Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 for Canon EF-S mount and the Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 for Sony A mount. The Tamron for Canon has a positively audible *zzzt* sound when focusing, from the in-lens motor, while the Sony version doesn’t as it is driven by the screw drive on the body. The Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 for Canon didn’t have such a loud in-lens motor, and could focus to 20 cm close, getting 1:3 macro! However, I was pretty sure that the subject was about 3cm close. The Tamron did only 27cm close.

Yeo, who tested both, found the Tamron to be slightly sharper, and he didn’t notice the Tamron sound until I pointed it out.

Interestingly, the Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 for Nikon F-mount has two versions – the old screw-driven one, and one labelled NEW which has a motor inside. The motorized version is reported to be slower, though:
http://shashinki.com/blog/2008/03/04/tamron-sp-17-50mm-f28-a16n-ii-short-review/

I found it to be pretty sharp, though not scorching sharp or contrasty like Carl Zeiss lenses are, especially the Sony Carl Zeiss 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 DT which it gets compared to, a lot. Well, the CZ has better range and sharpness, at the expense of a stop or so in shutter speed.

Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 28-80mm F3.5-5.6 for Contax N mount! Funny, I didn’t know Carl Zeiss made darker standard kit lenses. Well they gotta, for Contax…

2:1 macro with the Sony 18-70mm F3.5-5.6 DT lens and my Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 35mm F2.4 reversed in front of it. Two rings were used – a 55-58mm step up ring and a 58-49mm reverse ring.

1.1:1 macro with the Canon EF-S 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 IS USM and Canon 50mm F1.8 MkII reversed in front of it. A 58-52mm reverse ring was used.

Canon 500mm F4.5L, casually slung across his back.

This is how Ein and I found out that the Tokina 11-16mm F2.8 can be used on full-frame from about 13mm onwards. This is the same method I used to mount the Tamron 70-200mm F2.8 for Canon mount on my Sony A700!

Tamron 90mm F2.8 with 2x teleconverter and flash.

Tamron 90mm F2.8 without teleconverter. Uh, obvious blue chromatic aberration on the Canon text!

Holy! The new Sony HVL-F58AM flash has been announced!

It turns sideways for portrait orientation! They call this Quick Shift Bounce. It goes 90 degrees left and right.

It rotates up and back 150 degrees for rear bounce mode (and 10 degrees down for macro). You can combine BOTH sideways and rear bounce for rear portrait ‘foofing’.

This is probably the biggest Sony innovation to the Alpha series just yet – the rest of the things people go OOOH about were actually done by Minolta ages ago.

More details:

http://www.photoclubalpha.com/2008/06/19/sonys-flash-revolution-the-hvl-f58am/

Guide Number 58 meters at ISO100, 105mm flash zoom, F1.0 lens. Divide the guide number by the aperture to get the actual range.

It also can be used as a wireless controller, so there can be a flash on the body and 3 wireless groups.

Minolta invented wireless TTL flash, but Nikon took lead with their Creative Lighting System. Hopefully, with this, it has caught up!

The PDF file shows something else – an upsized hotshoe foot, looking bigger than the one that comes with the Nikon SB-800. Unfortunately it’s shrunk down so I cannot make out where else the foot connects.

Though, a question – how would the F36, F42 or F56 identify which group it belongs to?

George, shot by Ted Adnan with my Vivitar 24mm F2.0 Tilt-Shift lens.

I think I stopped down a wee bit and did a tilt forward to get an insanely deep depth of field.

I tilted left to get the entire scene in focus, even with the lens being at F2.0!

Tilting to the right, however, gives the opposite effect. Scheimpflug principle in use.

Happy (belated) Birthday Jack! A side effect of tilting is what it does to points of light, like the candle on the cake.

This is the standard limit that my DIY tilt-shift with the body cap can achieve.

Removing the body cap removed the angle limitations, and it was free to tilt to extreme angles. Only problem would be that light could leak in the back of the lens much easier.

Lookathishand!

This is my wait in the bus.

Rail in focus… and so is the seat on the left.

Broken pole! The entire assembly was swinging from side to side.

Another removed-body-cap shot.

24mm on APS-C makes great sense – it’s a classic normalish-wide focal length.

You get the same angle out of a point-and-shoot.

Guess That Trashcan pimpin’ after this!