The Amazing Sony A1/A7/A9/APS-C & Anything else welcome Mega Thread!

I’ve got some vouchers to do a Red Squirrel hide photo shoot and I can’t decide whether to go now or wait until Autumn for potentially better light? You’re always in the hands of the gods with weather and light, and one of the appeals for now/July is that they have babies and so potential to see them. Just concerned light will be harsh, what would everyone else do,
 
snerkler said:
I’ve got some vouchers to do a Red Squirrel hide photo shoot and I can’t decide whether to go now or wait until Autumn for potentially better light? You’re always in the hands of the gods with weather and light, and one of the appeals for now/July is that they have babies and so potential to see them. Just concerned light will be harsh, what would everyone else do,
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Would autumn colours not lend better to their red colour? I love red squirrels - I first saw them at Lockerbie at the Eskrigg Reserve. Great place to see them for free, and they come right up to you to claim any nuts you bring along with you
 
gilbouk said:
Would autumn colours not lend better to their red colour? I love red squirrels - I first saw them at Lockerbie at the Eskrigg Reserve. Great place to see them for free, and they come right up to you to claim any nuts you bring along with you
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I've only ever seen one once for a very brief moment when up in Scotland. The autumn colours do match them for sure, but then I see shots like this and wonder if they stand out better :thinking: I think I'm leaning towards Autumn, but I'm impatient :LOL:

www.rebeccagoutorbe.com

Photographing Red Squirrels from a hide in North Yorkshire

Photographing Red Squirrels from a hide in Hawes North Yorkshire. A fantastic experience, plus a few tips from Paul the wildlife photographer
www.rebeccagoutorbe.com www.rebeccagoutorbe.com
 
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gilbouk said:
Amazing image. I imagine you didn't take that one hand held :p
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Fuji Dave said:
Great image Lee, love the colours.
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Thanks Guys :) I actually dropped down to 30 second shutter speeds and shot 4 number images for each frame as it was so windy I wanted to be sure of getting at least one usable. So yeah, I actually took 84 plus some test shots for this!
 
Another one from yesterday.

A7 and Syoptic 50mm at f1.1 at a distance.

DSC02448.jpg

I like this lens. It's a better lens than the TTArtisan 50mm f2 but it is twice the size and twice the price. One nice thing about it is that infinity is at the end stop so you can just set it to infinity, set an aperture and shoot hyperfocally quickly and without deliberately focusing.
 
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gman said:
Really like number 2 and the way the sun hits the grass. the detail and clarity is excellent.
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Thanks :) I keep wondering whether to bump the exposure slightly or not :thinking:
 
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Has anyone had experience shooting with the Sony 14GM?
Reason for asking is that I'm trying to make my bag a wee bit lighter by selling my Sony 12-24 f4 and 24-105 and replacing them with the 20-70 and perhaps the 14GM or similar
Decisions Decisions :thinking:
 
I'm happy with this pano I did with the Syoptic 50mm in portrait orientation.

I uploaded the wrong file. This is the panorama.

Untitled_Panorama-1.jpg

I did one of these a while back with a MFT camera and a 14mm lens. I went portrait orientation this time to try and get more sky in as I've had panoramas fail when there's not a lot of detail in the sky for it to recognise.

It'll be pretty dull to anyone who doesn't know and feel anything for the place. I love this place. It's Flats Lane park and it's within walking distance of home. We arrive in the bottom right hand corner and walk up and through a wooded area and it ends here.

DSC02442.jpg

I like to zoom in at 100% and look around the panorama :D
 
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mstphoto said:
Has anyone had experience shooting with the Sony 14GM?
Reason for asking is that I'm trying to make my bag a wee bit lighter by selling my Sony 12-24 f4 and 24-105 and replacing them with the 20-70 and perhaps the 14GM or similar
Decisions Decisions :thinking:
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I have gone down this same route for travel and landscape.

I have got the 14GM and it's absolutely fantastic. The only issue is you can't use circular filters on it.

I still need to buy the 20-70mm. Waiting for pay day....
My 3rd lens is the tamron 70-300mm.

I would have much preferred an APS-C body with the 70-350mm lens but Sony just refuses to update their APS-C bodies and when they do they keep recycling old sensors :(
 
nandbytes said:
I have gone down this same route for travel and landscape.

I have got the 14GM and it's absolutely fantastic. The only issue is you can't use circular filters on it.

I still need to buy the 20-70mm. Waiting for pay day....
My 3rd lens is the tamron 70-300mm.

I would have much preferred an APS-C body with the 70-350mm lens but Sony just refuses to update their APS-C bodies and when they do they keep recycling old sensors :(
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Totally agree ;)
I loved my a6600 + 16-55 and 70-350.
When I jacked in work, I got an a7c kit as a leaving gift.
Felt that I couldn't very well sell it so sold the a6600 kit instead.

