Cameracraft magazine – Taking your practical photography further

Tag: Sony

  • Sony fights back! 400-800mm G and 16mm f/1.8

    Sony fights back! 400-800mm G and 16mm f/1.8

    Well, a couple of days after Sigma announced their new 300-600mm f/4 to much acclaim Sony has pulled the rug slightly from their feet with a £2,549 400-800mm ƒ6.3-8 G OSS supertele zoom.

    Like Canon, they have realised current mirrorless sensors can focus easily with small apertures on long lenses

    The saving in cost is matched by a saving in weight – 2.4kg is good for a big white lens in this class, rugged and weather-sealed (they claim ‘fully’) and with optical stabilisation to take over from I.B.I.S. which would be at the limits of movement at 800mm.

    As for adding converters… it works with both 1.4X and 2X.

    Sony 400-800 F6.3-8 G OSS specifications:

    • 400-800mm OSS lens with G optics
    • Sony’s first E-mount super-telephoto zoom lens to extend to 800mm
    • 27 elements in 19 groups, with six ED glass elements
    • f/6.3-8 aperture with an 11-blade diaphragm
    • Fast, silent AF from Two XD Linear Motors
    • Internal zoom mechanism does not extend barrel
    • Optical SteadyShot (OSS) stabilisation with three modes
    • Focus down to 1.7m (400mm) / 3.5m (800mm)
    • 0.23x macro scale
    • Compatible with 1.4x and 2.0x teleconverters, extending reach to 1600mm
    • Focus range limiter
    • Full-time DMF
    • Detachable tripod collar
    • Weather-sealed with silicone gaskets
    • Fluorine-coated front element repels water, oil, and fingerprints
    • Lens hood features with filter window for rotating polariser

    Sony 16mm F1.8: Viltrox inspiration?

    The new 16mm f/1.8 is hardly surprising when Viltrox in China has made such a groundbreaking lens and taken the market by storm. Sony’s G response even fairly priced by its standards at £849 RRP, and at 304g it’s a striking 246g lighter than a bigger Viltrox.

    It’s also much smaller but still a full-frame f/1.8. It focuses down to 13cm and has a declickable aperture ring with an unusual iris lock switch to prevent change of setting. It takes 72mm filters.

    It lacks the A-B focus change movie function or clever (fault prone?) LED display of the Viltrox, but has a regular multi-function button. At £300 more than its independent predecessor it should become a standard addition to pro and enthusiast kits alike.

    Order now from Amazon UK

  • Tabletop photography: A seasonal montage for a Christmas card

    Tabletop photography: A seasonal montage for a Christmas card

    • One to try with your local camera club – handheld or natural light, limited space
    • Bring objects and small accessories to assemble a scene
    • Use digital or analogue montage techniques to create a new scene

    In early November, my local camera club held a non-studio table top photography evening, inviting members to bring three items along, set them up and see what photographs could be got. Lighting was either none (the room’s ceiling lights) or portable camera flash. A few backgrounds and reflectors were brought along too.

    I took a candle in cut glass holder and a wooden base of polished cut teak, and some holly with berries from my garden, along with the new Tamron 90mm f/2.8 Di III VXD full frame macro lens for my Sony A7RV, and a tripod. For lighting, I brought two UYLED USB recharged photo-video light sticks with adjustable colour temperature and brightness.

    This one of the frames taken. There was no black background, just a dark curtain about 2m away at the end of the room. For my set-up, the room lights were turned off, with the camera first focused and composed and locked to manual focus. ISO was set to 100, WB to Daylight, the aperture to f/16 for a long exposure moving the light sticks all round the subject to wrap the light. Aperture priority auto was used, with no EV correction for this example. A few auto exposures were made with +1 EV and the time ranged from 5s to 25s giving a choice of how much detail appeared in darker areas, and the colour of the candle flame. Moving the light sticks around gave a range of exposure times. The one I chose to work with later was the shortest exposure.

    With so little light reaching the background, it’s effectively black. This could be used as a Christmas card with a message in the upper left black area, but a brighter exposure would be my choice for that. This rather more subdued shot was destined to be quickly combined with an old shot taken of my dining-room window in winter.

    What may be seen straight off is the floating candle flame! That’s because where I wanted to cut the candle out in a Layer by making a quick mask using a Path, this would not work for the blended flame. The original window photo (Christmas 2006, Sony A100) is sharp, so was given brushed-in Lens Blur adjusted by eye to look right, before the flame was clone-brushed in using Lighten.

    This is the Layer on top of that Background Layer, as masked. A fair amount of retouching for dust was also done, as the subject had been around for a year or so since the candle was last lit! For a ‘proper’ studio job, everything would have been scrupulously cleaned. A 61 megapixel sensor with a lens of the Tamron’s sharpness reveals even the smallest speck of dust or scratch on the glass. With the cutting out and masking, and tidying up, it took me about an hour before saving the Photoshop file as a .psd with its two Layers.

    It doesn’t matter that the cut out round the flame looks rough, as the tones at its sharp edge are identical to the tones in the background image.

    This is the result. It’s not entirely convincing as the glass did not have that garden view beyond it, and has a metallic look from the dark background. The candle was dark grey and I think if there had been a suitable red or green one attractively melted in the same way it would have been better. But it looks wintery!

