I got my sony :)

[James]

Hello all,

Just a quick update - I switched to Sony and now am the very happy owner of an a900 (but with only the Tamron Macro and Sony 50mm f1.4 as of today)

I've got to say that first impressions are pretty wow - I got it with the grip and it's a beast of a camera with that attached! I had a play at ISO 3200 to see how the images came out from the "noise machine" and I was actually really impressed, I will print these out some time soon to go and have a look how the prints turn out but this shot is a straight out of camera jpeg with no additional PP from me at all...



The same with this one:


I know that the shadow is looking pretty noisey but it's an unobtrusive noise to my eyes.

Also I know that this seems really silly compared to the D3s noise that some of you guys are playing with, but as I said the other week, this was not my intended purpose, in the spirit of the forum I just like to test what my kit performs like under stress before I find out by messing up something important!

Anyway, can't wait for my Zeiss (still trying to decide if I should get the 16-35 or 24-70 first, I am leaning towards the former...) and some decent weather to really go and play!!

[StanyB]

Hi James,

I'm looking foreward to read your impressions and experiences with your new camera.
I must say i was amazed as you just bought that 70-200VR from me ... Hope you didn't loose too much money on it.

Pamela will be happy to see another Sony user on our forum.

Succes!

[James]

Hi James,

I'm looking foreward to read your impressions and experiences with your new camera.
I must say i was amazed as you just bought that 70-200VR from me ... Hope you didn't loose too much money on it.

I know what you mean - it was just weird timing the way certain things worked out! I will keep you informed of how it's working out though. As for losing money - yes I did on the lens, but not overall

First impressions looking at the images though are that this is very similar kind of tonality (is that a real word?!?) to the S5 but MUCH higher resolution. I'm looking forward to getting a proper chance to play with it soon - you must all be getting bored of Oscar shots!

[James]

Well, 2 days in and I have to say that I am absolutely delighted so far!

Here are a few more shots (I know that they are not awesome compositions and they are still test shots (sorry you have to see Oscar so much!) but still...)

Here's the first one - a 100% crop of a shot with the 50mm f1.4 stopped down (I am sure that this is just as sharp at 100% as my D300 was and I have double the pixels!)



Here's a macro (the figure has about a 2cm high head including the crown/head piece) so this is 1:1 Macro with the Tamron 90mm lens and the HVL-F20AM flash gun:


And a few more test shots from last night/today that are mostly taken with the 50mm @ f1.4 http://jamestux.zenfolio.com/p337189117/slideshow - If anyone wants me to test anything in particular let me know I only have the 2 lenses above at the moment - the 70-300G arrives next weekend and a some time in February or March I will hopefully getting the Zeiss 16-35 (or maybe 24-70 still not 100% on this one!)

All of the shots were processed using the defaults in Capture One Pro (version 5) this seems to be a great converter for the a900 - I guess I need to factor the cost of this in somewhen too!

[pam.meier]

Hi James,
very nice start with the A900. Congrats and keep them coming!
Pam

P.S. I just returned from the studio and have lots of new images with the A900

[James]

Thanks for the encouragement Pam

Can't wait to see your new studio shots

[pam.meier]

Hi James,
since I heavily pp my studio shots, I don´t post much into the Sony sections of fora any longer.
They just don´t show the cameras features And I heavily use background stock images.

If you want to look at my portfolio:
http://www.model-kartei.de/sedcard/fotograf/184280/

95% A900.

Greetings,
Pam

[James]

I finally got to sit infront of my PC for a few minutes without working!

Great portfolio, I'm almost tempted to learn German to understand the text as well

Keep up the good work!

[pam.meier]

Thank you, James. So I´m really enjoying the A900 with the Zeiss lenses in a potrait/fashion studio environment.
Couldn´t be happier with the colors and tone rendering. For everything else, it´s the Nikon D3.

[StanyB]

Apparently the A900 is discontinued, which monst of the time means something new is coming up...

[James]

Not in Sony-land apparently, the A700 was discontinued ages ago and still no news on a real successor, I think that it might be the 850 is what you have to have if you want full frame for a while.

According to the doom and gloom that is dpreview some people think that Sony might be withdrawing from the SLR market, if so I'll see if I can get an a850 or additional a900 body at some point but I think that this is pretty unlikely personally!

[StanyB]

... if so I'll see if I can get an a850 or additional a900 body at some point but I think that this is pretty unlikely personally!

Hi James,
If you want one more A900, brand new-0 clicks...I know this lady and you can trust her for 100%: http://www.fotografie.fr/fotoforum/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=724#p2479

[James]

I just saw that

Now is not the right time for me though - I don't have a lot of work lined up for June and much as I would love another a900 body right now I don't need one and I want to see what Sony are doing first too.

Thanks for pointing it out though!