Camera Labs

Hey guys,

Just got back from shooting a wedding with my A850, and I must say the camera performed exceptionally well!

Things that really helped a lot:

- Large viewfinder. I mean, it really does help you to make better composition and decisions as you can see more comfortably.

- External controls for virtually everything. This is a real speed aid and really does allow you to operate more quickly which is often crucial in getting a shot.

- Fast autofocus. Nothing to compare to other than my A300 (and clearly the A850 would be better, especially since it costs 4x as much). But, it really did focus very quickly even though I mainly use 20yr old Minolta glass.

- The entire camera feels much faster and just works with my natural rhythm.

The only thing that I think might need improving is probably the fact that I can't write to both memory slots at the same time. It's really annoying not to have such a useful feature. I really wanted to keep RAW files on my CF cards, and JPG on a memory stick for redundancy reasons (does Sony think this doesn't make sense? Or is it a technical/buffer issue?).

I shot primarily with the Minolta 50 f1.7, and it worked out pretty well actually. Did have some flare issues, but nothing major on first glance. I alternated between the A850 and my A300, and the A300 performed well (as much as could be reasonable expected). The view is noticeably tiny, but other than that, not much to complain about.

All in all, my gear performed exceptionally well, and I didn't have to once think about the camera, but rather think about the shot (which is always good)!

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I wish there was a way to randomly cycle through click-able thumbnails of my most recent images :'(

http://www.laroygreen.com (under construction)

Wow, you're shooting JPG+RAW? How much time do you spend afterwards in post processing a shoot? Do you think it'll scale to when you have more clients?

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PhilipGoh.com

Congratulation for the A850 purchase,
Thank you primitive for sharing your thoughts...
I got a question about you using your minolta gear, how much slower is it for the autofocus... would it make a big difference for action shots?

I do aswell, all the time. I have a 16Gb card in each slot althought I never p.p the JPEG files but use them as another means as a backup for my catologue. When the card is full I dump it onto an external HDD. belts and braces I know

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Alan
D4 & D700


http://www.alanwilliamsphotography.co.uk
BLOG: http://www.ayrshireweddingphotographer.org

RAW+JPG would make more sense if it wrote out to both slots , but Sony decided to skip on this for whatever reason.

I do it now as a precaution (I don't look at the JPG unless something goes horrible wrong). Doesn't save me from losing or damaging the card, but I've accidentally pulled the card out the slot before the buffer cleared a couple of times (certainly my fault entirely), so I'm hoping JPG gets written to card first since it is much smaller. I haven't tested this, but I figure why not.

* Something that might be of nominal use: Play a beeping sound if you open the slot while the buffer is clearing (with the option to turn it off). Would be useful in situations where silence isn't needed.

@lowliferider: I don't have any SSM lenses yet. Other than the Minolta 100-200 f4.5, the other Minolta's focus fast enough for me. The 100-200 is dreadfully slow to focus though, and the 50mm is very quick IMHO, the 35-105 is about average.

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I wish there was a way to randomly cycle through click-able thumbnails of my most recent images :'(

http://www.laroygreen.com (under construction)

its a success!!! Sony did serve you...

i hope i could have chance like that thankyou for sharing... primitive

lomer

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Good Aperture Everyone! Good reply is always Making me very very happy thanks...
Sony A700; sony 18-70mm, 18-250.
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