    These are the LED sticks I used to wave all round the subject, either side and ahead of the camera position. They don’t seem to be made any more, as there’s a new version with full RGB colour change, otherwise similar with a tripod thread for mounting at the handle end, and the remote control for colour and dimming. The LUXCEO Q508A, below, is £49.99 on Amazon.

    I’ve found my tungsten-to-daylight adjustable pair from 2018 very reliable! If a roomful of readers click any affiliate link in this article and decide to buy, I may be able to afford an RGB upgrade…

    Here’s a studio shot from when I bought the light sticks, created by carefully moving one in a circle round the subject and keeping the distance and time as steady as possible. At least two circuits were made with the light at different heights, level with the subject and higher up.

    This is the new Tamron. I have a report to be published in Cameracraft due out on January 1st 2025, but in a month of using it I’ve also taken many more different images – more than the magazine can show. So I’ll be putting a page of photographs here with a link on the printed page. The lens costs under £600 in Sony FE/E mount or Nikon Z mount. Thanks for the loan of the review lens to Tamron UK – https://www.facebook.com/TamronUK

    The Christmas card prints were made on 20-plus-year-old Lyson 300gsm double sided Smooth Fine Art paper – a box abandoned after I got an Epson P3800 pigment ink printer (which still runs thanks to Marrutt refill cartridges and inks). These original Lyson papers don’t handle pigment inks well. But they DO work with Epson Eco-Tank ET8550 dye-based inks, even if the black is pigment. In fact they work so well that ‘Printer Manages Colours’ and no colour management at all was needed. Set the printer to Matte paper, load the main tray with A4s halved to A5, use Velvet Fine Art as the paper setting and the cards were dry enough to crease on my Unibind Creaser directly off the output tray. The Lyson paper came from Marrutt too all those years ago for tests with their Quad Black inks. I never throw anything away!

    – David Kilpatrick

  • AI cuts reflections in glasses

    AI cuts reflections in glasses

    This is a follow-up to our last post about PortraitPro. Using a self-portrait taken for the purpose with bad reflections in uncoated reading specs, I went through the options of the reflection removal process. Mid-May a 15% discount was authorised for code CC524 at www.anthropics.com which applies to all 50% discounted program downloads.

    It was taken on the Sony A7IV with 85mm f/1.8, tripod, ISO 400, lens at to f/8 and control through iPhone 15 Pro Max using Sony Creators’ App remote viewing and control. The screen on the A7IV was vertical and facing me, so I could also look at the camera and see the reflections move as I changed my head angle. Setting this up showed me some problems with the A7IV articulated screen design I had not realised – it can only face the self-portrait subject when folded out at the left-hand end of the camera, which with a Arca-Swiss L-plate means hanging down… obscured by the tripod head! So no L-plate but standard Arca small plate, and camera upside down compared to normal hand holding.

    This is the result using PortraitPro V24. Read on to learn more, and don’t forget if you decide to get this program use Cameracraft’s additional 10% discount code, CCV245.

    PortraitPro has come a long way in a few years. At the top end, the Studio Max version is a £308 program which costs £154 with the 50% download discount that Anthropics have offered ever since the days of CDs in packaging. Since no-one now buys a CD, the real price is £154 (with 10% off for Cameracraft’s code, CV245 in the latest May/June issue).

    You may not need Studio Max with its 48-bit file capability, workflow from raw to exported finals, multiple image batch processing intended to auto retouch complete portrait sessions, handling of wedding groups and granular control fine-tuning its effects. The basic V24 includes this function and costs £99 less 50% download only less our 10% – so £44.55.

    It is now very fast indeed on Apple Silicon and integrates with Adobe’s photo programs. Under the hood it uses some of Adobe’s functions, without venturing into Generative Fill AI to change a digital capture beyond the scope of many competitions. It uses AI, but does not rely on on stolen images or ones licensed for almost nothing in bulk from the big picture libraries. Anthropics built their platform on measurements of the human face and body, research into what people like or dislike, and many years of coding. When it uses image-based AI it draws that from your photo and its bank of facial features modelling data.

    The Reflections in Glasses problem

    Recently we came across a question in a professional photo organisation Facebook group asking how it was possible to remove reflections from glasses. It’s very difficult, and when it happens in a set of pictures where the photographer is unable to prevent it, it can ruin groups and presentation shots. Many battery studio-location flash heads now have very low power modelling and it’s all too easy to light your subject and fail to spot that your octa-box is reflecting in specs.

    PortraitPro’s specimen example might just be good luck, so I decided to test Version 24. My studio room has shutters when blackout is needed. Two pure white plain blinds 110 x 220cm cover the tall south facing windows to prevent furniture, fabrics, art and photographs fading or warping in direct heat. They make a wonderful giant dual light source in daytime sun even in midwinter but reflect in glasses when the camera angle is not just right.

    Removing reflections from specs does not come under the Eye menu – it’s under the “Inpainting menu” along with Mouth & Teeth and Remove Stray Hairs.

    This is a crop from the original file.

