# Sony a6000 - The once and future camera (with a smidgen of a5100)



## William_Wilson

My first a6000 thread died in the plague, so I thought a revival with some fresh photos might be in order.

A picture from before:









A botanical theme:

























































Later,
William


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## William_Wilson

Now a zoological theme:


















































Later,
William


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## William_Wilson

The dog and cat pics were taken with my new Zeiss Touit 32mm f1.8, just back from the service centre after having the firmware updated. The cat photos used a bounced Sony HVL-F20m for fill.

Later,
William

P.S. - All of these are straight from the camera with only resizing.


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## William_Wilson

Damnation up a pig's ########!!!! How on earth did I manage to screw up the title of this thread? :angry: 

Later,
William


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## Faze

*Plans are afoot to go out with the my a6000 tomorrow, country house and Farmers market
I bought a *Canon FD 50mm f1.8 lens that I've been trying out the focus peaking function with and found that to be very good and easy to use, which is a plus for me.

There's also a Military show on Sunday that might be fun.


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## DJH584

> Damnation up a pig's ########!!!! How on earth did I manage to screw up the title of this thread? :angry:
> 
> Later,
> William


Perhaps the dog and the cat had a punch up whilst you were typing and you hit the letter "r" instead of the letter "t" - they are next to each other :smile: :smile:

David


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## Faze

Took a few shots today, only really liked these 3 in the end, but early days.
I haven't got Photoshop of any sort, but used Google Picasa to faff around abit, and they did come out better than when they went in.


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## Will Fly

Nice stuff. Do you shoot in JPEG? As you can see from the forum posts, I've just acquired a Canon EOS 70D, and I've decided to shoot in raw and then process files with Lightroom for some stuff. For the web, JPEGs are fine.


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## Faze

These were in JPEG, I don't have Lightroom, but feel that's next on the list.
I keep trying to get into photography but don't get very far. I must admit though, this camera is fantastic, it's just me holding it back at the moment.


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## Faze

Had some extension tubes turn up this afternoon, and decided to photo something non reflective, as watches came be a pig at times.

Good result I think.


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## William_Wilson

Those are very nice.

Here is a link to Capture One Pro. It is a RAW editor ( it also does the other graphic formats ) that I use. Sony users can get it at a greatly reduced price. Another thing you can do is plug your a6000 into the computer and edit the photo before you have even taken it, controlling and verifying the shot before you press the button.

https://www.phaseone.com/en/Imaging-Software/Capture-One-for-Sony.aspx?

Later,
William


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## DJH584

> Had some extension tubes turn up this afternoon, and decided to photo something non reflective, as watches came be a pig at times.
> 
> Good result I think.


My god!!! Did you singe the eyebrows of the delivery man???

On a serious note... yes that picture has turned out very well.

David


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## William_Wilson

Faze said:


> Had some extension tubes turn up this afternoon, and decided to photo something non reflective, as watches came be a pig at times.
> 
> Good result I think.


His hair piece is better than some I've seen. :biggrin:

Later,
William


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## Faze

Seems to be every day I find something amazing about the a6000
Today it's focus magnifier.

Managed to 'acquire' Lightroom 5 too.. Now that's another learning curve.


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## Faze

Some good tutorials here

https://sites.google.com/site/sonya6000camera/

I kike the idea of photo stacking, bu looks like photoshop is needed, unless there's a free app that will do it


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## dobra

Some super piccies here. My Lightroom was ancient, so I ditched it in favour of Lightzone, an American open source free digital programme. Had it for over a year, and it is a fast processor and workstation. Try it for free. http://lightzoneproject.org.

Mike


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## Will Fly

Here's a (greatly reduced from TIFF) pic of an early morning shoot down by the River Arun in Amberley, Sussex, a few days ago. This was with the Canon 70D and an 18mm-135mm lens.


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## Faze

My offering today Sony a6000 E16-50mm f3.5-5.6 OSS lens, taken at the Haynes Motor Museum near me.
Little bit of faffing in Lightroom, still learning that side, so may have overdone it a bit: I mean there may have been a few more armament factories, and not quite as many elephants!










Original version


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## Faze

Spouse free day today, so can get my teeth into it.


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## Faze

*NOT MINE*

Some chap on a facebook group, just posted this using the stacking process.

Sony A6000 SEL-50mm & Raynox DCR-250 Super Macro lens f:5.6 1/25s ISO:400 Stacked from 24 photos


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## William_Wilson

Some nice work!

Later,
William


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## Faze

Have you seen any information on the CCTV Fotasy 35mm f1.7 lens?
Looks like a lot of cheap fun could be had.

Photo examples - https://www.flickr.com/photos/loubella/sets/72157651166998328


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## William_Wilson

I'm not really feeling the love for that product. I think you could shoot wide open in AP mode and create all of that fall off in the periphery with Lightroom. You'd still have the option of completely sharp images and fast changes to other shooting modes. This product leaves you with no choice except full manual mode. If fully manual operation is sufficient, I'd perhaps consider a cheap M42 adapter and a cheap old timey screw mount lens, there has to be some bargains out there. You could also get an extremely cheap Minolta MC/MD to Sony E mount adapter and have a choice of many really cheap and fast manual lenses.

Later,
William


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## bowie

can i ask the a6000 users on here when you take a picture with the EVF do you get the picture that you see in the viewfinder or is it to the left just as the viewfinder is on one side of camera and not in the middle of it.


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## William_Wilson

What you see is what you get. The EVF displays 100% of what goes to the image sensor.

Later,
William


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## bowie

> What you see is what you get. The EVF displays 100% of what goes to the image sensor.
> 
> Later,
> William


Thank you for the reply that's good.


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## William_Wilson

Hazy sunset tonight, just for fun. 










Later,
William


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## dobra

Lightzone screen










Ken Scott of Brighton made a journey from French coast across the Pyrranees to the coast of Spain. He gave a superb AV presentation to our club in Shanklin and used a Sony camera similar to your William with a couple of lenses, as a DSLR would be too heavy. He charged the batteries with a solar charger. See some piccies here.http://www.touchingthelight.co.uk/pyrenees-hrp-2011/

Mike


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## William_Wilson

That was a fantastic collection of photos of Ken Scott's.

Later,
William


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## dobra

He has almost got me hooked on *365 *piccies. Take a decent photograph every day,all year round on any subject - then group them into subject matters. Last time I saw him he was strolling down Ryde Pier with camera in hand. He had taken a good shot for the day from the esplanade end towards the pier head. Patterns of horizontal and Victorian shadows.

Mike


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## Faze

Took this one today, no Lightroom, just straight out the camera


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## William_Wilson

Lots of foreground and background.

Just for fun, I made the simplest adjustments possible with Paint.net. I did an elliptical select of the dial and bumped the white and black levels slightly.










Later,
William


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## Faze

William_Wilson said:


> Lots of foreground and background.
> 
> Just for fun, I made the simplest adjustments possible with Paint.net. I did an elliptical select of the dial and bumped the white and black levels slightly.
> 
> Later,
> William


Very nice, works for me and cleans it up nicely :thumbsup:


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## Faze

And today's new discovery is ......


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## William_Wilson

I have not installed any of those apps, as of yet. I use the remote control that I purchased for my DSLR. It is version one and will take still pictures, but not work for video. The new second version does everything and doesn't cost very much, $39.99 CND. as I recall.










Later,
William


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## bowie

> I have not installed any of those apps, as of yet. I use the remote control that I purchased for my DSLR. It is version one and will take still pictures, but not work for video. The new second version does everything and doesn't cost very much, $39.99 CND. as I recall.
> 
> 
> 
> Later,
> William


have sent a pm about some advice on the a6000


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## William_Wilson

Later,
William


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## William_Wilson

Later,
William


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## Faze

The photos that the guys on the facebook sites are upping from the Sony A6000, are amazing.

Sony A6000 + SEL 50mm + Raynox DCR-250 Macro Lens + Ring Flash f:5.0 1/15s focus stacking from 19 photos.
Dead fly


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## bowie

> The photos that the guys on the facebook sites are upping from the Sony A6000, are amazing.
> 
> Sony A6000 + SEL 50mm + Raynox DCR-250 Macro Lens + Ring Flash f:5.0 1/15s focus stacking from 19 photos.
> Dead fly


that looks good what is focus stacking


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## Faze

bowie said:


> that looks good what is focus stacking


Here you go mate, it's the magic of photoshop.


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## bowie

> bowie said:
> 
> 
> 
> that looks good what is focus stacking
> 
> 
> 
> Here you go mate, it's the magic of photoshop.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Thank you my friend
Click to expand...


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## William_Wilson

It sounds interesting, though I suspect the physical aspects are a bit involved. Where this technique would really shine is with microscopy.










The microscope is the agent of focus and the camera would be far less likely to move. The depth of field is incredibly narrow and it would help with shots like this:










Later,
William


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## Faze

Made a fleeting visit to the kitchen and saw Jan's wine stopper peering out of the draining tray, so had to take a pic.


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## William_Wilson

You've done a good job with the relatively narrow depth of field, though she looks a bit unsettling. :wink:

Later,
William


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## Faze

I know, she looked freaky


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## bowie

looks to have a very guilty face on her what has she been up too.


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## William_Wilson

An update of sorts. I have picked up a factory refurbished SEL30M35, the Sony 30mm f3.5 E-Mount macro lens. I have not had an opportunity to do much as of yet, but I have confirmed, as I suspected, that I need a circular polarizer to do watch photos with it. Anyway a couple of quick early attempts:

















I really do need to clean this watch. :laugh:

Later,
William


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## Silver Hawk

William_Wilson said:


> It sounds interesting, though I suspect the physical aspects are a bit involved. Where this technique would really shine is with microscopy.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The microscope is the agent of focus and the camera would be far less likely to move. The depth of field is incredibly narrow and it would help with shots like this:
> 
> 
> 
> Later,
> William


You need this William:

http://www.brunelmicroscopes.co.uk/focus.html


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## William_Wilson

Silver Hawk said:


> You need this William:
> 
> http://www.brunelmicroscopes.co.uk/focus.html


Yes, I've looked at a few of those programmes. I'll save that link. When, or if, I stop picking up pieces of hardware and accessories long enough to budget it, I want to get one. It strikes me that stacking with the fiddly manual focusing of macro lenses would be a pain in the backside, but focusing with the microscope rack would be a breeze. 

Later,
William


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## William_Wilson

A quickie tripod shot with the new macro. I hope I can make the time to get a polo filter, it will make the difference.










6 second exposure at f16, ISO100.

Later,
William


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## William_Wilson

A polarising filter arrived today, and I am getting much more consistent results without endless fiddling around.










Later,
William


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## dobra

That's better. I use a handkerchief over a flash - if the lighting is dim

Mike


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## William_Wilson

dobra said:


> That's better. I use a handkerchief over a flash - if the lighting is dim
> 
> Mike


A dead simple pic, like the one above, used a GN 20 on camera flash bounced straight up and a GN 58 off camera flash bounced rearward off an integral reflector. They were both TTL controlled giving a final result of f16 at 1/60, ISO 1600. When working at distances of 1/4" to 3" the polariser is indispensable for handling all of the errant light interference. :yes: It improves my results from one in one thousand to one in one hundred. :laugh:

Later,
William


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## dobra

Like that approach William. I also tried, for fun, an old net curtain and a flash pointing at a deflector white card, but dubious result - no control for a start!

Mike


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## William_Wilson

dobra said:


> Like that approach William. I also tried, for fun, an old net curtain and a flash pointing at a deflector white card, but dubious result - no control for a start!
> 
> Mike


I have stands, umbrellas and remotely triggered flashes, but most of the time I'm lazy and bounce off of whatever is handy.

Later,
William


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## Faze

Found this while trawling if any good for anyone.

http://www.sony.net/Products/di/common/images/products/qb9a/ILCE-6000_4DFOCUS_Camera_Settings_Guide.pdf


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## Faze

I met a Duck today. Super size


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## hughlle

So for someone who knows nothing about cameras other than that the ones I own kind of suck, how hard is it to learn to use these things? I rarely take my cameras off smart mode because I just get befuddled. The a6000 is pretty cheap now.


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## Faze

hughlle said:


> So for someone who knows nothing about cameras other than that the ones I own kind of suck, how hard is it to learn to use these things? I rarely take my cameras off smart mode because I just get befuddled. The a6000 is pretty cheap now.


This is the best camera I've picked up. I've tried a few and have always given up on them but this one has really helped me along.
You need to put the time in though, which is hard to do at times for me, so I'm lagging behind really. 
Youtube is a great source of knowledge and inspiration and if you are on Facebook, search for "Sony a6000" and you will find a few groups and they are pumping out some fantastic images.

Also a must is Lightroom :thumbsup:


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## Haggis

Very impressive


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## William_Wilson

That is a great photo. :yes:

Later,
William


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## Faze

New impulse lens buy, after seeing a good write up and viewing a little video.
Managed to find a mislabeled one on eBay and picked it up for a reasonable price: Sony 30mm f3.5 Macro Lens.

And it passed the old throw a pen on the desk and take a photo test :thumbsup:


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## William_Wilson

Faze said:


> New impulse lens buy, after seeing a good write up and viewing a little video.
> Managed to find a mislabeled one on eBay and picked it up for a reasonable price: Sony 30mm f3.5 Macro Lens.
> 
> And it passed the old throw a pen on the desk and take a photo test :thumbsup:


 That's the one I bought. I managed to get a factory refurbished one from Canada's largest photographic retailer with Sony warranty for a bargain price. They are very good considering their price point. They focus very close and fully stopped down images are quite sharp. Get a circular polariser to cut the reflections on watch crystals and you'll be all set. :yes:

Later,
William


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## Krispy

Gggrrrrrrr.....


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## xellos99

hughlle said:


> So for someone who knows nothing about cameras other than that the ones I own kind of suck, how hard is it to learn to use these things? I rarely take my cameras off smart mode because I just get befuddled. The a6000 is pretty cheap now.


 Depends how deep down the rabbit hole you want to go.

They have user friendly modes like auto etc. Anyone can use that really.

Turn it on full manual mode and it will challenge even extremely intelligent people.


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## William_Wilson

Rather quick and dirty.

