More geeking out time! Here’s the Sony Alpha 700 with a Kenko 2x teleconverter, Tamron 1.4x teleconverter and Tamron 200-400mm F5.6 (to reach 1100mm F16). On it is the Sony HVL-F56AM flash just for kicks.

On the very day that I got the A700, I shot this with the Sony A100. Without flash, that is. Unfortunately we’d need someone to point a light at his/herself to see anything. 1100mm F16 1/320s ISO800.

Hey man what’s cooking? 1100mm F25 1/80s ISO800.

Traffic stopper. 1100mm F20 1/125 ISO800.

Sony A700 at KLCC Park. Finally I came early enough to catch some people at the KLCC Skybridge! 1100mm F16 1/250s ISO1600.

I revisited the Vivitar Series 1 28-105mm F2.8-3.8 when I sold my A100 and kit lens. The out-of-focus areas are relatively creamy. Delectable! 105mm F4.

The A700 with its ISO6400 and low-light AF capabilities make way for new types of shots, like cats in streetlight. 50mm F1.4 1/60s ISO6400.

The Sigma 24-70mm F2.8 EX! I quite like the Sigma yellow here. Its focal range is nice for APS-C, and even better on full frame.

What a chunk. It takes 82mm front filters!

I remembered that I had a Vivitar 24mm F2.0 OM-mount lens at home, so I tried to hold it in front of the camera like a tilt-shift lens.

Given the proper tilt, I can get a bigger zone of in-focus area even when the lens is wide open.

Given the interesting bokeh in the top-right corner, it might be worth doing a mount operation.

I also tried holding my Auto Chinon 135mm F2.8 K-mount manual focus lens in front of my A100. Flare is because I had to move the lens further away from the body in order to focus nearer, and light would leak in.

That said, it is also tempting to remount this lens.

Back with Version 1 of the Sony A700 firmware, I experienced hanging when I shot this with DRO+. I’m guessing that DRO+ chokes on complex highlight/shadow data like this.

Same for this. However, with Version 2 I didn’t notice it freezing up with complex subjects.

Thanks to Brian for discovering this – when you shoot a flourescent-lit scene at fast shutter speeds, you may get inconsistent lighting. This is because flourescent lamps pulse at the same rate as your electricity supply e.g. 50 Hertz. The orangey bit is natural light, while the white bottom part is from the flourescent lamp. 50mm F1.4 1/500s ISO1600.

Guess how I did this!

I turned my A100 with Sony HVL-F56AM flash on it, on manual mode, to point at the orange wall to my right. The flash then triggered my Nikon SB-28 coming from my left.

A different white balance for a cooling effect.

This was all possible with an optical slave trigger, then sitting on a tripod. Note the battery pack strapped to it, as Nikon threw away the battery cover when it was sent for servicing.

Erna’s pinhole workshop, 30th June 2007 at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia. Yep, a trip down memory lane, because back then we were using film!

She sealed the entire room from light and poked a hole through some manila paper to reveal a hole out into the sun. The room had become a camera obscura!

Then, it was time to make our own light-proof box.

It required a sacrificial roll of film (on the right.) We’d use a paperclip to advance the film from the new film roll to enter the roll on the right. The film was cellotaped together, and a little clicker was installed on the new roll so we could listen for eight clicks and know that a roll had advanced.

Note the inside was black to avoid internal reflection.

Sealed shut, with a manual shutter. I taped the view indicator the wrong way round on top.

The hole was about 0.2mm which was 24mm away from the film plane. Thus, the aperture would be 24mm/0.2mm = F120. Given the Sunny F16 rule, a sunny scene would take 1/13th of a second to expose with ASA 100 film. Of course, with negative film we had much leeway for over and underexposure so timing was not crucial. Add the idea that pinhole exposures are supposed to look artsy and lomographic and you can get away with more.

I poked a hole in the cardboard and placed it in front of my Sony A100 with no lens attached. Approximately 45mm F22 1/2s ISO1600. A similiar shot with the 50mm at F22 gave the same meter readings.

This time, a 5 second exposure.