    The Reduce Reflections in Glasses view above shows other retouching functions too (notice some reductions in skin blemishes and wrinkles) but has the reflections reduction set to Off. When you select Remove Reflections in Glasses, you see choices for Off (the start position) then Options 1 to 5. Each is a different AI generated restructuring of what should be visible through the reduced reflection. My eyes are old enough to be slightly difficult and it was interesting to see the five choices.

    Option 1

    Option 2 (note the left eye eyelid in all these and how it changes).

    Option 3 which I felt got the eye almost right, though further retouching would be needed for a portrait. It would be good enough for a PR or informal shot.

    Option 4 rather odd mismatched detail.

    Option 5 eyelid droop…

    Option 3 got the upper eyelid almost perfect (not quite but acceptable) and the Strength slider did allow the reflection to be eliminated to the degree shown above. However, it looked better with 85% effect or even the 50% of the earlier example, a faint reflection remaining without obscuring the eye.

    The time taken on my Mac M2 Studio Max was next to nothing, I didn’t bother to time it as everything happens in real time include the export from the starting 33MP JPEG to a same size with all PortraitPro’s very subtle modification of the portrait. The defaults were just right but I increased fine wrinkle reduction out of vanity!

    After saving a copy of processed result I also saved a .ppx file (the Project) which is a bit like an Adobe .XML sidecar file, and re-opens your original with all the edits at the point you saved this snapshot, reversible and adjustable as needed.

    A tougher test

    Here’s a worse example than anything you should end up with, so I set maximum strength on this. Option 4 worked best, and despite my eyes being almost entirely obscured by double reflections in my computer reading specs, it was not a bad fix at all. My ‘proper’ specs are coated of course and don’t reflect as badly.

    I’m sure I could ask Adobe AI to do something the Generative Fill after masking the reflection area, but in the time it would take me to brush a mask in place, the entire PortraitPro glasses reflection removal would be done and dusted. Is it worth £139 (after our code CCV245 discount)? That depends on what your time is valued at and whether you ever encounter an error in shooting which leaves reflections ruining a shot.

    – David Kilpatrick

    To see Anthropics PortraitPro Studio Max, and the other versions which start from £49.95 (right now there’s a 15% CC524 discount, update May 23rd 2024) – all include this reflection removal function alongside stacks of other tools – go to https://www.anthropics.com/portraitpro/

  • Sony release A7C upgrades to II and R versions, new 16-35mm GM

    Sony release A7C upgrades to II and R versions, new 16-35mm GM

    Sony has announced the launch of its two new Alpha 7C compact full frame cameras, and version II of the ƒ2.8 wide-angle G-master 16-35mm zoom. But the cameras do look good with the 50mm f/1.2 G Master – a bit of a classic photojournalist’s combo.

    Alpha 7C II key features: 

    • Full-frame back-illuminated Exmor R® CMOS sensor similar to A7IV, with approximately 33.0 effective megapixels
    • ISO sensitivity from 100 to 51200 for both still images and movies (expanded ISO 50 to 204800 for still images)
    • Same AI-processing unit as the A7R V

    Alpha 7C R key features

    • Full frame image sensor with approximately 61.0 effective megapixels similar to A7RIV, IVa and V
    • Same AI-processing unit as the A7R V

    Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II key features:

    • World’s smallest and lightest high-resolution f2.8 wide-angle zoom lens
    • Fast and precise AF that brings out the best in advanced bodies

    The new products will be available to purchase from September 2023 at a variety of Sony’ authorised dealers throughout Europe, for an estimated retail price of:

    • Alpha 7C R: £3,200 / €3,732
    • Alpha 7C II: £2,100 / €2,449
    • FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II: £2,400/ €2,799

    Our comments before handling and using these: first of all, they are welcome and affordable specifications though the full A7 body is better ergonomically and in controls. The A7CR has seven-stop Steady Shot Inside as does the II, but also Pixel Shift Multi Shooting, something unexpected in the smaller body. Having said this, these bodies have only a single SDXC UHS-II card slot and both feature the same small (0.70X with 50mm) 2.35 million pixel OLED EVFs – far lower resolution, less tolerant eyepoint and apparently smaller size compared to the mainstream A7IV/RIV+ models. If the eyepiece (ocular) glass design is similar to the A7C, it’s also likely to be zonally unsharp and demand very accurate centering of the eye.

    Sony’s current emphasis on video and vlogging, fortunately not emphasised in the press info which major instead on the travel friendly aspect of these bodies for still shooting, does mean they have microphone and headphone jack sockets as well as the audio functions found in the Multi Interface shoe.

    As for the 16-35mm GM II, it may be the claimed smallest and lightest but taking 82mm filters makes it about as kit-friendly as any larger lens if you use a filter system, and even screw-in filters like a convenient polariser end up taking loads of space in typical 82mm size packaging or keepers. Perhaps a 16-35mm f/4 G or even GM series II might be on the way. Maybe the qualification of the claim with the words ‘high resolution’ is s clue – there may be smaller and lighter competitors which Sony believes they can prove to be lower in resolution, and they must have tested every single one of them to make this claim! The A7C II body is offered as a kit with the 28-60mm collapsible lens, slow but useful for travel – the A7CR does not come as a kit, perhaps an indicator of Sony’s own view about using this budget lens on 61 megapixels.