Later,
William


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## Faze

William_Wilson said:


> Rather quick and dirty.
> 
> Later,
> William


 Another quick couple and I now do not want to go to work, I just want to play with this lens. 
Why did it have to arrive so early in the week!!!!? :taz: :aggressive:


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## William_Wilson

I remember when work was a problem. :wink:

Later,
William


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## Krispy

William_Wilson said:


> Get a circular polariser to cut the reflections on watch crystals and you'll be all set. :yes:
> 
> Later,
> William


 I've gone and bought the same lens. With regard to filters - would a cheapy Hoya be letting the side down or should one go a little higher up the food chain? I was looking at this one:

http://goo.gl/FAOXNH


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## William_Wilson

Krispy said:


> I've gone and bought the same lens. With regard to filters - would a cheapy Hoya be letting the side down or should one go a little higher up the food chain? I was looking at this one:
> 
> http://goo.gl/FAOXNH


 I think you'll be alright, I've got something in the same price range. An example of the result:










Hoya has a good name.

Later,
William


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## Krispy

Nice one...order placed :thumbsup:


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## Krispy

Some Q&D's from me taken on the A5100 in point and shoot mode with the SEL30M35. Lots to learn it seems...


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## Faze

Wow, great dial shot :thumbsup:


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## Krispy

Cheers! Literally just turned it on and pointed it at the watch - looks like it could be a lot of fun!


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## William_Wilson

Bumped a few things on the Bloodsucker...










Later,
William

One thing to consider with these macro lenses... Stop them down as much as you can! Conventional wisdom dictates a lens won't be at its best stopped all the way down, but with extreme close-ups a few extra millimetres DOF really helps out. 

Later,
William


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## Krispy

William_Wilson said:


> Bumped a few things on the Bloodsucker...
> 
> Later,
> William


 Looks good. My pics were straight out of the camera and I'm very impressed at how true the colours are (thanks again to you and @Faze for pushing me down the Sony route.) I'm looking forward to seeing what difference a CP filter will make.

Would I be right in thinking that things should be pretty flat on to the lens if you want the whole thing in focus, at close range? This was at an angle...










I need to work out the best camera settings...might take me some time!



William_Wilson said:


> One thing to consider with these macro lenses... Stop them down as much as you can! Conventional wisdom dictates a lens won't be at its best stopped all the way down, but with extreme close-ups a few extra millimetres DOF really helps out.
> 
> Later,
> William


 'Stopped all the way down'....'DOF'....you what?!

:wacko:


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## William_Wilson

Krispy said:


> Looks good. My pics were straight out of the camera and I'm very impressed at how true the colours are (thanks again to you and @Faze for pushing me down the Sony route.) I'm looking forward to seeing what difference a CP filter will make.
> 
> Would I be right in thinking that things should be pretty flat on to the lens if you want the whole thing in focus, at close range? This was at an angle...
> 
> 
> 
> I need to work out the best camera settings...might take me some time!
> 
> 'Stopped all the way down'....'DOF'....you what?!
> 
> :wacko:


 When you adjust the aperture to its physically smallest setting (in this case f22) you achieve greater depth of field and a greater distance from front to back will be in focus. That coin was taken at f3.5 and the area of focus is quite narrow. At a distance of a few feet shooting at f3.5 has much less impact on the area that is in focus.

Later,
William


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## Krispy

Ah...gotcha! :thumbsup:

Dinner...then a play around I think....!


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## xellos99

He means use a aperture number as high as possible while still maintaining correct exposure.

You lose light as you increase the aperture so you have to gain light by either increasing iso or a slower shutter speed.

The advantage of the higher aperture number is more of the coin will be in focus.

The coin is out of focus mostly because A you are very close and B your aperture is a low value like f2.8 or whatever.

However being that close to an object is tricky because even with a high aperture you might not get the whole thing In focus.


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## William_Wilson

A recent example showing the difference DOF can make.










This was taken in automatic mode and the camera set the lens at f3.5. You can see the crown and bracelet is not in focus.










This was taken on the A setting (aperture priority) with the lens set to f22. The distance from the centre second hand to where the bracelet starts to go out of focus is almost 7/8 of an inch.










Here is a shot on an angle. It was taken at f22 and delivers a compromise in focus. Everything is "enough" in focus to work. It also shows the distortion caused by the mildly domed crystal.

Later,
William


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## xellos99

Well it looks like your all being spoiled today coz I have an example also. Plus this demonstrates the effects of high ISO which reduces image quality by introducing "noise or a grainy undesirable crud to the image"

So the first image is aperture f2.0 and very low ISO so the image is clean and noise free but out of focus in front of and behind my focus point which is in the centre of the black cap.










 Second image is aperture f22 which restricted light getting to the camera sensor, so I had to compensate by bumping up ISO to 52,000. The effects are massive loss of image quality caused by noise introduced from high ISO. Much more of the image is in focus due to f22. The ideal thing to do here would be to use a tripod so I could slow the shutter speed down instead of upping ISO so much which ruined the photo. However I was lazy and took the shot hand held which vastly reduced how much I could slow shutter speed without blurring the image.


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## Krispy

Thanks both - I think I get it now...

This...










Compared to this...










And of course, everywhere in between.

Still just piddling around with it while my spuds cook...but the lens / camera seem pretty amazing to me, even with no / bad light...


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## dobra

Have you switched to manual focus?

Mike


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## Krispy

dobra said:


> Have you switched to manual focus?
> 
> Mike


 Baby steps!


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## William_Wilson

The SEL30M35 really does like flowers. In the summer on a sunny day you can pull some fantastic details out with it. 

Later,
William


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## Faze

William_Wilson said:


> In the summer on a sunny day you can pull some fantastic details out with it.


 I'll have to make sure I'm off that day


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## Krispy

I like it!!























































Makes you realise how dirty your junk is...


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## Faze

Krispy said:


> Makes you realise how dirty your junk is...


 Please, NO photos of your junk! :swoon:


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## William_Wilson

Faze said:


> Please, NO photos of your junk! :swoon:


 You are tastefully ignoring the obvious gag about needing a macro to photograph his junk. :laugh:

In all seriousness though, you can wipe something off and take great looking pictures, until you see them on the computer and see all of the dust and residue. :wink:

Later,
William


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## dobra

Good point William

I shine an LED torch across the surfaces laterally, and even after using a blower, grit remains....

Mike


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## Krispy

Faze said:


> Please, NO photos of your junk! [IMG alt=":swoon:" data-emoticon="true"]http://1.1.1.1/bmi/www.thewatchforum.co.uk/uploads/emoticons/swoon.gif[/IMG]


 There's more specialised forums for that kind of thing, where the name Krispy takes on a whole new meaning...


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## Faze

William_Wilson said:


> When you adjust the aperture to its physically smallest setting (in this case f22) you achieve greater depth of field and a greater distance from front to back will be in focus. That coin was taken at f3.5 and the area of focus is quite narrow. At a distance of a few feet shooting at f3.5 has much less impact on the area that is in focus.
> 
> Later,
> William


 It's looking like I have a free evening tonight, so will be having a go all all this. Some great info to digest and from @xellos99 thanks chaps


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## xellos99

Here is another one you guys can try. Set the shutter speed for several seconds or more and you can get a sort of ghosting effect.

The shutter speed for this picture was about 4 seconds and you can see the watches seconds hand in 4 different positions.

You might be able to get extremely rewarding effects with some watches doing this.


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## Krispy

Nice one @xellos99 I've tried that in the past with some nice results. Is there any rule of thumb when it comes to aperture and / or ISO settings when leaving the shutter open for longer?


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## xellos99

The longer the shutter speed the less choice you will have about iso and aperture.

You will be forced to use higher number aperture like f16 or f22 and iso 100 because the long shutter speed is gathering massive amounts of light to the camera sensor. Then you have to compensate as best you can by reducing the light from iso and aperture to balance things out so you get a correct exposure. Basically shutter speed / iso / aperture is your exposure triangle and its your job to balance them. It's hard to explain because photography is so darn hard lol. The distance from the object your photographing, the sensor size of the camera and focal length all complicate things 100 times worse. I have forced myself to use full manual mode for years and its still rock hard hahaha


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## William_Wilson

Aperture - Smaller number lets in more light. f3.5 lets in more light than f22.

Shutter - Bigger number lets in more light. 1 second lets in more light than 1/60th of a second.

ISO - Smaller number requires more light, but gives the image more detail. Bigger number requires less light, but sacrifices detail in the image.

Changing any one of those three things will result in the image being darker or brighter. To maintain the same exposure level but change a particular setting to achieve an effect, for example greater DOF, you will need to change at least one of the other settings as well.

As a furtherance to xelios99's point about longer exposure time and second hands:










This shows while the watch itself is properly exposed, the second hand is underexposed because it kept moving during the several second long exposure but still demonstrates the effect.










A similar shot with an automatic movement showing the incremental movements of the second hand. It is quite clear in this photo how underexposed the second hand is because of all of the position changes.










This one was exposed for 3/10 of a second with the chrono running. The central second hand is blurred and the tenths of a second counter hand is basically invisible. It was moving too fast to reflect enough light. :laugh:

Later,
William


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## martinzx

xellos99 said:


> The longer the shutter speed the less choice you will have about iso and aperture.
> 
> You will be forced to use higher number aperture like f16 or f22 and iso 100 because the long shutter speed is gathering massive amounts of light to the camera sensor. Then you have to compensate as best you can by reducing the light from iso and aperture to balance things out so you get a correct exposure. Basically shutter speed / iso / aperture is your exposure triangle and its your job to balance them. It's hard to explain because photography is so darn hard lol. The distance from the object your photographing, the sensor size of the camera and focal length all complicate things 100 times worse. I have forced myself to use full manual mode for years and its still rock hard hahaha


 I found this helped an amatuer like me


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## xellos99

martinzx said:


> I found this helped an amatuer like me


 That's excellent


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## Faze

I have to say, that was fun :thumbsup:










Next one with the crown in!! :sadwalk:


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## xellos99

Faze said:


> I have to say, that was fun :thumbsup:
> 
> 
> 
> Next one with the crown in!! :sadwalk:


 Oh what craze have I begun hahaha, this will be the new forum epidemic :laugh:

That's excellent by the way @Faze


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## Faze

3 spinners and scratched to [email protected]@k










And I can believe it's 8 o'clock already, she'll be home soon asking what I've been doing with myself ....


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## William_Wilson

xellos99 said:


> Oh what craze have I begun hahaha, this will be the new forum epidemic :laugh:


 Here is another of my old ones, the Precisionist moving at sixteen increments per second:










Later,
William


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## xellos99

Brilliantly done. Next lume in the dark ?



William_Wilson said:


> Here is another of my old ones, the Precisionist moving at sixteen increments per second:
> 
> 
> 
> Later,
> William


 Amazing, I wish I had a macro lens now. I only have a 35mm prime lens that can focus close but nothing like macro.


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## William_Wilson

Found it! Seiko 007:










Later,
William



xellos99 said:


> Brilliantly done. Next lume in the dark ?
> 
> Amazing, I wish I had a macro lens now. I only have a 35mm prime lens that can focus close but nothing like macro.


 Macro is great fun but does require some patience to change angles, move the subject and lights around to deal with reflections and shadows. I usually end up taking a hundred photos and hoping one will be OK. :laugh:

Later,
William


----------



## xellos99

William_Wilson said:


> Found it! Seiko 007:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Later,
> William
> 
> Macro is great fun but does require some patience to change angles, move the subject and lights around to deal with reflections and shadows. I usually end up taking a hundred photos and hoping one will be OK. :laugh:
> 
> Later,
> William


 That's what I do, keep 1 in 25 lol

Well I tried a 30 second exposure but I think it would work better with a centre seconds hand. Anyone have a fully lumed seconds hand ?


----------



## Faze

William_Wilson said:


> Amazing, I wish I had a macro lens now. I only have a 35mm prime lens that can focus close but nothing like macro.


 Shoot, I just remembered I bought one of these today!! http://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/camera-lenses/sel50f18
I don't know if I'm being forgetful these days, but then if I was being forgetful I wouldn't know it would I? :wacko:


----------



## SBryantgb

Faze said:


> Shoot, I just remembered I bought one of these today!! http://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/camera-lenses/sel50f18
> I don't know if I'm being forgetful these days, but then if I was being forgetful I wouldn't know it would I? :wacko:


 best start taking them out of the box again... you can start at the S's if you want :thumbsup:


----------



## xellos99

Faze said:


> Shoot, I just remembered I bought one of these today!! http://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/camera-lenses/sel50f18
> I don't know if I'm being forgetful these days, but then if I was being forgetful I wouldn't know it would I? :wacko:


 Got to have 50mm. And 24 35 85 105, no just kidding


----------



## William_Wilson

I have not gotten around to a stabilised lens yet.

Later,
William


----------



## Faze

William_Wilson said:


> I have not gotten around to a stabilised lens yet.
> 
> Later,
> William


 Think I'll have to sell my 19 & 60mm Sigmas, the new lenses will make them redundant.


----------



## William_Wilson

The two lenses That I would like to get sometime in the distant future are the Zeiss Touit 12mm and the Sony Zeiss 16-70mm OSS zoom. Combined with the Sony 20mm, Zeiss Touit 32mm and Sony macro I have I would covered.

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

I missed the fun tonight as I had a visitor. Loving this thread though now that I have some new toys to play with, albeit the poorer cousin of topic title! And the help and advice is first class from you all - cheers and sorry if it's gone a bit OT!

I was looking at the Sony 55 - 210 telephoto as I've found it at a good price but a fella at work said I'd grow out of it and the 6.3 was too slow (or he might have said fast!). Do you think he's right??



William_Wilson said:


> Here is another of my old ones, the Precisionist moving at sixteen increments per second:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Later,
> William


 May I ask - how close was the lens to the watch for that photo - did you crop it afterwards? I don't see how something can be lit well enough with the lens right on top of it?!


----------



## William_Wilson

Krispy said:


> I missed the fun tonight as I had a visitor. Loving this thread though now that I have some new toys to play with, albeit the poorer cousin of topic title! And the help and advice is first class from you all - cheers and sorry if it's gone a bit OT!
> 
> I was looking at the Sony 55 - 210 telephoto as I've found it at a good price but a fella at work said I'd grow out of it and the 6.3 was too slow (or he might have said fast!). Do you think he's right??
> 
> May I ask - how close was the lens to the watch for that photo - did you crop it afterwards? I don't see how something can be lit well enough with the lens right on top of it?!


