Sony A7x lounge

FE 28mm

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/JQRT​gi

Late afternoon live cricket on a screen not far from where I live.

iphone has sony sensors so please allow me to post this iphone6s shot here . I'm just trying to prove that light is just as or more important than gears.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/JVXy​UX

Here is a shot of the Milky Way over Canyon Lake which is about 30 minutes from where I live north of San Antonio. That's the light pollution from the city as I was facing south. The Milky Way was very faint but still visible. Did the best I could in post to draw out the details of the core. Batis 18 was a bit frustrating to manually focus but I think it just takes some practice. It's not nearly as precise as my Loxia 21 which has very precise manual focus control.

digital_AM wrote in post #18087768
Here is a shot of the Milky Way over Canyon Lake which about 30 minutes from where I live north of San Antonio. That's the light pollution from the city as I was facing south. The Milky Way was very faint but still visible. Did the best I could in post to draw out the details of the core. Batis 18 was bit frustrating to manually focus but I think it just takes some practice. It's not nearly as precise as my Loxia 21 which has very precise manual focus control.

Looks great. I bet you can draw out even more in ACR filter using dehaze (selectively). Batis 18 looks like a great astro lens.

David Arbogast wrote in post #18087775
Looks great. I bet you can draw out even more in ACR filter using dehaze (selectively). Batis 18 looks like a great astro lens.

Thanks David. I will keep tweaking it. Yep the Batis 18 makes a fine astrophotography lens. Very sharp even wide open. Very good coma control too. I just need to head further north away from the city to avoid the light pollution. I will play with star trails too. I wonder how well the star trails app works.

Edit: Updated version below to bring out more detail in the Milky Way using Detail Extractor in Color Efex and dehaze.

Please allow me to post an A6000 shot.

I got the SEL30mm F3.5 Macro lens. i think it's a keeper

Zero crop.

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/JWmw​RH

^Looks so nice Alfredo.

After downloading my first Loxia 35mm images from today's outing, it is giving me some pause about get-the-set Loxia plan. I knew the 35mm was the weak link and that's exactly why I started with it.

The L35 form-factor and handling in the field was phenomenal...enjoyed it immensely. The colors and overall rendering are beautiful as hoped. But, the weakess of its f/2 performance is jarring. It's looking near-unusable to me. So, it's an expensive prime that needs to be stopped down to be completely acceptable. Tough pill... Second thoughts........

OTOH my intended use for all the Loxias is mainly for stopped-down landscapes and cityscapes, so maybe it's OK.

digital_AM wrote in post #18087780
Thanks David. I will keep tweaking it. Yep the Batis 18 makes a fine astrophotography lens. Very sharp even wide open. Very good coma control too. I just need to head further north away from the city to avoid the light pollution. I will play with star trails too. I wonder how well the star trails app works.

Edit: Updated version below to bring out more detail in the Milky Way using Detail Extractor in Color Efex and dehaze.

This is really nice. I really need to make more effort to shoot Astro. I've got the Sy 14 and 24 sitting there for it but really need to test the Batis 18 against the Sy 24. Hopefully the 18 is good enough that I can offload the two Samyang lenses and put the cash towards the voigtlander 10mm. It bugs me that I have two lenses sitting there for Astro then don't make the effort to go out and shoot Astro enough. Your results are looking promising

digital_AM wrote in post #18087780
Thanks David. I will keep tweaking it. Yep the Batis 18 makes a fine astrophotography lens. Very sharp even wide open. Very good coma control too. I just need to head further north away from the city to avoid the light pollution. I will play with star trails too. I wonder how well the star trails app works.

Edit: Updated version below to bring out more detail in the Milky Way using Detail Extractor in Color Efex and dehaze.

Alfredo, according to "darksitefinder.com", you might be better off going west to seek out darker skies.

Here's a screenshot of your area and the quote above links to the map.

David Arbogast wrote in post #18087807
^Looks so nice Alfredo.

After downloading my first Loxia 35mm images from today's outing, it is giving me some pause about get-the-set Loxia plan. I knew the 35mm was the weak link and that's exactly why I started with it.

The L35 form-factor and handling in the field was phenomenal...enjoyed it immensely. The colors and overall rendering are beautiful as hoped. But, the weakess of its f/2 performance is jarring. It's looking near-unusable to me. So, it's an expensive prime that needs to be stopped down to be completely acceptable. Tough pill... Second thoughts........

OTOH my intended use for all the Loxias is mainly for stopped-down landscapes and cityscapes, so maybe it's OK.

Thank you. I think you'll be fine with the 35. Yes it's too bad it doesn't perform well wide open. That makes it an expensive prime limited to narrow apertures.

xpfloyd wrote in post #18087879
This is really nice. I really need to make more effort to shoot Astro. I've got the Sy 14 and 24 sitting there for it but really need to test the Batis 18 against the Sy 24. Hopefully the 18 is good enough that I can offload the two Samyang lenses and put the cash towards the voigtlander 10mm. It bugs me that I have two lenses sitting there for Astro then don't make the effort to go out and shoot Astro enough. Your results are looking promising

Thanks Eddie. I bet you have some beautiful areas and dark skin to shoot where you live. I'm liking the results with the Batis for astro. 18mm is nice and wide. I do wish it were an f2.0 lens but that would make the lens heavier and bigger.

navydoc wrote in post #18087929
Alfredo, according to "darksitefinder.com", you might be better off going west to seek out darker skies.

Here's a screenshot of your area and the quote above links to the map.

Thanks Gene. I'm fortunate we have darker skies relatively close. 2 hours west and it looks really good. The challenge is finding an interesting foreground. No mountains out here.

navydoc wrote in post #18087929
Alfredo, according to "darksitefinder.com", you might be better off going west to seek out darker skies.

Here's a screenshot of your area and the quote above links to the map.

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Makes sense...there's nothing but dust storms in west texas .

My neck of the woods is a big blob of light polution

Does anyone have any experience with Meike Battery Grips...I have a new photo gig that is going to require a lot more shooting, people, activities and the like...and really want to have a grip, but $350 for the Sony grip is criminal...

TRhoads wrote in post #18088000
Does anyone have any experience with Meike Battery Grips...I have a new photo gig that is going to require a lot more shooting, people, activities and the like...and really want to have a grip, but $350 for the Sony grip is criminal...

There's a guy on here called tenounce (real name something quiles- I forget his first name) who done a YouTube comparison review of the two. My memory is poor though so can't remember the outcome