  • Sony 20-70mm f/4 G – a new type of lens

    Sony 20-70mm f/4 G – a new type of lens

    The 20-70mm f4 Sony G looks interesting though the UK price of £1400 is a bit over the top (under $1100 in the USA) – maybe allowing for further losses pounds vs dollar. It’s over twice the price of the Panasonic 20-60mm f/3.5-5.6 – maybe not comparable but the Lumix lens is regularly discounted by 25% or more, and partly due to being sold as a kit lens with full frame body some white box new lenses have been at 40-50% discount. It’s unlikely the Sony will be bundled as a kit lens. Even at the UK price, it looks attractive for anyone like me who might consider working with just a two-kens kit, this and the 70-300mm G. At the moment I use 17-28mm and 28-75mm f/2.8 Tamron lenses to cover the practical range this one lens almost manages, though there’s a fair gap between 17mm and 20mm.



    In the specification there’s one oddity – the stated minimum focus distance and magnifications. Most wide to portrait zooms focus closer at the wide angle end. Apparently this one does the reverse, and the 0.39X close-up image scale is based on 25cm at 70mm (it’s a mystery why the specs bother to say AF and MF distances, when there’s no difference – 25cm either way!). Here’s from the spec:

    MINIMUM FOCUS DISTANCEWide: 0.30 m / Tele: 0.25 m (AF), 0.25 m (MF) (Wide: 0.99 ft / Tele: 0.82 ft (AF), 0.82 ft (MF))MAXIMUM MAGNIFICATION RATIO (X)0.39

    Well, 30cm at 20mm focal length is just OK; my yardstick for min focus is that I like to see it just less than 10X focal length, so for an 85mm lens I want to get 0.85m if possible, like having anything closer and don’t like ones which only manage 1m. With a 20mm focal length 20cm close focus is desirable. The Tamron 17-28mm as an example manages 19cm at 17mm, it’s just OK, but can’t shoot any real close-ups as the largest c/u scale in 1:5.2 or 0.19X. The Sony 20-70mm manages 1:2.56, getting on for half life size, by focusing closer at 70mm than it does at 20mm.

    This is such an unusual overall mix of zoom/focus behaviours that I really do want to try this lens and understand how.

    The other unusual statement about the lens is that the zoom and focus design minimises breathing (desirable) and axial shift – well, I’ve not seen a zoom with axial shift, image wandering off centre when you zoom or focus, since the days of pioneering 1970s consumer glassware. Especially not a non-stabilised zoom, like this. Stabilisation has been the main reason any lens shifts off axis.

    The lens weighs 488g which is great, takes 72mm filters which is not great but matches some other Sony lenses, and the size as you can see from the images here is convenient though not a single PR image sent to me shows it with a lens hood which could have some impact on bag/pocket ability. One thing’s for sure, if the dual linear motor focusing is as good as claimed, f/4 will not be a big loss over f/2.8 and carrying one lens in place of two will make this a winner for travel, landscape and urban shooting. It’s due to be in UK stores from March 3rd.

    – David Kilpatrick

  • Sony E 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS

    Sony E 70-350mm f/4.5-6.3 G OSS

    The neatest solution for sharp long tele shots on Sony A6000 series APS-C

    • Excellent full aperture performance from 70 to 350mm
    • OSS stabilisation works with every Sony Alpha E-mount APS-C body
    • Perfect for movies with A6000, A6300, A6400 without sensor stabilisation
    • Compatible with all NEX and Alpha E-mount models from 2010 on
    • Enhanced OSS with A6500, A6600
    • Compact and light weight
    • G series optical quality, Custom Button on lens, AF/MF and OSS switches on lens
    • Lens lock at 70mm to prevent zoom creep
    • Single extending zoom barrel
    • 67mm non-rotating filter thread
    • Bayonet lens hood included
    • Moisture and dirt resistant multicoating
    • Coverage allows use on full frame bodies with larger than APS-C crop

    This lens was purchased in October 2019 and the review is based on nine months of use on Sony A6500 (ILCE-6500), A6300 (ILCE-6300), A6000 (ILCE-6000) and A7R MkIII (ILCE-7M3). Review by David Kilpatrick.

    A solution for practical photography out and about – worldwide

    I had been using the Sony FE 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G OSS full frame tele zoom on my A7RIII for over a year. This lens is very sharp wide open and benefits from the best close focusing in its class at 90cm meaning a scale of 0.31X at 300mm. It weighs 854g and has a double tube zoom extension. As you can see above this lens (left) is only a few mm longer physically than the APS-C 70-350mm (right) but the extra barrel heft, 72mm filters and much larger lens hood meant it needed a bigger kit bag, and proved harder to change quickly when swapping lenses.

    The 70-350mm for the smaller image sensor proved if anything even sharper, right to 350mm. Lenses like this often prove soft at maximum focal length and maximum aperture. The 70-300mm at f/5.6 is a third of a stop faster, but to get it as crisp as its newer little brother, it needs to be set f/6.3 – a match in speed. You can see above how much bigger the full frame lens becomes at 300mm. The 70-350mm only weighs 625g but its very fast and silent XD Linear Motor AF can only get as close as 1.5m at 350mm, 1.1m at 70mm. The maximum subject scale is 0.25X.

