rogerp

<p><em>"Roger P, how does that Minolta xi lens perform in terms of chromatic aberration & bokeh? Say, could you post pictures or provide links to?"</em><br>

Bokeh and CA are both fairly good - I've not had the need to remove any CA. I'll take a some shots attempting to illustrate both one day next week - weather permitting.</p>

<p><em>"Roger, you must have a solar powered camera to recommend an xi zoom....grin."</em><br>

Not noticed any excessive battery drain when using the xi ... (guess that’s what you were referring to) I use the lens on a a900 (no grip) and always have a spare battery in my pocket which rarely is needed. Most of the time I'm using other lenses so it's difficult to know how much the xi uses. Worth a extended test though. I'll let you know after next week when I'll try it all one day - weather permitting :)</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I've been using the Sony 100mm macro for a few years with various Sony cameras I've had over time (a100/a350/a700/a900) and hand-holding. I've found a fairly consistent method is to use auto-focus with aperture priority set at f/8-f16 dependant on lighting conditions. The secret, if there is one, is to fire the shutter <em>with the shortest possible delay after the lens has focussed</em>. It's no good achieving focus and holding the shutter half down - you're sure to move slightly. The focus locking on and firing the shutter needs to be as close to one movement as you can manage. For me AF is much quicker than manual focussing in these circumstances. I'm getting 80% or so of (technically) good shots at close to 1:1 this way. I rarely use a tripod as the type of subjects I take barely stay still long enough for hand-held shots let alone set up a tripod.</p>

<p>Typical shot ... more at http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b205/rogprov/</p>

<p><img src="http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b205/rogprov/DSC08230.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>For full-frame the Minolta 35-200mm xi lens, if you can live with the power zoom. I can. It makes a very good "walk-about" lens. It's the only xi lens of any worth but they're quite difficult to come by. I found a mint copy for £35. In 1993 it cost $940 ... that was a lot of money back then for a lens. It's sharp even wide open, there's some distortion at the wide end but not too bad.</p>

<p>Yes I have installed the upgraded firmware. The main difference for me is the faster more positive AF - particularly on the 70-300mm G and the 100mm macro. Definitely far less hunting with the macro lens. Very pleased.</p>

<p>I have Windows XP running on a 4 year old Pentium 4 machine with 3gb of ram.and experience no problems at all with a900 files. Download, via a cheap reader, takes 1 second per photo and using PS Elements 8 for processing is fast and without noticeable delay.</p>

<p>I've had the a900 since they were first released a couple of years ago and before that the a700 - can't say I noticed much difference in handling the larger a900 files.</p>

<p>Roger</p>

<p> </p>

<p>For those of us in the UK eBay item 330369188020 is a good buy - and NOT a fake.</p>

<p>Yes there are adapters available but they have to incorporate another lens to allow focussing to infinity. This causes a magnification factor and also degrades lens performance. On top of this you will not have any auto facilities and it will have to be used totally manually.</p>

<p>That was the full frame film size back then and what you have is a "half-frame" camera. They're all marked like that and it's a tad confusing to us these days. Sort of like a half-fame 35mm camera - but there's no 35mm dimension in the photo size. <br /> <br /> Roger</p>

<p>The only item which is of any real value is the 50mm lens - it would make over 100 GBP on eBay UK.</p>

<p>I've had one in the past and can confirm that they work very well. They often appear on eBay.<br /> <br /> Roger</p>

Only the one with a constant f4 maximum aperture is the one known as "the beercan" the others in the above list are not "beercans"

 

I have noticed several variations in the colour of the front glass coating and there are plastic and metal hoods. I've never seen other variations of this lens.

Here is a PDF on replacing Minolta light seals ...

 

http://www.kyphoto.com/classics/seal/Minolta_HiMatic.pdf

 

The author is Jon Goodman, (interslice on eBay) who is "the man" for seals ...

 

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/merchant/interslice

Search on eBay for 180277623210

There's also one (4mb pdf file) on my site ... http://www.provins.org.uk ... look under "instruction books"

 

Roger

Well if you can afford it http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665345645 wil out perform them all :-)

No need to go through V2 ... V3 has the total updates.

 

Roger

You should be able to get the PX640a alkaline replacement in you country.

 

Here's one from the UK

 

http://www.smallbattery.company.org.uk/sbc_pc640a.htm

 

Rger

Absolutely wonderful!

Here are some - in no particular order.

 

http://www.dyxum.com/index.asp

 

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1037

 

http://photoclubalpha.com/

 

http://www.alphamountworld.com/

 

 

http://www.dynaxdigital.com/index.php

 

http://alphatracks.com/

 

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/alphausers/

Simply really, most TTL flash guns for film cameras use a measurement taken from the reflectance off the film - digital cameras have no film, no reflectance to measure from ......

I very much second Tim's recommendation David Kilpatrick site and the magazine.

 

Here are few more links.

 

 

 

http://www.alphamountworld.com/

 

http://www.dynaxdigital.com/

 

http://forums.mavican.org/index.php?sid=5529f6b7d27c1e44c5651c3b93b28762

 

http://alphatracks.com/

 

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/alphausers/

 

 

 

Roger

James I understand your reluctance to attempt the upgrade if you feel you don't have sufficient computer skills. So how about conscripting someone to do it for you? Maybe you have a friend, relation or neighbour who could help, it would only take half-an-hour of their time. Many youngsters (of the computer generation) do this sort of thing all the time with their music/video/movie downloads :) Of course there's also the possibility a camera shop might be willing to do it for you and, failing all else, Sony give a phone number for help on this matter - 800-222-7669

 

I'd do it for you but as I'm in England that might be an expensive trip :)

The firmware upgrades are free and downloadable from Sony. Version 3 is there right now and will take only a few of minutes to download and install.

 

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?upd_id=3229&os_id=OSID&mdl=DSLRA700

Well it was supposed to ...

 

* The picture sharpness is better under low contrast conditions.

* Noise is reduced when working at high sensitivity ISO setting.

* The flash control is better at close range with a non-ADI control lens.

 

First and second I found to be true - can't speak for the third as I rarely ever use flash.

I'd already upgraded to version 2 before again upgrading to the current version 3. What I did find with the version 3 was that my previous problems with the 3 user memory settings being lost or transferred were cured :)