 That photo was taken almost three years ago with my Sony a850 fullframe camera with a 50mm Minolta macro lens. It was not particularly close, especially considering that the fullfram longer lens has a greater minimum focusing distance. Here is the image that, that crop came from:










The original was a 6048 x 4032 jpeg. I took it the day the watch first arrived. f8 for 1 second at ISO 100. The lighting of the overall dial was uneven and unspectacular but the centre second was the interesting part. 

The reviews of the 55-210 aren't too bad, but the f4.5-6.3 is a little bit slow. It will be fine outdoors with good light, though indoors you might find it a bit hard to satisfy its light requirements when zoomed out. I have a 60-300mm Minolta zoom for the a850 that has an aperture like that. It is fine outside for wildlife and such but I've never considered using it indoors.

Later,
William


----------



## Faze

Krispy said:


> I was looking at the Sony 55 - 210 telephoto


 I have one and seldom use it, but it is a good lens and there's a lot of love for it. Again it's something I bought on good recommendation. 
If it's this one you are looking at - http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-used-sony-e55-210mm-f4-5-6-3-oss-lens-silver/p1590381?mkwid=s1rw11jx3_dc&pcrid=86900953619&kword=&match=&plid=&gclid=cjzrvtuetcocfcsvgwodgh0ina

That is a good second hand price from a dealer.
The last 3 eBay second hand auction prices were £89 - £94 and £100 all with about £10 postage.
So if the dealer offers a warranty and free postage that some do, that's a good price if you want that lens.

Prices are dropping on these, I bought mine at a good price in July for £130 and if I were to go out more, this lens would be used more.

I do like this guy, his reviews are straight to the point, and he does slag items off when needed.


----------



## Krispy

Thanks both. I've found the 55-210 for sale new on eBay and Amazon for between 140 and 160. Seems to be that sellers are splitting camera packages and selling the lenses separately.

Things like these keep popping up on Amazon when searching for e mount lenses, but I'm guessing they aren't compatible?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B000B8T6DI/ref=mp_s_a_1_10?qid=1453193678&sr=8-10&pi=AC_SX118_SY170&keywords=sigma+e+mount

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0007XD4LW/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?qid=1453193678&sr=8-5&pi=AC_SX118_SY170&keywords=sigma+e+mount&dpPl=1&dpID=518TYnEGD9L&ref=plSrch


----------



## Faze

Krispy said:


> Thanks both. I've found the 55-210 for sale new on eBay and Amazon for between 140 and 160. Seems to be that sellers are splitting camera packages and selling the lenses separately.
> 
> Things like these keep popping up on Amazon when searching for e mount lenses, but I'm guessing they aren't compatible?
> 
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B000B8T6DI/ref=mp_s_a_1_10?qid=1453193678&sr=8-10&pi=AC_SX118_SY170&keywords=sigma+e+mount
> 
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0007XD4LW/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?qid=1453193678&sr=8-5&pi=AC_SX118_SY170&keywords=sigma+e+mount&dpPl=1&dpID=518TYnEGD9L&ref=plSrch


 Emount lenses for us. You can get adaptors for most non Sony lenses now to fit the Sony, but you do loose some functions. Sony Emount lenses have SEL in the product code.


----------



## Krispy

Ta.

As an aside, a friend recommended this fella for no-nonsense kit reviews and hints & tips: http://www.kenrockwell.com/index.htm


----------



## xellos99

Krispy said:


> Ta.
> 
> As an aside, a friend recommended this fella for no-nonsense kit reviews and hints & tips: http://www.kenrockwell.com/index.htm


 Yes he is famous but extremely controversial lol.

Some particular things he says are you never need anything except JPEG small and you don't need RAW etc.

Professionals such as Jarad Polin and his photography mates and forum really hate Ken and bash the hell out of all Ken`s ideas.

Personally I find a lot of truth with Ken and he certainly has all the gear.

His articles about life are particularly wacky though and off the wall.


----------



## Faze

Krispy said:


> Ta.
> 
> As an aside, a friend recommended this fella for no-nonsense kit reviews and hints & tips: http://www.kenrockwell.com/index.htm


 I'll have a wander through later, but had a quick look at the a6000 review and it's a positive one and some of his niggles I never thought of. One that I have tried to work out is the silent mode missing. There doesn't seem to be a cure for this unless amother update brings it in... Have you updated your software?


----------



## Krispy

Faze said:


> I'll have a wander through later, but had a quick look at the a6000 review and it's a positive one and some of his niggles I never thought of. One that I have tried to work out is the silent mode missing. There doesn't seem to be a cure for this unless amother update brings it in... Have you updated your software?


 All I've done with the camera so far is add a couple of apps to it. Will have to read up on updating the camera's software...


----------



## Faze

One of my bosses told me to crop the **** out of this one, so I did and very pleased with it.


----------



## Krispy

Yowzer!


----------



## William_Wilson

Faze said:


> One of my bosses told me to crop the **** out of this one, so I did and very pleased with it.


 That's where the action is. :wink:

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy




----------



## Krispy

So I ordered these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00009R95W?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00

And got sent these 'slim' ones instead:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hoya-40-5-Slim-PL-CIR-Filter/dp/B00FXR03O8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1453408640&sr=1-1&keywords=Hoya+40.5mm+Circular+Polarizing+slim

Should I be peeved or does it not really make a difference?


----------



## William_Wilson

Krispy said:


> So I ordered these:
> 
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00009R95W?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00
> 
> And got sent these 'slim' ones instead:
> 
> http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hoya-40-5-Slim-PL-CIR-Filter/dp/B00FXR03O8/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1453408640&sr=1-1&keywords=Hoya+40.5mm+Circular+Polarizing+slim
> 
> Should I be peeved or does it not really make a difference?


 Ok, I looked them up. The Pro 1 is discontinued and has been replaced by a version called the Pro 1D, the D indicating a supposed change in the coating to better serve image sensors as opposed to film. The Slim version is currently in production and seems to be a cheaper level filter with a lower quality coating presumably.

I would be a bit annoyed by not receiving what I ordered, but of the various lower mid level filters I've had I have never really seen a difference in the end result. Perhaps if it was a $400 B+W filter or something like that it might be a big deal, not so likely with these though.

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

Thanks William,

Their response was...

"Dear Customer,

Sorry about this, we were under the impression the Slim versions are as good and the same as the standard? I have attached a label in this case for your return and full refund. Unless there's another equivalent item we have in stock that could replace the 2 you received?"

A bit cheeky really, but maybe not worth the hassle replacing?


----------



## xellos99

Check online how to spot real from fake. There is more fakes than real ones, there is industrial scale fakes of Hoya pro1, HD and all the rest of them.


----------



## William_Wilson

Krispy said:


> Thanks William,
> 
> Their response was...
> 
> "Dear Customer,
> 
> Sorry about this, we were under the impression the Slim versions are as good and the same as the standard? I have attached a label in this case for your return and full refund. Unless there's another equivalent item we have in stock that could replace the 2 you received?"
> 
> A bit cheeky really, but maybe not worth the hassle replacing?





xellos99 said:


> Check online how to spot real from fake. There is more fakes than real ones, there is industrial scale fakes of Hoya pro1, HD and all the rest of them.


 That is a good idea about checking the authenticity. Perhaps if the seller is a real bricks and mortar retailer there isn't too much to be concerned about. Google fake Hoya filters for descriptive differences between genuine and counterfeit filters. Providing they are the real thing, it is likely easier to carry on with what you received, though it makes you wonder what they did to call themselves "Camera King".

Later,
William


----------



## xellos99

William_Wilson said:


> Providing they are the real thing, it is likely easier to carry on with what you received, though it makes you wonder what they did to call themselves "Camera King".


 Camera king has 37.5% trust pilot rating at 1 star out of 5. How are they still in business ?


----------



## Krispy

xellos99 said:


> Camera king has 37.5% trust pilot rating at 1 star out of 5. How are they still in business ?


 Jesus...didn't spot that - they seemed well rated on Amazon. Perhaps the returns label will be getting printed...


----------



## William_Wilson

Taken tonight:










I played with the curve adjustment to reduce the exposure in the darker areas. Taken with my Zeiss f1.8 so I could have a decent shutter speed for hand held.

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

I've been watching some of this guys tutorials on Capture One - mostly V8 but some really useful tips in there...


----------



## Krispy

It's all about the white balance - innit??

By the way - does anybody want me to update the title of this thread - what is a furure anyway?!


----------



## William_Wilson

Krispy said:


> It's all about the white balance - innit??
> 
> By the way - does anybody want me to update the title of this thread - what is a furure anyway?!


 Yes please! Future was my intention but my miserable fingers and treacherous eyes had a different idea. :wink:

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

Done!

:whistling:


----------



## William_Wilson

Thank you! :yes:

Also, white balance is a good place to start when you are trying to make a photo actually look like the subject. 

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

I learnt that when doing all my watches last night. Was done under crappy front room light giving everything a brown hue - didn't think they'd be usable. But then watching some of that guys tutorials I found the white balance dropper - it's like a true magic wand!

Thank you again for the Capture One tip off - with the right guidance it really is a great piece of software.

From these:



















To these (no where near perfect but such an improvement on the originals):



















This was amazing. I wonder how many techniques transfer to watches?


----------



## Krispy

I picked up Sony's 50mm f1.8 lens today. Only had a quick play around with it so far, this is one of the first I got...


----------



## William_Wilson

It fills the portrait lens role of a fast medium telephoto. :thumbsup:

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

Sigma 19mm wide angle should be here tomorrow...pretty much all bases covered then, I think.

I've been reading a little about Adaptall 2 mounts and very cheap, old Tamron lenses. Might have a play around...seems like htere's lots out there for very little money. Manual only though, and I've read you can't really adjust the aperture?


----------



## William_Wilson

Krispy said:


> Sigma 19mm wide angle should be here tomorrow...pretty much all bases covered then, I think.
> 
> I've been reading a little about Adaptall 2 mounts and very cheap, old Tamron lenses. Might have a play around...seems like htere's lots out there for very little money. Manual only though, and I've read you can't really adjust the aperture?


 I have a microscope to Sony a series Adaptall type mount that requires you to shoot in manual mode. I suspect the arrangement you mentioned might put the lens into manual mode, allowing you to adjust aperture on the lens itself. Adapters also increase errors in parallelism between the image sensor and the rear lens element. None of these have to be a big deal, it depends on what you want to do with it.

Later,
William


----------



## bowie

like the new title added on


----------



## Faze

@William_Wilson @Krispy

This seems like a good price to me, thoughts please as Paypal is loaded and cocked :biggrin:

https://www.cliftoncameras.co.uk/Zeiss-Touit-F1.8-32mm-E-Mount---Sony?gclid=CPvyy6Hn7coCFQQXwwodYkcDvw


----------



## William_Wilson

Faze said:


> @William_Wilson @Krispy
> 
> This seems like a good price to me, thoughts please as Paypal is loaded and cocked :biggrin:
> 
> https://www.cliftoncameras.co.uk/Zeiss-Touit-F1.8-32mm-E-Mount---Sony?gclid=CPvyy6Hn7coCFQQXwwodYkcDvw


 That is a good price and a great lens. The lens may require a firmware update performed by the Zeiss service centre. The one I bought needed it done to allow it to work with all of the features of the a6000. It may be from the new production run and not require updating. Either way, it is a good deal. When I sent my lens to Zeiss North America they updated it the day they received it and shipped it back the following day.

Later,
William


----------



## Faze

William_Wilson said:


> That is a good price and a great lens. The lens may require a firmware update performed by the Zeiss service centre. The one I bought needed it done to allow it to work with all of the features of the a6000. It may be from the new production run and not require updating. Either way, it is a good deal. When I sent my lens to Zeiss North America they updated it the day they received it and shipped it back the following day.
> 
> Later,
> William


 Thanks, being delivered Friday :thumbsup:


----------



## Faze

@Krispy @William_Wilson

Looks cheap to me - http://webshop.cashconverters.co.uk/auction-item/1154681/sony-ilce6000lb-compact-system-camera-with-selp1650-lens-kit-black


----------



## Krispy

Faze said:


> @Krispy @William_Wilson
> 
> Looks cheap to me - http://webshop.cashconverters.co.uk/auction-item/1154681/sony-ilce6000lb-compact-system-camera-with-selp1650-lens-kit-black


 Stop it! You've already made me spend on that Zeiss lens...which has arrived...but...

Unless I'm missing something, it looks like it needs the firmware update that William mentioned as mine isn't auto focusing. A bit disappointing as the shop does state 'The lenses are therefore fully-compatible and support all camera functions, including autofocus.'. OR am I doing something wrong?


----------



## Faze

Krispy said:


> Stop it! You've already made me spend on that Zeiss lens...which has arrived...but...
> 
> Unless I'm missing something, it looks like it needs the firmware update that William mentioned as mine isn't auto focusing. A bit disappointing as the shop does state 'The lenses are therefore fully-compatible and support all camera functions, including autofocus.'. OR am I doing something wrong?


 Won't get to mine till after work, but it will be going back if it doesn't support autofocus as promised. Any chance of you giving them a bell to confirm if they are telling porkies?


----------



## Krispy

Faze said:


> Won't get to mine till after work, but it will be going back if it doesn't support autofocus as promised. Any chance of you giving them a bell to confirm if they are telling porkies?


 I just emailed them asking the question - I'll be rather cheesed off if they're are selling lenses which need to be sent to Germany and back before they work! I'll be even more cheesed off if yours works and mine doesn't!


----------



## Faze

Krispy said:


> I just emailed them asking the question - I'll be rather cheesed off if they're are selling lenses which need to be sent to Germany and back before they work! I'll be even more cheesed off if yours works and mine doesn't!


 In the customer review it mentions the latest firmware 2 months ago, so I would assume it should be loaded, also another chap say fast focusing on his a6000. So I'll be having a go if it doesn't support it.


----------



## Krispy

Faze said:


> In the customer review it mentions the latest firmware 2 months ago, so I would assume it should be loaded, also another chap say fast focusing on his a6000. So I'll be having a go if it doesn't support it.


 Well, this is what they say:

"Thank you of your email and sorry to hear you are having issues. We will need to collect the lens so it can then be returned to Zeiss for the update, apologies for this as all of our lenses were supposed to have the firmware update already done before being shipped to ourselves, obviously this one must have been missed. Is there a day next week suitable for me t arrange a collection? we can collect from a work address if preferred."