Ironically, I also have possibly one of the best APSC lenses ever made for the a6xxx series - the Sigma 16mm f1.4.
So good that I once was tempted to sell the 24GM and use the 16mm in crop mode.
In the end I have decided to keep the 24GM as I feel I have 2 lenses in 1 - 24mm + 36mm (in crop mode)

I have 2 kits
1. a7c + Tamron 17-28 (possibly bought from you :thinking:) + 28-200, 24GM
2. a1 + 12-24, 24-105 & Sigma 100-400, Sony 200-600
 
mstphoto said:
Totally agree ;)
I loved my a6600 + 16-55 and 70-350.
When I jacked in work, I got an a7c kit as a leaving gift.
Felt that I couldn't very well sell it so sold the a6600 kit instead.

Ironically, I also have possibly one of the best APSC lenses ever made for the a6xxx series - the Sigma 16mm f1.4.
So good that I once was tempted to sell the 24GM and use the 16mm in crop mode.
In the end I have decided to keep the 24GM as I feel I have 2 lenses in 1 - 24mm + 36mm (in crop mode)

I have 2 kits
1. a7c + Tamron 17-28 (possibly bought from you :thinking:) + 28-200, 24GM
2. a1 + 12-24, 24-105 & Sigma 100-400, Sony 200-600
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Even the new Sony 15mm f1.4 G looks very interesting. its smaller than sigma 16mm but still fairly sharp.

I currently only have one body i.e. the A7IV. I am in two mind about what second body to get. I will wait for the new Sony APS-C just in case.

Its interesting you think in terms of kits, may be I should do the same. I have lenses that for specific needs....
astro - 14GM, 24GM, 35GM
Landscape/city etc - 14GM, 20-70mm, 70-300mm
travel - 20-70mm, 70-300mm and a prime lens or two
night time/low light - 14GM, 24GM, 35GM, 85DN
wildlife - 200-600mm
people/portraits - 85DN, 35GM and sometimes 24GM

but more recently I have been able to shoot a fair bit of wildlife on on travels. I will never carry the 200-600mm with me. Even 100-400mm lenses are larger than I'd like.
Really the 70-350mm is amazing for this purpose. Would prefer a travel setup to be something like:
A6XXX, 10-20mm f4,16-55mm, 70-350mm and 15mm f1.4, 56mm f1.4

but I buy/sell lenses often so this could all change tomorrow :ROFLMAO:
 
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I thought my camera was broken today as I noticed that the sensor was wonky when the camera was off, thankfully we have google and it put my mind at rest ;)



When I contacted Sony about whether you needed to have the camera off or on when cleaning the sensor they told me off, but if this is what happens to the sensor when turned off I'm not going to touch it when off. Plus, when you do an in camera clean it says something like "turn camera off after performing a manual clean". Maybe I still had my A9II when I asked them :thinking:
 
gman said:
Difficult to know without seeing it, but at it stands the fading foreground light presents a lovely calm feeling.
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Here you go, I think I'm leaning to the lightened one

Screenshot 2023-05-23 at 18.08.07.jpg
 
snerkler said:
Guess what, more photos from Norfolk :runaway: More on Flickr

1.

A1_05128 by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr

2.

A1_05186 by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr

3.

A1_05545-Edit-Edit by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr

4.

A1_05728 by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr

5.

A1_05741-Edit by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr

6.

A1_05783 by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr

7.

A1_05797 by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr

8.

A1_05798-2 by Toby Gunnee, on Flickr
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Lovely images from your holiday Toby. I loved my holiday there some years back. So many opportunities for beautiful photos.
 
Mrs WW does like her breakfasts. Here it's quarn and vegi pie with small pancakes covered with nutella, tomatoes and avacardo.

A7 and TTArtisan 50mm f2 at f2.

DSC02467.jpg

I like this lens but it does have three issues. Infinity is nowhere near the mark, there's massive vignetting when focusing at longer distance at wide apertures and the corners are never great. Thankfully these issues aren't issues all the time. For the price it is IMO well worth the money.
 
So after a wedding my thoughts on the A9II:

-The grip is much better, very nice to use.
-The rear screen is so much better than the A7iii
-The AF is a beast, used some on real time autofocus and some on single point - going to take some getting used to. Sometimes a bit too good picking up faces in the frame I don't want to focus on.
-Being able to shoot at 1.4 on sunny days using the electronic shutter is a nice touch. I used the electronic shutter on all day until it came to grab the flashes. -Had some teething issues with the button setup but should have ironed that out now.

With all that said, would I paid £3800 for one, it's a definite no from me. Sure, it's better than the A7iii which is still a very capable camera. I've also now got to consider what replaces the other A7iii although using both together didn't really cause me any problems. Although it's more than likely I'll sell the ZVE10 and use the other A7iii as my family camera.
 
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