Dusted off the camera

unpopular · May 21, 2019

I've dusted off the camera, polished up the glass, ordered a replacement charger and … son of a … WHERE ARE ALL MY ADAPTORS?!

I'm back … or, I will be, anyway.

Get ready for more photos of empty walls.

tirediron · May 21, 2019

It has been a while...

Ysarex · May 21, 2019

Warhorse · May 22, 2019

Looking forward to your images!

unpopular · May 22, 2019

tirediron said:
It has been a while...

Been busy with school. Then work. Then wallowing in self pity after being laid off. Then school again. Trying to get back into some of my past hobbies, and having to take Intro to Photoshop as an easy A in order to graduate I figured it'd be a good time to start taking photos.

I the meantime tons of battery grips for my a700 have come on the used market. They used to be super expensive and hard to find - like $250 at a time that the camera itself was worth maybe $300, but I was able to pick one up for $75 yesterday.

Derrel · May 22, 2019

i did a quick brush-up on the a700 at Sony Alpha DSLR-A700 Review

Has a lot of good features, and is an Exmor sensor, which was a major step up from the earlier sensors and the sensors used in other contemporary cameras.

11 Af area focusing, as used in the Nikon D2x of that area, which IMO, was/is amazing. 11 af areas may "sound" not that great, but implementation is so much more-critical than throwing 39 or 51 Af squares in, and not covering the image area well.

unpopular · May 22, 2019

Yeah. I'm thinking about picking up at least a 50/1.4 MA lens. But I've never been much a fan of AF. Empty walls don't move around much, anway, and finding good modern glass that isn't sterile and lifeless isn't easy (or cheap).

There are definitely great Minolta lenses that don't cost an awful lot (35/1.4G, 28-70/2.8G). But I don't think I'm going to put a lot of investment into that camera. I love it, it's probably my second favorite camera after the Contax RX, but it's old and the MA platform is dead.

I want to get an X-Pro. I had a EX-1 but the EVF stopped working - and it's just positively terrible to use without it. I like the idea of the X-Pro, kind of reminds me of the Contax G2, and now that the X-Pro 1 is affordable I'll probably just upgrade to it at some point. The X-Trans is just SUCH a great sensor and Fuji glass is consistently good (albeit expensive).

I doubt it will have the same ergonomics as the a700 does … and I'll definitely miss the pentaprism, but the way things are going I'll just have to come to terms with that.

But who knows. LR has come a long way in the last few years in terms of noise character, and so maybe it'll bring some new life into the old girl

ETA - just bought a 35/1.8 DT … looks like a heck of a lens for the price.