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Digital Photography 101 Forums

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I own two of the 58 flashes. I'm ready to roast Sony on their lack of knowledge in macro, but I find the 58's great.

And I really like the Minolta hot shoe design over the antique, poor, ISO design.

I'm not stuck on older options that fail to modernize. I learned long ago that flash only gets improved by leaving things behind. I can grump about having to buy the new gear, but as long as it does not happen too often I know why and pay the price.

Walt

Recent

1 day ago

Ask Sony

Hay NicJ,
Here the differences in laymen terms.
The SONY HVL-F36AM and the HVL-F56AM Flashes are discontinued flash units, but you should still be able to find them new at a few places. And I think SONY Sells them reconditioned.
The HVL-F36AM Flash is the lowest powered of the four flashes that listed. The Model Number will give you a clue as to the power output of that model flash.
But bare in mind, the more powerful the flash, the more expensive they tend to be.
For off Camera flashes go, I would tend to go with the with the HVL-F56AM Flash because it will give you all of the manual controls as well as a good light output.
If you are looking at ETTL flash photography, then a pair of HVL-F56AM will work best. One on camera as a on camera controller and the second for your off camera flash.
Without getting further into details and further complicating this post, I will stop here.
I hope I did not confuse you, but I hope I did answer your question.
Take care

Paul

Recent

2 hours ago

Artisans of Imagery Discussion

Well, I hear you, but I think as a practical matter that if lowdersteven is going to shoot single shots, or burst a few shots, in RAW he'll gain a lot in being able to brighten and recover dark shots so he can print and display them. He might burst more quantity shots in JPEG, but I don't think he'll be as happy with the quality, for all the reasons you correctly cite. Anyway, he's got the point by now I'm sure, so lowdersteven, do some experimentation and let us know what you think. TCAV, the data on my first shot is A700, ISO 640, 1/250 sec., f1.4, 85mm. The second is A100, ISO 400, 1/200 sec., f2.8, 70mm.

Recent

2 days ago

Backstage 101 Suggestion Box

I'd rather the features and type be continued. What use is lower price without the features your shooting requires? That is what I expect is going to happen if there even is an a700 replacement. And latest rumors say there will be no a700 replacement, only a new FF model using the a750 number. One whole type of camera gone if that happens.

Walt

Recent

3 days ago

Shooting Tips and Techniques

Juanito,Nice one hope I can get some decent shots when the trees get some new leaves in spring. Regards Gerry.

Recent

5 hours ago

Edit, Restore, and Share

Hi Walt,

Yes, another method is using the High Pass Filter (Filter > Other > High Pass)with PhotoShop. Doing one High Pass layer very lightly, then you keep duplicating the layer making your overall photo gradually sharper in steps until the desired result is achieved. The High Pass filter is still an old favorite and been around for a very long time.

There are a great many ways to apply sharpening. PhotoShop is remarkably dynamic. You can give the same assignment to a dozen well versed users, and they'll likely achieve the same goal in different ways.

If anyone would like to describe their technique for sharpening eyes, please feel free to join in.

One thing you might also want to consider NicJ, is brightening and clearing up the whites of the eyes just enough to look better yet natural.

:)

Best regards,
Marc

Recent

28 days ago

General Digital Photo Discussion

Marc is so right about the fact that we all here at the Sony Forum can help and inspire each other. We can talk gear, exposure and composition forever, but going out to shoot new pictures and to share them at the galleries is actually the best learning tool we have in photography.

First we as viewers can be inspired by looking at what other photographers have done at a given place and time. Second, other photographers can learn from the comments and ratings given to their own pictures. This social exchange of photos and ratings/comments has many times inspired me to go out in fresh air with my camera and look for new pictures to capture, or just to get out and let things happen. In the latter cases I have often gotten some of my most interesting images – this when I don’t plan, push myself or expect anything. Suddenly something start happening or I see some cool detail to photograph. That joy is the” fuel” feeding my burring passion for photography both as a hobby and working photographer.

People who use their cameras often, and learn to enjoy the “mental push-ups” exercise it is to go out looking for new pictures – they continuing to sharpen their ability to see and capture cool photos. And don’t forget that having fun is always the most important in photography.

Recent

7 days ago

DSLR cameras

devonO: Thanks for the response. Its not so much a matter of receiving a camera with dead pixels (& the 30-day period has long expired). Dead pixels can develope over time. I was just wondering if they were treated the same in the A900 as they were with my KM-7D.

Recent

9 days ago

DSLR lenses

I'd lean more toward a long zoom. Prices come out less than for a prime and primes are beyond the means of most of us. The 70-400G shows Sony can build a quality long zoom, but it falls far short of need. Say, a 100-600 (if it's for an APS camera, otherwise it would need to be much longer).

I shoot wildlife, not sports.

The problem with pellicle mirrors is the light loss. They continually divert light to the viewfinder even during the shot. Plus it's more in the light path to degrade the image. I never owned Canon's version but did try one out that a friend owned.

Note my 70-400G has quite good AF performance for a long tele. I've even found a TC that allows reasonable AF with 1.4x TC. The person I've read who actually was using the lens in real photography (as opposed to "testing") had one for a week of rainy poor weather and found it was not doing as well with BIF as he could do with his Sigma for which he had 7 years experience.

My only gripe about the AF of the 70-400G is that it's silent, and in this case silence is not golden. One of the cues that AF has locked (or is hunting or whatever) was sound. It probably costs me a few milliseconds extra at times just realizing the AF has locked, and I am watching what it's doing in the a700's good viewfinder! That, of course is a matter of learning new habits.

Walt

Recent

Sep. 29

My Sony® α (alpha)

In case you want to be sure you can check the following link to the Sony Support site that shows a fairly comprehensive Lens and Accessory compatibility chart: http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/news-item.pl?news_id=193&mdl=DSLRA230L#

Hope this helps!

Will

Recent

1 hour ago

Printing Digital Images

I've come to the conclusion that I'll have to use a laptop tethered to my camera and wired to the Snaplab for my upcoming shopping mall Santa shoots. I need a quick workflow that automatically sends photo's to the Snaplab and cannot find another way to do so.

So, my next quest is to find a way to use custom borders. If I understand correctly, the custom border feature is disabled when in PC mode (ie connected to my laptop as a printer).

Am I correct?

Recent

7 days ago

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