    I knew the 70-350mm would be my choice for travel and daily use with my A6500, but I was going to miss that closer focus. The full frame lens has an AF range limiter, full range or 3m to infinity but oddly no 0.9m to 3m choice. The APS-C lens has no limiter but I have never missed it and rarely used it on the 70-300mm.

    My big question was – can I do without the 70-300mm and use the 70-350mm on my full frame bodies?

    Cropping power, sensor resolution and coverage

    Tests quickly proved that distortion and vignetting kick in fast beyond the crop format field of view, but sharpness remains good and depending on focal and aperture you get much more than APS-C. You can almost get a full frame at close range.

    This mushroom (about hand sized) is at 350mm and f/11 on the A7RIII, and you can see the mechanical vignetting cut-off left and right. It’s caused by the lens rear baffle not the optical design – the lens could be modified to remove this, but it’s not advised.

    At 70mm on a very demanding subject the distortion without lens profile, on full frame, is extreme (left) but with Lens Profile correction applied at 200% plus -8 Manual, and similar vignetting adjustment, Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom can almost handle it. On a neutral subject like a portrait with a foliage background the coverage would be fine. More to the point, manual crops much larger than the 16 x 24mm you could expect from an APS-C lens are fully usable.

    But why use a full frame body? Unless you own a Sony A7RIV (61 megapixels) you won’t actually get a more detailed distant animal or bird. The modest 24 megapixels of all the current APS-C bodies beats the 18 megapixel crop format of the A7RII/III. Canon users have much the same position, their smaller APS-C (1.6X not 1.5X) and 28 megapixel resolution matches 60 megapixels on 24 x 36mm. The advantage of full frame is that you may catch more of your subject, your framing and tracking active subjects enjoy more leeway. If your subject stays in position the smaller sensor can capture finer detail – and this is where the 70-350mm excels.

    This is a good example. At 198mm on the 70-350mm on A6500, it’s the same composition I would have had with the A7RIII and 70-300mm at 300mm and that would have produced a larger more detailed image. There’s only a real benefit to the 70-350mm on APS-C when you’re near the 350mm end. Did I keep both? No – I already knew I wanted a much faster but still compact zoom for the full frame kit, and the Tamron 70-180mm f/2.8 was coming in six months’ time. So I sold the 70-300mm and decided to use the A6500 with 70-350mm for all longer tele shooting.

    From the start it proved a very capable combination.

    Fast lenses are not as important now

    Mirrorless cameras with phase detection autofocus, good high iSO performance and better resolution electronic viewfinders have made wide aperture lenses less essential for low light. The linear motor focus of the 70-350mm rarely misses a shot regardless of conditions. One of my first shoots was a music festival, where this lens allowed me to work from the very back of the hall and never get in the way of the audience.

    Processed from a raw file at ISO 6400, this shot of Steve Byrne performing was taken at 350mm wide open at f/6.3. The same on full frame would need a 525mm lens at f/8 and ISO 8000 (a direction Canon is taking with their new 800mm f/11 IS STM for the R mount – the working aperture no longer matters much if the viewfinder stays bright, AF is accurate and there’s not much noise at high ISO settings).

    The long reach in a concert hall is one side of using a 350mm on APS-C. Here’s another – the lens may only achieve a quarter life size and need you to be 1.5m away at 350mm, but 0.25X on a 1.5X factor sensor is 0.375X in ‘old macro’ terms. Not only that, the ISO 2500 used here is about the same in grain or noise terms as an ISO 400 film and the stabilisation of this lens on the A6500 is as good as you get. A 1/125s shutter speed did not prevent tiny hairs on the caterpillar’s head being sharply resolved.

    This lens is far better than the 18-200, 18-300, 18-400 or 16-300mm I’ve used on a variety of DSLRs for long APS-C reach. It’s free from the residual aberration which demands you ‘stop down one’ to clean up the long end image. Combined with Sony’s PDAF it handles a concert or low indoor light as well as an ƒ2.8-4 on a conventional DSLR.

    Compare this with a 100-400mm for the same format

    For the sake of 50mm at the long end – a difference of only 12.5% in image scale – the excellent Fujifilm Fujinon XF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 R LM also gives a half to a third of a stop more light transmission in its longer range. But look at the cost! It is twice the price and weight, and you can see the size. Gains – a near-apochromatic performance, matched 1.4X and 2X converters available (not an option for the Sony and never likely to be). Losses – only 0.19X close-up scale. It’s remarkable how much difference there is in the physical aspect of these two lenses. I have used both and in practice they are equally sharp on 24 megapixels.

    The Sony 100-400mm and Sigma 100-400mm are both full frame lenses and much larger. The 70-350mm is unique as far I can tell, no-one else has a lens like it. It also answers one of the major criticisms of the original E-mount APS-C system, the lack of any lens longer than 210mm and that only in a 55-210mm design best described as consumer grade. I’ve actually found it pretty good for the money – but it’s not much money!

    Sony 70-350mm G OSS image gallery

    Rather than write much more, I’ll leave you with this gallery. I have reduced the file size but where you see an enlarged section clip along with the full frame – well, you can judge for yourself.