Not impressed.

So I asked this...

"If this is just one that's slipped through the net, I wonder if you have another in stock which does have the firmware installed which I could swap it with, rather than waiting for the lens to go to Zeiss and back?"


----------



## Faze

Krispy said:


> Stop it! You've already made me spend on that Zeiss lens...which has arrived...but...
> 
> Unless I'm missing something, it looks like it needs the firmware update that William mentioned as mine isn't auto focusing. A bit disappointing as the shop does state 'The lenses are therefore fully-compatible and support all camera functions, including autofocus.'. OR am I doing something wrong?


 I'm on the phone at work, but this is the only bit I can find on their wedsite about the auto focus -

To reach the best compatibility on Sony NEX Cameras (AF in video mode) we highly recommend to use the latest Sony NEX firmware.


----------



## Krispy

My firmware is 1.10 which seems to be the latest, they've responded saying mine is one that slipped through the net and will have to go to Zeiss...


----------



## Krispy

Faze said:


> In the customer review it mentions the latest firmware 2 months ago, so I would assume it should be loaded, also another chap say fast focusing on his a6000. So I'll be having a go if it doesn't support it.


 So, to be fair, they've been good at communicating and arranging a swap...you might want to get in quick. Here's what Clifton's have said:

"Sorry David the only reason i didn't offer to do this as your was our last one in stock, how ever we have just received a delivery of this lens. I can hold it to one side and when we receive yours back i can simply ship this on out."

&

"We have been told by Zeiss the box should have a blue circular sticker on the box, can you see if yours has this sticker? if it does the only way i could confirm shipping a fully working lens would be to test it myself, are you happy for me to do so?

In terms of returning your lens i can have it collected from you Via DPD if you can advise of a day next week that would be suitable and if you can confirm the address that would be fantastic."

My box has a silver Zeiss quality seal sticker on it but I don't think this is the one they're referring to. Will let you know if I hear any more.

UPDATE:

"Yes i can tell thats the older version, the new model has a blue sticker next to the barcodes."


----------



## Faze

@Krispy

Sorry mate, looks like you were unlucky, mine has the blue dot and is auto focusing okay.
Tell them you wanted it for a christening Sunday and can they deliver one with blue dot and pick yours up Saturday. It is their fault afterall.


----------



## Krispy

Glad you got a good one! How is it??

I've pinged an email back to see what they can do - I had paid for next day delivery so I'd at least expect that refunded.


----------



## Faze

Krispy said:


> Glad you got a good one! How is it??
> 
> I've pinged an email back to see what they can do - I had paid for next day delivery so I'd at least expect that refunded.


 Seems good, only taken photos of Sumo in doors for Friday thread, as have to get ready for hospital, but looking good :thumbsup: 
Noisy focusing, but I knew about that so okay


----------



## William_Wilson

I did mention the firmware issue but they are quick on the turn around when you send them back for update. As I recall, these cameras employ two distinct focusing methods. You can disable the newer method and the camera is a bit quicker to focus with the lens. When I purchased mine last year I wasn't sure if I would receive the old firmware version but wasn't surprised when I did. I packed it up the following day and sent it off for updating, as unbearable as that seemed the lens was returned quickly.

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

Well, while I wait for the return of the Zeiss...

I went out and had a go at some long exposure shots along the river this week, just piddling around with them now. All with my a5100 and Sigma 19mm. I can post more if anyone's interested, but don't want to bore the knickers off of anyone!


----------



## Faze

Krispy said:


> Well, while I wait for the return of the Zeiss...
> 
> I went out and had a go at some long exposure shots along the river this week, just piddling around with them now. All with my a5100 and Sigma 19mm. I can post more if anyone's interested, but don't want to bore the knickers off of anyone!


 Lovely pic, post more mate :thumbsup:

I have to drop bike off for rear tire which means I have to wander around town for a couple of hours so will be taking camera.


----------



## Krispy

Can't decide...










(You can see Orion quite clearly at the top in the original) Or


----------



## William_Wilson

The tightly cropped version seems to have more impact. It also looks a bit like that episode of Dr. Who when the Cybermen were trying to break through from the alternate universe. :wink:

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy




----------



## Faze

And it's lashing down!! Why to I even atempt to make plans :aggressive:


----------



## Krispy

Faze said:


> And it's lashing down!! Why to I even atempt to make plans :aggressive:


 Excuses, excuses, excuses...!


----------



## Krispy

Now I know I want a good, fast telephoto...


----------



## bowie

took this with my tz70 last year not as good as yours but very similar


----------



## William_Wilson

Krispy said:


> Now I know I want a good, fast telephoto...


 If the sky is your thing, an Adaptall on a telescope gives really big results. Most long and fast telephotos are obscenely expensive. Most normal people end up with rather slow long lenses. A catadioptric lens is usually the cheapest option, though the aperture is fixed.

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

William_Wilson said:


> If the sky is your thing, an Adaptall on a telescope gives really big results. Most long and fast telephotos are obscenely expensive. Most normal people end up with rather slow long lenses. A catadioptric lens is usually the cheapest option, though the aperture is fixed.
> 
> Later,
> William


 I was thinking the same thing and was reminded of you and your microscope.

I feel hours of research coming on now, so please feel free to give me any shortcuts re the particular Adaptall device needed! Will they work on any telescope??

A cliché of a shot, I know. The A13, trunk road to the sea...


----------



## William_Wilson

I don't have first hand experience with telescopes but the principle is just the same as it is with a microscope. You get a camera specific mount that screws onto an adaptor that has a tube on the end of it. The simplest and cheapest types slip over the existing viewing eyepiece of the telescope. Better units thread into the eyepiece. The expensive outfits come from the telescope manufacturer and accept aperture discs and filters. If you look on eBay you can see that the Sony E-mount adaptors are pretty much the same but there are a multitude of different intermediate optics and different sized eyepiece tubes. You need to start with the telescope and then determine what tube type and size you will need.

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

Thanks mate.

I've just been watching some youtube examples...right up my alley!

I was hoping Celestron might be my one stop shop but they don't seem to do a NEX adapter.

The hunt is on...

Would I be right in thinking this might do the job:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/T-T2-Ring-for-Sony-NEX-Camera-Lens-Adapter-1-25-Telescope-Mount-Metal-DC690-/381492685364?hash=item58d2bc6a34:g:vS0AAOSw5IJWb9uB

With this something like this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Celestron-Astromaster-130EQ-MD-Motor-Drive/dp/B0013Z42AK/


----------



## Krispy

This one cleaned up quite nicely.










I'll give you a break now, sorry!


----------



## William_Wilson

Krispy said:


> Thanks mate.
> 
> I've just been watching some youtube examples...right up my alley!
> 
> I was hoping Celestron might be my one stop shop but they don't seem to do a NEX adapter.
> 
> The hunt is on...
> 
> Would I be right in thinking this might do the job:
> 
> http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/T-T2-Ring-for-Sony-NEX-Camera-Lens-Adapter-1-25-Telescope-Mount-Metal-DC690-/381492685364?hash=item58d2bc6a34:g:vS0AAOSw5IJWb9uB
> 
> With this something like this:
> 
> http://www.brookstone.com/astromaster-130-eq-telescope-with-md/806249p.html


 That looks like it should do the job. One word of caution, the tube does not appear to contain optics. This may result in a round image in the centre of the frame. That is what happens with microscopes. When I was researching an adaptor for my microscope all of the cheap ones had no optics, so instead of getting one for $20 I ended up getting a better one for $90 that used the entire frame.

Here is an example of an E-mount adaptor with optics: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ostara-1-25-2x-barlow-lens-Sony-E-mount-NEX-t-ring-for-astrophotography-FMC-/151980474579?hash=item2362be00d3:g:4V4AAOSwDuJWvIUC

I'm not making any recommendations with regard to quality, it just happened to be the only one I found on eBay UK. I'm not even sure this will be an issue but I do suspect it.

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

I'm definitely getting a telescope!


----------



## William_Wilson

Krispy said:


> I'm definitely getting a telescope!


 Is that a non-resized crop from the original 210mm focal length image? If so, that means that photo is a little less than 1/6 of the original width. A telescope shot will be filled with detail.

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

William_Wilson said:


> Is that a non-resized crop from the original 210mm focal length image? If so, that means that photo is a little less than 1/6 of the original width. A telescope shot will be filled with detail.
> 
> Later,
> William


 I was actually going to ask (but feared I'd be turning your thread into the Krispy helpline!)...

The image is cropped. When I crop in C1 I drag and set the crop area, click on the select tool to see the just the cropped area and then process the image variant as 100% size jpeg.

Is that officially classed as re-sizing or am I missing something out?

In the original, the moon is tiny. I'd be chuffed to fill the frame with the moon and in good quality too. My telescope research is coming along...reflector, refractor or catadioptric???

http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/SCOPES.HTM


----------



## William_Wilson

Krispy said:


> I was actually going to ask (but feared I'd be turning your thread into the Krispy helpline!)...
> 
> The image is cropped. When I crop in C1 I drag and set the crop area, click on the select tool to see the just the cropped area and then process the image variant as 100% size jpeg.
> 
> Is that officially classed as re-sizing or am I missing something out?
> 
> In the original, the moon is tiny. I'd be chuffed to fill the frame with the moon and in good quality too. My telescope research is coming along...reflector, refractor or catadioptric???
> 
> http://www.astropix.com/HTML/I_ASTROP/SCOPES.HTM


 You have cropped the original with out resizing, judging by your description.

Refracting is what we are most familiar with, in that, that is the way most lenses are constructed. They are typically longer, heavier and more expensive, but rugged and effective in many different situations while giving excellent results.. I'm certainly no expert with telescopes, but the reflective and cat scopes were designed with compromise in mind. That being said, I've seen some examples of moon shots taken with normal catadioptric lenses with a 2x converter that looked pretty good, but not as good as a refractive.

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

So, am I loosing quality by not re-sizing? Must admit - I'm not quite getting this bit!

Just read this: http://blog.phaseone.com/advanced-cropping-is-there-such-a-thing/

This suggests the cropping is linked to the recipe currently selected? Still not sure what that means though! Up to now, I've always left the crop ratio set to 'unconstrained'. So, I just took some more pics of the moon (sorry!) and this time set the crop ratio to be 'output' while my fixed 100% scale jpeg recipe was selected. Is this resizing?!

The moon's been playing nicely over Essex tonight. You can almost make out all those structures that NASA have been airbrushing out!










Thanks (again, and again) for your patience and good advice!! Loving the Sony!!


----------



## William_Wilson

This is an image I resized from the 0riginal 6000x4000 down to 1024x683. Details within the photo are sacrificed to allow a reduction in file size and the size the image will display and print at.











Now this is a crop from the original image that has had no resizing done to it. It is only a small piece of the original and therefore physically smaller than the original but it retains all of its details because it has not been resized.










I hope that makes sense. The practical impact of DPI changes is too involved at this point and I usually wander off topic and get confused. :wink:

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

Thanks William. I think you've made perfect sense (I stress I think...!)

For some reason I was thinking re-sizing as image would maintain more of it's detail but, by what you say, it's the opposite.

So...resizing your fist image just squashed it down (i.e. compressed it) from about 6x the size of a screen's display to 1x?

By cropping a part out, it will be displayed closer to it's natural size and detail.

Yeah?


----------



## William_Wilson

Yes, that's it. :yes:

Later,
William


----------



## SBryantgb

Krispy said:


> Well, while I wait for the return of the Zeiss...
> 
> I went out and had a go at some long exposure shots along the river this week, just piddling around with them now. All with my a5100 and Sigma 19mm. I can post more if anyone's interested, but don't want to bore the knickers off of anyone!


 Blah blah blah (Insert technical jargon here.............) Blah blah blah (insert more technical jargon here..........) Mention something to do with exposure here........ and then something with an X, Discuss merits of lenses blah blah blah.

Bottom line Those are some great images Krispy :thumbsup:


----------



## Krispy

SBryantgb said:


> Bottom line Those are some great images Krispy :thumbsup:


 That's very kind of you to say! Lots more, but I'd bore the shi'ites out of you all!


----------



## SBryantgb

Krispy said:


> That's very kind of you to say! Lots more, but I'd bore the shi'ites out of you all!


 Keep them coming...... :thumbsup: . Love photography, trying very hard to learn.... but keep forgetting the correct settings for my camera :yes: I do have a light tent though :thumbsup:


----------



## Silver Hawk

Just bought a Sony RX100 M3...can I join in?


----------



## wotsch

Silver Hawk said:


> Just bought a Sony RX100 M3


 It's a lovely camera. I'm most pleased with mine.


----------



## dobra

Looks good from this review

http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/sony_cybershot_dsc_rx100_iii_review/conclusion/


----------



## William_Wilson

Silver Hawk said:


> Just bought a Sony RX100 M3...can I join in?


 Yes, that sounds like a good idea. :yes:

Later,
William


----------



## Silver Hawk

wotsch said:


> It's a lovely camera. I'm most pleased with mine.


 It is a lovely camera but I cannot quite give it 10 out of 10 (no camera gets 10 out of 10). I was looking for an upgrade to my Canon S120 and wanted to stay with Canon as I've had Canon PowerShots for 14 years starting with the A30...I really like them :yes: .

The logical choice seemed to be the Canon G7X which has the same sensor size as the RX100. So I went and bought one, and it was great...except for macro work i.e. taking pictures of watch movements in my workshop :taz: . It had really trouble focusing; I've never had this problem with a PowerShot before so I spent a lot of time making sure it wasn't due to me. It wasn't, you only have to search for "Canon G7X poor macro" to see others are having the same problem.

Luckily I bought it new from Castle Cameras in Bournemouth (highly recommend them). Took it back the next day, together with my watch movement and a tripod, and tried the RX100 M3. Perfect, snaps to focus in an instant, so returned the G7X and came home with the RX100 M3.

So why not 10 out of 10. Two reasons: although the RX100 has exposure bracketing, it appears you cannot combine it with the timer. This can be useful when you want to bracket long exposures when on a tripod...the timer means you don't introduce camera shake when pressing the shutter button....and it doesn't look like the remote control app supports bracketing :sadwalk: . Anyone know a way to achieve this?

The other reason is that Sony's implementation of WiFi for transferring images from camera to a Windows 10 desktop is absolute cr*p. It is so slow to connect...

But it take great photos!



