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jb

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  1. jb

    G Master Macro Lens?

    Consider the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 DG DN Macro Art. I am not a fan of the sliding clutch style focus ring on the Sony. The Sigma is a much cleaner design and a pleasure to use. Optical and build quality is superb as usual for the "Art" line. The de-clickable aperture ring also make the Sigma useful for video.
  2. The Nikon Z 400mm f/4.5 VR S is a brilliant design. The size and weight of a 70-200. I'd be first in line for an E-mount version.
  3. Visualizing and utilizing studio strobes was a skill I did not invest enough time and effort into early on. I learned studio techniques using continuous lighting. That was fine for a fixed studio location, but severely limited location lighting options. I got a crash course in strobes from a generous mentor I assisted. Strobes are invaluable tools in many situations. The latest TTL radio triggering tools have made strobes more accessible and somewhat more plug-and-play. The foundation of strobe knowledge I got many years ago is as relevant today as ever.
  4. Compatibility Information for the older a9 and a7 III cameras shows they are "Compatible, but with restrictions" related to newer lenses like the FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II and FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS. What exactly does that mean? There were firmware updates for those cameras related to "Aperture Drive in AF" and OSS "Mode 3". Are the cameras completely compatible with those new lens features as long as they have the firmware updates? Or are there still some limitations?
  5. I have not upgraded (yet). My understanding is that you can select lower resolution full frame raw files on the a7RM5. Is that correct? If so, I am very interested in that option. For sports, 60mp is usually way to much and slows down shooting and editing. Capturing full frame raw 26mp files would be great for high speed bursts.
  6. Above should read "I have not seen the issue again". (I cannot edit the previous post)
  7. The cards were brand new when I first reported this. The scan utility only works with Sony branded card, not Sabrent. I have seen the issue again after many uses in this and other cameras.
  8. The FE 50mm f2.8 Macro is fantastic. Super sharp. No distortion. It's great for products and portraits. Only downside is the antiquated and noisy AF. I wish Sony would update this little jewel.
  9. Sure, I'd like to have high quality native E-mount T/S lenses. I'd be fine with fully manual aperture and focus as long as EXIF data was communicated to the camera. Do I think Sony will do this? No. The market niche is so small there's little incentive for Sony. Existing Canon TS-E lenses are readily adapted to E-mount bodies so we do have access to lenses. I'm surprised none of the third party manufacturers have filled this niche. Laowa has a couple wide shift lenses. Samyang is the only one to make a tilt plus shift lens. None of them are good optically or mechanically. None were designed for a mirrorless register. A complete lineup of short flange T/S focal lengths would be great. Off-axis tilt movements cannot be replicated by software. On-axis tilt to increase DoF can be emulated with focus stacking methods. Oddly, Sony has only recently added that feature into a camera for the first time. That points towards a future more reliant on computational processing rather than optical solutions. Shift movements are more easily emulated by cropping ultra wide angle views. There are some tricks you cannot duplicate without camera movements. Software, ultra wide lenses and high res sensors offer enough for most photographers to accomplish what they need to.
  10. I've had great results from adorama's printique for years.
  11. Usually I favor zooms. But all the ultra wide zooms are very large and heavy to me. The 14mm GM is relatively small and very lightweight by comparison. I had never considered it until I noticed it only weighed 460g! That's less than the already lightweight 12-24 f4 and nearly half that of the 12-24 f2.8 GM. If you have the opportunity to try the 14mm you will absolutely enjoy it. It is easy to carry and the images are stunning.
  12. Yes, knowing your sport is critically important. Be prepared and expect when the critical moments will happen. If you are asked to cover an event which you are not familiar with, do your best to research ahead of time to get a feeling for how the game flows and locations where key action usually occurs. I was not a baseball fan when I first started shooting games. So I shot everything at first. I ended up with thousands of images to cull and few keepers. As I learned the game my total volume of shots taken per game dramatically decreased while my keeper rate increased. Learn to anticipate events rather than react to them.
  13. Check out Mark Galer's superb explanation of DMF . I use his technique of combining a custom hold and custom button. To me, the only disadvantage of DMF is the time it takes to get in to and back out of the mode. Mark's method fixes that problem. While pressing your assigned custom button (I use AEL), DMF along with multiple other optimized settings are activated while you manually focus. Upon releasing your custom button, you immediately return back to whatever mode your were previously using.
  14. Sony's history with firmware updates is mixed. Do not expect any feature updates to the a7RM4. The only firmware updates I expect there would be those required to fix a bug or compatibility issues with future lenses. Once a new model is released, Sony typically stops any further feature updates on existing cameras. As Drew noted, this can be due to hardware limitations but not always. The only camera to receive any significant number of firmware enhancements was the original a9. Those updates stopped soon after the release of the a9M2. I certainly wish Sony would provide more ongoing support to existing camera models. But they have not up to now. So it is important to have a clear understanding of their approach. Don't buy into the Sony ecosystem expecting major new feature enhancements via firmware. New features go into new cameras.
  15. ISO Setting: ISO AUTO Min. SS This feature alone is one of the main reasons I use Sony. It is so simple yet no other camera systems I have used offer an equivalent. There are many times when the old "1/focal length" rule is not optimal. Being able to dial the shutter speed to focal length ratio up or down is supremely useful. For wide angle landscape work I'll set it down to "slow" which is ~1 stop slower than standard. With IBIS/OIS at wide angles I can easily hand hold slower shutter speeds to get a lower, cleaner ISO. With long lenses for action, I dial it up to "fastest" because I am willing to live with some high ISO noise to get crisply frozen action with a shutter speed 4x the "standard".
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