Tamron 14mm F2.8, hand-mounted in front of my A700.

The toilet bowl diffuser I bought for fun, mainly because it came with four color gels. FOUR color gels! Of course, all four colors were quite useless for matching flash color to ambient light. The red and yellow gels didn’t match tungsten, and the green didn’t match flourescent. At least they make funky colors.

Also, knowing how I can bounce against walls better has reduced the necessity of this.

Macdude‘s baby carriage.

Sigma 10-20mm F4-5.6 at YL Camera, Pudu Plaza. Sharp as heck, but unfortunately not usable on full-frame no matter what focal length.

Sometime back, I tried the Canon 24mm F3.5 Tilt-shift. This was at F3.5. Yes, F3.5!

Scheimpflug! Also at F3.5.

Of course, my Vivitar 24mm F2.0 Tilt-shift is way brighter, and has more flexibility when it comes to tilting as it is not limited to one axis.

Sony 11-18mm F4.5-5.6 DT, taken for a run from the guy who likes to jump.

Big type.

I find it hard to make ultra-wides express the wideness of architecture, but I got lucky this time.

Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan at 70mm F4.

Minolta 28-70mm F2.8G at 70mm F2.8. Note that the beercan has a ‘drawn’ bokeh while the 28-70mm smears and softens.

Can’t say I like that kind of rendition, but it works great for portraits.

G whiz!

It’s chunky, and way bigger than the Konica Minolta 28-75mm F2.8, whose output I prefer. Its minimum focusing distance is 85cm, while the new Sony Carl Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 SSM does 34cm near (and 1:4 macro while at it!)

It’s also slow on the A700, and even slower on the A100! The CZ 24-70mm meanwhile is the fastest SSM I’ve ever tried, with instant response and focus. Of course, the CZ isn’t reknowned for bokeh but I’d take it any day over the portraitish 28-70mm.

Ironically, a Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 I tried had a similiar portraitish look, but softer and with a touch of minor CA. The Konica Minolta 28-75mm F2.8 was sharp as they come, though!

Then came the extreme geeks. I had met my matches. Ament’s BP-200 wired into the remote shutter release of his A100. Tape on hotshoe to tighten flash fit.

David’s very cool flash bracket.

No wait, it gets even cooler!

Kids do not try this at home unless you’re out of warranty.

I repeat, DO NOT!

These are the three screws that screw with focus.

Left to right: Minolta MD Rokkor 50mm F1.4, Minolta MC 28mm F2.5, Vivitar 24mm F2.0.

Left to right: Minolta MD 35mm F1.8, Minolta MC 28mm F2.5, Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm F2.4 (whoa, deeply poisoned by this 20cm close-focusing lens I am) and the Carl Zeiss Jena 135mm F3.5.

The Minolta 28-70mm F2.8G is a handsome chunky lens.

A700 with Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM.

A700 with Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan.

What a long, long box.

Not so invisible when sniping. Chunky body, but it looks very industrial, like the Carl Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 SSM or the Sony Carl Zeiss 85mm F1.4. The single barrel is sexy.

Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM, in the hood.

Left: Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan; right: Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM. The Sony is shorter and stumpier. Solid build.

The Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan, at maximum extension, is shorter than the Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM at 300mm.

Ironically, the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan is an internal zoom, extending focus lens, while the Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM is a extending zoom, internal focus lens.

Full extension + hood. I sincerely hope Sony doesn’t go the Canon way; that is, design oversized lenses to attract men who seek to compensate. Minolta had always kept its lenses conservatively small, and lenses didn’t have to be big if they didn’t have to.

The hood does not have a sliding window to access polarizers. This may be a minus point for some people, but I don’t use a polarizer on a telephoto lens.

Sony 2x teleconverter versus my Kenko 2x teleconverter (not documented this purchase yet!)

Note the protruding front element on the Sony teleconverter, which prevents about all Sony lenses except the Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM, Sony 300mm F2.8G SSM and Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus from being mounted. Yes, the Sony teleconverter does not work with the Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM. 🙁

The rear side; note the amount of clearance! My guess is that Sony teleconverters are matched to the big Gs which is why they are so frontward.

Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM at 300mm F5.6. EXIF included. Bokeh is classic Minolta G type, OOF highlights always have a glow about them.

EXIF included. Sharpness? All there!

Testing LCA on the Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM. Very subdued, with modern color.

In comparison, this is from the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan – magenta/green LCA is very apparent. I prefer these classic Minolta colors.

100mm F4 with the beercan.

100mm F5 with the Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM.