    Sony 70-350mm G OSS verdict

    If you own any of the APS-C Sony bodies, from the NEX-3 and 5 of 2010 onwards, this lens will not disappoint you. The effective OSS image stabilisation means that even if you prefer to compose and shot using the rear screen and hold the camera away from your body you’ll get sharp stills and steady movies. It’s a big step up from the 55-210mm and much more affordable than, say, a 70-200mm f/4 G with 1.4X or 2X converter.

    You may have to control colour fringes in some strong backlight situations with blur when working from raw files, as it’s not an apochromat just a regular very good tele zoom. However the resolution reflects advances in design over the last decade. It’s also a very handsome looking black lens with its silver G logo and designation contrasting with white markings. It feels robust and the zoom and manual focus (when needed) are smooth. The metal bayonet is a tight precise fit on my A6500 and A7RIII, a little less so on my A6000 with its older four-screw type body mount.

    I can carry this lens all day without even realising it’s there, round neck or shoulder – and there are not many lenses covering this range you would want to hang on a strap round your neck.

    You can support my reviews if you check these links for availability and price:
    Amazon UK – didn’t have any stock at all at the time of writing – https://amzn.to/30ZC4Ck
    Park Cameras UK – https://tidd.ly/3jLHbP7
    WEX UK – https://tidd.ly/3hKRhhA
    B&H USA and Worldwide – https://tinyurl.com/y6cguvpo

  • Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 G OSS Macro lens review

    In the last few weeks I’ve found myself replying to Facebook Sony user group posts where new owners building their systems have asked about the Sony 90mm f/2.8 G OSS Macro FE lens. Over the months before this, I’d seen so many comments saying this was the best ever Sony and perhaps the second best lens ever.

    (more…)

  • Larmor 5th Generation glass screen protector with Sunshade

    We’ve fitted GGS or similar toughened laminated glass screen protectors to our Sony bodies ever since way back in 2011, we were the first Alpha web resource to publish information about NEX screen delamination and how to repair a deteriorated LCD using one of these great products.

    Replacing NEX LCD Cover Glass

    Of course it wasn’t a cover glass, just a plastic surface layer. But if you fit a GGS, Larmor or similar ultrathin glass protector the moment you get your new Sony Alpha body (whether mirrorless or SLT, compact or bridge) you don’t need to mess with the original, risk your warranty, or risk anything at all. The new Generation 5 Larmor has a silicon adhesive which clings instantly, bubble-free, yet peels off safely using just a fingernail under a corner. It permits all touch screen operations, all screen folding including A99/77 and RX10 series reverse foldaway, and for around £10/$15 is an essential for your new camera.

    Now there’s a new version which comes with a magnetic black surround and accepts a folding screen shade which just pops on to this. We paid £15.95 from ukhighland photographic on eBay, post free, VAT receipt given.

    (more…)

  • Sony A7RIII – more than a skin deep upgrade

    With a body-only price of £3,199/$3,198, the third generation of the A7R came as a surprise to Sony’s own photo studio, who labelled most of the product pictures release on Wednesday as ‘A7RM2’ instead of ‘A7RIII’. We’ve changed the filenames on our system, but countless mediafolk of the future will be confused. They do after all look similar.

    In fact the new 24-105mm f/4 G OSS lens was released with pictures of it on the A7RIII, above, and also on the A9 below. With the A7RIII having a 10fps 42 megapixel motordrive capability, thanks to an improved LSI and new processing engine reading off much faster from the 42 megapixel back-illuminated CMOS sensor, you might have expected economies of scale to have given it the same Dynax 7D-like left hand end drive mode physical dial like the A9, below – especially as the A7RIII has an additional drive-type mode, a four-shot sensor shift to capture 169 megapixels of image data.

    This involves shifting by one pixel in four positions, and does not create a 4X size, 2X linear pixel count file. You can only get that by shifting half a pixel as Olympus do. The Pentax sensor shift high-res mode shifts by one pixel, and it does not increase the image dimensions, only the sharpness and colour information for each pixel location (making the image similar to a Sigma dp Quattro file in fine detail resolution). The Sony implementation also appears to need almost half a second between each of the four subframes, requiring a tripod and roughly 2 seconds of capture time. Sony’s proven multishot processing will certainly be able to remove any problems with movement of parts of the subject during this time, but it has to be done in the computer, using the new software suite.

    Some commentators have assumed that the 169 megapixel four-shot file means large dimensions, effectively a 169 megapixel resolution full frame, the same way Olympus gets high megapixel files. But the pre-release information clearly indicates it’s a Pentax-type mode – here’s from the wording provided to dealers by Sony:

    “You can then stitch the images together to create an image with fewer artifacts and a truer range of colours”.

    I tested that on the Pentax K-1 and concluded it was not worth the effort. Regular normal 42 megapixel AA-free shots on a top grade lens are all you need. I’ll repeat that bit about top grade lens.

    The A7RIII also has a new shutter mechanism which reduces shock, improving the SteadyShot performance, though still 30s to 1/8,000s as before. The sensor gains a new anti-reflective coating and there will be many ‘under the hood’ improvements because that’s what happens. There may also be teething troubles and newly introduced problems, because that also happens. However I’d say early buyers run less risk with this third generation A7R than they did with the predecessors, or indeed with the A6500.

