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alpha 900 first impressions

Georg Baumann

Subscriber Member
The body looks and feels the part, a solid tool! Including vertical grip and strap, it happend to me twice that I coincidently opened the cardslot while slipping out of the strap. (I like a snug fit) I had not time to adjust and finetune settings. All I did was set to RAW and ISO 320 as base and frankly I was too excited to start reading manuals or Terry's thread with all those hints on optimizing the seetings.

The Zeiss build quality is simply a dream. WOW! The Sony build quality is a concern. I might be wrong, plastic can be very good, but I can not judge on the quality of the plastics used. The color of that lens plain sucks, but I don't care much about such stuff anyways.

My 135 did not arrive yet, but if it is close to the 24-70, they are build to last a lifetime. Superb, the very best I owned so far.

I will have a hard time learning the optimum on processing, unfortunately this stuff doesn't come easy to me. Anyhow, here the first four handheld shots. From top to bottom:

Zeiss 24-70
70mm, 1/800sec ISO 320

Sony 70-400
400mm, 1/30sec, ISO 320

Sony 70-400
70mm 1/10sec, ISO 800

Sony 70-400
70mm, 1/5sec, ISO 800
 

ecsh

New member
You will love the 135. Its as good as the 24-70. I have both of them. I was considering the 70-400. Those pics you have taken look beautiful. Is that lens as heavy as they say?
Thanks
Joe
 

APY_JR

New member
Hi Georg!

Realy nice stuff!:)

Love the first one, the trelis shot is awesome and the white cottage... well it's just beautiful!

Looks like that 70-400 is a lens to get also!

Thanks for the post!

Albert
 

Eoin

Member
I wouldn't have thought there was much difference between the build quality of the ZA24-70 and the 70-400G. If I'm not mistaken the extending front barrels of both lenses are plastic and while the rest of the Zeiss is all metal. Only the segment where the focus scale is, is plastic on the Sony the rest is metal. Apart from the very lightweight plastic lens hood of the 70-400 which seems too light for durability.

However the ZA135 is in a completely different class to either of these two lenses, all metal, solid and heavy. Even the focus ring is metal, none of that tacky rubber. it's my precious!

Congrats Georg, looking forward to seeing some of your output from this equipment.
 

jonoslack

Active member
Congratulations Georg
I hope you'll be very happy together. I'm with Eoin on the build quality of the 135 - it's another world. Just put the lens hood on and give it a ping with your fingernail. Heaven!
 

Georg Baumann

Subscriber Member
Albert, the cottage .... I need to go back and shoot propperly, I love that scene! :)

Eoin, It is probably just me, to me the finish of the lense "feels" cheap, but time will tell the truth. - I have a very expensive masterkeyboard synthesizer from Roland for example, and my first impression was that the finish is dodgy, one year later the paint started to peal, although it has never been on the road, I record in studio only. Having said that, again, I might be completly wrong on the Sony. -

Jono, this I do preferably with a chateau neuf du pape, but I'll give it a try. ;)
 

jonoslack

Active member
Hi Georg
Albert, the cottage .... I need to go back and shoot propperly, I love that scene! :)
I think it's lovely too - I'd like to have a go at that!
Eoin, It is probably just me, to me the finish of the lense "feels" cheap, but time will tell the truth. - I have a very expensive masterkeyboard synthesizer from Roland for example, and my first impression was that the finish is dodgy, one year later the paint started to peal, although it has never been on the road, I record in studio only. Having said that, again, I might be completly wrong on the Sony. -
I agree - I don't think there is anything wrong with the Sony build quality, but like the Vaio computers, the corners of the A900 go shiny with use and the lens hoods are easy to scratch. Tough I'm sure, but not cosmetically long suffering!

Jono, this I do preferably with a chateau neuf du pape, but I'll give it a try. ;)
I'd rather drink the chateau neuf tu pape and ping the lens hood :ROTFL:
 

Georg Baumann

Subscriber Member
LOL

You guys who use C1... am I right to assume that under quick settings tab, under base characteristics, you keeo it normally at film standard and not linear response?
 

APY_JR

New member
LOL

You guys who use C1... am I right to assume that under quick settings tab, under base characteristics, you keeo it normally at film standard and not linear response?
That's all I've used Georg... I may have tried linear a few times when I pegged the exp a bit:)

Albert
 

Georg Baumann

Subscriber Member
Thanks Albert,

I intend to try the workflow of using C1 for converting to Tiff with liitle changes, then whack to Lightroom and eventually to CS3.

This shot was unusable I thought, but then I started to like it and worked a bit in CS3 on it. It is probably a 80% crop from a 400mm. It is not pristine, then again, I am learning.
 

ptomsu

Workshop Member
Georg,

great pictures, very nice place!

It seems that the sleepless nights with the A900 show results ;)

Have great fun!
 

Georg Baumann

Subscriber Member
I feel it is getting slowly better. But still a long way to go.... Patience is not my virtue.... and they forecasted rain.... :cussing: I must read up on sharpening for web, I never get it right somehow. I use Nik Sharpener 3.0 but this Display sharpening, I don't know, I must do something wrong. When I check it it looks kinda all right, not really mindblowing, but ok, when I reduce the pic size for web after wards, it looks not very good anymore.

Jono, yeah, it is kinda nice here. I am busy until October, but then we could arrange something.

Peter, not sure about sleep at the moment, a rare thing in my world. ;) Wish I would digest this stuff quicker, but well, that's the way it is.
 

dhsimmonds

New member
George, I love the estuary shots and I echo Jono's sentiments...........I must also get over to the "green" side sometime soon!
 

Terry

New member
If you make the pictures you are going to post too large (I believe >900 pixels) the forum software adds sharpening. I think it also works differently if you upload pictures to the gallery fist. This is a question for Jack and Guy. I sometimes do two versions of the same shot and the one with less sharpening is for posting here.
 

Georg Baumann

Subscriber Member
If you make the pictures you are going to post too large (I believe >900 pixels) the forum software adds sharpening. I think it also works differently if you upload pictures to the gallery fist. This is a question for Jack and Guy. I sometimes do two versions of the same shot and the one with less sharpening is for posting here.
Hi Terry, thanks I must make sure none are wider than 900 pixels then.
 
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