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And now, for more shots from the Sony Alpha Convention 2008!


Ted through an A900 and my Peleng 8mm F3.5 circular fisheye! (I miss my M42 adapter already…)


This is what it can do to a logo.


There’s something fishy about KJ.


And then, there was the Minolta 16mm F2.6 diagonal fisheye, which finally looks like a fisheye when on the A900!


I stuck my hand in for this.


Free tea and coffee.


I like the built-in B12 filter of the Minolta 16mm F2.8 diagonal fisheye (which is also there on the Sony). It is used for film bodies, where daylight film is loaded but you are shooting in tungsten lighting. This would thus correct the color!

Likewise, the orange filter allows tungsten film to be used in daylight. Then there’s the red filter, great for increasing contrast in black-and-white shots.


Then, there was the Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 DC Macro, at 17mm F2.8 at minimum focusing distance.

Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 DC apertures:
17mm onwards F2.8
18mm onwards F3.2
28mm onwards F3.5
35mm onwards F4.0
60mm onwards F4.5

What I found amazing was the minimum focus distance of 20cm, which actually resulted in a working distance much, much closer than any other lens I’ve ever used!


The smaller LCS-SC5 and the bigger LCS-SC20 on display (which I’d never seen before.)


A special edition Sony 28mm F2.8 (the focus ring had come off!)


The unreleased but well-acclaimed Sony Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 16-35mm F2.8 ZA SSM (what a mouthful, and I’m never sure of the sequence). This lens is the Canon killer – most Canon wide-angle lenses are poor performers, while Zeiss does well in that department. Behind is the Sony 70-400mm F4-5.6 G SSM, another possibly amazing optic. Normal tele zooms that reach 400mm are rather poor but this should be sharp wide open.


The unknown wooden “super tele-photo fixed” lens makes an appearance here! Looks like a possible Sony 600mm F4 G SSM indeed.


This is the “tele-photo fixed” lens. Some hope that this mock will be a Sony 200mm F4 G SSM Macro. We’ll see!


There are two captions – one is “large aperture, wide angle fixed” and the other “wide angle fixed”. The left one looks too identical to the 16-35mm so we’ll leave that out (and it has TWO rings, meaning the sign might be wrong.)

So that leaves this to be what some hope to be a 35mm F1.8 or a 24mm F1.4. I do hope it’s the 24mm though. 😀


Price cuts on the retail prices! This is the fourth and last slide showing the price cuts.

Now nobody can say that the Sony retail prices are more expensive in Malaysia (when in fact, they are close to Canon retail prices.)

Interestingly though, the Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM was RM8599 retail at one point.


Sony 50mm F2.8 Macro and my watch.


This is what happens when you get exposed to too many great lenses – you get poisoned. This, with the Tokina AT-X 400mm F5.6!


A display unit of the Sony 300mm F2.8G SSM. There’s a slight dent, which explains why there is no hood on this one.


The rare as heck Minolta 100mm F2.8 Soft Focus lens.


This is what it makes, softness from 0 to 3 that you can dial in.


Of course, nothing beats the Minolta/Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus lens. Whatever in focus is sharp as heck, while anything out of focus is reduced to creamy blobs. This is different from the Sony Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8, which makes out-of-focus points become uniformly-lit circular discs.

Anyone who mistakes a Smooth Transition Focus for a Soft Focus should be beaten with one of those wooden mock lenses.


Closing time! A big roll case and cameras stacked like so. Ouch!

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