Sony Alpha 500 revisited

June 25, 2014 by Howard Dale Posted in Sony Alpha 500 Leave a comment

In an earlier post I mentioned that I had never really taken to this camera and consequently hadn’t really given it a chance. So I thought I’d try it again. But first why didn’t I like it in the first place:

I think the first reason was that I rationalized my problem as being that as I got older carrying around a digital SLR was too much. However, this really wasn’t a good enough reason. It’s really not that big, or that heavy – especially compared to some other DSLRs. Yes – if you put a large zoom lens on it can dramatically increase the weight, but with a smaller, lighter prime lens or a lightweight zoom it’s not at all bad.

Somehow though I was uncomfortable with it – something to do with the balance maybe – especially when holding it vertically. My arms and wrists are not all that strong and I felt that I couldn’t keep it steady. To remedy this I bought an inexpensive battery grip. This helped a lot. I feel a lot more comfortable now.

Then there was the quality of the images. I wasn’t satisfied. I had three lenses. The kit lens that came with the Konica Minolta 5D (Konica Minolta DT 18-70mm f3.5-5.6), A Sigma 75-300mm f4.5-5.6, and a Konica Minolta 50mm f1.7. In looking back over my images I noticed that most of them had been taken with the kit lens, not renowned as a great performer. I had hardly used the others. So I bought some inexpensive (I doubt that I payed more than $150 for all of them) Konica Minolta autofocus lenses. Some of them were also kit lenses in their day, but with different focal lengths. I was also looking for a prime lens that would give me a 35mm equivalent. I don’t normally look at Quantaray lenses because I’ve read that they are “cheap and nasty”. However, in browsing on the internet I came across a 24mm Quantaray Tech-10 f2.8 (apparently it’s made by Sigma and is the same as the Sigma 24mm Ultrawide II), which seemed to get very good reviews. I’ve also been using the 50mm f1.7 more.

I’ve taken the camera out several times of late and I must say that I’m a lot happier now. I’m still getting used to some of the foibles, but all things considered I think I’ll use it more in the future. For a minimal investment (both in money and in time) I have a camera that I’m getting to like more and more.

Konica Minolta DT 18-70mm f3.5-5.6. Not a great lens.

Sigma 75-300mm f4.5-5.6. Not a bad lens. It’s large and heavy and quite slow. It’s hard to hand hold and I don’t like to lug around a tripod (maybe I should). The best shots I’ve made with this lens have been when I’ve used a monopod, as I did here.

Konica Minolta 35-70mm f3.5-4.5. I’ve only used this once. Seems like a fairly typical kit lens, maybe a bit better that the DT 18-70mm, but with less of a zoom range. In particular you lose the wide end particularly when the crop factor is taken into account.

Konica Minolta 70-210mm f4.5-5.6. Much lighter than the sigma. I’ve only used it once, but my sense is that the Sigma is sharper.

Konica Minolta 28-100mm f3.5-5.6. A third kit lens. Maybe similar quality to the other two, but it feels more comfortable. I also like the zoom range more, but nothing really wide.

Konica Minolta 50mm f1.7. Pretty decent lens, but with the crop factor a bit too long. Seems good for portraits. but I don’t take too many portraits.

Quantaray 24mm f2.8. I really like this lens (it’s on the camera in the picture above). In a addition to this picture the “Sylvan Glen” pictures were also taken with it. It’s small, light and has a good macro capability. It’s pretty sharp and I like the colors. It seems to have a tendency to flare, so I’ve purchased an inexpensive hood.

Chinese Garden – Lasdon Park and Arboretum

Top of one of the arch/gateways.

We went with some friends to an antique show held on the grounds of the Lasdon Park and Arboretum. While the ladies when around the antiques show I went for a walk with my friend Ken. I’d heard that there was a Chinese Garden somewhere and I hoped to find it. The Lasdon Park website describes the Chinese Garden as follows:

In 1997 the County became a sister city with Jinzhou in China. A Chinese delegation came to the park and lived here that summer to construct an ornate pavilion and along with the help of the Parks Department, developed a garden surrounding the pond near the western end of the park. While the pavilion is quite aesthetic it is challenged by climate. Every 5 years or so we must restore much of the paint and wood work at the pavilion.

In an earlier post I mentioned that some other friends had given me some old cameras. I had one of them with me: A Canon Eos Elan IIe with 28-80mm Zoom Lens and I was keen to try it. I had a slight problem, but I’ll talk about that in a post on the camera itself. Here are some pictures. Since I didn’t know how well the camera was working I only had low resolution scans done.

Bamboo.

Another arch/gateway.

Distant Pavilion.

Closer view of the Pavilion.

Closeup of the Pavilion.

The man in the mirror

June 6, 2014 by Howard Dale Posted in Canon EOS Elan IIe, People, Things Leave a comment

I noticed these two blue and white vases at a local antiques fair and decided to take a picture. As I was taking it I spotted the mirror in the background and decided to wait until someone walked by behind me so I could get their reflection.

Geese

June 6, 2014 by Howard Dale Posted in Canon EOS Elan IIe, Wildlife & Animals Leave a comment

One of the very few pictures I’ve taken of wildlife. I just don’t have the patience required to take good wildlife pictures. Wildlife photography also seems to require very fast telephoto lenses, which I don’t have and which are quite expensive to acquire.

This was taken during a walkabout with a friend. The geese were not happy to have us come close to their young and I know from experience that they can be quite aggressive when aroused. So we had to give them a wide berth. Luckily the grassy area to the right was quite wide so we could quite easily get around them. Otherwise it would have been a long walk back the way we came.

Finally found something at the thrift store

February 28, 2014 by Howard Dale Posted in Camera Collection, Olympus Stylus Epic Tagged gallery Leave a comment

There are three Goodwill stores in the vicinity. From time to time I visit them. I’ve only once bought a camera: a Yashica FX2 with, as it turns out, a lens stuck wide open and non functioning 1/1000 speed. I’ve described the story behind this in an earlier post. Usually they have a selection of cheap, plasticky point and shoot cameras often with obvious damage. The selection never seems to change. This time, however, it was different. The usual suspects had all disappeared and the shelf was empty apart from one camera. I walked over to take a look and lo and behold there was a black Olympus Stylus Epic in pretty good condition price less than $10.00. I couldn’t resist even though I already have the silver version (quartz date), I had always wanted the black. Cosmetically it’s in better condition than the silver one, but would it work? I took it home and put in a battery. Everything seemed to be working fine, but of course I wouldn’t really know until I put a roll through.

It’s a bit disturbing to have a camera that gives you no feedback other than a green light to tell you that it’s found focus. No sense of shutter speed. No idea what aperture has been selected and, of course, no digital image to show you how you did. You just get the film processed and wait to see the results.

The conditions were not ideal. It was late in the afternoon and getting dark very quickly. Most of the pictures had snow in them making exposure difficult and a number of them were backlit. Some of the pictures came out blurred. I noticed that these were all towards the end of the roll and taken when it was getting dark. I imagine the camera selected a long shutter speed. My hands are not too steady at the best of times so it wouldn’t take a very long speed before camera shake set in. Some of the backlit pictures didn’t come out too well. I would probably had done better if I’d use the spot mode.

All things considered I’m very pleased with my new acquisition. Can’t wait to try it when the light is better.