Happy Birthday to myself! And so I got myself a Sony Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 ZA to match my Sony Alpha 900.

Handsome tapering lens this is, especially with the solid metal hood. The hood is so solid I could use it for a cowbell!

Its minimum focusing distance is 72cm; it uses internal focus, which is why despite focusing closer than the Minolta/Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus (which gets 87cm close) it shares the same 1:4 maximum magnification – internal focus causes the lens angle to widen when focusing closer.

72cm need I remind you is an amazing close-focusing distance beaten only by true macro lenses and superzooms that start wide – the Sony 55-200mm F4-5.6 DT focuses to 95cm close which is a record for a tele zoom in itself.

With a 2x teleconverter and 1.5x teleconverter, this makes it a 405mm F5.0 lens. This also makes the maximum magnification a staggering 1:1.33x!

Yes, 1:1.33x. This is with the APS-C mode of the A900. 405mm F8 1/400s ISO1600 in APS-C mode.

405mm F6.3 1/400s ISO1600 in APS-C mode. I focused first, got approximate focus, snapped 2 shots in case the bird would fly to another branch, then half-pressed again to refocus accurately. Focusing through 2 teleconverters made the lens a lot slower to focus and inaccurate.

I’m happy though that the Zeiss survives 2 teleconverters – it loses its shark bite and a smudge of contrast, and becomes a regular lens. But this still beats my Tamron 200-400mm F5.6 flat!

405mm F5 1/400s ISO200, 100% crop.

405mm F3.5 1/200s ISO500. Great shot, yes? Well, much greater if the white butterfly with red yellow and black spots was still on it. 🙁 The teleconverters really kill the insane focusing speed of the Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8.

That’s just prime. Left to right: Peleng 8mm F3.5 M42-mount circular fisheye, Vivitar 24mm F2.0 DIY tilt-shift, Minolta 28mm F2.8 Crossed-XX, Minolta 50mm F1.4 Original, Sony Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8

And a top view, this time with the 2 teleconverters.

So how about some daytime separation? 135mm F1.8 without teleconverters. Superb!

KJ does a Barack Obama smile. Shot at F1.8.

Eddy Han at F1.8 1/13s ISO1600. I was sitting in the rear left side of his car and he was in the driver seat (not driving when he looked back, fortunately.) The minimum focus distance of this lens continues to astound!

KJ and Rames‘ Domo-kun. Good match!

Aaa!

This, or rather a careful crop of this, is now Rames’ profile picture. Note how nearby people are smudged into a blurry mess while the out-of-focus highlights pop out. That’s a Zeiss for you.

F1.8 really helps on the street.

Shelley Leong holds amazingly still. 135mm F1.8 1/5s ISO6400, to be exact! I shot this handheld through some bars.

Oh, and I got myself an A900 Type-M user-serviceable focusing screen – it’s a Super Spherical Acute Matte. The default Type-G is a Spherical Acute Matte. The product code for this is FDA-FM1AM and it is vital if you want to manually focus F1.4 lenses and see the true depth-of-field in the viewfinder.

One thing I really like is how simple the whole operation is – use the tweezers to disengage the screen’s clip; the clip will then fold out like a tray, allowing the specially shaped tweezers to grab onto the existing screen. You then put it in the placeholder slot in the box, and take the replacement screen and install it, using the same tweezers to clip it back in. Finally, move the original screen from the placeholder slot, and let it sit in its place.

Alright, so here’s one from the Minolta 28mm F2.8. 28mm F11 20s ISO200, white balance set to 6200K to give it that richness.

Anyway, back to my birthday. This time around, there will be no surprises as I’ve already planned something. The best surprise was in 2006 when everybody wished me and asked if I was having a nice dinner with my friends. Funny, nobody actually invited, they all presumed I already had plans! So I ate at a mamak by myself.

Some Sony Alpha owners have reported loose flash problems, where the flash is on, but the camera does not detect it, causing it to fire at full power or not fire at all. How can this problem be solved quickly?

