Tag: Sony

10 Consideration Before Buy a Lens
IIn the previous posts, we discussed 5 Considerations Before Buy a Camera, 5 Reasons to Own a P&S camera, 5 Reasons to Own a Mirrorless Camera, and 5 Reasons to Own a DSLR camera. If you buy a Point and Shoot (P&S) camera, then congrats, you can start your photography journey immediately. However, if you want to buy a mirrorless camera or DSLR, you must have at least one lens to pair with your camera before starting shooting.
Sony A-Mount Lenses Image taken from: Sony Official Website
So which lens should you buy? How to choose a proper lens for yourself?
1. Kit Lens
Kit lens, a standard zoom lens that comes with purchasing your new camera at a very low price. It covers the standard zoom range from 28mm to 70 mm in 35mm equivalent for normal daily usage. If you are new to photography, a standard kit lens is enough for you to learn all the necessary skills for photography.
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15 Jun 2014
5 Reasons To Own a DSLR
Nowadays, the Mirrorless camera system has become a trend in the camera world. It provides the same image quality as a DSLR but has a smaller size and lighter weight. So why do you still have to bother to get yourself a DSLR? Let’s have a look together.
1. Professional Look and Feel
Sony Full Frame DSLR – A99 Image taken from: http://www.sony.com.sg/product/slt-a99v
Regardless of you are carrying either APS-C or Full-Frame DSLR, you will give people an impression: “Wow! This guy is a professional photographer”. Why do you want to give people such a feeling? It is because you are running a photography business or paid to shoot some events.
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7 Jun 2014
5 Reasons to Own a Mirrorless Camera
Mirrorless cameras have become more and more popular in the current market. Many camera manufacturers like Sony, Fuji, Olympus, Leica, and others had put in effort into research and developed some excellent Mirrorless cameras. So let’s see how a Mirrorless camera fits you the best.
1. Large Image Sensor in Smaller Camera Size
In general, a Mirrorless camera is equipped with a Micro 4/3, APS-C, or Full-Frame image sensor. These sensors are much larger than the typical image sensor (1/2.3″) provided in the P&S. You may read my 5 Factors Affected By Image Sensor Size to get more details regarding the image sensor size.
Mirrorless vs DSLR (Image retrieved from Sony Official Website: http://www.sony.com.sg/product/nex-6l)
Although the DSLR camera is also equipped with either APS-C or Full-Frame image sensor, the Mirrorless camera is much smaller in the camera body design. The Mirrorless camera does not have a mirror reflection board that reflects the light to the optical viewfinder. Therefore, the Mirrorless camera body can be much thinner than the DSLR camera body, resulting in a lighter camera.
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7 Jun 2014
SEL35F18 vs SEL24F18Z
Before Zeiss introduced the E-mount Zeiss Touit 32 mm, people always asked whether to choose the Sony SEL35F18 or the SEL24F18Z. Why? These were the only two lenses available for the E-mount NEX, which are not too wide or too narrow for the angle of view, and the main concern is their price difference which is almost 2.5 times (SGD 629 for the SEL35F18 and SGD1,699 for the SEL24F18Z). If the price difference is lesser, most of us will definitely go for the Zeiss.
SEL24F18Z (Left) and SEL35F18 (Right)
However, we cannot do anything about their prices. Many websites have individual reviews for each of them but not the comparison between both of them. So I decided to make a simple comparison for both of them here since I have the chance to test out both lenses. I hope that this post can help those who are frustrated/annoyed/hesitant about which lens is the one for you, and anyone who owns any of these lenses is welcome to leave your comment too here to help out those potential owners.
You may also read my individual reviews about the Sony SEL35F18 and Sony SEL24F18Z for more information.
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9 Jan 2014
Sony SEL35F18
These few days were rainy and shady. The sky was full of soft sunlight. The weather is not ideal for the lens review, but I still try my best to review the Sony SEL35F18 with my Sony NEX-6.
