Need help and Advice ASAP!

[ADavis85]

Here you go - you can download the manual from here:

Download Sony DSLR-A100 pdf user manual, operating instructions, user guide


Enjoy

And when your done reading the manual, read it again, and then again. Really.

Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes.

Try not to shoot at high ISO. I always found that the Sony's are the best at that range.
I use to manually set my A100 to 100 ISO ... though shooting indoors without flash, I did not have much choice but to increase it.

One thing you might want to do is to reset your settings to default ... to clear any settings that were set by the previous owner.
There should be a menu option do do that.

Yeah, that is one draw-back to the A100 (and most entry-level DSLR's) is that above 400 iso...they get REALLY noisy.

 

[dxqcanada]

Ah, I just noticed my typo (which you figured out) ... Sony's are NOT the best at that range.

Though I will have to say that my A55 does improve greatly on that vs. the A100, 800 ISO is pretty good ... Sony still has to work on the higher levels.

 

[ADavis85]

Ah, I just noticed my typo (which you figured out) ... Sony's are NOT the best at that range.

Though I will have to say that my A55 does improve greatly on that vs. the A100, 800 ISO is pretty good ... Sony still has to work on the higher levels.

Yeah agreed. The A65/77 are supposedly REALLY good with that. The Handheld Twilight Mode is pretty boss...takes 6 shots in <1 sec, at ISO 16,000!!! It takes those 6 images and merges them and since noise is random within a picture, it replaced the noise in one frame with sharpness from another, to allow you to take awesome night pictures with no flash and greatly reduced noise.

 

[fatnhappy]

Hey guys, what do you guys mean when you guys say "the noise" in the pictures?

 

[dxqcanada]

This should clarify it for you:

Sony Alpha DSLR-A100 Review: 20. Photographic tests: Digital Photography Review

 

[fatnhappy]

^ Thanks man, that helped a lot.
I actually went out to a dog park today and took a few shots, this one is my favorite, let me know what you guys think..

And for everyone's knowledge sake, I don't own a dog, but I have been wanting to get a puppy though..maybe after college...

let me know what you guys think..I tried the low ISO today..it made a big difference..

For those with the Sony A100, I just wanted confirmation, we don't get that option where the picture we are trying to take shows up on the screen before we take it right? (sorry idk what its called)

Anyways, here's the pics

 

[dxqcanada]

Those look OK overall for Auto.

You are correct, the A100 does not have Liveview.

 

[jaykilgore]

I disagree again lol.

My house is filled with 32-55inch Sony Vizio's because I LOVE the color. When put next to other tv's, for me, the Vaio was the most colorful.

But to each his own.

We're not at war, so we needn't talk about peace. I just wanted to point out it was poor advice to give someone. And of course we agree, as I stated before, the camera, computer, post processing is all on the user.

The best advice I can give is:- Get rid of the sony piece of crap and get a camera. ANY other camera. Not meaning to sound horrible it's just there are far better cameras available for the cost of that. If you got it for the bling (gold chains and diamond earrings factor), only your photos will suffer. If you got it because you were advised to get it, you shouyld go back and speak fiormly with the salesman. Sony do NOT make good cameras. FACT.

I'm sorry but I think that's a bit dramatic and poor advice.

I wonder if you know that Sony made ALL of Nikon's sensors up to a few years ago? If that's the case, then you're saying up to the D300, that was a piece of crap camera?

The camera is a TOOL and any short comings are not of the tool but the user. I've shot with an A100 before and the images came out great. I've shot with far less cameras and got good images.

To answer the OP's question; Along with the guide BlackSheep posted for you, shoot EVERYTHING you possibly can. Learn how your camera works and functions. Master the camera and you learn more about yourself, your photography skills and shooting styles.

All my point was with that is, albeit Sony have been thre front-runners of the technological feild, I have found that with everything they make, from mp3 players, to TV's and right the way through to their cameras, they lack lu8stre that other manufacturers provide. Their tvs have dull colour, their stereos have flat sound and I find that their cameras give a milky finish to the photographs. Lack-lustre. Their actual technology is fantastic but the final product is always less than expected in my opinion. They have their fingers dipped in way too many pies (as is often the case with global corporations. They have no speciality. This point gives them less credibility. I will ALWAYS advise people AGAINST buying sony because of this. If they were to specialise in one feild, I would buy that product but, because they don't, I won't buy anything from them.

As for the actual equipment to take a good photograph, well, it doesn't really matter so much. The final image is only through the photographers eyes and the idea behind it. The eyes and the mind of the person behind the camera is what is important, NOT the equipment.

Are we at peace?

 

[Omofo]

The best advice I can give is:- Get rid of the sony piece of crap and get a camera. ANY other camera. Not meaning to sound horrible it's just there are far better cameras available for the cost of that. If you got it for the bling (gold chains and diamond earrings factor), only your photos will suffer. If you got it because you were advised to get it, you shouyld go back and speak fiormly with the salesman. Sony do NOT make good cameras. FACT.

I'm sorry but I think that's a bit dramatic and poor advice.

I wonder if you know that Sony made ALL of Nikon's sensors up to a few years ago? If that's the case, then you're saying up to the D300, that was a piece of crap camera?

The camera is a TOOL and any short comings are not of the tool but the user. I've shot with an A100 before and the images came out great. I've shot with far less cameras and got good images.

To answer the OP's question; Along with the guide BlackSheep posted for you, shoot EVERYTHING you possibly can. Learn how your camera works and functions. Master the camera and you learn more about yourself, your photography skills and shooting styles.

All my point was with that is, albeit Sony have been thre front-runners of the technological feild, I have found that with everything they make, from mp3 players, to TV's and right the way through to their cameras, they lack lu8stre that other manufacturers provide. Their tvs have dull colour, their stereos have flat sound and I find that their cameras give a milky finish to the photographs. Lack-lustre. Their actual technology is fantastic but the final product is always less than expected in my opinion. They have their fingers dipped in way too many pies (as is often the case with global corporations. They have no speciality. This point gives them less credibility. I will ALWAYS advise people AGAINST buying sony because of this. If they were to specialise in one feild, I would buy that product but, because they don't, I won't buy anything from them.

As for the actual equipment to take a good photograph, well, it doesn't really matter so much. The final image is only through the photographers eyes and the idea behind it. The eyes and the mind of the person behind the camera is what is important, NOT the equipment.

Are we at peace?

Lack luster like the photographs on your website?
In my experience, the only thing the sony(I use an A55) lacks is low light performance. I agree for the price the A100 is a bad choice, however sony has many good cameras in the line up. I went with the A55 for features like the in camera hdr and it's ability to shoot 10 fps, which can't be matched by any camera under $700...

 

[bazooka]

All my point was with that is, albeit Sony have been thre front-runners of the technological feild, I have found that with everything they make, from mp3 players, to TV's and right the way through to their cameras, they lack lu8stre that other manufacturers provide. Their tvs have dull colour, their stereos have flat sound and I find that their cameras give a milky finish to the photographs. Lack-lustre. Their actual technology is fantastic but the final product is always less than expected in my opinion. They have their fingers dipped in way too many pies (as is often the case with global corporations. They have no speciality. This point gives them less credibility. I will ALWAYS advise people AGAINST buying sony because of this. If they were to specialise in one feild, I would buy that product but, because they don't, I won't buy anything from them.

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