Sony A7x lounge

mystik610 wrote in post #17954968
Cool shot. There's something appealing about the imperfect quality of the bokeh that vintage glass produces.

It's insane at 1.2, but alas it only lets me get an eyelash in focus so I had to step it down.

It completely changes the look

1.2 vs 2.0

digital_AM wrote in post #17955316
Also, how did you go about testing for sharpness/decentering?

I'd just shoot the face of a flat wall (fills the frame) - preferably one with texture (the ol' brick wall test) and just look to see if the corners appear equal in their sharpness. Be certain you're pointing the camera at 90 degrees to the wall: use a tripod and zoom in for precision focusing. If one or two corners appear visibly softer than the others then you have a problem. I'd even go ahead and shoot through the aperture range (may want to re-check focus for each aperture).

There are much more sophisticated tests one can perform, but I just wouldn't bother. If it looks good it is good imo.

David Arbogast wrote in post #17955338
I'd just shoot the face of a flat wall (fills the frame) - preferably one with texture (the ol' brick wall test) and just look to see if the corners appear equal in their sharpness. Be certain you're pointing the camera at 90 degrees to the wall: use a tripod and zoom in for precision focusing. If one or two corners appear visibly softer than the others then you have a problem. I'd even go ahead and shoot through the aperture range (may want to re-check focus for each aperture).

There are much more sophisticated tests one can perform, but I just wouldn't bother. If it looks good it is good imo.

Thank you David. Yeah my head was spinning when I read some of the test methods on FM. Haha.

Rented the FE70-200F4 and it came two days earlier. i hope they won't let me pay the extra days because i will never pay. not my fault.

Anyway, on Saturday I will work as a wedding second shooter. I practice the AF-C and lock-on flexible spot. It gets confuse. What do you think is the best setting for bride walking around or on the aisle. I haven't tried the lock-on focus but i remembered i didn't like it before because you have to press a couple of button before it engages, i thought you'll miss a lot of shot with that one.

Any advice?

vinmunoz wrote in post #17955399
Rented the FE70-200F4 and it came two days earlier. i hope they won't let me pay the extra days because i will never pay. not my fault.

Anyway, on Saturday I will work as a wedding second shooter. I practice the AF-C and lock-on flexible spot. It gets confuse. What do you think is the best setting for bride walking around or on the aisle. I haven't tried the lock-on focus but i remembered i didn't like it before because you have to press a couple of button before it engages, i thought you'll miss a lot of shot with that one.

Any advice?

From what I know about the A7Rii, having tested it thoroughly when I got it attempting to track moving things, it doesn't excel here especially when people get close and moving towards you, is that back button focus, with short little bursts of a few shots, and then back to tracking again with BBF, then a few more shots is the best technique for trying to track and capture shots of moving things. If you just hold the shutter down and hope the camera keeps up as the subjects move toward you, you will most likely not be happy with the number of OOF shots you get. I'm guessing the main photog will be in that position anyways to capture the couple and that your job, at that point, should be to capture other things going on - this is a mindset as a second shooter that will help a lot - find other stuff to capture that the main, nor the couple, are seeing. If it is honestly going to be your job to capture the couple walking down the aisle in a dimly lit church, go rent a Canon 5D3 / 1Dx or Nikon 810 / D4S and a 70-200 F2.8 because the A7Rii with a 70-200 F4 is not the tool for the job. I also wouldn't rely on the more fancy settings of face recognition or eye AF at that point because that is another disaster waiting to happen - flexible large with AF-C with BBF with a chosen SS, Aperture and ISO so that the camera isn't guessing.

Personally, I now bring my A7Rii to weddings as a 3rd camera to use in certain situations - but the main situation is during the ceremony with a Canon 24-70 F2.8 in Silent mode so I can walk right up into the action without making a sound.

^ I had similar issues shooting with the Canon 70-200 f2.8 with my son running towards me. I shot a burst and only the initial shots were in focus but the rest were not. The a6300 may perform better. Not sure.

vinmunoz wrote in post #17955399
Rented the FE70-200F4 and it came two days earlier. i hope they won't let me pay the extra days because i will never pay. not my fault.

