___________________________________________________________________________ Sony A35 work sample shot. Below is a sample shot from the
new Sony A35, (review here) which I've been using and reviewing this past month. This sample shot is indistinguishable from the A900 shot at
medium to small sizes. At full resolution there are differences noticeable between the two, possibly
due to the different lenses used; the CZ 16-35mm was used for the A900, the Sigma 10-20mm F/4-5.6 for
the A35. This room has an ugly parking lot visible through the shutters, that's
why they're closed here. I could've swapped the window view, but sometimes that's not appropriate.
I liked the look of the wood shutters, and thought that closing them and highlighting them made perfect
sense. I took alternates too, but I happen to like this shot best, that's why I'm showing it. In
addition to the lamps, I used seven supplemental lights to highlight the bed, chairs, shutters, table
and night stand. Since there is no outside light to use, and build on, I had to use two flashes
bounced at full power to give me my base exposure. In the end, it doesn't make any
difference as far as what camera is used, any DSLR could produce similar results, even 10 year old
ones, or 50 year old film cameras if you're nostalgic, and careful. Supplemental lighting is the key here, that's
where you want to spend your time and money if this is the kind of photography you want to do. I
like the room, but the lamps have CFLs in them, I hate those lights because of the slightly greenish
light they give off, and should've replaced them with incandescents, which I normally have, but
I didn't carry them for this shoot. I also think the bedspread could've been a little more interesting,
but that's beyond my responsibility. Specs: Sony A35, Sigma 10-20mm F/4-5.6, 16mm (24mm equiv), F/7.1, 1/13sec, ISO 200, manual white balance.  ___________________________________________________________________________ Old Minolta zoom lenses prices from way-back.
Here are some
list prices for most of the popular AF Minolta zoom lenses from the 1980s and 1990s. The prices below were culled
from period publications, and receipts sent in by readers; see the 8/21 entry for the prime lenses.
The first column lists the lens model with appropriate designation, like "G"
or "APO" etc. If there is no designation, that probably means it was an original model,
before the upgrade. The second column lists the price, the first price is the
lowest from my data, the second price is the highest. If only one price is listed, it means I
only had one source for that lens model. The third column is the year for the price, the
first entry is the earliest, the second the latest. If only one year is listed, it means I only had one
source. The fourth column lists the old prices converted to 2010 US Dollars;
I used the highest old price for the conversion to current prices. The converted Dollar figure
is for fun only as it has little relevance today because lens technology and manufacturing technics have
improved greatly, which allows lens prices to be far lower with better optical quality than they were
just 8-10 years ago. I have a couple of ads from a large NY city camera discount house, (not shown, but
probably B&H photo) that has prices that are significantly lower than what you see below, I'll sort the prices out and
post them soon. I'd guess the actual street prices of the lenses in the US would be 10-20% south of the
lower price figure.
|
Minolta AF Lens model
|
List price in US dollars
|
Date of price
|
Converted to 2010 US Dollars
|
|
17-35mm F/3.5 G
|
$2856
|
1997
|
$3880
|
|
20-35mm F/3.5-4.5
|
$840
|
1998
|
$1120
|
|
24-50mm F/4
|
$415-$496
|
1987-1990
|
$727
|
|
28-85mm F/3.5-4.5 original
|
$325-$596
|
1990-1994
|
$877
|
|
28-135mm F/4-4.5
|
$525-$512
|
1986-1990
|
$854
|
|
28-70mm F/2.8 G
|
$2170
|
1996
|
$3020
|
|
35-70mm F/4
|
$132
|
1985
|
$268
|
|
35-80mm F/4-5.6 shutter cap (?)
|
$202 - $231
|
1988-1990
|
$385
|
|
35-105mm F/3.5-4.5
|
$376
|
1990
|
$627
|
|
70-210mm F/4 'Beercan'
|
$192
|
1985
|
$389
|
|
70-210mm F/3.5-4.5
|
$338-376
|
1988-1990
|
$627
|
|
75-300mm F/4.5-5.6 'Big Beercan'
|
$532-$744
|
1986-1990
|
$1240
|
|
80-200mm F/2.8 APO (black)
|
$1368-$1641
|
1990
|
$2740
|
|
80-200mm F/4.5-5.6 shutter cap
|
$282
|
1990
|
$470
|
|
100-200mm F/4.5
|
$210-$171
|
1986-1990
|
$350
|
|
100-300mm F/4.5-5.6 APO
|
$670
|
1994
|
$986
|
|
100-300mm F/4.5-5.6 APO (D)
|
$1116
|
2001
|
$1370
|
|
100-400mm F/4.5-6.7
|
$1400
|
1995
|
$2000
|
___________________________________________________________________________ Below is another work sample using the consumer
grade Sony A580. I use this camera when the client doesn't have a need for huge enlargements, such as this spec house
job highlighting the homebuilders interior details for a promotional website, not for print. This scene
has massive natural light from two huge windows, one in back and to the right, the other on the left side. There were
no curtains, so I had no control over the outside light, which 'flattened' or wiped out the contrast in the cabinetry and
chair. My hard work this day was trying to use supplemental lighting to bring back the details in the cabinets
and chair. Here I 'raked' light across the wood at a pretty hard angle, generally from the left to the right, and from
top to bottom. I also used a flash with grid to provide a little bit of light behind the small round table to make it
stand out against the lower cabinet. I did the same thing on the upper cabinets, but had to drop those in later (post
processing) as it caused harsh shadows on other areas. Finally, I hand-held a flash high up over the chair in the foreground
to make it 'pop' with some much needed contrast. This image is a tight crop from the original; there's
a small wall niche to the right with a neat floral arrangement, but I wanted to post the image this way to provide more details
for my quasi tutorial. I used about 4-5 bare flashes for this shot, no umbrellas or gels, and lowered the
exposure and WB to make it more 'evening' like. An interior designer added the props. Specs are; F/7.1, 1/8sec,
20mm (30mm FF equiv) ISO 200.
