Monday, August 31, 2009

Sony Alpha A850 Hands-On

31st August

Rumors have been circulating in the forums and internet about the slew of new Alpha models for the past few months. When some Sony website in the Euro region updated their product list with new models about 2 months ago, the speculation became more intense. Everybody was discussing about the possibilities of a new budget Full Frame to complement the Alpha A900 while some were speculating on a successor to the Alpha A700 model.

An interesting discussion point among the current Sony users was regarding the physical design for the new model. Many (me included) kept their fingers crossed, hoping the A850 will not follow the design cue of new entry level models A230, A330 and A380.

On 27th August, Sony issued an official press release announcing the new Alpha A850. Virtually identical to the A900, it has the same 24.6MP CMOS sensor, 3.0 inch 921k LCD, SteadyShot INSIDE™ image-stabilization and Dual Bionz processors. The only differences is a 98% viewfinder coverage against A900's 100% and slower continuous shooting (3FPS for A850 vs 5FPS for A900). Both shared the same battery and grip.




Physically, the A850 and A900 looked almost the same. From the buttons layout, the grip, the overall feel when it's in your hand; it's hard to tell one from the other. Fortunately, there is no tacky 2-tone colour scheme or ridiculous grip design from the other new series. At least the A850 feels and looked serious for a DSLR of this price and specs range.




I honestly can't tell the difference between the 98% viewfinder coverage of the A850 compared to 100% for A900. What I can tell however, is the difference between 3FPS versus 5FPS. As an avid fan of motorsports and action photography, I rely a lot on the 5FPS capabilities on my A700. Mounting my SAL70300G onto the A850, I tried out some panning shot.


The AF was fast and accurate. I had no problem getting a clean shot even at 1/30sec shutter speed handheld. However, I sorely miss the 5FPS burst mode. While it can be argued that it's not often that we will need this function, I believed it's the link between getting the shot and missing the moment.

At a speculated street price of RM6XXX, the A850 will be almost RM1k ~ Rm1.5k cheaper than the A900, making it one of the most affordable FF DSLR in the market.

For me, I will stay happily where I am with my beloved A700. Besides the slower FPS, I don't think I can live with the huge size of it's RAW file. 1 RAW file from the A850 takes up 35.7MB of hard disk space. I'm gonna end up spending more on storage than camera gear......

Sepang Track Day

30th August

Had too many portrait session lately and I felt the need to go back to my first love: Motorsports photography..

Today was an open track day at Sepang where you basically drive down to the track, register yourself, paid the entrance fee and then go crazy on the track. In the morning, the bikers came out to play.

All shots taken at Turn 1 and Turn 2.






Continued my training at slow shutter, these 2 were taken at 1/20sec.




The bike session ended at 1pm for a lunch break. The car session were scheduled for 2pm. In the meantime, some Formula BMW cars came out for their practice run.




Car session started promptly at 2pm. The Subaru guys were out in force, there's some EVOs in the mix, flanked by the usual Civic, Satria Neo and other usual (@ boring) suspects. However, there were lots of other different makes and models that are seldom seen during track days.

A couple of R34.. (my fav Jap supercar)






meets their new sibling..


Rotary power..


The legend lives on: Honda NSX (the pearl white paint is a pain in the a$$ to shoot under the bright sun)




On to some really really rare cars to appear on the race track...

The lion....


and the cat..


Forget everything you ever heard about weight distribution, low center of gravity and aerodynamics.. Big guy can really run


A Volkswagen.....


A very old Volkswagen..


The Mark Wahlberg version..




and the Michael Caine version..


My current fav car...




And for the finale... taking the term "Sunday leisure drive" to another whole level.


Overheard the marshal's walkie describing them as "makan angin"....

Studio session - ReNee

29th August

After the warm up session a week earlier, today was my first proper studio session with the guidance from sifu Ricky of Photics Production. Our model for the day is the lovely Sook Wen ReNee.

The first session is basically learning different lighting positioning, camera setting and the common practices for studio photography.










The second session after lunch touched on posing, angle and composition.










All shots were adjusted in Photoshop by experimenting with different hue, temperature and color adjustment.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Studio session

23rd August

Tried out some portrait shoots in a studio with some guidance and pointers from a pro.
The lovely Yvonne Yong was our test subject for the day. All shots taken at Photics Production.

The first set was taken using available light coming in from the window.








The 2nd set used strobe lights to illuminate the model.

Note to self: The shadow made her looked pregnant. No No!!




Note to self: Pay more attention to details. What the heck is that hole on the floor?!?!

Plane spotting with MAS

22nd August

The friendly folks at Malaysian Airlines organized an outing for bloggers and photographers where we get to take pictures of planes without playing hide and seek with the police. I'm not sure which laws prohibits you from taking pictures of a plane near the vicinity of an airport but a patrol car did came up to our group halfway through the session. Luckily the MAS peoples got it all sorted out.

Already blurry and dizzy due to lack of sleep, not to mention a substantial amount of alcohol intake just hours before, I reached the meeting spot at 7.30am. That's way earlier than going to work.

Our first shooting spot was a hill overlooking the runway.






Unfortunately, it was not the perfect spot as all the MAS planes taxi off into the other runway after landing and did not pass our way. The only plane that did was......


We switched to another spot where we can see the planes take off. Too bad we couldn't get over the fence.. it would have been awesome!!






The harsh morning sun provided us with a good opportunity for some silhouette shots..




I've panned bikes, cars, boats and humans...... this is the first time I took panning shots of planes..

(Aaarrggghh!!!! The fence spoiled the shot!!!)

Thanks again to MAS for the outing.
Hoping for a repeat in the near future...