Dynax 800si Lens Selection + Portrait Lens for Beginer

[rbvickers6]

Hi,My first post as a "Newbie" I hope you can help & advise Please.

At the tender age of 57 I decided to buy a decent Film camera and

lenses to record family, weddings,portraits and landscapes.

I have 2 lenses, minolta 24-85 3.5-4.5 62mm aperture & minolta 70-210

f4 (e-bay ?45)

I would like a good quality portrait choices: Tamron SP 90, Sigma

105, Macros (& minolta 100mm my choice but too pricey). I cannot find

any info on how the tamron or sigma perform on the 800si regarding

portraiture or other issues and would appreciate your comments on

this and my lens selection

[dave_redmann]

<I>I have 2 lenses, minolta 24-85 3.5-4.5 62mm aperture & minolta 70-210 f4 (e-bay ?45) I would like a good quality portrait choices [sic]</I><P>

 

The Minolta AF 70-210mm f/4 <I>is</I> a good to very good portrait lens. For a head-and-shoulders portrait, try around 85mm, and for a head-only portrait, try around 125-150mm.<P>

 

You want to be maybe 6 ft to 10 ft away from the subject. For portraits without a photographic backdrop, you want to set the aperture to f/4. Either use an incident meter and find the right shutter speed for your film at f/4; or if you don't have an incident meter, use aperture priority more, set f/4, adjust exposure compensation for the person's coloring (try maybe +1 for typical Caucasians), and partial ('spot') meter the face.

[miguel_rodriguez5]

Hi Bob, welcome to Minolta (your kit is 100% Minolta) :)

I think that you have an excellent equipment to start with. I dont think you need more lenses for what you want to do. Have fun with it. Dont worry too much about new lenses unless you plan to keep on spending money (Minolta can be addictive).

Perhaps you will need a flash, I'd suggest the 3500xi (minolta) or the newer 3600HS. Those flashes work wireless with your camera and you can get nice effects with them and would cover most of your needs, I think.

Instead of new lenses, I'd suggest you get a 2700 dpi film scanner. Some of them come with photoshop elements. With it, you can manipulate, crop, etc some of your best photos and print them at home or even at 1hr processing labs. I bet you wouldnt spend more than $150 in the scanner and it allows you to have both formats (digital+film).

[rbvickers6]

Hi Dave thanks for the tips, thats the problem I have at the moment learning to use what I have, The cameras settings are something of a mystery at the moment yet to be mastered,

[rbvickers6]

Hi Miguel, I am SO Pleased that I found and joined this Forum, 2 replies and both great, I will forget the Portrait lens and concentrate on learning, you are quite right about spending money it is silly to buy Expensive lenses before finding the capabilities of those I have. I am currently looking for a used wireless flash as for the film scanner I had not given it a thought until Now !! Many Thanks

[bacsa]

I agree that the 70-210 you have is a very good lens for those portraits. If you decide to still buy stg more, i would suggest an older type 135/2.8 lens, second hand between 100 and 150$ is a great value for money. A magnificent lens, i can tell you.

[rbvickers6]

Hi Csab, Thanks for the advice I had discounted the 135 as I thought it would throw a shadow when using the camera flash but its the 28-135mm lens that causes that problem according to the manual.

The reviews look very good, but at the moment I think I will try to master what I have (unless a decent cheap 135mm lens comes up) I do want a prime Portrait lens eventually and the 135 sounds about right for the price.

[peterblaise]

.

 

Be aware that Sigma reverse engineers its AF lens electronics for other camera makes and so older Sigma AF lenses may not work on newer AF cameras. So, when shopping the used market, what can you do? Buy it and try it, and return it if it doesn't work! Tokina, too. Cosina? Samyang/Phoenix/Vivitar? Who knows?

 

ONLY Tamron and Minolta make AUTHORIZED AF lenses for Minolta cameras, so bear that in mind.

 

Meaning ... if you "upgrade" to a DSLR later, ONLY the Tamron and Minolta lenses are guaranteed to work. The Sigma ... only if it is within the new purchase warranty AND only if they have upgrade chips!

 

Now, on to "portraits:

 

Often, people who want "portraits" mean "head and shoulders portraits" and then they want background blur to make their sitter stand out, so to speak. So, you will need shallow depth of field, and f/2.8 may not satisfy you - make sure you have an f/1.something in your arsenal. I like the fast 85mm f/1.something Minolta lenses for this.

 

Other people wanting "portrait" pictures want environmental portraits or full body portraits, and so on - all different. I have used everything from 17mm to 500mm for pictures that viewers say, "Nice portrait" to.

 

Enjoy, and tell us what you do, and tell us where you share your pictures!

 

Click!

 

Love and hugs,

 

Peter Blaise peterblaise@yahoo.com Minolta Photographer http://www.peterblaisephotography.com/

 

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/KMUG

[rbvickers6]

Hi Peter, Thanks for the warning re: Sigma lenses something I did not know. I intend to stick with Minolta lenses at the moment, I could not make an informed choice on the other makes available and Minoltas lenses are well rated in the reviews that I have read, and priced to suit my pocket one of the reasons for choosing minolta.

Despite stating otherwise I have bought the Minolta 135mm f2.8 lense, My daughter gets married on the 17th September and she would like me to take pohotos, I will use the 135mm and the 24-85mm on the day with flash when required, but I have no clue as to which filters to use (if any)on the 135mm for indoors and outdoors Sun or Cloud.

I want to take head & shoulder and full Portraits any advice would be Welcomed !!

[bacsa]

Bob, congrats on the 135: If you want colour shots (daylight), i would not advise you to use filters for portraits. But then, i don't like to use filters myself, incl "soft" filters, "star" filters and other effects.

<p>

For black and white portraits: The lens has good contrast even wide open so i would not use contrast filters (yellow, orange) in black and white. But you might use some depending on the light you will have.

<p>

I think a 135mm at an aperture of f/2.8 has a DOF thin enough to blur the background. No need for f/1.x lenses. In fact, a 135/2.8 focused to 2m (which is not even the limit for this lens!) has a DOF of 3 cm aka 1 inch and a bit! That corresponds to an 50mm f/1.7 wide open (focused at 0.9m) !

<p>

An example i can show <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=2086138">here</a> - although there's not much of background in the image, but you can see some strong blurring of the tulips in the FOREground.

[rbvickers6]

Hi Csab, Thanks for the info re: Filters, would you advise on what film to use at the wedding I have fuji Superia 100 and Superia X-tra 400 that I use for day to day photography, the decision to buy the 135 was mainly made by my daughters request to take photos at her wedding ( I am a tad nervous at the prospect ), Reviews indicated its qualities,the price, and your endorsement.

Regarding filters could you suggest what Protective UV, Skylight & polarizing filters would suit the 135 there are so many to choose from, the polarizer as i am on holiday in Corfu at the end of the month and I am not sure what to buy OR if I need one ?

Hope you dont think that I am a pain in the Ass for all the questions?!!!

 

For Peter, I dont share any photos Yet but intend to for comment & opinions and will post on this site. I have little knowledge or experience in the subject just cheap "point and shoot" cameras in the past. I bought a Canon A80 Powershot 12 months ago and strange as it seems that got me interested in Film Photography ( Oh why oh why lol !!! ) and have been building my system for the last 6 months.

Unfortunately money is tight I am a caretaker for a Housing Association, so its used equipment mainly from E-bay but I think that I have chosen wisely, and have waited for quality items and have spent more to get them.

would love the 85mm but way out of my league, ah well !!