Topic 1: Jeff’s idea but Jim covers it? – Sony a9:

24.2 megapixel full-frame stacked CMOS sensor

20fps shooting with AF/AE doing 60 calculations per second (achieves this by significantly faster sensor reading, something Canon is supposedly researching to read the full sensor all at once)

No blackout-free viewfinder (Jeff saw a super impressive video showing this)

693 point wide-area phase detection autofocus

5 axis image stabilization for 5 stops (this has been in Sony cameras for a while)

Sony E mount, can use A mount with an adapter and get 10fps with AF/AE

Mechanical Shutter: ISO 100-51,200

Electronic Shutter can go as high as 1/32,000

Battery Life: Approx. 480 shots (Viewfinder) / approx. 650 shots

Video: 3840 x 2160 4K output

New menu interface!

Tony Northrup hands-on today tweeted:

Shoots 100+ shots before filling buffer, but a full buffer takes 2-3 mins to clear out and the camera video and menus stop working

2 hours of shooting 4,500 shots and battery was only down to 66%

Drenched the camera and it was great

Price: $4,500

Also a new FE 100-400mm F4.5–5.6 GM OSS Super Telephoto Zoom Lens – $2,500

Topic 2: Brent’s tips to going “deeper” with your photography. Either you’ve been someplace before and you want to look for something new. (restrict yourself to certain gear, time of day, other ideas the others have? Restrict to certain genre. If you’ve been there before, it may even been helpful to work on previsualizing new images, so you can hunt for unique images.)

Or, maybe it’s your first time there, how to go beyond the icons that everyone gets. (I’m an avid travel reader. I’m now reading an 1100 page book on the former Yugoslavia preparing for my trip in September. Provides historical perspective that you can’t get from a guidebook.)

Topic 3:  Jeff – Amazed at the improvement in focus after doing Autofocus Micro Adjustments (AFMA)!

Love my Tamron 24-70 lens but had very consistently seen soft focus at the shorter focal length and since there was a request for a Photo Taco episode

Did a lot of testing of different methods for AFMA, this is the subject of the Photo Taco episode coming out on 4/25 so won’t go into it here.

Canon 7D2 can do two AFMA per lens.  Started 70mm and it needed -3 out of -20.  Not too far off, it was hard to tell much of a difference going through the testing.  But then at 24mm needed +13 adjustment and the difference from the testing was VERY different.

Having watched Connor and Nick do videos on post-processing for their portrait work, the sharpness they had as they zoomed in around the eyes was so much more than I had really ever seen with my own portraits.  I had assumed it was just the difference between full frame and crop.

Did an engagement shoot recently and can’t believe the difference in sharp focus after successfully doing AFMA.  I finally have shots where the eyes are every bit in as sharp focus as anything else I have seen.

Listen to the Photo Taco episode if you want more information about AFMA.

Mirrorless cameras don’t need AFMA.  Not going to go into detail, but this is only something to watch out for with a DSLR.

If your camera doesn’t support AFMA then if you have purchased the lens fairly recently you may be able to get it done by the manufacturer by sending both the camera and the lens in.

Doodads of the Week!

 

* Jim: Western Digital 8tb red drive 

* Jeff:  MagMod Sphere.  Used it at the engagement photo shoot during sunset and just love the results.  Can see a couple of the shots if you find me on Instagram...