William_Wilson said:


> Yes, that sounds like a good idea. :yes:
> 
> Later,
> William


 Thanks William.


----------



## William_Wilson

Silver Hawk said:


> So why not 10 out of 10. Two reasons: although the RX100 has exposure bracketing, it appears you cannot combine it with the timer. This can be useful when you want to bracket long exposures when on a tripod...the timer means you don't introduce camera shake when pressing the shutter button....and it doesn't look like the remote control app supports bracketing :sadwalk: . Anyone know a way to achieve this?


 Your model does not seem to support IR remote. I think this may be your solution, albeit old fashioned, the RM-SPR1 Remote Commander. It plugs into the camera and allows you to trip the shutter. The RM-SPR1 Remote Commander appears to be relatively inexpensive. Perhaps you could see what the people at your camera store have to say about it.

Later,
William


----------



## Silver Hawk

William_Wilson said:


> Your model does not seem to support IR remote. I think this may be your solution, albeit old fashioned, the RM-SPR1 Remote Commander. It plugs into the camera and allows you to trip the shutter. The RM-SPR1 Remote Commander appears to be relatively inexpensive. Perhaps you could see what the people at your camera store have to say about it.
> 
> Later,
> William


 Thanks William....just found this and installed it....but it seems to disable the bracketing drive mode.

https://www.playmemoriescameraapps.com/portal/usbdetail.php?eid=IS9104-NPIA09014_00-C10005


----------



## William_Wilson

Silver Hawk said:


> Thanks William....just found this and installed it....but it seems to disable the bracketing drive mode.
> 
> https://www.playmemoriescameraapps.com/portal/usbdetail.php?eid=IS9104-NPIA09014_00-C10005


 I've never tried the PMH app with my a6000 as I have an old Sony IR remote, but reading a bit about it, it seems the app's capabilities vary among models.

Did a quick search, have a look at this site's app, it may offer what you seek: http://dslrdashboard.info/

Later,
William


----------



## SBryantgb

Here is a picture of my camera that I took with .... er my other camera :yes:


----------



## William_Wilson

Here is a picture of my camera that I took with .... er my Smartphone. :yes:










Later,William


----------



## Silver Hawk

Here is a picture of my camera taking a picture of my other camera that I took with .... er my Smartphone.


----------



## Silver Hawk

A few recent photos from the RX100 M3:

Ashmore, highest village in Dorset:










Fontmell Magna:










Gold Hill in Shaftesbury:










Cropping of above image with no re-sizing.










And a bit of fun in PaintShop Pro:


----------



## chocko

Silver Hawk said:


> A few recent photos from the RX100 M3:
> 
> Ashmore, highest village in Dorset:
> 
> 
> 
> Fontmell Magna:
> 
> 
> 
> Gold Hill in Shaftesbury:
> 
> 
> 
> Cropping of above image with no re-sizing.
> 
> 
> 
> And a bit of fun in PaintShop Pro:


 Some cracking photos in focus and great dof .

3rd photo reminds me of Hovis advert .

good result . :thumbsup:


----------



## William_Wilson

Silver Hawk said:


> Here is a picture of my camera taking a picture of my other camera that I took with .... er my Smartphone.


 :biggrin:

I have four grades of Sony cameras from P/S to full-frame, but that would be gilding the Lilly. :laugh:

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

Do we need to change the title again?!

Lovely pics Paul, but that hill looks hard work! I've the RX100 mk1 which is a great little camera, but I do miss the flip screen now I've got the a5100. I think the mk3 has all that though? I nearly bought the official Sony leatherette cover for it as it was half price on Amazon, but even at £35 I thought it was a rip off!

Last ones of the moon, I promise! Just missed the full moon I think...



















Got some IR filters today...they look tough to use!


----------



## Faze

Krispy said:


> Glad you got a good one! How is it??
> 
> I've pinged an email back to see what they can do - I had paid for next day delivery so I'd at least expect that refunded.


 Have you had it back yet?



William_Wilson said:


> This is an image I resized from the 0riginal 6000x4000 down to 1024x683. Details within the photo are sacrificed to allow a reduction in file size and the size the image will display and print at.
> 
> 
> 
> Now this is a crop from the original image that has had no resizing done to it. It is only a small piece of the original and therefore physically smaller than the original but it retains all of its details because it has not been resized.
> 
> 
> 
> I hope that makes sense. The practical impact of DPI changes is too involved at this point and I usually wander off topic and get confused. :wink:
> 
> Later,
> William


 I understood it this time, the first time I didn't... Must be the fish I had last night.


----------



## William_Wilson

Faze said:


> I understood it this time, the first time I didn't... Must be the fish I had last night.


 With regard to that final cropped image of the orchid, a term that gets used these days is "100 crop". That meaning a piece of an original image has been cropped out but otherwise unaltered. :wink:

Later,
William


----------



## Silver Hawk

Krispy said:


> Do we need to change the title again?!
> 
> Lovely pics Paul, but that hill looks hard work! I've the RX100 mk1 which is a great little camera, but I do miss the flip screen now I've got the a5100. I think the mk3 has all that though? I nearly bought the official Sony leatherette cover for it as it was half price on Amazon, but even at £35 I thought it was a rip off!


 Thanks Dave...and yes, let's change the title to "The Sony CSC Topic" (with William's permission of course) ...especially as I'm off to buy an A6000 tomorrow.,,but before I do, please tell me about the touch screen on the a5100 since the a6000 doesn't have one: does it allow you to quickly set up AF Tracking by touching an area on the screen? Or is it just an alternative to the physical wheels and dials on the a6000?

And Gold Hill in Shaftesbury is quite steep...as Ronnie Barker will tell you: :laugh:


----------



## William_Wilson

Silver Hawk said:


> Thanks Dave...and yes, let's change the title to "The Sony CSC Topic" (with William's permission of course) ...especially as I'm off to buy an A6000 tomorrow.,,but before I do, please tell me about the touch screen on the a5100 since the a6000 doesn't have one: does it allow you to quickly set up AF Tracking by touching an area on the screen? Or is it just an alternative to the physical wheels and dials on the a6000?


 Fine by me regarding the thread title.

You can assign many of the a6000's buttons to do specialised tasks. As an example, I reassigned the AEL button to focus on the subject's eyeball. I'm not keen on the idea of touchscreens on cameras because I'm always touching something unintentionally on my phone. :wink:

Later,
William


----------



## Faze

William_Wilson said:


> I reassigned the AEL button to focus on the subject's eyeball


 And me.
Used it on the wife the weekend, and the results were great, but unfortunately too good as the wife made me delete them :biggrin:


----------



## Krispy

Silver Hawk said:


> Thanks Dave...and yes, let's change the title to "The Sony CSC Topic" (with William's permission of course) ...especially as I'm off to buy an A6000 tomorrow.,,but before I do, please tell me about the touch screen on the a5100 since the a6000 doesn't have one: does it allow you to quickly set up AF Tracking by touching an area on the screen? Or is it just an alternative to the physical wheels and dials on the a6000?
> 
> And Gold Hill in Shaftesbury is quite steep...as Ronnie Barker will tell you: :laugh:


 Hi Paul,

Sorry, just saw this and hope I'm not too late.

The touch screen does allow you to AF by touching an area on the screen. For some reason though, the menu options and jog wheels can't be interacted with by the touchscreen.

I didn't know the a6000 doesn't have the touchscreen?

Isn't there a Sony a6300 on it's way?? (http://www.dpreview.com/products/sony/slrs/sony_slta6300)


----------



## Faze

Krispy said:


> Isn't there a Sony a6300 on it's way??


 Jason Lanier has started shooting with the a6300 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDy1DrgRSUN1C29fmBLJj5g

I follow his videos as he's very easy to watch and nice to his models


----------



## Silver Hawk




----------



## William_Wilson

Silver Hawk said:


>


 It looks as though you get the same packaging as we get in Canada, English followed by French. :wink:

Later,
William


----------



## Faze

Massdrop has just sent me an email sayin a drop (or whatever they call it) for the Sony a6000 has been added.


----------



## William_Wilson

I had to Google Massdrop. :laugh:

Later,
William


----------



## Silver Hawk

So who has bought the 30mm macro lens? And why is it only available in silver?


----------



## Faze

Silver Hawk said:


> So who has bought the 30mm macro lens? And why is it only available in silver?


 Me and it's great, but slightly racist


----------



## Silver Hawk

Faze said:


> Me and it's great, but slightly racist


 Let me know when you want to sell it. :yes:


----------



## William_Wilson

I have one. It is one of the early NEX lenses, designed when the cameras were silver. I suspect Sony isn't investing in changes to the lens because there isn't that great a demand for it among average users. It also is fairly reasonably priced, so another reason not to add to production costs. Here is a shot I did in January that has been cropped slightly to straighten it and then resized:










1/2 second f22 ISO 3200. I'm pleased with the clarity of these lenses.

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

They made me buy one too...have to say it's very good.

What the fuzz is massdrop?!


----------



## Faze

Krispy said:


> They made me buy one too...have to say it's very good.
> 
> What the fuzz is massdrop?!


 Don't look though mate 

https://www.massdrop.com/buy/sony-alpha-a6000-mirrorless-w-16-50mm-lens?utm_placement=0&referer=UC69FH&mode=guest_open&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Automated%20Daily%20Promotional%202016-02-29&utm_term=Daily%20Promotional


----------



## Krispy

Edit - was being lazy. Goggled it, good idea. Is it US only?



Faze said:


> Don't look though mate
> 
> https://www.massdrop.com/buy/sony-alpha-a6000-mirrorless-w-16-50mm-lens?utm_placement=0&referer=UC69FH&mode=guest_open&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Automated%20Daily%20Promotional%202016-02-29&utm_term=Daily%20Promotional


 You've cost me a fortune these last couple of months but I'm happy on the camera front (for now)!

I'm even more happy as I got it from JL for £249 over xmas...

http://www.johnlewis.com/sony-a5100-compact-system-camera-with-16-50mm-oss-lens-hd-1080p-24-3mp-wi-fi-nfc-oled-evf-3-tilting-screen-black-with-memory-card/p234377461


----------



## William_Wilson

Faze said:


> Don't look though mate
> 
> https://www.massdrop.com/buy/sony-alpha-a6000-mirrorless-w-16-50mm-lens?utm_placement=0&referer=UC69FH&mode=guest_open&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Automated%20Daily%20Promotional%202016-02-29&utm_term=Daily%20Promotional


 That is about the typical price in major camera stores in Canada (after currency conversion).

Later,
William


----------



## Faze

Silver Hawk said:


> Let me know when you want to sell it. :yes:


 Took these with it today :thumbsup:


----------



## Silver Hawk

Faze said:


> Took these with it today :thumbsup:


 Nice...so you'll not be selling it the? :sadwalk: :laugh:

Ordered a Raynox DCR-250 Macro lens the other day, so looking forward to see what can be done with that. Has good reviews.


----------



## William_Wilson

Silver Hawk said:


> Nice...so you'll not be selling it the? :sadwalk: :laugh:
> 
> Ordered a Raynox DCR-250 Macro lens the other day, so looking forward to see what can be done with that. Has good reviews.


 It should be interesting to see how it does with edge sharpness, fringing and so forth.

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

Anyone got any tips on good memory card management??

I use the Capture ONE software that William recommended. In there, you create 'sessions' and import files from the camera (card) into it - this effectively copies the file onto my HD within the session's folder.

Periodically, I format my SD card but take a back up of it to my HD beforehand. Effectively, I'm creating multiple copies of the same file in different locations on my HD.

I can run software to tidy up duplicate files on my drive but wondered if there were any better ways of avoiding this.

My ideal would be that files are removed from my SD card when they are imported into a Capture ONE session, leaving only non-imported files on the card, but I can't see that Capture ONE can do that?

What do you lot do??


----------



## Silver Hawk

Krispy said:


> What do you lot do??


 I use the camera WiFi to copy photos to my hard drive with a new folder for each date...the camera db keeps track what has already been copied, so you do not get duplicates on the HD. I periodically deleted everything from the SD card.

I also use Google Drive to backup all photos to the cloud.


----------



## Krispy

Cheers Paul,

I haven't really played around with the wifi on the a5100 yet, will have a look into that. My RX100 is the mk1 so doesn't have wifi but it also doesn't get much of a look in now it's big brother is here...


----------



## William_Wilson

I'm rather old fashioned with regard to file management. I divide my photos into two categories, watch photos and everything else. I use Windows Explorer's file move to option to transfer watch photos from the camera to my watch directory. I use Sony's Play Memories Home application to copy other photos from the camera to my Sony directory into a subdirectory named by the date. I erase my memory card on a regular basis. I'm very DOS about file management and try to keep a database in my head. :laugh:

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

So you don't import from your camera into Capture One?


----------



## Krispy

The rolling fields of Essex. And an electricity substation. And some pylons.


----------



## William_Wilson

Krispy said:


> So you don't import from your camera into Capture One?


 No. I open files with Capture One and it populates the originating directories with the subdirectories it requires.

Later,
William


----------



## dobra

Just downloaded 30 day CaptureOne 9 to play with. 
mike


----------



## Silver Hawk

Dudle Door last week with the RX100 M3:


----------



## Faze

Interest free credit, the little Devils !!

http://www.jessops.com/online.store/categories/Compact%20System%20Cameras/products/Sony/A6300%20Compact%20System%20Camera%20Body%20in%20Black-97865/Show.html?PPCCat=Deal&PPCDeal=2016-02-10-16_2016-03-31-00&nst=0&gclid=CjwKEAiAmY-3BRDh7pjvg46p1iYSJADQ78gNpKINoW6jUAYbtzRNn4jUHozSzxZG892CyXNqD_S5whoC8ATw_wcB


----------



## William_Wilson

Faze said:


> Interest free credit, the little Devils !!
> 
> http://www.jessops.com/online.store/categories/Compact%20System%20Cameras/products/Sony/A6300%20Compact%20System%20Camera%20Body%20in%20Black-97865/Show.html?PPCCat=Deal&PPCDeal=2016-02-10-16_2016-03-31-00&nst=0&gclid=CjwKEAiAmY-3BRDh7pjvg46p1iYSJADQ78gNpKINoW6jUAYbtzRNn4jUHozSzxZG892CyXNqD_S5whoC8ATw_wcB


 Compared to Canadian prices that is quite painful. 