We were supposed to hand the finished roll over to Erna when we were done with it, but I got a premature shock when I found that my roll gave a bit too much resistance. Had my roll finished? The clicker didn’t click anymore. It might have been dislodged, so I could’ve over-rolled.

The pinhole camera still sits in my dry box to this very day.

After that, we roamed the museum. Some may recognize Kaz of the KL Flickr group on the right.

Liyana says No Photography!

Awi setting up a Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex (TLR, not SLR) for a group shot.

In theory, I could remake the pinhole to have a crazy focal length of 12mm by shifting the pinhole back. Yes, that’s right, a rectilinear 12mm on 35mm film! The only lens that can do that is the Sigma 12-24mm F4.5-5.6 EX DG on full frame. To get there on APS-C you’d need a 6mm lens but Olympus only gets as wide as 7mm!

Shifting the pinhole back nearer to the lens also means a brighter aperture! To be exact, you’d get speeds 2 stops faster.

I found the new Sony 16-105mm F3.5-5.6 DT in Boeing, LG floor, Sungei Wang Plaza!

This lens was supposed to be the kit lens for the Sony A700, but in Malaysia we get the Sony 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 DT as a kit lens instead. Perhaps such a high-powered zoom speaks to Malaysians more. (It focuses faster, has circular aperture blades and different coatings compared to the Tamron version.)

Plus sides:
Great sharpness and obscenely high contrast, like the Carl Zeiss 16-80mm F3.5-4.5. I did not compare it with a CZ 16-80mm so a direct and fair comparison cannot be made. Tracking is doable, not super, but more than capable in good light. Focusing is fast with the focusing screw taking about 3.5 turns only.

It also looks remarkably like the Carl Zeiss, but with two parts in the extension instead of one.

If what some guess is right, it is probably Sony’s own ripoff of the CZ, based on CZ designs.

16mm F3.5 1/50s ISO200, focused on the stack of magazines.

105mm F5.6 1/100s ISO1600. On the full-size image I can see wrinkles on the back of his right ear. Sharp indeed.

Minus sides?

Sony 16-105mm F3.5-5.6 DT apertures:
F3.5 from 16mm onwards
F4.0 from 17mm onwards
F4.5 from 22mm onwards
F5.0 from 35mm onwards
F5.6 from 55mm onwards

Yes, F5.6 at 55mm!

If I didn’t love 16mm on APS-C so much already, I’d go for the Sony 24-105mm F3.5-4.5 full-frame lens.

The CZ looks a lot better, at F4.5 at 80mm. F3.5-4.5 sounds almost like F4 anyway. The price is honestly not that much more expensive, either!

Personally, I like my zooms at F4 or F3.5-4.5, as paying for a constant F2.8 doesn’t seem worth it. F2.8 to me is not bright enough, while F2 is sweeet. Hence I’d pick the CZ over the Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 DT. Blistering sharpness over 1 stop which is nothing, given the A700’s superb high-ISO performance.

Bokeh is good, but not super-creamy, kinda like the CZ, too. This claim is not verified with a CZ owner. Note: Look not just at the big circles, but how the dark areas transition to the bright areas.

I didn’t get to test it with my Minolta Dynax 7 for full-frame usability. However, if it’s anything like the CZ, there will always be a black circle around the frame.

If you have the CZ, keep it and get a 1.4x teleconverter to bring it to 120mm F6.3.

On a side note, the CZ is one of the better (and yet, surprisingly cheaper) professional-image-quality lenses one can get for APS-C. It comes close in price to the Canon EF 17-40mm F4L USM, without the full-frame support but with Super SteadyShot, of course. Nikon doesn’t have a non F2.8 DX lens in that focal range that gives top performance (unless you stretch the Nikkor 18-70mm into that definition.)

And now, for part two of this post.

Good job Sony Style The Curve!

They had the Sony Alpha 700 on display, a hands-on unit! It was equipped with the new Sony 18-250mm F3.5-6.3 DT.

Shot this with the Sony 35mm F1.4G. Can’t say I particularly like the output, though it does have the liquid color I like (cyan/green CA around lights), there are minor artifacts in the back where there’s a kid sitting on a chair.