Sample shot from the Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM with EXIF data.

So what does the SSM on this one feel like? A lot more responsive. It doesn’t take a fraction of a second to kick in, like I’ve experienced some times on the Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM or other brands’ equivalent 70-200mm F2.8s with internal motors. Not quite as instant as the Carl Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 SSM, but definitely as responsive as its screw driven brethren.

Sony 70-300mm F4.5-5.6G SSM apertures:
70mm onwards F4.5
90mm onwards F5.0
135mm onwards F5.6 (yes, disappointing)

Taken from a very cool camera – the Olympus E-420! 2000 Kelvin.

On the other end is 12000 Kelvin.

Yep, the Olympus E-420 is out! Unfortunately, they didn’t have the Olympus Zuiko Digital 25mm F2.8 pancake lens I was so looking forward to, here. I love pancakes when can I have one?

Kelvin WB in Live View. You have to hold down the EV button while rolling the dial though. The Sony A300/A350 puts their WB on the left of the screen so you get a clear view of the scene, while the Nikon D300/D3 puts it at the bottom if I remember correctly. Either way, it’s great to be able to set Kelvin WB in Live View.

The Live View Imager AF mode is AWESOME!

I used the camera exclusively in Live View, because Imager AF was pretty alright for a contrast-detect AF system! This was a lot faster than the trodding, misfocusing tripod-mode Nikon D300, or the slightly faster Canon EOS 450D. It felt like an old, slow point-and-shoot… but this was still ages beyond the D300 or 450D.

The lens used was the Olympus Zuiko Digital 14-42mm F3.5-5.6, a compact little wonder.

I didn’t even have time to check if the optical viewfinder showed all the settings inside, which Olympus has never failed to do, and I salute them for that.

Of course, the tilting-mirror system that is in the Sony A300/A350 gives phase-detect AF which is still the fastest AF in Live View, but this comes pretty close! I can only imagine if a 12-60mm F2.8-4.0 SWD was mounted on this…

Of course, there was a downside – the mirror had to go down before going up to release the shutter. ARGH! When I pressed the shutter in Live View, the screen darkened while freezing the image (which said 0:00:09.00). By the time the mirror went down and came up, the image recorded 0:00:10.07. 1.07 second shutter lag.

When I shot it, it said 0:00:34 ST 05. It recorded at 0:00:35.32. A variable shutter lag?

If not for this shutter lag in Live View, which was a bit too long, I’d already be dreaming about this camera all night. The E-420 with 25mm F2.8 pancake is something that would be appreciated very much by casual shooters who want a little pocketable buddy. Get a waist pouch and a FL-36R and you’re set for anything. And maybe a grappling hook, should foot zoom only get you so far.

And now, for the leftover shots from a March 9th 2008 Putrajaya outing with a bunch of Sony Alpha 700 cameras!

Part One here.

Nic gets full blast.

KJ conjures a shoe.

A clown should be able to pull some magic, like multiply it by 3.

…I don’t even know where the towel came from eh, KJ?

This is the remix.

Aligned using Adobe Photoshop and made into GIF animations using Adobe ImageReady.

How did we do it?

The bundled Sony A700 remote, and 5 A700s on tripods. There were problems with coverage though, as often the remote might not hit all 5 cameras at the right angle. Only my camera controlled 6 flashes wirelessly. Other cameras had to have their flashes off.

Manual focus was used, and ironically, we had a few A100 and A200 users, of which we borrowed their kit lenses for color and sharpness consistency. There was some variation however, as we forgot to account for differing UV filters and the flare that came with them.

(Thanks y’all!)

As for alignment, we used a yo-yo string (thanks Ewin!), though anything with variable length shouldn’t be used. Height was compared to a pillar nearby, with a F56 mounted, pointed straight up. To check levelness, the top of the F56 was compared to a fixed point of the pillar using a mobile phone, and the camera plus tripod was rotated to ensure evenness.

EXIF?

18mm F8 1/5s ISO400, 5500 Kelvin White Balance.

Thank you for your kit lenses:
Johnathan
Clive Ngu
KJ
Fook
Ewin
Norfazli
Chloe

Thank you for your A700 cameras:
Templar
Harry Choo
Nic
KJ
Albert

I have a more refined idea that can do a 360 degree rotation. Till the next time!

Here’s my test of the new Tamron 70-200mm F2.8 A01, for Canon EF mount, held mount-to-mount in front of my Sony Alpha 700. All shots at ISO1600, Aperture Priority (not that it would’ve made any difference since I had no way of controlling the aperture.) Lens focused to infinity, but its focus would actually be somewhere around 1.3 meters because the lens is too far from the sensor plane and thus has a extension tube effect.