Introduction
Sel35F18
The Sony SEL35F18 was released in December 2012. This lens has the focal length of 52.5mm in 35mm equivalent, which gives you the angle of view similar to what we see daily, not too broad, not too narrow, just a lovely view. It has the built-in Sony OSS (Optical Steady Shot) image stabilizer, which is rare in the lens of these focal lengths. It is still one of the best E-mount prime lenses, and it is sold at the price of SGD 629.
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2 Jan 2014
Tips For Shooting in Aquarium
After visiting the SEA Aquarium and having an extensive collection of shootings (over 500+), I have some thoughts about shooting in the aquarium to share with you guys.
1. Bring an Extra Battery or Two
If you never or rarely visit the aquarium, it is very easy to over-shoot. You may have multiples shots for each scene to ensure that you have at least one or few good shots for that scene. I almost used up two fully charged batteries throughout the tour. Each of them lasts for around 300 shots.
2. Use a Lens with Wide-Angle Focal Length and Large Aperture
Focal length between 24 and 50 mm (in 35 mm equivalence) is recommended because they have a wider angle of view and allow you to shoot closer to your subject. A larger aperture allows more light so that you do not need to bump up too much ISO. Be careful here, large apertures like F2, F1.8, and any smaller F values, will have a tiny part of the subject in focus. I used the Sony SEL24F18Z and kept my aperture between F2.8 and F5.6 to get enough DoF while having a large enough aperture to maintain a lower ISO.
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18 Dec 2013
Tips for Shooting at the Wedding Banquet
This is my first post for the photography tips series. Although I’m not a professional wedding photographer, the tips below are what I learned and sorted from various online resources and applied during the wedding banquet. In addition, by sharing my experience with all of you here, I hope you will share yours with me to help each other improve.
1. Be Ready and Well Prepared
Check your camera condition, ensure all the settings like exposure, white balance, ISO, flash mode, or any other settings are set up correctly. Ensure the battery is fully charged and the memory card is formatted.
2. Have Extra Backup Equipment
Having multiple batteries and memory cards is a plus. I highly recommend you to bring an extra camera as backup (yea I know the it costs more $$). Ensure you are familiar with it and the settings are identical/similar to your primary gear. A zoom lens is good enough and convenient. But if you prefer to use a prime lens on your primary camera, attach another lens with different focal lengths on the backup camera as you do not have extra time to change your lens carefully.
3. Shoot in RAW
It is another highly recommended tip. It is critical and easy to overexpose the bride’s white dress or underexpose the groom’s dark suit. You will need the capability of RAW to get them right.
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5 Dec 2013
Sony E-mount Lens SELP1650
Introduction
The Sony SELP1650 is the new kit lens with the new NEX cameras like the NEX-5R, NEX-6, and NEX-3N. It has a filter size of 40.5 mm, and it allows us to us a filter on it easily.
SELP1650 – Attached on Sony Alpha NEX-6
The Sony SELP1650 covers a 24mm – 75mm focal length in 35mm equivalent which is enough for the basic daily shooting. The maximum apertures are F3.5 and F5.6, and the minimum focus distances are at 25 cm and 30 cm on the wide-angle and telephoto side, respectively. It comes with the power zoom feature, which provides highly smooth zooming during the video recording. A focus/zoom ring is found at the front of the lens, it is smooth to turn, and there is no endpoint to stop turning the focus/zoom ring; it also has a built-in OSS, which is great and powerful for low light shooting or video recording.
This lens is retractable like a point-and-shoot camera. When the camera is powered on, this lens will need a few seconds to extend itself before being ready to use. It collapses itself when it is not in use, and the height is only around 3 cm! It’s so compact and looks like a pancake lens. It makes the NEX camera more compact and portable without having a cheap feel. However, the lens is criticized for its fish-eye-effect-like barrel distortion on the wide-angle side before being officially available on the market. So how is its optical performance? Is it worth your money to buy it for the compactness? Let’s look at the following review.
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20 Sep 2013