You can also find hands-on units at Sony Style Midvalley and Sony Style KLCC. (Interestingly the Sony Style in Gardens Midvalley has a lot of Sony 11-18mm F4.5-5.6 DT and Sony 100mm F2.8 Macro lenses all locked in glass display units.)

If you want to feel and touch what I’ve been raving about, please head down to the Sony Style outlets I have listed. 😀

A huge display! Each side has a drawer that slides out.

Bags bags bags. The left two are the A100’s bag; it comes with an A100 battery. The better buy is still the one second from the right; the more ergonomic A700 bag, with the A700 battery, which can fit in the A100 (but the A100 battery cannot fit in the A700.)

Accessories.

Lenses. From left, I think: Sony 1.4x teleconverter, Sony 2x teleconverter, Sony Carl Zeiss 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 DT, Sony 500mm F8 Auto-focusing Reflex Mirror lens, Sony 75-300mm F4.5-5.6, Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 Smooth Transition Focus, Sony 11-18mm F4.5-5.6 DT, Sony 24-105mm F3.5-4.5, Sony 50mm F1.4, Sony 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 DT, Sony 28mm F2.8, Sony 55-200mm F4-5.6 DT, Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 DT, Sony 20mm F2.8.

Sorry, the circular polarizer I used didn’t help much at this angle.

From left: Sony HVL-F56AM, A700 vertical grip (kickass), Sony Carl Zeiss ZA T* 135mm F1.8, Sony Carl Zeiss ZA T* 85mm F1.4, Sony A100 with what looks like a Sony Carl Zeiss 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 DT on, and another CZ behind it.

Notably missing were the Sony 70-200mm F2.8G SSM and Sony 300mm F2.8G SSM lenses. However, the first big white can be found around shops in Sg. Wang and Sony Style KLCC.

I first tried the new Sony 55-200mm F4-5.6 DT, a Tamron rebadge with circular aperture and Sony coatings, and possibly faster gearing too. 55mm F4 1/50s ISO1600. Looks clean, but quite blocky bokeh.

200mm F5.6 1/60s ISO1600. Decent sharpness wide open, very minor CA on the buttons on the radio.

200mm F5.6 1/80s ISO1600. OOF lights on the tree are decently rendered. Nothing super.

What’s super about the 55-200mm though, is its size; it’s only a bit bigger than the Sony 18-70mm kit lens, itself a decently sharp bargain.

Then, I tried the Sony 20mm F2.8. 20mm F2.8 1/30s ISO250. Looks like I won’t be using this for macro. Note the brightline bokeh at the back.

Minor but simple barrel distortion.

Of course, distortion is not meant to be tested at close range, as lenses get more distorted there. A better test would be to focus on infinity. If you still get distortion there you’ll have a problem being a landscape shooter with such a lens. 🙁

Despite all this, it is sharp, has nice tones, and has excellent background separation. (In Xian Jin’s words.) 20mm F2.8 1/30s ISO500.

And then, the Sony 35mm F1.4G. I like the focal length, but for me, I find it a bit hard to love. At F2.8 I presume that I’d be more in focus. 35mm F1.4 1/60s ISO400.

Next, the Sony 135mm F2.8/T4.5 STF. I dodged my face though because DRO was off when Xian Jin took this picture of me. Bokeh is superb and is one of two reasons this lens is sold; the other is sharpness. 135mm (at T6.7) 1/60s ISO1600.

135mm T4.5 1/60s ISO1600. Note the sphere-like rendition of OOF lights on the tree.

Out of curiousity I put my Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan (also highly regarded for liquid colors and creamy bokeh) against it. 150mm F4.5 1/100s ISO1600.

In retrospect, I should’ve checked the focal length again after shooting because it wasn’t exactly 135mm. Also, a 135mm F2.8 would be a fairer test as the STF gives F2.8-like bokeh, but at F4.5 to F6.7 speeds (hence the T rating instead of F for aperture.)

The T number also affects how much darker OOF spots become at the sides.

The Sony 135mm STF at 135mm T4.5 1/125s ISO1600.

The Sony 135mm STF at 135mm T6.3 1/50s ISO1600. I’m sure I set the T to 6.7 but the camera EXIF reports F6.3 errorneously. Also the shutter speed looks like it shot at F6.7 equivalent light.

