Photo sharing: Sony Alpha

Welp, im officially a Sony FE mount user after all these years with the A7iii that I got yesterday. I initially had the A73 and 24-105 on preorder with Adorama but after a few hours of no status change with them I figured I wouldn't be getting mine in the first round of releases. Called my local photo store here and West Palm and sure enough they had one left, with the 24-70 kit lens. At that point I didn't care and drove over and got it. I was worried I wouldn't have it for a couple weeks so I decided to spend the extra for the kit as well as the taxes. Just waiting on the 24-105 and will be a happy camper for now
 
Wow - a local camera store that actually stocks actual cameras and actual lenses? I thought that was something only remaining in NY! What's the store in WPB, and where? It'd be nice to have a camera store with some bodies in stock.
 


Wow - a local camera store that actually stocks actual cameras and actual lenses? I thought that was something only remaining in NY! What's the store in WPB, and where? It'd be nice to have a camera store with some bodies in stock.

ProShop for Photographers on Clematis, its in the same building as the new library and city call.
 
Welp, im officially a Sony FE mount user after all these years with the A7iii that I got yesterday. I initially had the A73 and 24-105 on preorder with Adorama but after a few hours of no status change with them I figured I wouldn't be getting mine in the first round of releases. Called my local photo store here and West Palm and sure enough they had one left, with the 24-70 kit lens. At that point I didn't care and drove over and got it. I was worried I wouldn't have it for a couple weeks so I decided to spend the extra for the kit as well as the taxes. Just waiting on the 24-105 and will be a happy camper for now

Congrats!
 
Welp, im officially a Sony FE mount user after all these years with the A7iii that I got yesterday. I initially had the A73 and 24-105 on preorder with Adorama but after a few hours of no status change with them I figured I wouldn't be getting mine in the first round of releases. Called my local photo store here and West Palm and sure enough they had one left, with the 24-70 kit lens. At that point I didn't care and drove over and got it. I was worried I wouldn't have it for a couple weeks so I decided to spend the extra for the kit as well as the taxes. Just waiting on the 24-105 and will be a happy camper for now

Congrats. Makes sense to get the 28-70 for now. You can easily sell it for near $200 when you're done with it.

My advice on setting up and customizing the A7iii:

http://enthusiastphotoblog.com/2018/04/09/customizing-sony-a7iii/

If you're interested, would love to have you do a post about going from the A99 to the A7iii.... Both are 24mp sensors.... Obviously the A7iii is much newer, but are you sensing any negatives in going from the more traditional dSLT to the full mirrorless...

If you still have your A99... you might be able to qualify as a Sony pro (If you also have 3 advanced lenses and can show some sort of professional work).... $100 per year... good benefits.
 


ProShop for Photographers on Clematis, its in the same building as the new library and city call.

Good to know. I don't go up there too often as I live in Boca and work in Coral Springs, so most days I'm more in that direction. Next time I have to be up for jury duty I know where I can go for the lunch break (assuming I don't end up ON a jury!).
 
Congrats. Makes sense to get the 28-70 for now. You can easily sell it for near $200 when you're done with it.

My advice on setting up and customizing the A7iii:

http://enthusiastphotoblog.com/2018/04/09/customizing-sony-a7iii/

If you're interested, would love to have you do a post about going from the A99 to the A7iii.... Both are 24mp sensors.... Obviously the A7iii is much newer, but are you sensing any negatives in going from the more traditional dSLT to the full mirrorless...

If you still have your A99... you might be able to qualify as a Sony pro (If you also have 3 advanced lenses and can show some sort of professional work).... $100 per year... good benefits.


The 28-70 will do for now. My plan was to sell it once i got the 24-105, if Sony ever gets anymore out the door

I wouldn't mind doing something for your site. Maybe took a dozen photos last night just messing around but a noticeable difference between it and the A99 in the little time i have played around with it..

Sold the A99 and lenses so I wouldn't qualify. Maybe over time once I built up my lenses I could pick up and old A7 or something for my wife and qualify that way.
 
Good to know. I don't go up there too often as I live in Boca and work in Coral Springs, so most days I'm more in that direction. Next time I have to be up for jury duty I know where I can go for the lunch break (assuming I don't end up ON a jury!).

That's my go to place while on lunch for jury duty :-)
 
The 28-70 will do for now. My plan was to sell it once i got the 24-105, if Sony ever gets anymore out the door

I wouldn't mind doing something for your site. Maybe took a dozen photos last night just messing around but a noticeable difference between it and the A99 in the little time i have played around with it..

Sold the A99 and lenses so I wouldn't qualify. Maybe over time once I built up my lenses I could pick up and old A7 or something for my wife and qualify that way.

I suspect you will see an overall modest difference in IQ.... A clear but modest difference.

I'm more wondering how you feel about the ergonomics, functionality, features, autofocus...
 
I suspect you will see an overall modest difference in IQ.... A clear but modest difference.

I'm more wondering how you feel about the ergonomics, functionality, features, autofocus...

IQ is def an increase that I am happy about, granted I have just scratched the surface and looking forward to really putting it to the test. AF speed is amazeballs, really blown away with how fast and accurate it is, and quite. Silent shutter is weird, lol, I turned that on but miss the sound so might turn it back off.