The problem has two reasons – firstly, the metal pins on top tend to oxidize if exposed, especially in humid Malaysia. The oxidized layer is scratched away by the flash’s pins, leaving small tracks where there is contact.

The second reason is that the plastic on the flash mount and the body’s mount is looser to allow for quick mounting and dismounting of the flash. The slight play and wobble is fine but the problem happens because the wobble makes the pins move onto the oxidized area, off the clean tracks.

So, you will need to clean the metal pins on top – you could use a key which you carry, in emergencies, but if you want to be gentle, you can use an ink eraser.

Yes, I am advocating the use of rubber.

Or, in the worse case scenario, you can rub it with your fingernails! This is perfectly fine; it will not electrocute you (the circuit to be shorted is on the flash itself.)

So now, mount the flash – it works! Wobble it about and it’s still fine.

Finally, test it by turning it sideways. Some HVL-F58AM flash owners have reported that the flash might not be detected in portrait orientation before cleaning, so test it in this position as well.

If the wobble still bothers you, you could apply some white tape to the insides of the hotshoe so it will look like this hotshoe. That should tighten it up a lot. You must clean the oxidization regardless – if not, it will just be a tight, undetected flash.

Happy flashing!

I got myself a mint boxed Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5(D). Sweet! Now my Minolta Dynax 7 has its proper, official kit lens. Not the Minolta 28-80mm F3.5-5.6 Silver edition kit lens that Malaysians love because they can’t afford the good kit lenses. Well my Dynax 7 came with such a silver lens anyway.

Ironically, the box is from Japan, but I’m putting it on a Minolta Dynax 7 (in the US they’d call it a Minolta Maxxum 7, and in Japan they’d call it a Minolta Alpha 7). So it’s kinda mismatched.

And so that brings my zooms to a new lineup, from left to right:
Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX, Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5 (D), Cosina 70-210mm F2.8-4 1:2.5x Macro, Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan, Sigma 70-210mm F4-5.6, Tamron 200-400mm F5.6.

And then I have my primes in a new lineup, from left to right:
Peleng 8mm F3.5 circular fisheye with chipped M42 to Alpha mount adapter (reads as a 50mm F1.7), Vivitar 24mm F2.0 DIY tilt-shift, Minolta 50mm F1.4 Original, Kenko Teleplus 1.5x teleconverter, Kenko Teleplus 2x teleconverter.

I wouldn’t mind this lineup for travelling though – the only thing missing is a Minolta 24mm F2.8. Left to right:
Peleng 8mm F3.5 circular fisheye in M42, Minolta 50mm F1.4 Original, Jupiter-9 85mm F2.0 in M42.

I’d pocket 2 primes and put the other on the camera. Or maybe the 8mm would be better a Zenitar 16mm F2.8 diagonal fisheye, on full-frame.

I had the chance to reassess the Jupiter-9, thanks to this dealer of classics…

Soft glowy look wide-open, with nice creamy bokeh in the back.

And this is what happens with a manually-focused 50mm F1.4 when you get too close.

Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5 (D) at 30mm F4 1/20s ISO1600 (the markings said 35mm but what the heck.)

Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX at 35mm F4 1/20s ISO1600. Despite having identical settings, the light transmission of the Sigma is weaker and has less contrast. There’s also a less glowy look in the bokeh.

Initially I wasn’t sure about the 24-105mm but after doing a side-by-side comparison, I am seeing a bit more of the Minolta heritage in it. It doesn’t come close to the look of the beercan or the other classics of that era (28-135mm F4-4.5 tank, 24-50mm F4, 28-85mm F3.5-4.5) but this’ll do.

And this is what reassured me even further. Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5 (D) at 85mm F6.3 1/25s ISO400. With the 100% image you can spot some detail.

What if we brightened up the center part? This is a 100% crop, boosted up (hence the noise.)

Ever tried to count the rain?

Minolta 50mm F1.4 at F1.4 and ISO6400 with noise reduction turned off. This is a JPG, but RAW should give better results.

