****The Photography Discussion Thread****

[Chuff]

	Quote:	gaburko
	The 16mm is a stunning lens. Its nothing short of exceptional and I am saying this after moving from Canon L series on a 5dMIII. However, in terms of fun, nothing beats the Samyang 8mm fish-eye in my view. Great fun, makes you move around a lot and oh, the sharpness...

Cool photos, but for some reason I just personally don't like the distorted images that Fisheyes produce so I never invested in one. I just don't find the effect aesthetically pleasing, but this is just a personal quirk and fault of mine.

[gaburko]

	Quote:	Chuff
	Cool photos, but for some reason I just personally don't like the distorted images that Fisheyes produce so I never invested in one. I just don't find the effect aesthetically pleasing, but this is just a personal quirk and fault of mine.

Fisheye is simply a very wide angle lens. One can shoot "fisheye", but also wide without distortion. Its a matter of preference

[Chuff]

	Quote:	gaburko
	Fisheye is simply a very wide angle lens. One can shoot "fisheye", but also wide without distortion. Its a matter of preference

A fisheye cannot be shot without hemispherical distortion, that's why it's called a fisheye.

[Trueblue_2]

Fuji XF 23mm F2 - ooh yes finally. Waiting for Digitec to list it!

https://jonasraskphotography.com/201...xf-23mm-f2-wr/

[Chuff]

	Quote:	Trueblue_2
	Fuji XF 23mm F2 - ooh yes finally. Waiting for Digitec to list it! https://jonasraskphotography.com/201...xf-23mm-f2-wr/

Yeah, price on Amazon USA seems reasonable too at 450chf, it's in line with the 35mm f2. From the previews I read it seems even quicker than the 35mm, and optically good, but not quite as good as the 23mm 1.4. If it's as good as my 35mm f2 I will be very happy, because that is damn sharp.

[Chuff]

I have now ordered a Fuji X-T2 w. 18-55mm and battery boost grip, along with 2x Lexar 64GB 2000x SD cards, should get it late next week... can't wait!

[Chuff]

After over two long months of waiting, and lots of hassling of the store manager, I finally received my X-T2. It's a beautifully designed piece of equipment... the only thing it lacks vs its peers is a touchscreen. They just now need to get the poor flash situation sorted.

[Chuff]

Been a while since this thread was updated, but after a long time of not being fully satisfied with my Fuji gear I traded it all in for a Sony A7RIII at the weekend. Wow, what a difference... the AF seems snappier, the battery life is 2-3x longer, the IBIS (in-body stabilization) makes shooting with primes so much better, and the eye-AF is like magic. Sure, I enjoyed the manual controls of the Fuji, but in the end the low light performance of a crop sensor, no matter how good it was, just wasn't enough for me.

Started out with two great quality and great value lenses, the 28mm f2 and the 85mm f1.8, and the level of detail in the 42MP images is astounding, and as someone who sees cropping as important I know I will get a lot of value out of the high MP count. Family christmas photos should be even better this year, especially with all the kids constantly movie which is where the eye-AF comes into its own.

Anyone else still doing photography?

[Blueangel]

	Quote:	Chuff
	Anyone else still doing photography?

BTEC qualified photographer here. It was my first career. Back in my early 20s, I was a colour print tech for a lab that did the 'double red dot' and overflow work for Manchester Evening News, and the large format work for Granada Studios.

But sorry Richdog...I don't 'do' equipment talk. I went for drinks with one of my old college friends 3 weeks ago, and he's currently restoring his old Mamiya RB67. He's one of only 3 people from our course who is still a full time photography pro. Another still carries his Leica R4 along with his digi gear.

[gaburko]

	Quote:	Chuff
	I traded it all in for a Sony A7RIII at the weekend.

Congrats on your purchase I played with a A7RII a while ago and it never felt "right" for me. Its a mirrorless indeed, but somehow once you add the lens its back to a DSLR size. What did you do with the fuji gear? Any lens that you might be looking to offload?

