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Why I switched camera brands
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Jul 27, 2012 00:59:28   #
RaydancePhoto
 
Doing research is one of my strong points, for months I read reviews on many different cameras and was really interested in the Sony Alpha series camera with the translucent mirror. Beach Camera was running a promotion for the Sony a57 on a 45 day trial, no questions asked money back. So, what the he** I got one. After using the Sony for 2 weeks I was convinced I needed to switch to Sony. BTW, I got 2 Minolta lenses locally for 200.00, 70-210 f/4 and 50mm 1.7 to try on the new camera. The combo is fantastic, wonderful color, sharpness, and contrast. The 70-210 I swear is sharper than my Canon 70-200 L f/2.8 Is.

I sold all my Canon gear, 50D, & 7d, and T2i, all my lenses, had 2 L lenses, and bought Sony Alpha and Minolta. I put a few thousand back in the bank as well.

The A57 has features I never even dreamed of and are really nice to use. In camera HDR that really works. HDR painting that has a very interesting effect with some subjects. Zoom feature that adds a 1.4x or 2x extender electronically that does not degrade the image, I am a techie and I can not figure out how they do this. Night feature that takes up to 6 frames and stitches them together, hand held, the results are very good.

The ISO of up to 3200 is usable in a single shot, up 2 ISO 6400 in 6 burst shot HDR. I do a lot of low light photos, so this is important to me to get such good results from such a high ISO.

The focus with the Minolta lenses are very fast, not much different than what I was used to with Canon, and they are very light weight.

One of the best things about the switch to me is the weight. Selling 35 pounds of gear, and replacing it with the same range of gear weighing 10 pounds. I can carry the a57 camera with the 70-210 all day with no problem. The flash I bought weighs more than the camera and the lens.

Can you tell I really like my switch?

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Jul 27, 2012 01:42:04   #
tainkc Loc: Kansas City
 
I am curious. Are you sure that you can only go to ISO 3200 with a single frame? The reason I ask is because I can go to 12,800 with my a580; 25,600 in multi frame. I also have only an optical viewfinder. Maybe the chemistry is different with the electronic viewfinder.

I also liked the 1.4 and 2x built in teleconverter on my a500. It worked great. Some of the critics panned it though. I think it is because they never tried it and just assumed it was like a digital zoom on a P&S. They took this feature away in my a580 in favor of the movie function which I could care less about.

Oh, Oh, Oh! Do you want to try something really neat? Try to pick up the Minolta 28mm, F2.8 wide angle prime. It is something else! It is just a little slower than the 50mm but I actually get better results with it indoors and when shooting bees & flowers and stuff like that. It is really nice with landscapes also.

Reply
Jul 27, 2012 07:25:22   #
Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri
 
RaydancePhoto wrote:
Doing research is one of my strong points, for months I read reviews on many different cameras and was really interested in the Sony Alpha series camera with the translucent mirror. Beach Camera was running a promotion for the Sony a57 on a 45 day trial, no questions asked money back. So, what the he** I got one. After using the Sony for 2 weeks I was convinced I needed to switch to Sony. BTW, I got 2 Minolta lenses locally for 200.00, 70-210 f/4 and 50mm 1.7 to try on the new camera. The combo is fantastic, wonderful color, sharpness, and contrast. The 70-210 I swear is sharper than my Canon 70-200 L f/2.8 Is.
I sold all my Canon gear, 50D, & 7d, and T2i, all my lenses, had 2 L lenses, and bought Sony Alpha and Minolta. I put a few thousand back in the bank as well.
The A57 has features I never even dreamed of and are really nice to use. In camera HDR that really works. HDR painting that has a very interesting effect with some subjects. Zoom feature that adds a 1.4x or 2x extender electronically that does not degrade the image, I am a techie and I can not figure out how they do this. Night feature that takes up to 6 frames and stitches them together, hand held, the results are very good.
The ISO of up to 3200 is usable in a single shot, up 2 ISO 6400 in 6 burst shot HDR. I do a lot of low light photos, so this is important to me to get such good results from such a high ISO.
The focus with the Minolta lenses are very fast, not much different than what I was used to with Canon, and they are very light weight.
One of the best things about the switch to me is the weight. Selling 35 pounds of gear, and replacing it with the same range of gear weighing 10 pounds. I can carry the a57 camera with the 70-210 all day with no problem. The flash I bought weighs more than the camera and the lens.

Can you tell I really like my switch?
Doing research is one of my strong points, for mon... (show quote)

I think I may hate you.
My day would have started much better without knowing this.
My 50 pounds of pricy Canon gear has suddeenly started to look dated and inadequate.
Thanks a lot! :thumbup: . :-D

Reply
 
 
Jul 27, 2012 11:11:15   #
RaydancePhoto
 
tainkc wrote:
I am curious. Are you sure that you can only go to ISO 3200 with a single frame? The reason I ask is because I can go to 12,800 with my a580; 25,600 in multi frame. I also have only an optical viewfinder. Maybe the chemistry is different with the electronic viewfinder.


The camera will go to ISO 25,600. I meant that up to ISO 3200 the image noise is very acceptable. Even at 6400, it is not real bad.

This is at night with NO light, just some small led yard lights and a street light about a block away. The image shows much more light than was seen with the naked eye. I could not see the garden shead with my eyes except vague outlines. ISO 25,6000 and 6 frames stitched together in camera. Not a good image by any measure, but there was no light.
This is at night with NO light, just some small le...