100% crop. Well, you could count the rain in the tiny plane of focus…

And then, for some lens box spotting! What initially caught my eye was the Sony 500mm F8 Reflex box – it had the new design, with lens design on the box, and white trims.

Older boxes had shiny silver trims. This was deemed not environmentally friendly, so Sony changed their boxes to have white trims. You can see if something is old or unmoved stock by the shiny silver trims!

The second thing that really caught my attention was the Sigma 12-24mm F4.5-5.6 EX DG for Alpha mount! There was also the venerable Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4.5 Macro in A-mount, a great lens that never is too close to the subject. I also spied a Sigma 50mm F2.8 Macro in A-mount!

What an interesting turn of events to see A-mount lenses being stocked, what more the rarer ones.

Testing the Sigma 12-24mm F4.5-5.6 EX DG’s minimum focus distance of 28cm at 12mm F4.5. Pretty decent, though I think the Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC enlarged the face more because of its minimum focusing distance of 24cm!

Compare this to the Nikkor 14-24mm F2.8 at 14mm F2.8 and minimum focus distance of 28cm.

Despite both lenses having a MFD of 28cm, why does the Sigma enlarge more? Possibly due to differing focus mechanisms.

12mm. There’s definitely more around, and above, than the average ultra wideangle lens!

15mm (which is what the Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 EX DC gives you on a 1.5x crop body.)

17mm (which is what the Sony 11-18mm F4.5-5.6 DT gives you.) As you can see, framing has changed between shots, so don’t look at it based on framing alone.

Anyway, on to other brands. The Pentax K-m has a nice glow and trims, and it focuses pretty darn fast!

The Canon Powershot SX10IS is big, the size of a small dSLR. It has a whopping 28-560mm equivalent zoom. Amazing! But the buttons and the button layout feels weird compared to its predecessor the S5IS.

Oh, and the Canon 5D MkII. I tried to shoot a video with the tiny CF card they inserted (I was not allowed to put in my own CF card.) After it stopped because it was full, I pressed the Play button.

And that is how I got the famous Err 99, which means “any error that does not have a specific error code“. So it could be anything, really! A common one would be a lens that has sticky aperture blades or a malfunctioning aperture blade actuator.

Oh, of course I compared viewfinders – the A900 was bigger by a large margin. The 100% coverage and 0.74x magnification really helps! I haven’t compared it to a Canon 1Ds MkIII, though, which should beat it at 100% coverage and 0.76x magnification. But the Canon is loads more expensive!

Yep, the Canon 5D MkII and Nikon D700 had about the same viewfinder surface area.

I then compared the A900 to the Nikon FM-2, and found the FM-2 to be bigger – it had 93% coverage and 0.86x magnification. The Olympus OM-1 is even more stellar, at 97% coverage and 0.92x magnification. Of course, both are manual focus SLRs and have dimmer ground glass screens so it’s not as bright, but they sure are large.

Maitani knew what he was doing when he designed the OM-1. Whatever happened to Olympus now, I don’t know really.

There is a downside to larger surface areas of viewfinders – you really need to press your eye socket against the camera to see the whole frame.

Thus, the A900 had a pretty good compromise. I like 100% coverage anytime – it makes your lenses look as wide as they should be, and disciplines your framing. The 50mm feels much wider in angle than a 35mm on the A700 with 95% coverage only.

First, download this image. This is so you can see the same effect I see when you’re editing.

In Photoshop, go Image – Adjustments – Channel Mixer. I’m using Photoshop 7 so don’t worry, this feature has been around a long time!

Tick Monochrome.

Set the Red to 0.

Now drag each slider to +100 and back to 0, to see which one has the least contrast. In my tungsten-ful shots, it’s always Green. So I leave the Green at +120.

Then, drag Blue down to negative and you will see the highlights fade into grey. I left it at -35.

At this point, you may want to bring the Green up to say +150 (so that the shirt is in the middle) while bringing the Blue down to -70. Adjust as you like.

Finally, add as much Red as you like.