[Traubert]

	Quote:	Blueangel
	BTEC qualified photographer here. It was my first career. Back in my early 20s, I was a colour print tech for a lab that did the 'double red dot' and overflow work for Manchester Evening News, and the large format work for Granada Studios. But sorry Richdog...I don't 'do' equipment talk. I went for drinks with one of my old college friends 3 weeks ago, and he's currently restoring his old Mamiya RB67. He's one of only 3 people from our course who is still a full time photography pro. Another still carries his Leica R4 along with his digi gear.

My digital camera has a tiny, crappy little lens and takes super trashy pictures, oh wait, it also makes phone calls and wakes me up in the morning :-)

My other cameras are a hasselblad v500, Mamiya RZ67, several battered Holgas, Leica M7, a couple of Mamiya 7, Yashica 6X6 and a wooden 4X5.

I have to go into my darkroom, under the soothing red light, sound of water trickling and the take in the smell of fixxxer in order to make any of the magic happen.

Flim's not dead, it just smells funny

[Medea Fleecestealer]

Lost count of how many cameras and accompanying gear hubby's got. Worked in the photography/printing side of things all his life.

[Blueangel]

	Quote:	Traubert
	I have to go into my darkroom, under the soothing red light, sound of water trickling and the take in the smell of fixxxer in order to make any of the magic happen. Flim's not dead, it just smells funny

I only got rid of my beloved Axomat enlarger a year ago. Still keep finding boxes of Ilford XP-2 dev and darkslides for a Sinar P around the UK house. When I met my mate, we were reminiscing about the exposure time for our pinhole cameras being 1 and a half pints of cider in the pub, and who came off worse ignoring the warnings about E6 dev.

[Chuff]

So, the Sony A7III has been announced and it is an absolute monster despite it being the "entry level" Sony fill frame mirrorless.

It has the same body as the A9, so has IBIS (stabilization), a big (for a mirrorless) battery and dual SD card slots. It has the same autofocus as the A9, which is awesome. A new 24MP sensor which is amazing in low light and at high ISO's. This is for $2000, not far away from Fuji's/Panasonics high-end crop(m53 sensor cameras. https://petapixel.com/2018/02/26/son...rrorless-1999/

Good preview test here:

	Quote:
	How does this work?

Canon and Nikon really have an uphill struggle ahead of them when they enter the high-end mirrorless market later this year, because this is such a strong camera that I think many existing CaNikon (and Fuji) users may migrate to Sony because of it before Q4 when their new mirrorless systems are supposed to be announced/released.

[Luxian]

	Quote:	Chuff
	Canon and Nikon really have an uphill struggle ahead of them when they enter the high-end mirrorless market later this year, because this is such a strong camera that I think many of people will migrate to Sony because of it before Q4.

I don't see who you mean will migrate to this. Canon and Nikon never had the supremacy in the mirrorless. So most probably whoever buys this is coming for another old Sony mirrorless or point and shot. At that price most people will still consider DSLRs and there Sony it's definitely not the leader.

[gaburko]

	Quote:	Chuff
	So, the Sony A7III has been announced and it is an absolute monster despite it being the "entry level" Sony fill frame mirrorless.

Not really sure to be honest. Technically, as usual for Sony, its a stunning camera. I played for a few months with a A7I and it was never ever a fun experience. I now own a much lower speced Fuji which is a pure joy to use and has rekindled my love for photography. Prior to that I owned a Canon Mark V which was pure bliss from a usability perspective vs. the Sony. In the end, this is photography and its almost never the spec of the camera that make a great image.

[Chuff]

	Quote:	Luxian
	I don't see who you mean will migrate to this. Canon and Nikon never had the supremacy in the mirrorless. So most probably whoever buys this is coming for another old Sony mirrorless or point and shot. At that price most people will still consider DSLRs and there Sony it's definitely not the leader.

I meant many Canon and Nikon (and likely Fuji/Panasonic users) will migrate to it given the price and performance of this camera.

