Sony cameras: Post your fav. Pic.

[Wirraway]

Looking at the past couple of pages and see many nice images posted, also a welcome to the thread to the new postersand looking forward to see more of your work.


Climbing out of Brisbane International Airport on route to Japan.
Camera: DSC-F707 + Olympus B300 1.7x T/C (323mm)

[Tullio]

Nice capture, Wirraway. I found the image to be very noisy, though. You must have brighten it up quitea bit... or is my monitor playing tricks on me??!?

[Wirraway]

Hi Tullio, no it isnot your monitor I thinkbut my HitachiCRT which is now 6 years old, I have spent the past few days comparing all 33 pages of imageson this thread with my wife's new Asus laptop which we got last week and notice that the LCD is sharper but the colors are a bit oversaturated, I am now researching IPS LCDdesktop monitors which here in Australia are about 3 times more expensive than the run of the mill LCD monitors, but so farreading different forums on Photonet and Dpreview IPS LCD's are the best at PP and browsing images.

I started a thread on this subject with a link to the differences of LCD desktopshere on the Sony forum, what do you use Tullio to process your images?

http://www.lcdresource.com/lcdtech/

Incidently my CRT shows no visible noisein the image ofthe jet.

Hopefully will find a IPS desktop monitor over the next6 weekswhen visiting Brisbane and Sydney, at the present time the 20"NEC 20WMGX2looks to me as the best buy at A$900/US$782.

Cheers & Beers Wirraway

Update: Just checked on the laptop and can confirm I can now see the noise in the dark areas of the plane, have just informed the wife that the CRT has got to be replaced with a new monitor, she agrees,thank you Tullio for pointing the noise out,I had no idea it was that far gone, andwill have to pp many of my old images again, thank goodness Ihave kept the originals.

[Tullio]

In the old film days, you would take pictures, have it developed (and good luck with that) and then share the photos in a photo albumwith friends and family. Everyone would see the same exact image. I find monitors to be the worse enemy of digital photography. Yes, we do have a number of software out there to help us manipulate our pictures any way we want. However, we do so based on what we see and let's face it, what we see can be way off if the monitor is not properly calibrated, thus displaying inaccurate images. I face this problem myself every time I edit a photo and look at it on my home monitor vs. my monitor at work. They never match. What looks good on one may look not as good on the other. Ideally, I should calibrate my home monitor, since that's the one I use often to edit my photos but...I haven't. Anyway, to answer your question, I use Picasa2 for quick fixes (cropping, contrast and saturation adjustments, creating a B&W or Sepia version of a picture, etc.). I have PSE4, Nikon Capture and Nikon Capture NX. I never use the latter. PSE is powerful but not very intuitive and I don't like to spend hours editing one photo. So, if I need to increase the highlight or shapnessfor example, I use Nikon Capture. It's a very easy to use software and the results are usually very good. The D-lighting feature works well and most of the time, the end result is what I want.

[Tullio]

QUESTION: do any of you have the Alpha A100? If so, what are your impressions? What are the goods and bads about it? I bought one but haven't opened the box yet because I'm having second thoughts. I currently have a K100D with many lenses so I'm thinking that perhaps the K10D would be a better way to upgrade my dSLRsince I only need to buy the body and use the lenses I already have. However, if the A100 is a superior camera, then I'd go for it.Your input/opinion is very much appreciated! Thanks.

[Cyberf828]

I have someone in my photo group that uses the A100 and they seem to really like it. I have looked at them and think they are pretty nice and we all know how good the lenses are from Sony. I say if you can afford it take a shot with it. I have five cameras and I use them all at times butI have been using my Canon 30D due to all the new stuff I been buying for it. :G

[Calicajun]

Tullio wrote:

QUESTION: do any of you have the Alpha A100? If so, what are your impressions? What are the goods and bads about it? I bought one but haven't opened the box yet because I'm having second thoughts. I currently have a K100D with many lenses so I'm thinking that perhaps the K10D would be a better way to upgrade my dSLRsince I only need to buy the body and use the lenses I already have. However, if the A100 is a superior camera, then I'd go for it.Your input/opinion is very much appreciated! Thanks.

I don't own a A100 (holding out for the A700) but did run some in store test shots and have a online friend that uses a A100. The only thing I found was a much higher noise ratio in low light over the D80 and 30D. Other than that the A100 gets great review and the pictures taken by my online friend look great, contrast, color and detail. I did read (here in Steve's, I think) that the new frimware upgrade reduce the low light noise problem quite a bit. Of course there is always the option of using a flash at least some of the time.

[Tullio]

Thanks guys foryour replies. I did hold one at Circuit City and was not impressed by the small viewfinder. I also cold not figure out how to turn the AF indicator on (most dSLRs have a red or green light that blinks and the camera beeps when the camera reaches focus). Does the A100 have it or we just assume the camera has focused on the subject? I also did not care too much for the LCD. I felt like I needed my reading glasses to be able to read the menus. However, what really matters is IQ. If the camera is capable of producing good images right out of the camera, with good dynamic range, precise focus and good exposure, then I can live with the other things I don't care for. I've read most major reviews but I never trust them 100%. I prefer to go by real life experience from camera owners.I really don't want to open the box I bought until I'm convinced that the A100 is it. The box is sealed.

[Calicajun]

That information is on page 51 of the manual, you can download the manual from Sony.com. I would post the page for you here but I'm at work and have on photo editing program .

[Tullio]

Thanks, Calicajun.