Ok Sony we get it. You mean business this time.
I have long liked Sony. On my gear churn odyssey I have passed by the RX100ii, a6000, A7, the A7ii, most recently the A7Rii (now realizing I have never written a proper review of this camera) and now the A7iii. This was not an impulse buy. When I read the spec sheet of the A7iii this is what I heard Sony say: Continue reading Sony A7iii: This time Sony is serious. Part 1. Feel.
A valid response to this blog title is “What?” Allow me to explain. Or try to anyway.
These are interesting times. A lot of virtual ink is spilled debating between mirrorless or DSLR. Most points made miss the point for me really. Sure, I chose mirrorless. But my choice has nothing to do with a dislike for DSLRs. I love DSLRs. But I love film cameras more.
But, but… Battery life… OVF over EVF… Native lens selection… AF speed… Dual card slots… So on and so forth. Meh. Gladly put up with all of this. (And most of these concerns are being eliminated by the most recent wave of mirrorless cameras. An A7iii will be in my future and it may go down as the industry tipping point.) But once again film tech is what changed my mind.
Why? Continue reading Love DSLRs. But I chose mirrorless because I love film gear more.
A while back I wrote an apology letter review to a lens. That was admittedly odd. This is another one of those.
Differences? The prior had a G badge while this one earned a Zeiss badge. The prior a telephoto zoom and this is a wide to short tele zoom.
Continue reading Sony Zeiss FE 24-70mm f/4: Overdue write up on a bread and butter lens.
Recently I exchanged the Sony 20mm f/2.8 that I bought when I purchased my a6000 not that long ago for the Rokinon 35mm f/2.8. My thinking was that the two lenses were redundant since 35mm (50-ish in full frame terms) was my preferred focal length and the Rokinon seemed barely larger than the 20mm {2.43 x 1.30″ (61.8 x 33 mm) vs 2.46 x 0.80″ vs (62.6 x 20.4 mm)} while gaining another full frame lens in my quiver. No brainer, right? Nope. I really like the Rokinon, but it was not a suitable replacement for the 20mm. Why? Glad you asked:
Simple fix. Buy the 20mm again. One problem. Southeastern Camera had two tempting full-blown second-hand cameras (ones I always thought about buying) that barely cost more than the 20mm lens new that would be even smaller than the already petite a6000. The thinking was that for a little more spend than a lens ($350-ish) I could potentially have a whole camera ($500-ish).
What to do? Continue reading Tiny Second Hand Camera Smackdown: Ricoh GR vs. Sony RX100 IV
If you ask my conscious self to rank the order of my wide, normal, and tele lens preferences it would be normal, then tele followed by wide. My flickr galleries and blog posts would back this up if you only considered the number of photos posted and the type of lenses written about respectively. For this reason it is the one AF, name brand lens type I did not really budget for once returning to Sony with a vengeance. Thought the vintage K-Mount Vivitar 17-28mm…
would suffice adapted to a full frame Sony technically, but I never used it. Why? Continue reading I like wide. The Sony G FE 12-24mm f/4 does wide well.
Recently considered replacing my Sony FE 28-70mm w/ an f/4 or f/2.8 lens once again. I say once again because I have been here before. Makes sense right. Humble variable aperture kit lens is just a stop-gap measure until I can get a ‘real’ normal lens. That has always been the case since kit lenses are usually just passable before. But in all honesty when I ask what more I want from a lens I come up empty with the 28-70mm.
Know what I am losing. A good chunk of my bank account. Losing a lens so small and light it is barely noticed in my bag. Losing the invisibility of a mortal sized lens. Continue reading The kit lens that could. Another Sony FE 28-70mm lens post.
In part 1 of this series I dealt with the long end of my lens family, the 600mm mirror lens. With that done let’s look at the wide end.
Classic ‘did not know I wanted this lens until I found out it existed’. On my way out of Southeastern Camera after picking up (or dropping off) some film I asked if they had any interesting K Mount lenses. Dennis pointed me to the Pentax selection. Initially I thought it better that I leave without looking, lest I put myself on the hook for another lens, and then at the door my legs took a left and I was rummaging. Read the numbers 8-16mm on the side in disbelief honestly. Even with it being a crop APS-C DC lens that still worked out to an effective 12-24mm FF field of view, or way wider than my widest at the time. A legacy 35mm film Vivitar 17-28mm lens. If 17mm is good 12mm must be great. Further research revealing great reviews and sample photos sealed the deal. I could only identify one down side.
