All Sony Alpha digital SLRs have a Dynamic Range Optimizer feature which helps to bring out details in shadows and highlights. The default settings are Off, DRO Standard and DRO Advanced.

However, on the A700, there are 5 more levels, for manual customization, and often, at Level 3, you get a stronger effect than with DRO Advanced.

Aperture Priority, 17mm F5.6 1/800s ISO200, DRO off.

Aperture Priority, 17mm F5.6 1/800s ISO200, DRO Level 5.

Aperture Priority, 17mm F8.0 1/250s ISO200, DRO off.

Aperture Priority, 17mm F8.0 1/250s ISO200, DRO Level 5.

What it does simply, is change the ISO for certain areas of the image, brightening it smarter than most Photoshopping can or will do. This saved me from hours of dodging and burning! (Though I enjoy that activity, heh!)

Of course, there are limitations – having DRO on slows down your burst shot framerate slightly as the camera has to process the pictures. Also, if you’re shooting at ISO1600, the darker spots that get brightened by say DRO Level 5 will have its noise become very, very obvious. However, DRO Level 5 is awesome in bright daylight and contrasty conditions.

There is a kit lens, a Peleng 8mm F3.5 circular fisheye, a Sony Carl Zeiss 16-80mm F3.5-4.5, a Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM (on Nic‘s A700 + VG-C70AM, look at the number of buttons on the grip), a Sony Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 on an A100, a Minolta 70-210mm F4 “beercan” on a Sony A350 and a Tamron 200-400mm + 1.4x + 2x teleconverters on a Sony A200.

This was before we went to Putrajaya for something which I will not document in full geekiness just yet.

KJ the invisible tripod-mounted man.

I can do the moonwalk!

And now, for some real cool shit.

No wait, in slow motion.

Stuntman 101: Escaping the explosion.

KJ does the remix.

Nic jumps.

The Scheimpflug principle, demonstrated via my Do-It-Yourself Vivitar 24mm F2.0 OM-mount adapted for Minolta/Sony A-mount lens. For once, the captions are in the pictures themselves.

I present to you my finest work of camera modification – the Vivitar 24mm F2.0 Olympus OM-mount lens, adapted to the Minolta/Sony Alpha mount!

My beloved Vivitar 24mm F2.0 wasn’t stopping down properly, after a few operations in the past year, so it was time to change its mount from the Olympus Zuiko OM mount to the Alpha mount which I use. It was a favorite on my Olympus OM-2000, and will continue living a well-used life!

So, I unscrewed the back of the Vivitar and placed the spacer on my Sony body cap to get the alignment right, then drilled. I intended to just replace the rear mounting with the body cap, using the same screws… but found that the body cap was too thick, so it could not focus to infinity.

Hence, I had to remove another layer, including the aperture ring, off the lens. Now it could focus to infinity, but the screw holes did not match anymore! Then, I found, the lens could shift about in place, and tilt about… I had made a 24mm F2.0 tilt-shift lens!

Yeah, eat that, Canon and Nikon, which only offer a 24mm F3.5 tilt-shift. 😀

The red tape is used to hold it in place; if not, it would pop out too easily. Another layer of red tape was applied underneath the main layer so there are no exposed sticky surfaces.

My sad OM-2000 with the leftover parts from the lens.

So what does a tilt look like? Like this, yo!

Happy (belated) Birthday Rames! Note just where is in focus… there’s another point in focus near the corner of the table, defying normal focus rules.

Note where is in focus – the railing near me, and the railing in the middle of the train!

Shoe and distorted focus plane.

Extreme shifting, with the body cap removed, can cause trippy effects and excessive light leakage.

A sideways tilt can narrow the field of focus, with pleasant effects to lights.

Tilting changes the shape of bokeh! The lens is quite notorious for bright-line bokeh, but nothing too unpleasing.

Ted took this.

Justin with his Sony Alpha 100, doing the tilt-shift. Note the left-hand grip allows for minute adjustment in angle.

George explaining something. Oh and Happy Birthday smashpOp!

Same distance, different blurring.

Ramli burger stall. I think this is without the body cap.

Yes, one can camwhore with it without adjusting focus, as it hangs out just enough for close focus. I was on a custom WB for this one, and got this by accident.

24mm on APS-C crop gives a very nice, natural 36mm angle of view on 35mm film. This is the same as on handphone cameras and standard digital cameras. Only slightly wide.

With extreme tilting without the body cap, flare can and will intrude.

The radial blurring is probably one of the qualities of this lens that I’d want to get more often. Shifting required to get the center of the radial blurring off the center.

From up at Masjid Jamek STAR LRT station.

Extreme tilting, for toy-like effect.

For under RM60, you can have a cheap on-the-go reflector umbrella for your wireless flash photography!

What you need:

Wire Rope Clip 1/2″ pair – RM6.50
Silver-inside umbrella – RM10
Cheap tripod – RM40

Clamp the umbrella pole to the tripod’s arm. Click picture for bigger view.

The picture also shows what happens when you zoom to 85mm on the flash; it’s not that far off the center, honestly, so it is still very usable.

Note that the umbrella handle is higher to help with alignment.

Pictures using the umbrella will come later, heh. I’m exhausted yo.

Thanks ianho for building his own, which I took as inspiration, and macdude for ideas that contributed to this! (My umbrella handle is not detachable or removable unfortunately.)