Due to this, the lens being at infinity, the lens may actually be sharper due to it being at infinity with an “extension tube” rather than actual internal focus element movement.

1/125s. My immediate first impression was WOW! This is a contrasty lens. Bokeh is pretty well done in some cases. This shot was brightened on his face though; no sharpening applied. Had I flashed him, the lens would show immense potential.

1/80s. Out-of-focus bokeh test.

1/80s. Brightline bokeh test.

1/50s. It handles lower-contrast nearby subjects nicely, with a certain glow about them. There’s a tinge of LCA but it is done pleasantly, familiar to Minolta lenses I have.

1/160s. Busy backgrounds may be tricky, but I’ve seen worse out of F1.2 lenses.

1/100s. I love the green LCA behind the lens. However the front purplish LCA is almost never as welcome as its green counterpart. Some other lenses have reddish instead of magentaish front LCA, which I prefer.

1/60s. OOF text test.

1/60s. Oops, minor flare due to light leakage from handheld lens mounting. Still, it retains texture well.

I honestly am not a fan of 100% crops, there are other things about a lens to worry about… like the whole picture! Here’s a 100% crop anyway. Brightened as well. Sharp enough for me? You bet.

I love the weight of 1150 grams without the tripod mount. It’s very well balanced! I like how it looks like a giant lightsaber… or an oversized Tamron 90mm F2.8 Macro.

Some have said that this lens focuses slowly for the Canon mount. Tamron puts a motor inside the Canon version. However, the Sony Alpha mount version will be screw-driven (since Tamron hasn’t figured out SSM) so it MAY focus faster (and even faster if future bodies have stronger focus screw drives.)

Oh, and Super SteadyShot will help.

Likewise for the Pentax version – their Anti-Shake will help loads.

Note that the shutter speeds I posted are of almost no relevance – I don’t even remember what focal lengths I shot each picture at! Some people have the capability to tell focal lengths by the perspective of the picture so consult one of them.

The Tamron’s minimum focusing distance of 0.95 meters is amazing – it gets you to 1:3.1 magnification, a record-breaking magnification for a 70-200mm F2.8 lens. Meanwhile, the Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM does 1.2 meters, the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan does 1.1 meters, the Canon 70-200mm F2.8L IS USM does 1.5 meters.

Now there’s gonna be somebody who complains that there are no hot chicks in any of these pictures. Well sir I say, bring your own model to the shop and test the lens on her.

Now for some full-frame shots from my Minolta Dynax 7, with Kodak Gold ASA 400 film! Somehow I still prefer Fujifilm color.

Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX, at 17mm F2.8.

Mike’s Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8! The tiny depth of field gets better on larger formats.

Minolta 50mm F1.4 + soft 1.4x teleconverter = 75mm F2.0 (notice the weird out-of-focus lights.)

dx_myrddraal‘s 50mm F1.7. Still sharp as heck wide open (since it’s stuck there, hope you got its blades unstuck)!

50mm F1.7.

17mm F2.8.

I met cityfish and his army! Can you tell the difference between a close up filter, close-up extension tube and a teleconverter?

Combine them all (minus my Tamron 1.4x teleconverter, which has a nub in front that disallows any other teleconverter to be in front) to get a crazy, crazy magnifier.

A macro rail would be nice…

That’s the N of a Panasonic AA battery.

That’s a screw from the mount of a lens.

And later, I found Ahmik3 returning from a bungee jump with an electromagnetic device transplanted in him.

Codeword HVL-F42AM.

Sony HVL-F42AM mass order TT session part 2 – night scenes at the mamak! Click for part 1.

The poisonous Minolta 35mm F1.4 shot Ranceed.

35mm F1.4. Seen is MR.Shiney‘s Sony Alpha 350 with his newly bought Sony HVL-F42AM flash.

35mm F1.4. AhMike. A very normal shot with a very normal 35mm.

35mm F1.4. MR.Shiney. The dude in the background was distracting to the picture, and yet is separated due to the backlight on MR.Shiney’s shoulder. Lucky shot, I’d say!

35mm F1.4. zaharizal yo!

35mm F1.4. Thanks to thisiskj for holding the flash.

35mm F1.6. Thanks to thisiskj for holding the flash, and our smoke machines ihsan_29 and guladansusu.

I prefer this shot, too bad it was windy.