135mm F6.3 1/40s ISO1600. This was in Aperture Priority with the T ring set to Auto.

135mm F6.3 1/40s ISO1600. This was with the T ring set to T6.7.

I then walked out, and found this. Shot with the Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX just to compare. Aaa attack of the brightline bokeh!

All shots shot with Auto ISO (200-1600 depending on focal length rule) and Auto White Balance, for those who wonder how the Sony A700 fares.

And now, for part three of this post:

Lens Envy

I do envy certain lenses that don’t come in the A-mount, like the Sigma 50-150mm F2.8 EX DC. Some say it is available for the A-mount, though. Having held one, this baby is the same weight and diameter as the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan, and is just a bit shorter. Internally it looks the same; internal zoom elements can be seen from the outside.

This is great for the event photographer who doesn’t need a chunky 1.5kg 70-200mm F2.8 (which had great focal lengths for full-frame film but goes too far in APS-C crop bodies.) A 50-150mm F2.8 is under 800 grams!

Apparently, it gets LCA, as explained by David Kilpatrick (though the post talks about the Carl Zeiss 85mm F1.4):
http://www.photoclubalpha.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=44

Of course, I like the modularity of having a 50mm F1.4, 2x teleconverter (to get you to 100mm F2.8), and perhaps a Carl Zeiss 135mm F1.8 (at 1050 grams, though, but still very holdable).

The new Tokina 11-16mm F2.8 Pro DX only comes in Canon and Nikon flavors. The Tokina 10-17mm F3.5-4.5 Fisheye comes in Canon, Nikon, and Pentax’s own version of it.

Then there’s the Sigma 4.5mm EX DC Circular Fisheye for APS-C cameras.

Finally, I think it’s just cool that a digital camera can have a wireless flash controller. What?

Olympus SP-560UZ gains wireless flash through firmware 3.1

Okay, back to my allegiance. Check out Digital Camera Resource Page’s excellently-written review of the Sony Alpha 700!

Jen Han called one evening with a situation – he needed me to take party shots for PartyOut since he couldn’t go. And so, I went to Bed with my Sony Alpha 700 and put it to the test – ISO1600 with the Sigma 17-35mm F2.8-4 EX at (on average) 1/4s and Sony HVL-F56AM set on TTL mode. This was the 7th of October 2007 morning, technically, since I only got there at 1:30am.

Yes, chicks in Bed!

Deejays in Bed!

The club colors help to give an interesting pink tinge on their faces.

I have to thank my pimp in the bottom-right for gathering party people to camwhore.

Hmmm. That looks like a Motorola.

I have never felt so welcome, pointing to my camera, gesturing to take a picture. Yes this is a crop of an ISO1600 picture. The A700 is amazingly clean at ISO1600 with flash.

I like the various random expressions of the people here.

The slower shutter speeds bring out the club’s colored lighting.

Nice belt.

What you say? PartyOut?

The Sigma is amazingly sharp at 17mm F4 with properly directed lighting.

Bed is really, really small.

Check out my shadow in his protoplasmic glow!

Not a chick, but I love his expression.

It’s times like these I wish I wasn’t lugging around a camera bag…

Green red blue.

15th September 2007 – the KL Photo Fest in Berjaya Times Square, with a model shoot session where one would have to fight for space to shoot models.

Obviously not a problem for this dude with a Canon 500mm F4L IS USM lens.

Suzanne Lee spotted!

The new Tamron 70-200mm F2.8 Macro, yet to be released. Its weight is well-balanced towards the back and it feels smaller than other 70-200mm F2.8 zooms.

Regardless, I walked around with the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan lens. It makes pretty liquid color bokeh like this (note the pleasant green tinge on out-of-focus borders.)

And yes, us camera geeks walked around with cameras slung around our necks, checking each other’s lenses out, identifying them in our head as we go. Kinda like how girls can tell where a girl’s top was bought from.

