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A850 observations

Jan Brittenson

Senior Subscriber Member
I just recently, as in a a week ago, got an A850 because I wanted a DSLR to complement my Leica M9 for the occasions where I want reach. So I ordered the 850 with a 70-300G, figuring I'd check it out to see if it fits the bill. Here are some observations...

The 850 is a nice camera - very nice. Good dynamic range, weak AA filtration, good color. The raw files look great in Lightroom 3. Of course I saw the blue Zeiss logo and promptly entered the trance like state where I'm preprogrammed to push the 'buy' button... and here I am. :ROTFL:

The Sony pro grade lens lineup is thin, very thin. I wouldn't want it as a main system for this reason. But it's a perfect complement to something else, for when a 35mm DSLR is the right tool.

I prompt turned off AF on the shutter button and relocated it to the AF/MF button on the back and set AF to center spot mode. Perfect.

I set the AEL button to spot reading, toggle. Unfortunately, it (as the name actually suggests) locks the exposure, not the meter. I was hoping to be able to use it to take a reading, then in M mode adjust exposure relative to this. But no... it locks exposure even in M mode! :wtf:

The camera is overall great. But if Sony wants to market it to pros and serious shooters as a main system they need to invest in lenses, not more EVF gizmos and $100 Krapotar kit lenses with 5-5000mm range. The A850 (and A900 I presume) is a fine tool and perfectly marketable to that end. The next feature step up would be a more serious AF system akin to Canon's 45pt.

The 70-300G is an absolute steal. It's about as good as modern zooms get without straying into Leica/Zeiss territory. Compact, lightweight, CHEAP for what it offers. Impeccable bokeh - and I'm talking Leica Summicron 75 grade bokeh here. A little soft around the edges, and a slight contrast drop at the extreme end. Slow (f/5.6 most of the range) but moderately fast (AF). Great for people and PJ type work where there's typically little at the extreme edges, not so great for landscape or technical work, but perhaps serviceable if it's the only lens on hand. I think of it as a 70-240 with a little extra reach in a pinch.

The $5 Fotodiox M42 adapters work fine, though v2 of the firmware is needed to trip the shutter. There is no focus confirmation without chipping.

The battery charger sucks. :bang: 3-4 hours for a single cell? If I actually expected to use this camera a lot I'd get the Sony dual quick charger. :thumbdown:

The vertical grip is... well... freaking huge. Not sure if I want to keep it. If your hands are punier than those of the Tibetan Yeti I'd say forget it.

I've grown very fond of the eye sensor and shutting off the rear LCD when I'm using the viewfinder. Never really thought much about it, but having the previews not flicker on the rear LCD is like turning off distracting music or chatter. Excellent feature! Ought to save a bit of battery, too.

Sony doesn't charge an arm and a leg for simple accessories. ~$40 for a battery is reasonable. $3.95 for a rear lens cap is LESS than the "generic brand" at B&H! About $10 for an OEM lens cap. Nickle and diming your customers has always struck me as really lame. Kudos! :clap:

It comes with an okay strap, but I'd get an UpStrap for it if I didn't already have another old favorite on hand.

The ZA 24-70 is a good lens. The extreme corners are soft at the 24 end and never clean up no matter how far it's stopped down. It's almost like they're vignetting or diffracting against an internal baffle or something. Just the tiniest amount of zoom (or crop) pushes this out of the frame. It's not noticeable for people/PJ, but for technical use the lens is probably 25.5-70 or thereabouts. The rest of the image is wonderful even wide open, and from f/4 it's extremely good. And this is with a 24.6MP full frame body. I got it so in case something happens to my M9 I can slap this on the 850 and have a reasonable backup. It works for that purpose.

The A850 mirror has a very pronounced clap and sounds a lot like the Canon 1D/1Ds. Or Pentax 67II! But it doesn't seem to vibrate much so is well weighted - just like the Canons. It's just noise, and not too bad. Just reminds me I'm not holding a rangefinder. :) The drive/shutter cocking is quiet.

Between this and the Leica M9 I'll probably sell my Mamiya ZD back. One half of me wants to keep an eye out for a good deal on a P45+, but the more sane half keeps saying screw it - the M9 and A850 is really all I need.

I'll end my :SPAM: here lest you all :sleep006: or declare me :loco:.

Those are my opinions. Reasonable people may disagree. ;)
 

Terry

New member
What pro lenses are you longing for? The 135 is stellar, you've got the 85, both Sony and Sigma 50's are excellent, there is the new Zeiss wide. I liked the 16-35 for landscapes as less vignetting.
 

Jan Brittenson

Senior Subscriber Member
I think for the lineup to be viable in the professional market it needs tilt/shift optics, a 200/2, a 400/2.8, a 500/4, and a 600/4 or thereabouts. Some of these do exist, but not as G SSM models. (Except tilt/shift of course, which doesn't need to be AF, but they don't exist at all today.) Maybe a 21.