I won’t show you how the final picture ended up, so you can tweak it as you like! The numbers will be different for every picture so please don’t go “oh I need to set this slider to this number and this slider…”

You will notice that boosting channels will increase noise. Big deal, it’s black-and-white, it looks better! 😀

This is how I processed the pictures in Netto From The Ghetto, Live From Section Five.

Auto-Chinon 135mm F2.8 for K-mount, handheld in front of my A700.

It seems to have a good old-school look, which clears up very well. It produced very contrasty, saturated pictures on my Pentax P30t. Pity I’m selling both (hit me an email at my About Me! page.)

And here’s the huge Sony Carl Zeiss ZA Sonnar T* 135mm F1.8 in Alpha mount versus a little Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm F2.8 in M42 mount.

Here’s the beercan-sized, beercan-weighted Sigma 50-150mm F2.8 EX DC II HSM! For APS-C fans, this is a great lens.

Speaking of the great Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan, here’s a 100% crop from the A700. This is the center window of the Petronas Twin Towers Skybridge!

And here is its replacement, the Minolta 70-210mm F3.5-4.5 RS, with a focus hold button and a collapsible design. That means it is much shorter than the beercan at 70mm.

Here is the Minolta 75-300mm F4.5-5.6 “big beercan” (extending zoom) with the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan (internal zoom). The big beercan adds a focus limiter switch which is great considering it focuses really slowly, even on the A700, while the beercan zips away.

At least it lives up to the name, at 300mm F5.6, with beercan-esque painterly bokeh.

Now for something else – a wide-angle converter put on reverse!

That’s right, the cheapo Octagon 0.45x wide-angle converter.

Now for something rare – the Sigma 28-70mm F2.8 Zen.

Sharp wide open!

Then there’s the Olympus Zuiko Digital 40-150mm F4-5.6 which is identical in size to its brother the Olympus Zuiko Digital 14-42mm F3.5-5.6.

Which, of course, is still much taller than the Olympus E-420 with the super compact Olympus Zuiko Digital 25mm F2.8 pancake lens.

And here’s one shot with the pancake! At F2.8 and on a 2x crop sensor the separation is quite mild. Quite like a 50mm at F5.6 on full-frame.

The Minolta 28mm F2.8 has a nice minimum focusing distance.

The Minolta 35mm F1.4 Original is sharp and yet dreamy wide open.

So I took the Peleng 8mm F3.5 circular fisheye with a 1.5x teleconverter on my Sony Alpha 700 around town, shooting at F8 and manual focus at 1 meter, with the camera hanging down at arm’s length. The teleconverter and APS-C crop factor gives it a similiar look to the 16mm F2.8 diagonal fisheye on full-frame.

The idea was taken from a forum member on Dyxum.

I walked past people, making sure to snap just before they pass my fisheye.

Most people in crowded places don’t realize that I’ve snapped. But then, I continued walking without turning around to see if they saw me.

Shadow of a street fisher.

Until I get a new M42 adapter, the Peleng won’t be sitting on the A900 yet. Yes, I sold my other 2 M42 lenses with the 2 adapters that I had!

Man, I can’t wait to show you street birding!

EXIF included again, for my second round with the A900!

Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5 at 24mm F3.5. I love the light falloff that comes naturally from using non-telecentric lenses on the A900! It only appears sometimes and I don’t know how to replicate it.

Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5 at 105mm F4.5.

This is a 100% crop. I didn’t even know that there was a URL!

Minolta 24-105mm F3.5-4.5 at 105mm F6.3 ISO200. 100% crop, with some Hue Saturation Lightness to reduce the chromatic aberration.

Sony Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 at 135mm F1.8. 100% crop! Ahmike shot this.

Sony Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 at 135mm F1.8. That’s the Zeiss color right there in the flamin’ red mountain.

Sony Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 at 135mm F1.8. More of that fountain!

Sony Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 at 135mm F1.8. Focusing accuracy is amazing with the A900 at all distances!

Sony Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 at 135mm F1.8.