Later,
William


----------



## dobra

Naive question - zoom lenses have many elements, but prime lenses have fewer, so is there a prime macro that would be superior for use with your cameras?

Just asking.

Mike


----------



## William_Wilson

dobra said:


> Naive question - zoom lenses have many elements, but prime lenses have fewer, so is there a prime macro that would be superior for use with your cameras?
> 
> Just asking.
> 
> Mike


 Providing Tamron or Sigma have not released macro lenses for the Sony E mount recently, there are only two macro lenses made for the E mount. The first is the Sony 30mm macro, which is relatively inexpensive yet gives very good results. The second is the Zeiss Touit 50mm Makro. The Zeiss lens costs five times as much as the Sony, being a Zeiss product it will be better, though I don't know if it is five times better. :wink:

Later,
William


----------



## Faze

I'm in work, but have just seen there is an update that's just been released for the a6000. Will check out later when home.


----------



## William_Wilson

Faze said:


> I'm in work, but have just seen there is an update that's just been released for the a6000. Will check out later when home.


 After reading this I installed it. There isn't too much in the write-up. It looks like it is mostly centred on the new GM lenses. It does say something about autofocus but does bot go into how it will improve things.

Later,
William


----------



## Silver Hawk

Got some questions on the ISO Auto setting......

I was using my 55-210mm zoom and had it set at 55mm. I had intended to use Aperture priority (A mode), but mistakenly put it in P mode. I then rotated the top dial to alter the aperture, but as it was in P mode, obviously the shutter speed also changed. Took a picture with ISO set to Auto.

What came out was a slightly blurry picture with settings of 1/10th, f20, ISO 100. I then realized my mode error and re-took the same photo using A mode and f18. This image had settings of 1/100th, f18, ISO 1000.

My questions are:



Using P mode, once you override the camera chosen aperture / shutter combination, what does Auto ISO do in relation to the current focal length? It was my fault that I ended up with a shutter speed of 1/10th but I was a bit surprised to see the ISO at 100....but maybe it had to choose that to maintain correct exposure.


Am I correct in assuming that in A mode and on Auto ISO, the camera will not choose a shutter speed for the current focal length that might result in camera shake. i.e. it will raise the ISO setting instead.


Am I correct in assuming that in A mode and on a user chosen ISO setting, the camera could choose a slow shutter speed for the current focal length that might result in camera shake


----------



## William_Wilson

Silver Hawk said:


> Got some questions on the ISO Auto setting......
> 
> I was using my 55-210mm zoom and had it set at 55mm. I had intended to use Aperture priority (A mode), but mistakenly put it in P mode. I then rotated the top dial to alter the aperture, but as it was in P mode, obviously the shutter speed also changed. Took a picture with ISO set to Auto.
> 
> What came out was a slightly blurry picture with settings of 1/10th, f20, ISO 100. I then realized my mode error and re-took the same photo using A mode and f18. This image had settings of 1/100th, f18, ISO 1000.
> 
> My questions are:
> 
> 
> 
> Using P mode, once you override the camera chosen aperture / shutter combination, what does Auto ISO do in relation to the current focal length? It was my fault that I ended up with a shutter speed of 1/10th but I was a bit surprised to see the ISO at 100....but maybe it had to choose that to maintain correct exposure.
> 
> 
> Am I correct in assuming that in A mode and on Auto ISO, the camera will not choose a shutter speed for the current focal length that might result in camera shake. i.e. it will raise the ISO setting instead.
> 
> 
> Am I correct in assuming that in A mode and on a user chosen ISO setting, the camera could choose a slow shutter speed for the current focal length that might result in camera shake


 I just placed my a6000 in *P* mode. The room was lighted dimly. With no alteration to the settings the camera selected f3.5 at 1/20 of a second at ISO 3200. As I overrode the aperture setting the shutter setting slowed correspondingly but the ISO remained constant at 3200. I repeated this with the camera facing out of the window and had the same results. At this point I shifted the camera from the window back to the interior whilst still holding the shutter release partially depressed. As the scene changed the ISO changed.

Anyway, I gather from this that the *P* mode choses an ISO according to the scene and the aperture and shutter override dials do not affect it. I don't have a zoom lens to try any practical tests with respect to the camera's ability to allow for focal length. I shoot in *A* mode frequently and whether I'm using manual or auto ISO the camera will adjust the shutter speed as slow or fast as it needs to, to achieve proper exposure.

Later,
William


----------



## Silver Hawk

William_Wilson said:


> I just placed my a6000 in *P* mode. The room was lighted dimly. With no alteration to the settings the camera selected f3.5 at 1/20 of a second at ISO 3200. As I overrode the aperture setting the shutter setting slowed correspondingly but the ISO remained constant at 3200. I repeated this with the camera facing out of the window and had the same results. At this point I shifted the camera from the window back to the interior whilst still holding the shutter release partially depressed. As the scene changed the ISO changed.
> 
> Anyway, I gather from this that the *P* mode choses an ISO according to the scene and the aperture and shutter override dials do not affect it. I don't have a zoom lens to try any practical tests with respect to the camera's ability to allow for focal length. I shoot in *A* mode frequently and whether I'm using manual or auto ISO the camera will adjust the shutter speed as slow or fast as it needs to, to achieve proper exposure.
> 
> Later,
> William


 William, I'm not sue what you're saying. I guess the main question I want answered is whether the camera, in *A* mode and *Auto ISO*, will protect me from camera shake in low light by raising the ISO rather than lowering the shutter speed....and that it will do this intelligently based on current focal length.

Maybe I should do some tests.... :yes:


----------



## Silver Hawk

I think I've found the answer. I set mode *A* and Auto ISO to max of 25600 and used my 55-210mm lens on same subject



At 55mm focal length, f22, camera chose shutter speed of 1/100th and ISO of 2500


At 210mm focal length, f22, camera chose shutter speed of 1/400th and ISO of 8000


So I think camera is choosing a shutter speed that prevents camera shake for any given focal length. At 210mm, the only way I could get a slower shutter speed than 1/400th was when the light was so low that the ISO setting of 25600 maxed out.


----------



## William_Wilson

Yes, I just had a look and my camera was set at a maximum auto ISO of 3200, which explains why my quick experiment wasn't achieving better shutter speeds.

I have not really had any problems with long exposure times as my macro lens is only around two inches long and my tripod weighs 2.6 kg.

Later,
William


----------



## dobra

Here is a review of another Sony.

http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/reviews/compactsystemcameras/first-look-sony-alpha-6300

Mike


----------



## Faze

dobra said:


> Here is a review of another Sony.
> 
> http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/reviews/compactsystemcameras/first-look-sony-alpha-6300
> 
> Mike


 I watched this earlier on the 6300, the guy gets some amazing shots and worth following him.... He does have some top lenses though and post production skills.


----------



## Silver Hawk

Faze said:


> I watched this earlier on the 6300, the guy gets some amazing shots and worth following him.... He does have some top lenses though and post production skills.


 But how much of that is due to the a6300? Or would he gets the same results with the a6000 using the same lenses etc?

The price of the a6300 is a huge jump on the a6000 and most of the differences seem video related.....


----------



## William_Wilson

Does somebody need this?



















It is a cheap Chinese copy of a Contax rangefinder lens hood. As I recall, it is threaded for 40.5mm the same as the Sony E mount kit lens. It is metal construction. I didn't end up needing it and somebody might as well use it rather than me packing it away and forgetting about it. :wink:

I can't remember if it takes the standard lens cap or not, but it is a freebie if one of our Sony (or Contax) people want it.

Later,
William


----------



## Silver Hawk

Was out with the a6000 yesterday and wanted a slow shutter speed, but it was bright weather, so needed to use the in-built ND filter....but there wasn't one. :taz:

Strange that, since the RX100M3 has one......


----------



## William_Wilson

Silver Hawk said:


> Was out with the a6000 yesterday and wanted a slow shutter speed, but it was bright weather, so needed to use the in-built ND filter....but there wasn't one. :taz:
> 
> Strange that, since the RX100M3 has one......


 The exposure compensation setting has a plus or minus range of five f-stops. Would that have been enough?

Later,
William


----------



## Silver Hawk

William_Wilson said:


> The exposure compensation setting has a plus or minus range of five f-stops. Would that have been enough?
> 
> Later,
> William


 Hmmm...forgot about that....that might have done it. :sadwalk:


----------



## William_Wilson

I don't think any of the digital cameras I've had have had a neutral density option. I usually face the problem of too little light and too long an exposure time. :wink:

Later,
William


----------



## Silver Hawk

Really enjoying the a6000 and have taken a few photos over the last few weeks....

A few shots around *Stinsford, Dorset* where we're currently renting as we wait for our house purchase to go through (sigh).


----------



## William_Wilson

Lots of great pictures. Where I live there isn't a lot of older architecture. Trees were plentiful so there were a lot of wooden houses with stone basements and most of these have been rebuilt or demolished. Brick became common in rural areas for home construction in the early 20th century, but the same builders did most of the work over large parts of the province, so most places are very similar. There are quite a few 19th century churches but they are prime targets for arsonist kids. We do have 19th century graveyards everywhere though. There are many tiny ones where once isolated communities dispersed when motor travel became so common after the war. I will have to make an effort this summer to visit some of them with my camera.

Later,
William


----------



## vinn

great photo's


----------



## Silver Hawk

William_Wilson said:


> There are quite a few 19th century churches but they are prime targets for arsonist kids. We do have 19th century graveyards everywhere though. There are many tiny ones where once isolated communities dispersed when motor travel became so common after the war. I will have to make an effort this summer to visit some of them with my camera.


 I look forward to seeing those William as my wife and I love visiting ancient churches (although we're not religious in any form). We really are fortunate in England to have so many interesting churches, but most people don't seem to even notice them....

Last three from me for time being:

Mistletoe growing in trees near *Pulham, Dorset*:










Field near *Moreton, Dorset*:










*Portland Bill, Dorset*:


----------



## vinn

I am off to a camera show. perhaps I will find a didgital camera for close- ups with many pixels.


----------



## William_Wilson

I have a used SEL1670Z now. I couldn't get any worthwhile pictures outside today as it was overcast deeply, hazy and ankle deep in mud. I did a quickie shot under my LED lighted umbrellas though. Taken at 70mm and uncropped, just resized and adjusted with CO. It would have been better if I had aimed the lights and positioned the tripod, but I am surprised that I was able to get close enough to almost fill the frame.










Later,
William


----------



## William_Wilson

Slightly brighter this afternoon...










Later,
William


----------



## William_Wilson

A somewhat manipulated shot just after sunset...










Later,
William


----------



## William_Wilson

Did a vertical handheld panorama shot today with the Sony Zeiss zoom at 16mm. I performed an auto adjustment and keystone adjustment afterward with Capture One.










It has only just warmed up a little in the last three or four days. It will be a while before we see some green.

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

I've been the length of the country (well, from Essex to Aberdeen and a fair few places in between) these last few weeks. Not quite Man in a suitcase, more like a nice Millican holdall.

Anyway, only had the RX100 mk1 with me but got lucky in Blackpool...









































































Best shoes in the world. Ever.


----------



## Silver Hawk

Krispy said:


> Anyway, only had the RX100 mk1 with me but got lucky in Blackpool...
> 
> Best shoes in the world. Ever.


 Re: RX100 M1 : sometimes less is more. How many shots to people miss because they didn't have a superb pocket camera or were too busy fiddling about with changing lenses.....

Re: shoes : Nice...so keep away from salt water :laugh:


----------



## Krispy

Silver Hawk said:


> Re: shoes : Nice...so keep away from salt water :laugh:


 Storm welted commando sole - all terrain!!


----------



## Silver Hawk

Weymouth yesterday....


----------



## dobra

Did you buy a bucket and spade then Paul ?


----------



## William_Wilson

No, he bought a flower windmill and a postcard. :wink:

Later,
William


----------



## Silver Hawk

I thought the mix of colours was wonderful...so took the photo, didn't buy anything and went and had a cup of tea. artytime:


----------



## Silver Hawk

Went on a great vintage motorcycle rally today....down to Lulworth Cove. Took the RX100M3 with me and took some great photos of the bikes.

Except I'd forgotten to put the SD Card back into the camera.

:taz: :sadwalk:

Here is a stock photo of Lulworth Cove:


----------



## William_Wilson

Silver Hawk said:


> Went on a great vintage motorcycle rally today....down to Lulworth Cove. Took the RX100M3 with me and took some great photos of the bikes.
> 
> Except I'd forgotten to put the SD Card back into the camera.
> 
> :taz: :sadwalk:


 That's too bad. I always leave the card in the a6000 and transfer with USB, and after the transfer is complete I turn the camera off and allow it to recharge while I tend to the files. I purchased high speed cards for the camera as well.

Later,
William


----------



## Silver Hawk

William_Wilson said:


> That's too bad. I always leave the card in the a6000 and transfer with USB, and after the transfer is complete I turn the camera off and allow it to recharge while I tend to the files. I purchased high speed cards for the camera as well.
> 
> Later,
> William


 William, I always transfer via WiFi...but "borrowed" the SD Card to transfer a load of mp3 between a desktop and laptop....I only realised the mistake when I got home and started tapping away on the laptop and wondered what that extra drive was in Windows Explorer.  .


----------



## William_Wilson

Silver Hawk said:


> William, I always transfer via WiFi...but "borrowed" the SD Card to transfer a load of mp3 between a desktop and laptop....I only realised the mistake when I got home and started tapping away on the laptop and wondered what that extra drive was in Windows Explorer.  .


 I've managed to accumulate a small pile of USB terabyte drives, thumb drives and memory cards of various types to manage that sort of thing. If I ever puled a card from one of my portable devices without replacing it right away I'd never find it. I've found memory cards and thumb drives sticking out of the back of computers months later. :laugh:

Later,
William


----------



## Silver Hawk

If you go down to the woods today (with your a6000 of course)....they'll be bluebells and...hail stones.

Delcombe Wood, Dorset:


----------



## dobra

They almost seem to be floating above the ground.


----------



## dobra

A Brighton man, Mike Scott and his friend walked from the Atlantic coast of France to the Mediterranean coast of Spain via the mountains a few years ago. He came to our then camera club to five an AV show. Before that, he talked about kit, one of course was his camera. He eschewed a DSLR on the ground of weight (with all the lenses etc) and bought a Sony similar to your with a couple of lenses. His biggest problem was finding a solar charger to afix to his rucksack to charge the spare battery.