    But we’ll leave you with the 9 for comparison. Most else that matters is the same, like for example the Memory registers – only two on the A7RII, but three on the A7RIII. It will remember more things, like Setting Effect OFF/ON, and that is just as well because the III puts a DSLR-like feature on its left hand end, a threaded coaxial Prontor-Compur (PC) flash synchronisation terminal (below). Let’s just hope that the circuitry inside is well isolated, as one of my vintage flash units destroyed the Godox X1-T which I use both to get Setting Effect OFF and isolation from high trigger voltages on my A7RII.

    Study this left end for a bit. It does have phantom power for the 2.5mm mic jack, but the earphone output has been moved so that two doors must now be opened at once to use both together. And there’s something missing.

    The A7RII has a screw socket next to the neatly paired mic/headphone jacks, which allows a custom made tether clamp assembly (supplied with the camera, seen above) to hold HDMI and USB cables with clamped protection looping. You’ll need some extra Tether Tools kit to safeguard the connectors on the MkIII. There is now a USB-C/3 Super Speed connector as well as a USB-Micro Multifunction, and Micro HDMI. But no provided security of a tether clamp.

    The back of the camera has much the same screen, but with improvements to resolution and daylight visibility – still no twist and turn, or reversing to face the camera back and protect the LCD. The rear button layout is revised, with movie button located near the viewfinder (well, if Canon does it, it can’t be wrong, can it?) and the switching AF/AE Lock/Toggle/Hold button replaced by an AF-ON and separate AEL, with C3 moved to the left end. Where the movie button used to be you’ll notice a catch for the weathersealed door which covers TWO SD card slots, one UHS-II enabled (more broken bits of card contact septum to lose inside your slot!). Changes to the movie mode using the main shutter release make the use of the red button less essential.

    You can assign those cards the usual ways, to make copies on card 2 of card 1 as you shoot, just in case one fails (the most important use for wedding photographers) and also to use sequentially (overflow into card 2, liked by action photographers), or split RAW and JPEG, or still and video.

    This is the new lens, 24-105mm f/4, and it will probably be very good. It has 77mm filters so I think I’ll stick with the A6500 for travelling, as the little CZ 16-70mm f/4 which is the direct equivalent of this is tiny by comparison and uses neat 55mm filters. Despite some reports to the contrary, I’ve found it to be a good lens, sharp across the frame at 70mm wide open, though prone to flare.

    The top shows that the strictly amateur ‘SCENE’ position of the mode dial has been replaced by S&Q. I look forward to finding out what this means – probably much the same*  *Gary Friedman has provided the answer in Comments – it’s a slo-mo/fast-mo video mode which is of no interest to me personally, but might fascinate messers around with short video clips for YouTube, even if their smartphones do it better. Green auto survives, as not all owners will be experienced photographers, some will just be wealthy camera buyers and this setting will be where they leave it.

    The published specs were vague about Bluetooth, used for GPS tagging from a smartphone – I’m told US Sony Store specifications clearly state it does have. The A6500 and A9 both do, and can therefore use the Sony mobile phone function for live geotagging of pictures as you take them, using information read at the moment of capture from your nearby smartphone. We’ve also seen reports saying the A7RIII does not use Apps but that seems very unlikely.

    There are also improvements claimed for dynamic range, with the figure of 15 stops mentioned. This would actually need a 16-bit A to D conversion internally followed by compression to a virtual 15-bit range (via a tone curve) saved in the 14-bit uncompressed raw .ARW format. A 14-bit raw format is now offered for all shooting modes including high speed continuous, which on the A7RII means automatic stepdown to 12-bit. The ISO range is extended to 32,000 before Hi expansion up to 104,200 and goes down to 100 native with Lo down to 50. One benefit of an effective 15-stop range will be that ISO 50 should have 14 stops, or as much highlight data as ISO 100 on the MkII.

    The extra effective bit depth also pays off when using the S-Log3 and Hybrid-Gamma HDR video settings. This brings Sony professional video camera standards into a primarily still camera for the first time (better than the video-targeted A7SII, and the A9).

    Sony claim improved skin tones too, though compared to what is a bit of a worry. Many people like Canon skin tones, I think they are like a 1970s USA colour portrait and that Sony’s skin colours have always been more natural. Others disagree and want the pinker, less yellow, face tones.

    The A7RIII uses the new larger battery with its 2.7X capacity, introduced in the A9. I rather like the way my current Sony cameras share one rather underpowered battery type, but at least a bagful of batteries covers A56500, A7RII, RX10. There are not many different battery types, as we could find with our Olympus kit (check E-M1, E-M1 MkII, E-M5, E-M5MkII, E-M10, E-M10MkII and E-M10MkIII batteries if you want a nightmare). You can also charge Sony batteries in-camera.