100% crop. Spot on! Some NR applied.

Minolta 50mm F1.4 at F1.4. Not sure if Ahmike or KJ took this picture. Slightly out-of-focus (operator error.) Szetoo and I and a frame.

IZ A900?

Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 EX DG Macro at 24mm F2.8 minimum focus distance. Very typical Sigma bokeh.

Sony Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 at 135mm F1.8.

Sony Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 at 135mm F1.8, ISO2000. Noise can be greatly reduced by setting Contrast -3, Saturation -3, Sharpness +3, Lightness -2, Zone -1. It gives a subtle look which contrasty lenses can counter with saturated color.

A 100% crop of the previous picture. The other eye is in focus, not this one, but I show you this crop as it shows more shadow. Without resorting to RAW, this is how clean I could get it with High ISO NR set to Normal.

And now, for my first proper shots from the Sony Alpha 900! All EXIF data is included.

Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan at 210mm F8. I always shoot plants with Daylight WB to give the green its color. DRO Level 3 helped, too.

Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX at 17mm F2.8. Note how shallow the depth of field is… even my watch is out-of-focus. I love the natural light fall-off at the edges, and I waited for the sunlight to hit my hands to pull extra attention to it.

Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX at 17mm F16. This is with DRO Level 3. Hmm wait what’s that on the second floor?

Right, it’s a person.

Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX at 17mm F2.8. This is with DRO Level 5. Did I mention that I love the light fall-off?

Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX at 17mm F2.8. This is with DRO Level 5.

Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan at 210mm F4. This is a 50% crop! Despite the A900 having only a 10.58 megapixel APS-C crop mode, it is actually advantageous when tracking – the AF assist sensors spread around do a much better job than the center double-cross AF sensor of the A700 (which packed 12.2 megapixels in APS-C) or the A350 (which packed 14.2 megapixels in APS-C). Also, the AF sensors of the A900 are only in the APS-C area, so you know if your subject is off the frame. Being able to see outside your APS-C area, when APS-C capture mode is selected, is very useful for fast-flying birds.

Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan at 210mm F4. This is a 100% crop.

Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan at 210mm F4. This is in APS-C capture mode.

Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan at 130mm F4. This is in APS-C capture mode, regrettably; if I had quickly switched back to full-frame capture mode, I could zoom in at 210mm and get a shallower depth of field. But I still like this picture, the car was glowing and begging me to take its picture! DRO Level 3 boosted the background.

On the LRT, I tweaked my Creative Style: Vivid to -3 Contrast, -3 Saturation, +3 Sharpness, -2 Brightness and -1 Zone. This gave a muted look to the pictures that will follow (but they also decrease noise dramatically.)

Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX at 35mm F4. My friend asked if I was afraid to whip out my camera – I said no, knowing the location and the conditions. In this case I wasn’t brandishing a battery grip (though I wish my Minolta 50mm F1.4 was on, for ultimate stealth.)

Oh, and what’s he going to do, get up? That would’ve made a more interesting picture…

Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX at 17mm F3.2, cropped. Later at Tarita Low Yat, a photographer (who has a food book coming up with pictures from his A350!) checks out the A900 + F58 + battery package. I gave him a few pointers but I had to go so I didn’t see the deal through. 🙁

Yes, that’s the kit lens on it. Told him how to bypass auto-APS-C mode, too!

Minolta 50mm F1.4 at 50mm F1.4, ISO1600, WB set at 3200K M4. Gotta love how F1.4 throws everything else into defocus. That’s a wonderful camera by the way, the Canon Ixus 870 IS… 28mm wide and pretty darn good macro! Of course, the Panasonic LX-3 was all sold out…

Minolta 50mm F1.4 at 50mm F1.4, ISO1600, WB set at 3200K M4. This alone granted the setting memory slot #2!

This is what I’ve been looking for all this while – INSPIRATION! And the A900 renewed it. If the solid rubber grip, 100% bright viewfinder and pump-action shotgun mirror slap don’t inspire you to shoot some magical pictures, I don’t know what will.

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!