Some outstanding images were shewn

http://www.touchingthelight.co.uk/project-infinity/


----------



## Silver Hawk

The A354 near Puddletown...perfect road for motorcycling IMO...in fact, it's a really nice 33 mile stretch all the way to Salisbury:










Not everybody's favourite crop .... oilseed rape ... but it sure makes everything look yellow :yes: . Fields adjacent to the A354 between Blandford Forum and Salisbury


----------



## William_Wilson

The opposite of Paul's photos. A rather grim dead looking spring photo of the farm next door. Taken with the Sony/Zeiss 16-70mm at 70mm and f8. Processed with one click of auto in CO.










A direct crop from the original RAW, not resized.










It looks as though the camera focused on a tree several hundred feet in the foreground. It was so bright I could hardly see to frame the shot. Still, there's a fair bit of detail. I really must try some aerial photos, a friend of mine sometimes flies over the area.

Later,
William


----------



## dobra

Can you use manual focus William?

mike


----------



## William_Wilson

Yes I can. I had the camera set on centre focus but I was at a right angle to the sun and had some difficulty seeing exactly what I was doing. I should have had a hat on. :wink:

Later,
William


----------



## Silver Hawk

Has one got, or tried, the SEL 18200 LE lens?

Expensive, yes, but does seem to cover a wide focal length range and could replace by SEL 1655 and SEL 55210. Jack of All Trades, Master of None?


----------



## William_Wilson

Silver Hawk said:


> Has one got, or tried, the SEL 18200 LE lens?
> 
> Expensive, yes, but does seem to cover a wide focal length range and could replace by SEL 1655 and SEL 55210. Jack of All Trades, Master of None?


 What I've read suggests the silver version is the better lens. Slightly larger and more expensive if you can find one.

Later,
William


----------



## William_Wilson

Another dreary shot, this time it's the farm across the road.










I played with masks in CO and adjusted the ground and sky independently.

Later,
William


----------



## Silver Hawk

Well, I guess it had to happen sooner or later.....debris on my sensor  ; it's not on the lens as its on all photos taken by 2 different lenses. Using a loupe, I could see it (and others) on my sensor and luckily it all blew away with a puffer.

I guess I was being punished for changing lenses in a field full of oilseed rape pollen...


----------



## William_Wilson

I had to clean my a850's sensor once. Due to its mirror, it had a special cleaning mode that held the mirror open and reverse charged the sensor, or something like that. :wink: It still required air to lift the tiny particle.

Later,
William


----------



## William_Wilson

Nothing much going on, but I did manage to catch this the other day.










Cropped directly from the original 6000x4000 without resizing.

Later,
William


----------



## dobra

Lovely set of dentures......

mike


----------



## Silver Hawk

William_Wilson said:


> Nothing much going on, but I did manage to catch this the other day.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Cropped directly from the original 6000x4000 without resizing.
> 
> Later,
> William


 Fluffy thing...is that its winter coat....or its all the year round coat?

I went on the VMCC 49th Weymouth Run yesterday. Having only recently moved to Dorset, I wasn't sure what to expect but it was a brilliant day. One short run of 30 miles and a longer run of 60 miles....I did latter. Weather was lovely, location superb and a great selection of approx 120 bikes of all ages. Only slight disappointment was that I was the only one riding an Ariel (#38)...oh well  . A few shots from the RX100M3


----------



## dobra

Did you happen to see a Raleigh motorcycle Paul, as I had three quarters of one back in the 50s'?


----------



## William_Wilson

Silver Hawk said:


> Fluffy thing...is that its winter coat....or its all the year round coat?
> 
> I went on the VMCC 49th Weymouth Run yesterday. Having only recently moved to Dorset, I wasn't sure what to expect but it was a brilliant day. One short run of 30 miles and a longer run of 60 miles....I did latter. Weather was lovely, location superb and a great selection of approx 120 bikes of all ages. Only slight disappointment was that I was the only one riding an Ariel (#38)...oh well  . A few shots from the RX1


 That is the racoon's year round coat. In cold environments they spend long periods sleeping during the winter, in warmer climates they are active the entire year. They weigh 20 - 30 Lbs. and have razor sharp teeth and powerful claws.

That was certainly a varied group of bikes. 

Later,
William


----------



## bowie

Is it true you can only use the light trial app on the a5100 and not the a6000,or has this now changed.


----------



## William_Wilson

The specifications on the PMH site seem quite definite about using the a7s or a5100, but I don't have any hands on experience with the application.

Later,
William


----------



## bowie

can you do it without the app then.


----------



## William_Wilson

bowie said:


> can you do it without the app then.


 Yes, it's not too difficult. You need darkness and a tripod and remote release or use the 2 second timer. Shoot in either manual or shutter priority. The shutter speed will control the length of trails you get. Aperture and ISO settings will control the balance between darkness and the brightness of the light trails. Experiment with the settings while reviewing each picture as you take them. One thing to consider when choosing a position to shoot from is the speed of the object versus the real world distance across your viewfinder. What I mean by this is that a car travelling 20 miles per hour will cover 29 feet per second, so keep in mind you will need some room to work.

Later,
William


----------



## bowie

Thanks for the reply my friend I will try and have a go with my Samsung


----------



## dobra

Review of the Sony Alpha A6300 if you are interested....?

https://www.ephotozine.com/article/sony-alpha-a6300-full-review-28852


----------



## Silver Hawk

A few more from the a6000:

Cows With A View --- Chesil beach and Portland Bill in distance










Dog in a ford at Moreton:










Dead tree at Moreton:










And Mr. Swan who blocked our footpath for obvious reasons...we just had to wait (10 minutes) until he joined his new family:


----------



## dobra

The tree would also be nice in high contrast mono Paul?

mike


----------



## Faze

I was out and about today, and will sort through the photos hopefully tomorrow.
I had the zeiss touit and Samyang with me.










Same photo cropped


----------



## Silver Hawk

Faze said:


> I was out and about today, and will sort through the photos hopefully tomorrow.
> I had the zeiss touit and Samyang with me.
> 
> 
> 
> Same photo cropped


 Nice lighting! Think I prefer the un-cropped one! :thumbsup:


----------



## Faze

I do like a gap in the trees


----------



## Silver Hawk

Faze said:


> I do like a gap in the trees


 So do I;










@dobra any good Mike? (prefer colour version)


----------



## William_Wilson

Alas, I've had no opportunities for photography lately, though I can't imagine I could hope to compete with the photos above. :yes:

I did manage to order a LCS-EBE PU half case for the a6000 though.
































































I purchased it on sale, I don't think it would be worth the full price though. It balances the camera out when you have a larger lens mounted.

Later,
William


----------



## Krispy

I've had no chance to get out with a camera lately either. Now the sun's shining, I'm hoping to put my IR filters (and me) to the test and try to use them.

In the meantime, I'm lucky enough to be responsible for delivering parts of a fairly major London project over the next 6 to 12 months. Only had my phone with me today (set to the wrong ratio...and I was too flustered to think about doing a panorama...) but will have to start packing my RX100 for work from now on, just in case...


----------



## Krispy

Well, I don't know if I'm impressed by this or freaked out by it! Google just notified me that it had created a panorama based on the 3 pics I posted above...


----------



## bowie

Krispy said:


> Well, I don't know if I'm impressed by this or freaked out by it! Google just notified me that it had created a panorama based on the 3 pics I posted above...


 Big brother is watching you :biggrin:


----------



## Krispy

bowie said:


> Big brother is watching you :biggrin:


 That is somewhat of a worry...!


----------



## dobra

Marketing, marketing, marketing.....

mike


----------



## Silver Hawk

Krispy said:


> Well, I don't know if I'm impressed by this or freaked out by it! Google just notified me that it had created a panorama based on the 3 pics I posted above...


 I find it quite amazing really...and it doesn't worry me. There are loads of other idiots on the internet pinching my photos and abusing them.

What I want to know is how they did this? What s/w algorithms did they use to know that these 3 photos could be combined? Once you know which three photos to use, it is easy (lots of software to stitch images together). There are many photos on this "page", Dave's, mine, William's, so did they interrogate the pixel content of every image on this page and make a decision based on that, or look at filenames, or does their software recognize a "forum post" within this web page and maybe consider any text that Dave had written?

How did Google notify you Dave?

Fascinating stuff. :thumbsup:


----------



## Krispy

Silver Hawk said:


> I find it quite amazing really...and it doesn't worry me. There are loads of other idiots on the internet pinching my photos and abusing them.
> 
> What I want to know is how they did this? What s/w algorithms did they use to know that these 3 photos could be combined? Once you know which three photos to use, it is easy (lots of software to stitch images together). There are many photos on this "page", Dave's, mine, William's, so did they interrogate the pixel content of every image on this page and make a decision based on that, or look at filenames, or does their software recognize a "forum post" within this web page and maybe consider any text that Dave had written?
> 
> How did Google notify you Dave?
> 
> Fascinating stuff. [IMG alt=":thumbsup:" data-emoticon=""]http://1.1.1.1/bmi/www.thewatchforum.co.uk/uploads/emoticons/thumbsup.gif[/IMG]


 Ah...sorry, I may have misled you as to how this occurred - your scenario would scare me even more! The images weren't lifted from the forum...

I'm an android phone user. Photos taken on my phone are stored within Google's 'photos' app and automatically backed up to my Google drive.

It was this service / app that carried out the stitching together and then notified me on my phone that it had done so, with the option to keep the image they'd created or delete it.

I've noticed it's also stitched a number of pictures together in sequence to create animated pictures too, similar to a gif.

I'm guessing they use the metadata stored with the photo (date, time, location) to choose candidates for processing. Very clever how they can then determine which series of pictures are suitable to animate and which ones suit creating a panorama out of.


----------



## SilentBob

Krispy said:


> Ah...sorry, I may have misled you as to how this occurred - your scenario would scare me even more! The images weren't lifted from the forum...
> 
> I'm an android phone user. Photos taken on my phone are stored within Google's 'photos' app and automatically backed up to my Google drive.
> 
> It was this service / app that carried out the stitching together and then notified me on my phone that it had done so, with the option to keep the image they'd created or delete it.
> 
> I've noticed it's also stitched a number of pictures together in sequence to create animated pictures too, similar to a gif.
> 
> I'm guessing they use the metadata stored with the photo (date, time, location) to choose candidates for processing. Very clever how they can then determine which series of pictures are suitable to animate and which ones suit creating a panorama out of.


 It's nothing sinister, the googles photo app has an assistant mode, it will do the same When quick burst of photo's are and make an animation of it. It's a great feature, one I take full advantage of.

just spotted your fourth paragraph- that will teach me to skim read.


----------



## Krispy

No worries...I've just found some great animations of my kitten from about 4 months ago!


----------



## mach 0.0013137

Krispy said:


> No worries...I've just found some great animations of my kitten from about 4 months ago!


 Feel free to share them :biggrin:


----------



## SilentBob

Krispy said:


> No worries...I've just found some great animations of my kitten from about 4 months ago!


 Mine are mostly of daughter, was a pleasant surprise when I first found out about the feature.


----------



## Silver Hawk

Krispy said:


> Ah...sorry, I may have misled you as to how this occurred - your scenario would scare me even more! The images weren't lifted from the forum...
> 
> I'm an android phone user. Photos taken on my phone are stored within Google's 'photos' app and automatically backed up to my Google drive.
> 
> It was this service / app that carried out the stitching together and then notified me on my phone that it had done so, with the option to keep the image they'd created or delete it.
> 
> I've noticed it's also stitched a number of pictures together in sequence to create animated pictures too, similar to a gif.
> 
> I'm guessing they use the metadata stored with the photo (date, time, location) to choose candidates for processing. Very clever how they can then determine which series of pictures are suitable to animate and which ones suit creating a panorama out of.


 That makes more sense Dave....thanks. I hadn't thought my scenario through...how would they know who to notify? But I'm sure I'm not very far away...the future is only just around the corner.

To be able to effectively search across images (without EXIF data) as well as text would be so useful. We have face recognition of sorts...and what this Forum needs is automatic "watch recognition"...no more "Anyone know what watch Daniel Craig was wearing in Casino Royale" type topics....

artytime:


----------



## Krispy

mach 0.0013137 said:


> Feel free to share them [IMG alt=":biggrin:" data-emoticon=""]http://1.1.1.1/bmi/www.thewatchforum.co.uk/uploads/monthly_2015_05/biggrin.gif.64b0e334ab47a37cdb6d837fbce78714.gif[/IMG]


 When she was very small she took to sitting on the back of my neck, paws on the top of my head and washing every strand of hair on my head. No one would believe that a) she did it or b) I let her do it, so I documented it.

I'm not sure the world or The Watch Forum is ready to see that!


----------



## SilentBob

Just found a new video feature too, adds music and cuts pics with video together.


----------



## mach 0.0013137

Krispy said:


> When she was very small she took to sitting on the back of my neck, paws on the top of my head and washing every strand of hair on my head. No one would believe that a) she did it or b) I let her do it, so I documented it.
> 
> I'm not sure the world or The Watch Forum is ready to see that!


 I had a cat called Laura (who was around 14 years old at the time) that used to sit on my shoulders...










We had an open plan staircase & she would just walk onto your shoulders as you were passing. I`ve got a photo somewhere of Caroline carrying a couple of mugs of coffee with Laura on her shoulders :biggrin:


----------



## Krispy

Silver Hawk said:


> To be able to effectively search across images (without EXIF data) as well as text would be so useful.


 I think that's what Google image search effectively does.

As far as I understand, when you type a search term into Google it will return a set of images that match your search based on image file names and text content that's on the web page around the image, along with any HTML tags of the parent page.

What's also impressive is uploading an image into Google search instead of typing in a text query...


----------



## Silver Hawk

Krispy said:


> I think that's what Google image search effectively does.
> 
> As far as I understand, when you type a search term into Google it will return a set of images that match your search based on image file names and text content that's on the web page around the image, along with any HTML tags of the parent page.
> 
> What's also impressive is uploading an image into Google search instead of typing in a text query...


 But does that extend to images embedded in PDF files etc hosted on the web? I think it is the next level I'm waiting for ie. pattern matching within the image. You cannot rely on HTML attributes like Title, Name and ID as these are often not even filled in...and people still leave the filenames as DSCxxxx.jpg, IMGxxxx.jpg. etc.