It's not that everyone needs all of this; but virtually everyone who makes a living off their camera will need something exotic at some point. And entire categories of use fall to the wayside without it - tabletop product catalog work for instance goes elsewhere without T/S.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Well let me echo a few comments since i finally got to run about 4k in images this weak shooting runway and stage work. Freaking awesome on almost all counts for me. The 135mm is just a brilliant lens and folks go get a damn Minolta 200mm APO 2.8 HS lens. The damn thing is just killer. I only have the 24-70, 135 and 200 but I find that it is a nice setup for me. Not selling my Phase kit but this Sony is going to get a lot of play. I shot mostly at ISO 1250 at 3400 kelvin for the week here in LA and even some underexposed shots pushed up in C1 they still look very good. Noise I find in C1 is mostly in the red channel. I have hundreds of images obviously from this and just starting to wrap up and go home in the morning and I was intending to do a short thread on it when I get home but here are a couple shots









 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Let me point out a major compliment over any other 35 DSLR. This is the closest cam I have seen to my Phase and you can quote me on that. That's saying a lot coming from me
 

edwardkaraa

New member
Guy, wonderful colors!
Jan, regarding the AE lock, I'm not sure exactly what you mean. In M mode, it locks the shutter/aperture combination, so that you can change only one and the other would change accordingly. Then you can unlock the button in order to make exposure changes.
 

Jan Brittenson

Senior Subscriber Member
Jan, regarding the AE lock, I'm not sure exactly what you mean. In M mode, it locks the shutter/aperture combination, so that you can change only one and the other would change accordingly. Then you can unlock the button in order to make exposure changes.
Yes, the combination of aperture and shutter makes the exposure. What I'd prefer is if it locked the meter. This way I could take a spot reading off something and then set exposure relative to this - without standing there holding the spot on what it is I'm metering off so the meter doesn't change. On the lock, the meter would simply stop changing. Just like if I were holding a spot meter. In M mode the meter is decoupled from the exposure; the two have absolutely nothing to do with each other. It makes no sense to lock exposure, because it will never change without me turning a dial, however what makes sense when working manually is to lock the meter.

Just trying to explain. :D
 

gilgameshist

New member
I think for the lineup to be viable in the professional market it needs tilt/shift optics, a 200/2, a 400/2.8, a 500/4, and a 600/4 or thereabouts. Some of these do exist, but not as G SSM models. (Except tilt/shift of course, which doesn't need to be AF, but they don't exist at all today.) Maybe a 21.

It's not that everyone needs all of this; but virtually everyone who makes a living off their camera will need something exotic at some point. And entire categories of use fall to the wayside without it - tabletop product catalog work for instance goes elsewhere without T/S.
I'm w/ you on T/S lenses as they're essential in the studio. I need them, especially one around 70'ish mm as I'm coming from View Cameras. A 200/2 CZ would be really nice.

MG
 

gilgameshist

New member
Well let me echo a few comments since i finally got to run about 4k in images this weak shooting runway and stage work. Freaking awesome on almost all counts for me. The 135mm is just a brilliant lens and folks go get a damn Minolta 200mm APO 2.8 HS lens. The damn thing is just killer. I only have the 24-70, 135 and 200 but I find that it is a nice setup for me. Not selling my Phase kit but this Sony is going to get a lot of play. I shot mostly at ISO 1250 at 3400 kelvin for the week here in LA and even some underexposed shots pushed up in C1 they still look very good. Noise I find in C1 is mostly in the red channel. I have hundreds of images obviously from this and just starting to wrap up and go home in the morning and I was intending to do a short thread on it when I get home but here are a couple shots

]
Guy,

Great images with lovely colors!

MG
 

BackToSlr

New member
Yes, the combination of aperture and shutter makes the exposure. What I'd prefer is if it locked the meter. This way I could take a spot reading off something and then set exposure relative to this - without standing there holding the spot on what it is I'm metering off so the meter doesn't change. On the lock, the meter would simply stop changing. Just like if I were holding a spot meter. In M mode the meter is decoupled from the exposure; the two have absolutely nothing to do with each other. It makes no sense to lock exposure, because it will never change without me turning a dial, however what makes sense when working manually is to lock the meter.

Just trying to explain. :D
I am away from my camera right now so i cannot verify, but somewhere in the menu you can set the AE lock to "HOLD" instead of "TOGGLE". This will meter for you as long as you hold the AE lock, it will release the lock as soon as you release the button. That may be more useful for your usage pattern.

Hope this helps, and my memory serves me right. I don't use it in that mode, just remembered wondering why "HOLD" would be useful...

:D

YMMV,

Cheers,

N
 

Jan Brittenson

Senior Subscriber Member
Another noteworthy feature: the white balance settings have a +/- adjustment, to tweak it to "daylight +3" for instance. The adjustment is in decamired, just like CC filters used to be!!! So if you want to say "shoot daylight with a KR3 filter" (CR3 in the Hasselblad universe) you set it to "daylight +3". Nice to have this adjustment, and even nicer to specify it in a unit a photographer is likely to be familiar with. :thumbup:
 

Jan Brittenson

Senior Subscriber Member
I agree the Mirex adapter looks nice. (I used to have a Pentax 67 Zork for Canon EF, which was much bigger and would only shift.) Stop-down shooting is workable, but I don't think personally I'd like it for volume work. Looks very useful for a landscape tool though, and I may need to get one of those...
 
L

lightdreamer

Guest
And entire categories of use fall to the wayside without it - tabletop product catalog work for instance goes elsewhere without T/S.
I use a Schneider PC Angulon 2.8 28mm for A-Mount for many years now.
It is a well regarded Shift lens and is also well known in Leica R land.

BG
 
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