Anyway, on Saturday I will work as a wedding second shooter. I practice the AF-C and lock-on flexible spot. It gets confuse. What do you think is the best setting for bride walking around or on the aisle. I haven't tried the lock-on focus but i remembered i didn't like it before because you have to press a couple of button before it engages, i thought you'll miss a lot of shot with that one.

Any advice?

Lock-on focus is most useful to quickly focus and recompose...does not do well with difficult motion, and movement towards the camera, even slowly, is challenging even for DSLR's. Using lock-on with flexible spot (non-lock on) works well. I would use it in conjunction with turning facial recognition on. I've been using facial recognition extensively with the 50L wide open, mostly with my kids who do not sit still at all, and also lean on it when shooting events with the 24-70II. It's extremely accurate so long as you aren't burst firing shots. Wedding photography is more about timing than spray and pray shooting anyway. Eye AF is handy of course and tracks well enough to follow a bride down the aisle, but it can get tripped up if multiple faces are in the frame. Since eye AF is mapped to a separate button, I would use eye AF whenever you can though.

Facial recognition is linked to the AF area, so you can still selectively pick where the camera will focus and benefit from the accuracy of the facial recognition system. I would also register the bride and groom's faces into the camera so the system will prioritize them if there happen to be more than one face in your AF area (I do this when shooting events).

digital_AM wrote in post #17955316
Thank you Carlo! Did you receive a signed quality control card in your kit? Also, how did you go about testing for sharpness/decentering?

I took some test shots of a brick wall. Nothing too thorough, but if I can't see a problem without stress testing in conditions that are too far beyond real world shooting, I'm inclined to think the lens is good to go.

I did get the QC card. Got them with the Batis lesnes too. Pretty cool that they hand inspect these lenses, but I find it odd that de-centering issues still exist when this process is in place.

maverick75 wrote in post #17955332
It's insane at 1.2, but alas it only lets me get an eyelash in focus so I had to step it down.

It completely changes the look

1.2 vs 2.0

Hosted photo: posted by maverick75 in
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forum: Sony Digital Cameras

Hosted photo: posted by maverick75 in
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forum: Sony Digital Cameras

Very cool. I don't typically open the aperture all the way unless framing loosely. Getting enough of the face in focus is a bigger priority than the amount of blur produced IMO.

mystik610 wrote in post #17955645
Lock-on focus is most useful to quickly focus and recompose...does not do well with difficult motion, and movement towards the camera, even slowly, is challenging even for DSLR's. Using lock-on with flexible spot (non-lock on) works well. I would use it in conjunction with turning facial recognition on. I've been using facial recognition extensively with the 50L wide open, mostly with my kids who do not sit still at all, and also lean on it when shooting events with the 24-70II. It's extremely accurate so long as you aren't burst firing shots. Wedding photography is more about timing than spray and pray shooting anyway. Eye AF is handy of course and tracks well enough to follow a bride down the aisle, but it can get tripped up if multiple faces are in the frame. Since eye AF is mapped to a separate button, I would use eye AF whenever you can though.

Facial recognition is linked to the AF area, so you can still selectively pick where the camera will focus and benefit from the accuracy of the facial recognition system. I would also register the bride and groom's faces into the camera so the system will prioritize them if there happen to be more than one face in your AF area (I do this when shooting events).

Thank you. I will try it again today.

vinmunoz wrote in post #17955737
Thank you. I will try it again today.

Typo in my message...use AF-C with a non-lock on point to track more challenging movement.

so AF-C+ Flexible spot only? or wide?

vinmunoz wrote in post #17955851
so AF-C+ Flexible spot only? or wide?

Flexible spot if multiple faces in the frame you and you need selectively focus. If only one face or a group shot where you want all faces in focus, then wide with face recognition and/or eyefocus. Either way, AF-c will get it dome

thank you.

I somehow missed that Sony will finally release a cheap FE prime!

www.bhphotovideo.com/c​/product/1242613-REG/sony_sel50f18f_fe_​50mm_f_1_8_lens.html

Do you guys think it will stay at $250 for a while or will reduce to $200-230 after the initial release?

Still the price is very good. Now they just have to release a 35 and 85 in the same price point! Don't even care if they're 2.8, that's all I need.