Not tried the loading image into Google Search...sounds interesting.


----------



## Krispy

Silver Hawk said:


> But does that extend to images embedded in PDF files etc hosted on the web? I think it is the next level I'm waiting for ie. pattern matching within the image. You cannot rely on HTML attributes like Title, Name and ID as these are often not even filled in...and people still leave the filenames as DSCxxxx.jpg, IMGxxxx.jpg. etc.
> 
> Not tried the loading image into Google Search...sounds interesting.


 That's certainly technically possible but not sure if Google search does that - I might test it in Google Drive.

Searching by image is very impressive in a mobile scenario - e.g hold your phone (or Google Glasses) in front of you, take a picture of something, upload to Google search and have results based on what you're looking at.


----------



## Silver Hawk

Krispy said:


> Searching by image is very impressive in a mobile scenario - e.g hold your phone (or Google Glasses) in front of you, take a picture of something, upload to Google search and have results based on what you're looking at.


 Just tried Google Image Search from the desktop...and the results are rather disappointing. First image is me and friend at a vintage motorcycle rally. Filename is "Alan at Banbury Run in the 1980s.jpg"

And this is what it came up with. It obviously recognized two people and a vehicle of some kind....but those "similar image" are not much use to me!


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## Krispy

Silver Hawk said:


> Just tried Google Image Search from the desktop...and the results are rather disappointing. First image is me and friend at a vintage motorcycle rally. Filename is "Alan at Banbury Run in the 1980s.jpg"
> 
> And this is what it came up with. It obviously recognized two people and a vehicle of some kind....but those "similar image" are not much use to me!


 I just did similar with the Google Goggles mobile app using an 'art installation' opposite where I work - with equally disappointing results!


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## William_Wilson

Krispy said:


> Well, I don't know if I'm impressed by this or freaked out by it! Google just notified me that it had created a panorama based on the 3 pics I posted above...












My version, made with Microsoft Image Composite Editor.

Later,
William


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## Krispy

William_Wilson said:


> My version, made with Microsoft Image Composite Editor.
> 
> Later,
> William


 Nicely done. I wasn't aware of that MS product and I see it's another of their freebies so thanks for pointing it out.

Although the Google service is convenient, your version shows how much Google had degraded the image quality (granted, not the best quality to start with).


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## William_Wilson

Krispy said:


> Nicely done. I wasn't aware of that MS product and I see it's another of their freebies so thanks for pointing it out.
> 
> Although the Google service is convenient, your version shows how much Google had degraded the image quality (granted, not the best quality to start with).


 ICE is one of those things MS does for no outwardly apparent reason. As far as I know, they have only released two versions of it over a period of several years. The bottom line is that it does a great job and costs nothing, you just have to know it exists. :wink:

Later,
William


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## Krispy

William_Wilson said:


> ICE is one of those things MS does for no outwardly apparent reason. As far as I know, they have only released two versions of it over a period of several years. The bottom line is that it does a great job and costs nothing, you just have to know it exists. [IMG alt=":wink:" data-emoticon=""]http://1.1.1.1/bmi/www.thewatchforum.co.uk/uploads/monthly_2015_05/wink.gif.b796042e43620d6f1245da8a397462d8.gif[/IMG]
> 
> Later,
> William


 Much like Sync Toy, which is a cracking piece of software :thumbsup:


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## Krispy

Silver Hawk said:


> We have face recognition of sorts...and what this Forum needs is automatic "watch recognition"...no more "Anyone know what watch Daniel Craig was wearing in Casino Royale" type topics....
> 
> artytime:


 Well, Google Goggles now seems to be analysing every picture I take on my phone and seems to be doing OK recognising some watches.

It's correctly identified this Glycine - I'm not sure if it did so by analysing the image or by OCR'ing the dial, but some of the wording is obscured by the watch hands?


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## William_Wilson

In the evening on the 19th I took advantage of the celestial situation and weather conditions.

The sun setting...










A very few minutes later in the opposite direction, the moon rising...










I did some research and testing a few weeks ago with regard to memory cards for the a6000. Research indicates that all of the current E series mirrorless cameras use the same data bus and software for transferring files from the camera's 512MB cache to the memory card. The maximum transfer rate on the Sony bus is 35MB/s. I timed transfers with a few different cards, and achieved this rate with my Kingston 64GB SDXC UHS-I U3 card and my SanDisk Extreme Plus 32GB UHS-1/U3 SDHC card. So... keep in mind if you are shopping for a new SD card, that the current super fast UHS-II cards won't perform any better than the fastest UHS-I cards will due to the limitations of the camera's bus speed. I've also tried a 128GB SD card in the camera. I was able to take photos but the camera's menu was a bit flakey to navigate and transferring from the buffer to the card was quite slow.

Something that may be of interest to Capture One users, I upgraded from my Intel i7 2600 CPU to an Intel E3-1920 v2 Xeon. Converting RAW files to TIFFs and JPGs used to take a few seconds with the processor all to itself, it is now done in the blink of an eye while simultaneously viewing a Blu-ray video. :biggrin:

Later,
William


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## dobra

Nott too sure if this applies to you Sony owwners? Picked up a mint Minolta MD Rokkor-X 1:1.7, 0mm min lens from a junk shop for £2 (includng end caps and leathersoft bag. Some people have been using it (via adaptor) with a Sony digi-camera. The lens has alway been a sharp shooter, I can testify as I have two X-00 SLRs, originally one for slide film and the other for print.

I have been peering at two websites which may be of interest http://vintagelensreviews.com/vlr/reviews/minolta-md-50-mm-f1-7-md-iii/

and http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3152422

Can your Sonys's do this, as the comparison in price between the Minolta and Sony new lens seems to be megabucks....

mike

PS - hope the thumb and your pride are both recovering Paul :thumbsup:


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## dobra

........and another http://www.verybiglobo.com/minolta-md-50mm-f1-7-legacy-50mm-which-one-is-the-best-part-3/

mike


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## Silver Hawk

Thanks Mike @dobra, thumb is OK but 6 weeks in a cast seems to pass sooo slowly. I can just about use the a6000 although lens changing is a bit of struggle. Took this one in Moreton Gardens on Monday using the 12mm Samyang lens:


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## dobra

A good DOF test Paul.

mike


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## dobra

See today in Newport IoW, A6000 with standard lens S/H for £385. Is this a bargain?

mike


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## Silver Hawk

dobra said:


> See today in Newport IoW, A6000 with standard lens S/H for £385. Is this a bargain?
> 
> mike


 Sounds a bargain to me Mike. Is it in good working condition? What sort of shop is selling it? Cash Converters?


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## Silver Hawk

Sheep rounded up again this week...no idea why, but some were very fed up:


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## William_Wilson

An existential crisis has brought him to the conclusion that he will never be a "leader", merely a "follower". :yes:

On an unrelated note, I ordered a Sony 10-18mm E mount zoom earlier this week. There are threats of a postal strike, therefore it was shipped Purolator Express. It should have arrived by end of business Thursday but they delayed delivery because of increased traffic as a result of the possible strike. They cancelled delivery today as well and are indicating Monday. When I called them there was a prerecorded condescending message explaining that they have suspended all of their delivery guarantees because they are busy. I have always disliked couriers.

Later,
William


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## Silver Hawk

William_Wilson said:


> An existential crisis has brought him to the conclusion that he will never be a "leader", merely a "follower". :yes:
> 
> On an unrelated note, I ordered a Sony 10-18mm E mount zoom earlier this week. There are threats of a postal strike, therefore it was shipped Purolator Express. It should have arrived by end of business Thursday but they delayed delivery because of increased traffic as a result of the possible strike. They cancelled delivery today as well and are indicating Monday. When I called them there was a prerecorded condescending message explaining that they have suspended all of their delivery guarantees because they are busy. I have always disliked couriers.
> 
> Later,
> William


 I think you're right...although he/she was the only one doing this, so maybe they are The One.

Good luck with the lens. I look forward to seeing some shot with that one. :thumbsup:


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## William_Wilson

I took this, this afternoon using the SEL1018. The lens was at 10mm and the front element was about two feet distant from the subject.










I do like working with wide angle. :yes:

Later,
William


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## Silver Hawk

William_Wilson said:


> I took this, this afternoon using the SEL1018. The lens was at 10mm and the front element was about two feet distant from the subject.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I do like working with wide angle. :yes:
> 
> Later,
> William


 Nice William...I also like working with wide angle. Would love to see some more taken at 10mm....I'm wondering whether I should have splashed out on the SEL1018...but it is quite pricey here...more than double the cost of the 12mm Samyang :sadwalk:


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## William_Wilson

Silver Hawk said:


> Nice William...I also like working with wide angle. Would love to see some more taken at 10mm....I'm wondering whether I should have splashed out on the SEL1018...but it is quite pricey here...more than double the cost of the 12mm Samyang :sadwalk:


 The SEL1018 wasn't really a bargain, even though the price was reduced $100 on sale. I do a bit of real estate work and it is going make small rooms a great deal easier to photograph. I've sold off most of my full frame equipment now and just added up what I have spent on the a6000 system. Counting only the Sony and Zeiss system specific items, I have spent $3700 Cdn. prior to taxes. :scared: I won't be changing systems any time soon. :laugh:

I'm going to see about getting into town and photographing a bit of architecture and see what I can do with perspective.

Later,
William


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## William_Wilson

I just got around to processing a couple of photos I did the other day. These provide some small insight into the distortion towards the edge of frame with the SEL1018 at the 10mm setting.

Taken mid day under full overcast conditions.










Towards the right side of the picture you can see plainly the compromised verticality of the poles.










This was taken in the afternoon and I moved six feet forward, completely eliminating the poles from frame. In this position there is no sense of distortion with the exclusion of manmade objects from the edges of the frame. :wink:

Later,
William


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## William_Wilson

St. Paul's Anglican Church Lindsay Ontario. Building started in 1865. Holy buttresses Batman!

Later,
William


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## Faze

Another update chaps - http://briansmith.com/sony-releases-a6000-firmware-3-20-updates/


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## dobra

WW2 Mosquito fighter bomber aircraft were made in Ontario


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## Silver Hawk

Stumbled across this poppy field the other day and had the a6000 with me. Must have been a blaze of red when they had their petals, but still pretty impressive without them.


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## bridgeman

Opium pipes at the ready chaps


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## William_Wilson

bridgeman said:


> Opium pipes at the ready chaps


 Hookah.

Later,
William


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## bridgeman

William_Wilson said:


> Hookah.
> 
> Later,
> William


 No,used a net!


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## William_Wilson

bridgeman said:


> No,used a net!


 or...

"No, that was my wife."

Later,
William


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## William_Wilson

Later,
William


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## Faze

Coming out think and fast now, first the 6000, then 6300 and now 6500

http://briansmith.com/sony-announces-a6500-11-fps-5-axis-ibis/


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## William_Wilson

Faze said:


> Coming out think and fast now, first the 6000, then 6300 and now 6500
> 
> http://briansmith.com/sony-announces-a6500-11-fps-5-axis-ibis/


 I looked over the details of the a6500. Two or three improvements and a useful new feature. The new feature being internal camera image stabilisation. Though the price is staggering. Surely they could have increased the sensor resolution for that sort of price. They are still selling the a6000 at full price: a6000 = $680 / a6300 = $1350 / a6500 = $1750. :jawdrop1: Sony built a lot of goodwill with a6000, what they're doing now will undermine it surely.

Later,
William


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## Silver Hawk

William_Wilson said:


> I looked over the details of the a6500. Two or three improvements and a useful new feature. The new feature being internal camera image stabilisation. Though the price is staggering. Surely they could have increased the sensor resolution for that sort of price. They are still selling the a6000 at full price: a6000 = $680 / a6300 = $1350 / a6500 = $1750. :jawdrop1: Sony built a lot of goodwill with a6000, what they're doing now will undermine it surely.
> 
> Later,
> William


 I agree..their prices have gone crazy. If I was buying mirrorless today, I would not be considering the a6500 as it is just too expensive. Having always had (and liked) Canon, I really did try to like the M3, but the a6000 was so much better....but when the M4 finally appears, I might jump off the Sony ship...

In the meantime, I'm very happy with the a6000....a few recent shots:

*Sturminster Newton Mill*:










Got to go up our local church tower the other day, so a couple of the village (*Okeford Fitzpaine*) and our house in 1920 and 2016 --- thatched house on the right. Not much has changed in the last 100 years:



















Views over Blackmore Vale from *Ibberton* Church:


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## Silver Hawk

Capture One 10 for Sony is out...anyone tried it yet?


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## William_Wilson

I received the email the other day but have not purchased it yet. I must get Christmas prep over with first. 

Later,
William


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## Silver Hawk

Have all you a600 owners gone into hibernation for the winter? 

Just took this one...someone has decided to turn on the church illuminations at night during this festive season....


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## William_Wilson

I have a couple of things clawing at my time right now, but I did manage get COP 10. I have not had an opportunity to much but it does offer a preview of what saved images will look like, including resizing and compression.

Later,
William


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## Faze

Well, that was rather unplanned!

Had an offer accepted on a Sony A6300 lastnight, so that will be interesting.

So I guess watch the sales/trades section for a A6000 soon :yes:


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## Faze

All systems are go, the a6300 has just arrived, I was not expecting it till Wednesday


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## dobra

John Lewis sale http://www.johnlewis.com/browse/electrical-offers/photography-offers/_/N-5n2i?No=90&Nrpp=90


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## Silver Hawk

We've had some fantastic views the last few foggy mornings from our local Okeford Hill. These were taken this morning at 9am.

Looking towards Ibberton which is in thick fog; their church is on its own hill.



















Looking towards Hambledon Hill (National Trust)...sea of fog between our local jockey trainers and Hambledon Hill:


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## William_Wilson

That is a great vantage point for the local valleys. :thumbsup:

Later,
William


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## William_Wilson

A few days ago I decided I should use the second activation on my Capture One license. This meant another computer. Long and tedious story short, I picked up an off-lease HP Z420 Workstation with a Xeon E5-1650 3.2Ghz. six core with 32GB of ECC ram, 1TB HDD and a Win7 Pro license. I added equipment I had on hand, SSD, video card and card reader. It processes images rather quickly and seems to work well.










Later,
William


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## Silver Hawk

Anyone still using their a6000? 

I am...and the weather was perfect yesterday at the National Trust's Stourhead:


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