    Will I buy it? Probably not. I use the A7RII for relatively static, large image size, low ISO, controlled shooting of landscapes, architecture, products and so on. I have sold my full frame zooms except for the 70-300mm G OSS and now only use primes on the A7RII (10mm, 18mm, 28mm, 50mm macro, 55mm, 85mm). I don’t travel with it. We’ve bought an Olympus OM-D E-M1 MkII for its Pro Capture (60fps, 18-20fps with pre-shot buffering) and macro auto focus stacking. I’m sticking with the A6500 kit for travel (10-18mm, 16-70mm, 55-210mm) but it’s got to go head to head with the Olympus including the use of the two different smartphone GPS methods.

    • David Kilpatrick

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  • Sony A7RII versus Nikon D850 – noise

    There’s a lot of noise about the Nikon D850 right now but few direct comparisons. One problem I have with some early reports is that new D850 owners are most likely to be existing D810 or perhaps D750 or D5 owners. Any comparisons are therefore being made with earlier Nikon sensors.

    Recently a Nikon ambassador whom I respect greatly placed some .NEF raw files into a Dropbox for fellow professionals to examine. Since this article effectively criticises Nikon, I will not reproduce anything recognisable. I naturally grabbed the files and processed them with my usual care in Adobe Camera Raw. This includes making adjustments to the Sharpness and Noise Reduction settings depending on the ISO used. My standard with Sony, Nikon and most other files is to reduce the radius for sharpening to the minimum (0.5) leaving the basic settings of 25 for sharpness and 25 for detail untouched, with no masking. I also don’t touch the Colour Noise controls at all, and usually only adjust the first Luminance control leaving Luminance Contrast and Luminance Detail at default. This first Luminance control tends to set to zero for ISO 100 (or the minimum for a given camera), 10 to 15 around 400 to 800, 25 at 1000 to 2000, 30 to 35 at 2500 to 4000, 50 at 6400 and never above this level.

    In practice these settings make raw files from the Sony A7RII (and presumably A99II, which I do not own) fully useful to ISO 3200 regardless of conditions and intent. Blue skies do not have grain, shadows are smooth and clean, detail is fine, skin tones are not marred by noise. ISO 6400 is slightly grainy but only to the degree we used to expect from ISO 800 in cameras of the first CMOS period (2007-2008, the A700 and A900).

    So, given the glowing reports on the new Nikon sensor, I was expecting to see something at least matching the A7RII. There’s not a huge difference between 45 megapixels (Nikon) and the earlier 42 megapixel Sony BSI CMOS. I have already seen that the Canon 51 megapixel sensor in the 5DS/R offers no benefit at all, just a steep fall-off in shadow detail and loss of dynamic range combined with more noise.

    Here, then, is a 100% section from a raw .NEF at ISO 1000 on the D850, with the Adobe Camera Raw settings I would expect to turn in a clean result. It has been saved at JPEG 12 but WordPress’s image engine causes some quality loss:

    The NR was set as described above, to Luminance 25.

    Then I looked back through my files to locate some ISO 1000 raws from the A7RII and try to find something with broadly comparable tone (surprisingly difficult!). Here is the result, with exactly the same process and settings:

    You will note that the grainy noise is much finer. Both are taken from regions away from the image centre where the camera’s firmware will be adding some gain to combat sensor-created vignetting. On-axis areas are slightly less noisy in both cameras. This may also depend on the lens. You probably think this looks noisy for the A7RII, and this light colour and exposure level does indeed tend to increase noise.

    Here is another A7RII ISO 1000 clip in better light, brighter subject matter, closer to the frame centre – this is more typical of the noise level you should see (or not see) in Sony 42 megapixel images:

    I’ver chosen blurred neutral areas beyond the point of critical focus because these emphasise noise. If the same settings are used with sharply focused detail, with strong colours or contrast and textures, you simply won’t see noise at all at ISO 1000 and NR 25.

    I will also say that while the Nikon community seemed impressed by the sharpness of sample images, I was not. I have to reconsider my critical opinions of Sony’s lenses. I have been judging zooms against Carl Zeiss and Voigtländer primes, and used to seeing a level of detail in images at 100% which I guess regular DSLR users simply don’t expect. Part of this is down to the quality of the A7RII sensor, part down to the lenses, and a whole lot is down to the zero-error focusing of the mirrorless system. I am part of another community, where most photographers use Canon or Nikon and prefer to have fast zooms and primes (the usual 16-35mm f/2.8 or 14-24mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8, 35mm f/1.4, 50mm f/1.4 and 85mm f/1.4 kit). In this group, many are having their cameras and lenses custom matched and reporting improvements in sharpness which transform their autofocus work.

    Those who use Sony, Fujifilm, Olympus or Panasonic mirrorless systems don’t tend to make any comment as they have been getting critically sharp focus ever since they made the switch from DSLRs.

    Conclusion? My A7RII is now two years old. It’s a 2015 model which is certainly not surpassed by 2017 rivals at least in the ‘core competence’ of its sensor. Other Sony models may offer different levels of special features, like the blistering shooting speed and focus tracking of the A9, but the A7RII continues to do its job as a great all-rounder and this quick comparison shows why.

    – David KIlpatrick

    To support Photoclubalpha, buy through our Affiliate links… or subscribe to David’s premium-quality photographic bi-monthly Cameracraft which includes regular Sony-related editorial, with system expert Gary Friedman as Associate Editor – see www.iconpublications.com