Sure you don’t want one of these? The Tamron 200-500mm F5-6.3, which looks like a rocket launcher when extended. Interestingly, it’s a push-pull from the front, but also has a zoom ring; either method will zoom the lens. Of course, it is way more expensive than the discontinued Tamron 200-400mm F5.6 I have. I do appreciate the tripod mount which extends out so you can put your hand in it and hold it as a video camera.

Okay, maybe I want one of these.

Digiscoping with a Ricoh. The uncle cleverly set it upon a rooftop pool somewhere in the city.

Sweet.

(Off sequence is this guy on an escalator. Noise intentional from oversharpening.)

So yes you get the pattern? Alternating chicks and geeking out.

And for another day, where Azrul Kevin Abdullah of 807 Studio shot Sony Alpha users who would have their pictures featured in the Sony Alpha 700 launch (myself included, heh!)

Oh the 25th of August 2007, I went down to Sunway Lagoon for the Sloggi Blue Summer Party. Thanks Templar for the ticket!

Down to business back then, I brought the Cosina 70-210mm F2.8-4 Macro and my Tamron 1.4x and Kenko 2x teleconverters for some 600mm stalking fun. This was at 600mm, F29, ISO400, 1/160s. Yes F29, that’s how scorchingly bright the place was. Plus I could afford to be shooting at 1/160s instead of the traditional 1/1000s at a 900mm equivalent length. Thank you, Sony Alpha 100, for Super SteadyShot!

But first, a disclaimer: Guys and girls were all checking each other out, so it’s not like I was any more a voyeur.

Sometimes, they spot you and pose!

Sometimes, they walk past. Yum.

420mm F10 ISO400 1/500s.

Yes yes wet fun!

…some people had dry fun.

And some, they just camwhored for the massive hoard of male photographers wandering around.

600mm F14 ISO400 1/160s. This was the top of a giant, wide, water slide.

Insert Mandy Moore lyric here about the boys checking you out.

Chicks love photographers.

Chicks also love balloons.

Chicks love hiding in the shade while waiting for their turn to dance.

More to come!

(Yes, recycled picture from Solve The Softie blog post.)

I think you know where this is heading. Yet another blog post with lots of pictures of one birthday girl. Here she is at our ex-colleague’s wedding, waiting for her prince to come.

…anyway, despite how much you bully us and make us want to slap you…

…you still throw nice parties, albeit all the way in Klang…

…With nice food and…

…salted butter. Salted butter! Yum!

Plus, your house rocks because it has an OSIM chair. The iMedic IV has one of my favorite programs and was the predecessor to the OSIM iDesire, which had my favorite neck-slapping sequence at the end.

Yes, I’m one of those shameless people who sit in OSIM chairs without buying them. Call me a connoisseur of massage chairs.

I spy.

I have to say what a photographic pleasure it is to have such white surfaces resulting in high-key-like photos.

And finally, for more geeking; I tap the AEL button on my Sony Alpha 700 to Spot Meter on the pillar behind Allison, before shooting. Shot in Aperture Priority at 17mm F4.5 ISO1600. The spot-metered pillar was 1/40s.

Yes, you can shoot with flash in Aperture Priority provided you lock exposure, to override the default flash sync speed and get nice ambient-light mix photos. Manual Exposure works too, but hey, if you understand what automation the camera gives you, you can work faster!

And now, for Part Two of my gripping tale of how I hold my Sony Alpha 700. Part One is here.

This is the standard, intuitive grip. The thumb lands on the AF/MF button, but the Drive, WB and ISO buttons are notably out of reach, on the top surface. A few friends who had the A700 also wondered if we had the common affliction of having Asian-sized hands.

wkcheang also reports discomfort, that the bottom-right corner of the camera leaves uncomfortable pressure upon his palm. I never faced such a problem; I always felt it to be soft and rounded.

Those of you who have had a smaller SLR would probably tuck their last finger under the grip. I used to do that with my ol’ Sony Alpha 100.

However, when I do that with the A700, something else happens – my thumb can now reach the top three buttons with ease, and the first joint of my thumb presses the AF/MF button and operates the rear dial!

The aforementioned pressure to the palm is also gone.

And this is the leftie grip which I learnt from Asyraf and Ted. With some amount of dexterity, you could even operate everything with your left hand alone!