	Quote:	gaburko
	Not really sure to be honest. Technically, as usual for Sony, its a stunning camera. I played for a few months with a A7I and it was never ever a fun experience. I now own a much lower speced Fuji which is a pure joy to use and has rekindled my love for photography. Prior to that I owned a Canon Mark V which was pure bliss from a usability perspective vs. the Sony. In the end, this is photography and its almost never the spec of the camera that make a great image.

Obviously the A7I is a far cry from the A7III series in terms of ergonomics and functionality... the user interface has now been completely revamped for the latest generation and is easy to work with. I was also into Fuji for a couple of years as you know, but in the end I was not satisfied with the results I got, especially in low light and at high ISO. In this regard my A7RIII completely trounces my X-T2 (as of course a full frame should). Fuji lenses also left me wanting more, as while sharp, their fast aperture f1.4 primes have slow and noisy autofocus and the zooms have unpleasant out of focus rendering.

Manual controls like on Fuji are all well and good, but in the end I am far more satisfied with my Sony, it's a cracking camera and the Sony FE lenses are phenomenal and 3rd party lenses will soon be released. Also, the battery life is almost 3x that of the Fuji in real-world usage, which makes a huge difference. And did I mention the Eye-AF? It is simply game-changing for photographing people and produces far more shots where the autofocus is nailed even in low lighting. With Fuji that was extremely tough and resulted in far more missed shots.

Sony are really going all-out with their latest generation of full-frame mirrorless and it is hard to see how others will compete effectively against entry-level full frame mirrorless cameras like this.

[gaburko]

	Quote:	Chuff
	I meant many Canon and Nikon (and likely Fuji/Panasonic users) will migrate to it given the price and performance of this camera.

You're overestimating a hypothetical technological advantage. The switching cost of moving from one system to another is huge. Its the investments in lenses, accessories, familiarity with the system, experience, etc. that need to be offset in order to switch. This could happen in cases when the technological advantage is huge. This isn't the case. To repeat myself, these days the outlets like dpreview, petapixel etc. overstress the differences between various cameras and systems. In reality, a decent photographer will take decent photos with any system as a modern camera is generally a very very good camera.

[Chuff]

	Quote:	gaburko
	You're overestimating a hypothetical technological advantage. The switching cost of moving from one system to another is huge. Its the investments in lenses, accessories, familiarity with the system, experience, etc. that need to be offset in order to switch. This could happen in cases when the technological advantage is huge. This isn't the case. To repeat myself, these days the outlets like dpreview, petapixel etc. overstress the differences between various cameras and systems. In reality, a decent photographer will take decent photos with any system as a modern camera is generally a very very good camera.

Hypothetical technical advantage? Lets not talk fluffy nonsense, I deal in realism based on my own experience with Nikon/Fuji/Canon.

No-one is saying people cannot take good photos with any modern camera, that is self-explanatory and does not even need to be stated. However, it is clear that the market is moving towards mirrorless and Canon and Nikon have a very tough job ahead of them when they announce theirs later this year.

People who are not heavily invested in lenses to serious or professional levels can easily switch systems, and people who have existing Canon lenses can use adapters if needed. Many people will migrate based on the strength of this camera, that is for sure.

[Blueangel]

	Quote:	gaburko
	I now own a much lower speced Fuji which is a pure joy to use and has rekindled my love for photography. Prior to that I owned a Canon Mark V which was pure bliss from a usability perspective vs. the Sony. In the end, this is photography and its almost never the spec of the camera that make a great image.

Absolutely agree with you. A good camera, any good camera, should be like an extension of your hand. You shouldn't be conscious of using it. After reading reviews, I always make the final choice on a camera by how it feels in my hand, what the weight balance is like, can I reach all the controls, are any clumsy to use, how easy it is to take apart and secret about your person, etc...

I probably switch to full manual more than a lot of people, because I still like manually bracketing an exposure to get exactly what I want from an image. I don't see the point in faffing about letting the camera do it automatically when I know I want to go +3 stops. As my 'thing' is documentary photography, if you need a longer lens, you're not close enough, and if you've never had a black eye from the viewfinder hood ramming into your eye socket, then you've probably never been in the thick of things.