Sony A77M2 - Help/Pointers requested

[sury]

Peter,
I almost got the A7R2. Only hesitation I had was about the adapter adding bulk. But it is never too late. It is all about getting missus catching in the good mood.

Valery,
Here are some. These are hardly post processed. I was getting familiar with the camera and was focusing mostly on low light shots which this one may not be the best but compared to A700/A900 orders of magnitude better and I was enthralled by it. Nothing home to write about but since you asked... More in the regular forum soon.

Sury



My son


and daugther...

[ValeryD]

Sury! Anyway - looks good!

[peterottaway]

Being a DINK household, I don't have to worry financially so much these days. But with the price of the r II model,it would be my advice to anyone to best wait for the next model whether that is the R III or renamed the A9 unless you are very sure it is exactly what you want. And assuming the A7 III comes with a backlit 24or 28 MP sensor it may be a much as many,many people will ever need in a full frame camera.

Neither the A900 or the A77 are exactly petite little things so from that point there is not a lot of difference in bulk or convenience for the cameras. I would suggest taking the A900 simply on the grounds that you have so much more experience with that camera. Plus of course you have suitable lenses to cover most requirements.

[Dusty]

Being a DINK household, I don't have to worry financially so much these days. ...

Being Single Income, Multiple Kids, we watch every penny! I remember when single that I could spend on anything I wanted, and while I miss that, I wouldn't trade it for what I have now!

Dusty

[sury]

Peter, you make an excellent point about the familiarity and that is one of the reasons I started my query
this soon about my up coming trip. Though a SIWK, with one just out of college and another still in college,
the financial considerations are there but are not constraints. It is more of what is needed and adding on top
what I want.

With best regards,
Sury

[CHOLLY]

Agree. They have become very complex indeed. As for menus, I wish they added one more custom key (there is room on menu) for adding Eye AF. I replaced smart telecon with Eye AF (since I don't have any smart Telecons) and if Eye AF is available through custom keys only, why not make that a default as well. Oh, well, the user interface is something that never can be satisfactory to all.
Now for some real shooting. Now that I am done with experimenting. Learn, shoot, learn - life goes on.

Sury

Have you tried either the Smart Teleconverter or Clear Image Zoom functions yet?

[sury]

Not yet. I presumed Smart Teleconverter is for when you use a Smart teleconverter which I don't have. I heard of Clear Image Zoom but could not find much info. Any pointers are appreciated.

Sury

[CHOLLY]

AHA!!!

Well, both the smart teleconverter and Clear Image Zoom are built in crop functions that allow you to either throw away pixels on the periphery to magnify the image, or zoom in on a portion of the scene with the camera's processer interpolating and supplying the missing data from fewer pixels.

With the STC, a 400mm lens which would normally be an effective 600mm on an APS-C sensor camera becomes an effective 1200mm at the 2X magnification.

Clear image zoom can go even higher.

And yes; there is some degradation of image quality. You will have to experiment with it under different lighting and contrast conditions with your various lenses to decide which settings if any you may find useful.

[sury]

Oh, thank you. One quick question though. Are they used for focusing or the final results? If it is for focusing, it is very useful but it is for final result, then not so much since that can be done in PP. Thank you for the alert. I will experiment with them. Need to figure out how to activate Clear Zoom. Only recently I reassigned Eye-AF to the button that was previously smart tele.

Sury

[the_hefay]

Sury, Focus Magnifier is the what you use to zoom into the image for adjusting or verifying focus. It's quite handy and one of the functions I use on a semi regular basis. I programmed the smart tele button to this function. Just my preference. On another note, I wish that Steady Shot could be programed to a button. It's a bit of a pain popping into the menu just to turn it off and on.

[the_hefay]

HA! I just found out how to program Steady Shot to a button. I missed it when I was first setting up the camera. My "C" button is now SS.

[CHOLLY]

Oh, thank you. One quick question though. Are they used for focusing or the final results? If it is for focusing, it is very useful but it is for final result, then not so much since that can be done in PP. Thank you for the alert. I will experiment with them. Need to figure out how to activate Clear Zoom. Only recently I reassigned Eye-AF to the button that was previously smart tele.

Sury

You sir, have touched on a very important point.

Yes; you can magnify your image in post... and many people do just that. CIZ and STC are for those instances when you are in the field and need additional reach. Both are forms of digital zoom with results equivalent to what you would get with Lightroom or other broad range photoprocessing software.

To access STC, be sure it is assigned to a button... for instance, the STC button on back. press menu, go to gear 6, then scroll down to custom key settings. Assign Smart Teleconverter to the STC button.

Focus on a subject. Pressing the STC button once magnifies it 1.4 times. Twice magnifies it 2 times.

For CIZ or Digital Zoom, press menu. Then go to Gear submenu 6 again. Drop down to Custom Key Settings and assign "zoom" to the STC button. Then go back to Gear 3. Scroll down to Zoom Setting and click. Choose either CIZ or DZ.

To set your zoom level, go to Camera submenu 6 then down to zoom. With CIZ you can set it up to 2X. DZ will go up to 4X. Then you can snap away ad see if these features are useful to you.

GOOD LUCK!

[sury]

Oh, thank you. One quick question though. Are they used for focusing or the final results? If it is for focusing, it is very useful but it is for final result, then not so much since that can be done in PP. Thank you for the alert. I will experiment with them. Need to figure out how to activate Clear Zoom. Only recently I reassigned Eye-AF to the button that was previously smart tele.

Sury

You sir, have touched on a very important point.

Shows my ignorance doesn't it? Right now I have assigned Eye-AF to STC button (default was STC).
I will reassign it to another button. Any suggestions?
So, my assignment, should I accept it, is to rotate assignment of STC, CIZ and DZ functions to STC button
and try it out and see which one I like. Hopefully this message will not self destruct.
(With apologies to Mission Impossible fans out there... )

Thank you for the detailed instructions. Oh, one more question. Once one of these is selected, what if I change
my mind? Are they permanent or do I have an option to commit to it? Just curios.

Sury

[CHOLLY]

Change is just a menu press away good sir!

[sury]

Yep, and it was easy enough. I have CIZ programmed and see how it works. I think I can find a use for it.

Sury