___________________________________________________________________________ Click the image below for the complete SanDisk sale.
|
| Sandisk card deals |
___________________________________________________________________________ New price updates, and bogus testing of A900 to A77/65.
I've
fully updated all the new and used prices on the lens review pages and price guide. The prices seem to have stabilized
on the used market this year, so most items are marked 'steady' in the 'trending' column. There are a few of exceptions,
like the Sony 20mm F/2.8, which seems to be getting more popular as time goes by (because it's a very good lens), and two
Sony discontinued flashes, HVL-F56AM and HVL-F42AM. Both Sony flashes were a good buy before they were replaced. I
see a couple of test chart comparisons of the A900 against the new A77/65, unfortunately, these tests mean nothing because
the testers or reviewers are using two different lenses at two different focal lengths, at different apertures, using jpegs,
all the while taking close-focus images of a test chart or color checker. This type of testing makes no sense, you're
not comparing apples to apples. Test charts at close focus are great for macro lenses, poor for prime lenses, and really
bad for zoom lenses. The reviewers are using the zoom lenses to try and make up the difference for the crop factor of
the A77/65. My advise to those reviewers would be to compare the two cameras using the same wide angle lens focused
at infinity---a wide lens is used so you aren't too far from the subject, and eliminates atmospheric problems. Use the
exact same focal length, do not adjust for the crop factor. Take your shots by moving the cameras forwards or backwards,
whichever you like, until the capture area is identical on each camera); set the aperture to F/5.6 or F/8 and take the crops
from the centers only, as the sides can look far different from different lenses, and at different zoom lengths. Use
a tripod and timer, and turn off SteadyShot. Use manual focus and bracket your focusing so there is no question about
the shot being in focus. Also, shoot RAW to minimize any differences in jpeg processing. Testing in this way will
result in a more accurate comparison (although not perfect), but most testers aren't photographers, their only concern is
new technology, and they never bother to learn how to make good pictures or properly compare cameras, it's all about the chatter.
So there's my mini rant of the day folks! More A35 stuff to come, including some samples from a
real photo shoot!
___________________________________________________________________________
The shot below was taken several years ago shortly after I bought the Sigma 10-20mm F/4-5.6 lens. Prior to that point I had been using the Sony 24-105mm F/3.5-4.5 with the A900.
This image is too wide in my opinion. Like most people, after I bought that Sigma
10-20mm ultra-wide lens I thought it was really neat to take pictures at 10mm, that's a big mistake. This tiny bathroom
is rendered nicely here, and the client was very happy, but the hard convergence to the left produced by using a super wide
focal length of 10mm (15mm in full frame terms) bothers me, do you notice it or not? Does it bother you? There
were no flashes used for this shot, it was a three shot HDR if I remember correctly. It could've used some supplemental
lighting, but I wasn't skilled at off camera flash at the time. I cloned out a light in the shower stall because it
was oblong from the corner rendering, and I used some simple shadows/highlights adjustments to complete the final image.
|
| a really 'wide' image |
___________________________________________________________________________ Massive Sony price increases on most lenses.
Sony has
increased the prices on most of their full-frame lenses, up about 5-15% depending on model. The more expensive models
were raised about $200, like the 70-200mm, 70-400mm and 24-70mm, although the uber-expensive 300/2.8 did not get bumped up.
Camera body prices seem to be unchanged for now, as are the NEX lenses and most "DT" lenses. This
of course is not welcome news for Sony full frame shooters, it almost feels like they're 'punishing' what they consider their
least important customers. Oh well, I like my A580......
|
| Sony price increases on lenses |
___________________________________________________________________________ If you have five minutes to burn, check out this surfing video from the Billabong Pro Tahiti (Teahupoo) event this past week. I don't normally watch surfing, but this footage is
pretty crazy, especially in the middle. If you want to see a condensed version of this with mostly big waves, go here.
|
| Cool surf vid |
|