That is about it for downsides. Now for upshots.
Note: Neither good or bad and true of all wide lenses be careful tilting this lens up or down as it will distort verticals. Great if this is the look you are looking for, but if you are not Lightroom does a decent job at straightening things up with one click.
If you have an APS-C camera and need a little wide angle action this lens is a great option. Enough talk. Here are some sample images and an ongoing gallery.
-ELW
I am likely getting one or two more also for a portable cordless two or three light set up.
A little background. Recently I have become a lighting obsessed noob. Having practiced at home for months I had success during a recent family reunion with my first real world outing armed only with a $59 budget 3 light kit I picked up from Amazon .
I was hooked. I then used the proceeds to upgrade my kit by replacing the lightbulbs included with a proper speedlite/trigger set from Yongnuo.
Lovely. What next? While the lightbulbs had limitations (needs an outlet, not much light, fragile, a bit toasty, etc…) I did grow to like the simplicity. I love my speedlites for their power and versatility and portability, but the experience left me drawn to a solution I could not afford, the Wescott Ice Light. Great product, but at twice what I paid for 3 speedlites and a trigger combined for one it was clearly beyond my reach financially as an occasional semi-pro photographer. I considered a well regarded knock off option, but Yongnuo YN360’s offering added some interesting features neither of the other products, including the original, offered:
It must be noted that there is one downside:
The portability and relative power make for some really cool options. Having no patience once I received the batteries I swung by the house then charged one battery a bit using the included car charger adapter on the way to pick up dinner. While waiting for the food I could wait no longer and gave it a shot. Right away it showed that there was enough power to overtake daylight in some quick test shots I took of my Pentax 645 with my humble little orphan NX300 (The Pentax K-1 is off on an extended warranty spa visit, but more on that when it returns next month.Sigh.Meanwhile I soldier on with the orphan digital and many sundry film cameras.) in the front seat of the thunder wagon aka Dadmobile 3000 (Honda Odyssey) in early evening sun:
With the obvious options of using it resting anywhere, outside and handheld I also had some fun in house with my vintage bridge girder Manfrotto Bogen tripod. Here are some test shots of the Hasselblad with a shot of the simple set up used to achieve them:
Here is another Pumpkinhead Von Workoutball portrait session test with using the YN360 above and angled down about 45 degrees using the Bogen and out of shot is a silver reflector underneath angled up for a bootleg clam shell lighting effect. This was done during the day in a room that gets a good amount of sunlight. For reference I took all shots using aperture priority to see what the relative shutter speeds would be with and without the YN360 and one reflector.
While this is no replacement for a proper speedlite set up there are great advantages also. Between the portability, colors, handheld, easily adjusted intensity, and more I have already conceived of many, many ideas I want to try out when my big boy DSLR returns. Although it is early it does seem an added bonus that battery life is quite good. During regular testing I drained the batteries of my Yongnuo speedlites a couple of times (to be expected), but I have yet to come anywhere near running down a YN360 battery yet. Seeing as two come with the battery set I linked above this means I should get some good battery life in the field.
Once again well done Yongnuo.
-ELW
Ok, I will admit it. I am a sucker for silver lenses, even plastic ones. Especially plastic ones that cost $150 and perform solidly like the Pentax 80-320mm. This lens has been on my radar for awhile and a video from Lee Haze prompted me to hunt one down on ebay:
Received it today and I can already say that this is a keeper. The K-1 has been great on it’s own merits performance wise, but a secret weapon for it that somewhat offsets a common ding (lack of new glass) has been the many legacy glass options. Here are some quick first impression thoughts about this lens and sample photos below.
I have heard some say that it is no professional lens, but I think that misses the point considering the price point. For starters while I would admit that it would not be a professionals first choice, an enthusiast with a mortal budget could produce some stunning work with this lens. It also has it’s advantages. I can already see that in ample light I would prefer this lens over the larger aperture of the 70-200mm if extra reach was desired. And in a pinch this lens holds it’s own surprisingly well in interior conditions even though the f/2.8 would be the lens of choice. Another solid vintage entry. More to come when the manual focus vintage film Vivitar 17-28mm arrives.
-ELW