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Jul 27, 2012 11:47:32   #
tainkc Loc: Kansas City
 
RaydancePhoto wrote:
tainkc wrote:
I am curious. Are you sure that you can only go to ISO 3200 with a single frame? The reason I ask is because I can go to 12,800 with my a580; 25,600 in multi frame. I also have only an optical viewfinder. Maybe the chemistry is different with the electronic viewfinder.


The camera will go to ISO 25,600. I meant that up to ISO 3200 the image noise is very acceptable. Even at 6400, it is not real bad.
I'm glad ypu cleared that up. I was worried there for a moment. Lol. Your night shot is a good test pic. I wish I was standing there with my camera also for a comparison. I think mine would have a lot more noise. However, the foreground bushes with my camera would probably show more detail than yours did in these exact same settings. I prefer your camera's trade off to mine.

For what it's worth, I understand that your camera, the a65 and the a77 are excellent when filming in movie mode in low light. I have tried the a77 movie mode in extremely low light conditions and I was blown away by its clarity. I have not tried the movie mode with my a580 in low light. Perhaps I should. I will have my camera a year in September and I don't think I have shot 3 minutes worth in movie mode.

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Jul 27, 2012 11:56:32   #
RaydancePhoto
 
I rarely do video. not played with it enough to say anything about it except the clarity is fantastic.

The above pic was actually taken with the RX-100 sony, just got it yesterday. A p/s camera with a 1 inch sensor. menu and functions are almost identical to the a57. the rx-100 will take me a while to get used to, way different from an slr. see my post on rx-100, I did a preliminary review. http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-53977-1.html

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Jul 27, 2012 11:58:39   #
RaydancePhoto
 
tainkc - do you have the Minolta 35-105 lens? if not, it is a must have. a wide to tele zoom that has 1 to 1 macro at 105, very nice and you can get one for about 100.00

Reply
 
 
Jul 27, 2012 12:00:02   #
RaydancePhoto
 
Festina Lente wrote:

I think I may hate you.
My day would have started much better without knowing this.
My 50 pounds of pricy Canon gear has suddeenly started to look dated and inadequate.
Thanks a lot! :thumbup: . :-D


:D :D :D

Reply
Jul 27, 2012 12:27:04   #
tainkc Loc: Kansas City
 
RaydancePhoto wrote:
tainkc - do you have the Minolta 35-105 lens? if not, it is a must have. a wide to tele zoom that has 1 to 1 macro at 105, very nice and you can get one for about 100.00
No, I don't have it yet. I am looking for one though. It, and either a 400mm G or the Sigma 50mm will round me out just fine.

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Jul 28, 2012 05:47:59   #
NiagaraJim Loc: Niagara Falls, ON
 
I am som what of a newbie but I am amazed you can put Minolta lenses on a Sony camera body. Is this by design or just a fluke?

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Jul 28, 2012 06:40:27   #
achesley Loc: SW Louisiana
 
The reason is that Sony bought Minolta. I still use a Dimage Z6 along with my Canon G12 ( Which I sold a Canon D1000 Rebel to get ) . But seriously considering an A65 with one Do It All Lens.

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Jul 28, 2012 06:46:41   #
saichiez Loc: Beautiful Central Oregon
 
Sony uses the Konica Minolta mount for the lenses. The transition was as follows. Minolta merged (or was bought) by Konica to become Konica Minolta. Ultimately, Sony, in looking for a body/lens mount purchased Konica/Minolta to acquire a body/lens mount system. That transaction made the Sony cameras backward compatible to the old Minolta lenses. Since Minolta was one of the very first film SLR cameras to offer AutoFocus lens system, most old film SLR lenses from Minolta fit the Sony digital camera bodies, and make use of AF or MF.

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Jul 28, 2012 08:20:38   #
jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY
 
RaydancePhoto wrote:
Beach Camera was running a promotion for the Sony a57 on a 45 day trial, no questions asked money back. So, what the he** I got one.

Good for you! :thumbup: Making that switch can be impossible for lots of people.

One thing I'm wondering about Sony, considering who they are, when will they be incorporating mucis capability into their cameras? It would make a great MP3 player. :D

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Jul 28, 2012 09:14:42   #
mainshipper Loc: Hernando, Florida
 
tainkc wrote:
I am curious. Are you sure that you can only go to ISO 3200 with a single frame? The reason I ask is because I can go to 12,800 with my a580; 25,600 in multi frame. I also have only an optical viewfinder. Maybe the chemistry is different with the electronic viewfinder.

I also liked the 1.4 and 2x built in teleconverter on my a500. It worked great. Some of the critics panned it though. I think it is because they never tried it and just assumed it was like a digital zoom on a P&S. They took this feature away in my a580 in favor of the movie function which I could care less about.

Oh, Oh, Oh! Do you want to try something really neat? Try to pick up the Minolta 28mm, F2.8 wide angle prime. It is something else! It is just a little slower than the 50mm but I actually get better results with it indoors and when shooting bees & flowers and stuff like that. It is really nice with landscapes also.
I am curious. Are you sure that you can only go t... (show quote)


I want my cameras to do only one thing and that is to capture the best image possible of my subject. All the in-camera gadgets are just overhead and I can do without them. The Sony line has created some innovative bells and whistles but I'll stick with my Canon gear and turn to Sony when I want a TV.

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Jul 28, 2012 09:30:29   #
jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY
 
actigner wrote:
...but I'll stick with my Canon gear and turn to Sony when I want a TV.

Sony TV sales have been way down the last couple of years - losing them millions.

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