Right away I love the lightness and smaller size, even with the lens. Its a noticeable difference. I still don't know what to do with my left hand, lol. Im so used to having a full camera to grip from my left hand so now its about 3/4 of a handful and somewhat awkward but im not overly concerned about it. Button and dial layout are similar to my A99 and instinctively my fingers know where everything is at for the most part
 
IQ is def an increase that I am happy about, granted I have just scratched the surface and looking forward to really putting it to the test. AF speed is amazeballs, really blown away with how fast and accurate it is, and quite. Silent shutter is weird, lol, I turned that on but miss the sound so might turn it back off.

Right away I love the lightness and smaller size, even with the lens. Its a noticeable difference. I still don't know what to do with my left hand, lol. Im so used to having a full camera to grip from my left hand so now its about 3/4 of a handful and somewhat awkward but im not overly concerned about it. Button and dial layout are similar to my A99 and instinctively my fingers know where everything is at for the most part

Avoid silent shutter in most cases -- It will cause banding in artificial light, and you will get rolling shutter in action. It's not the A9 silent shutter.

Write up some of your thoughts on switching from the A99 dSLT to the A7iii... I'll post it with any linkage you want. I think I'm going to do an entry with blurbs from different switchers -- I have online acquaintances switching from Nikon --> A7iii and from Sony A6300 --> A7iii.

So it could be a nice post: A Sony A-mount switcher, a Nikon switcher, a Sony APS-C switcher. I would just need to find a Canon switcher.
 
I picked up another APS-C lens - I couldn't help it as it was a really good chance to update my 'kit' lens from my 7-year-old 18-55mm which I've kept for general travel and all-purpose stuff. The announcement of the 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 OSS lens was right up my alley - basically an extended kit lens, with more usable reach, and theoretically should be better due to better coatings, updated construction, etc...and still a reasonable price.

The lens itself is nicely built - very solid, heavy in a good way, not feeling as cheap as the 18-55mm or 16-50mm lenses - very nice damping on the focus and zoom rings, and just the right size for me.

The only subject I had the chance to use the lens in its first official, outdoor real-world test was the wetlands...not exactly what I intend to use the lens for most of the time - but I don't have anything scenic to shoot around my house and no travels planned for a couple of months, so the wetlands and birds would have to suffice. I tried to really use the lens for just about every type of shooting I could - to really test it out - closeup, bird-in-flight, busy landscapes, portrait or candid - with the obvious limitations of what one can shoot in a wetland swamp (no architecture, city-scape, modeling, etc available out there).

I was pleasantly surprised all around - even though I'd have no intention of using the lens as a birding lens, or for bird-in-flight, it handled it quite well - focus tracking was good, and though a lot of cropping was required on the BIFs, still decent detail and focus nailed nicely on the faces. It's not going to compete with the GM lenses for detail - but for an extended kit, it handles itself nicely. Some resized samples here of general all-around stuff at 1400 pixels on the long side - I have some originals uploaded to my Dpreview gallery too since there are always those requests with a new lens:

How close can you get to nesting birds at Wakodahatchee? This close:
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Birds in flight? OK, not something I'd typically shoot with this lens, but for testing purposes, not bad:
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Wood stork mom with her chicks in the nest...detail's pretty good for nearly full zoom and cropped:
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Closeup isn't too bad either for a kit - close focusing is around 18 inches, which is better than the kit lens and can be zoomed to 135mm:
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Best I could do for a 'people' shot was a fellow photographer I was shooting with:
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Big bird, big stick:
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Not a macro, but closeup isn't too bad, and you can respectably blur the background:
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Great set of pictures.
Especially the last one, the focus effect looks really good.
 
Did some shooting with the Minolta Maxxum 200mm 2.8 paired with the A7r2. Extra fine Jpegs.

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Great shots, pairing a great lens, great camera and your own fantastic skill.

Sony really should clone that lens for the FE system. It's one of the few 30 year old lenses that can handle 42mp sensors.
Or I wish at least, Sony would do a new adapter to support screw drive without SLT.
 
Great shots, pairing a great lens, great camera and your own fantastic skill.

Sony really should clone that lens for the FE system. It's one of the few 30 year old lenses that can handle 42mp sensors.
Or I wish at least, Sony would do a new adapter to support screw drive without SLT.

Thanks! that lens never disappoints; also wish a new adapter will be made but I've given up hope. Still doing alright with the manual focusing thanks to focus peaking.

Looks like you are in the process of reviewing the 100mm STM. looking forward to that.
 
Thanks! that lens never disappoints; also wish a new adapter will be made but I've given up hope. Still doing alright with the manual focusing thanks to focus peaking.

Looks like you are in the process of reviewing the 100mm STM. looking forward to that.

I'm almost regretting selling you the lens! Except I really do prefer AF.

Yes, reviewing the STF...... eh. It's going to be a difficult lens to "score"... it's just too unique and really just a 1 trick pony.

Any Sony lens you want to see me review?
 
I'm almost regretting selling you the lens! Except I really do prefer AF.

Yes, reviewing the STF...... eh. It's going to be a difficult lens to "score"... it's just too unique and really just a 1 trick pony.

Any Sony lens you want to see me review?

FE 35mm 1.4. Since you asked.
 

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