please don't shoot me...

[David Kilpatrick]

Nice details, but not as I have seen with your shots with KM 17-35/2.8-4 D.

What???? Give me a break...he has been shooting the 17-35 at f8 and f11, and this beercan shot is sharp wide open! Watch what happens when he posts some wide open 17-35 shots.

-Sonolta

Have a look at

http://www.pbase.com/davidkilpatrick/image/103439096

Wide open at 17mm, it pays to downsize to 12 megapixels, and not be too concerned about how dark or soft the extreme corners are. But it's focusing OK and the centre is sharp. I would always advise stopping down with extreme wide angles, zoom or not; it's what pros have always done to ensure the best quality. I have worked with lenses like the Leica 19mm f2.8 and even cameras like the Brooks Veriwide with 65mm Super Angulon on 6 x 9cm - one stop down for grab shots, two stops down for corner to corner, was always the rule. Full aperture - for emergencies or to help with focusing only.

Modern designs like the Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 (I have now used this three times on different bodies, and Richard chose it as his ONLY lens for the D3) change the rules, you really can shoot wide open. Sony is supposedly working to get the CZ 16-35mm f2.8 up to this standard.

David

[Javelin]

So the beercan legend continues. very good.

[Jonathan K]

Wasn't the beercan a Leica design? How can we expect a manufacturer cooperating with Zeiss to produce a lens designed by Leica?
I am very happy I got one when they were cheap.

Jonathan

[David Kilpatrick]

Wasn't the beercan a Leica design? How can we expect a manufacturer cooperating with Zeiss to produce a lens designed by Leica?
I am very happy I got one when they were cheap.

Minolta was not working with Leica when this lens was made. The 80-200mm f4.5 MC Rokkor was a shared design with Leica, later replaced by the MD 75-200mm f4.5 also shared, and finally, with a 70-210mm f4 MD Rokkor which was the last zoom designed jointly. The 70-210mm f4 AF is closely based on that final design with Leica, but was entirely a Minolta product. However, the entire Sakai factory team was trained by Leica and they had a Leica engineer in residence and exchanged training. Leica introduced the working methods used there, and when I visited Osaka in 1986, there was a 'shrine' to Leica - a museum cabinet in the head office full of certificates, prototypes, bits of glass, letters from Leitz, etc documenting how delighted the Germans were with the Japanese standards. They were never allowed to show any of this to the public, only to personal visitors to the offices, and never got to do any publicity about the Leica connection. That was part of the arrangement.

David

[David Kilpatrick]

Here's another - I just don't know what to say. I went to the Victorian gents loo in the Mansion House at the zoo (I'm a member of the RZS) and casually snapped one of the stained glass windows - full aperture, auto ISO 320, on the beercan.

Please look at this image full size on pBase, scroll round it. Default processing no adjustments from raw in ACR. Can a lens get much better than this wide open? It cost me £50 - $100.



http://www.pbase.com/davidkilpatrick/image/103465957

I'm getting up in six hours to get ready for photokina trip - A900 going with me. 70-210mm not going. Just 17-35 and 28-75. NB: I had a look at some 50mm macro 2.8 shots, 1985 original again. Just amazing. Much more to be said.

David

[springm]

Hell - I am the guy who said no, he wouldn't by the 900. But when I now see those examples shot with the 17-35, the 28-75 and the 70-210...
I happen to have bought all this lenses when they were cheap and I kept even the 17-35 in spite it being disappointing on the 7D especially in terms of focus reliability, and now they seem to match the 900 in a wonderful way.
Now I just have to feed my piggybank and wait until its content and the falling price of the 900 will meet.

A bright future that is

[PhotoTraveler]

What is that creature? Some form of mutant Terrier?

[Dr. Harout]

What is that creature? Some form of mutant Terrier?

It's a capybara.

[Greg Beetham]

Yeah PT, it's the world's largest mouse.

The South American Capybara, they have really BIG mouse traps down there.
Greg

[Philip]

About thrity years ago (might even be more) some escaped from a zoo in Norfolk, and had a great time breeding and then destroying the drainage dykes by burrowing into them. They were finally 'irradicated' about ten or so years back.

Philip

[m-a]

Well, no Alpha 900 in my hands yet (and not likely in the near future, but I'm not into buying DT lenses either, just in case the 900 gets affordable some day) - but I had the chance to use my 70-210/4 beercan (cost me 60 Euros at the time everyone was switching to ???on while KoMi wouldn't deliver) on an Alpha 700 (FW ver.3 if I recall correctly) for a whole day, and I was rather pleased with the results. Counter to my expectation, the center cropping of the Alpha 700 didn't reveal CA or other unlovely phenomena that I'd feared might show in a Safari Park... and as the beercan didn't show corner issues (vignetting, CA) in my subjects on film, I'd have been surprised if it were any worse on the Alpha 900.