The Beercan (70-210 f/4) thread..

Hi everyone!

Lets see some beercan shots!

I'll start us off with a couple from the MCAS Miramar Air Show in San Diego last weekend..

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrnoronha/2917296189/" title="_DSC0304 by SoCalAltitude, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3200/2917296189_19ced0e9be.jpg" width="500" height="281" alt="_DSC0304" /></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrnoronha/2918141772/" title="_DSC0340 by SoCalAltitude, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3032/2918141772_1b0f09c9a0.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="_DSC0340" /></a>

Of course, these shots don't showcase the awesome bokeh of this lens.. I'll leave that up to you, so post em up!!

Great shots! Wish I had a beercan... :cryin: ...Why doesn't Sony make an Alpha Beercan?

Mette

Yeah, there's been a lot of talk about people wanting Sony to make a new version. Other manufacturers have modern versions that are very popular, so I'm sure they'll make one too. It's just a matter of time I think.

You could still pick up an origional. They do have CA issues and some people think they're too heavy, but they're definitely worth the cost. The bokeh is to die for. I'm hoping to get others to post their beercan shots, hopefully showcasing the bokeh..

Great thread idea. Here are a couple, I've had good luck with the beercan.

Nice shots! Way to showcase that bokeh! :thumbsup:

Beercan users! Keep em comin! :7:

Alright I'm going to pummel you with some of the shots from my last insect hunt. These are all pretty much the telephoto end macro focus of the lens so bokeh is pretty tight in there. The spider web is a bizarre one - the wiggly lines that come out right in front of and behind the spider, I don't know why those spiders build their web like that, but theres a legion of them on the side of the house and they are all built exactly like that....

That 293Kb limit is a bit irking. I guess as many photos as are uploaded here its good to be conservative.

GREAT SHOTS!!! I especially like the dragonfly ones. Thanks for sharing! :thumbsup:

Anbesol, brilliant shots :) I didn't realise you could use the beercan for macro as well! Great insects, so much more interesting than the ones around here. Love the colours of that blue-winged waspy thing :) Hey, I don't think we saw that squirrel in the squirrel thread!

Mette

Thanks guys.

It is pretty humid, close to sea level, with a ton of vegetation around here. So there are plenty of insects to go around. Did I not post that in the squirrel thread?

The beercan is a very picky macro, with a 1:4 magnification at 210, it doesn't give you a whole lot of wiggle room for focus, but I like the challenge, push it to the limits...

great idea! here a couple from DC

Nice shots pisco!! When was that second one taken - why were the flags at half staff?

Hmm... Don't have too many beercan shots handy right now... Here's one from a while back with the a100. Was going for a moody shot on a overcast day. Sure, looks a bit soft, but that was the idea...

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...ev_cropped.jpg

Nice job. I'd say you did a fantastic job capturing the mood in that image!

The shots in this thread really do show off the abilities of this 20+ year old lens on modern DSLR's. I guess that is why the Beercan has such a strong "cult" following. Keep em coming folks!

Great soft effect noknees.

Yes the beercan is a beauty, I recently found out that it was a collaborative effort between Leica and Minolta.

Definitely keep em coming guys!

[When was that second one taken - why were the flags at half staff?]

Thanks Canuck, it's from last Sunday. I'm not sure why the half mast, I think because an emergency team that died when a helicopter crash. All flags in the area where half mast except the one in the white house.

I thought I would dredge this back up with a little show-n-tell demo. My beercan died today - the focus won't. Since I imagine it has been going bad for some time, this could account for some of my sharpness problems. Well today since I didn't have it, I set up the Canon XTi with the 70-200 f/4 L IS in the same spot. Below are two shots with very similar settings - first with the beercan and second with the Canon. The Canon is certainly razor sharp, but it just ain't the same background. - TF

1 - Sony A350 w 70-210 f/4
200mm, ISO 400, f/4, 1/125 sec

2 - Canon XTi w 70-200 f/4 L IS
200mm, ISO 200, f/4, 1/200 sec


-

They're both great shots IMO. Too bad to hear the AF has died in your beercan. What are you planning on doing? Get another one, or a different lens?

Oldclicker - thanks for the comparison! Thats terrible your beercan died, I am sorry to hear that. Have you had a funeral service for it yet? You'd better hurry up and pick up a new one too - the price of that lens is not going down.

Ok.. time to resurrect this..

Meet my friend Lucy.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrnoronha/2777479268/" title="_DSC0315 by SoCalAltitude, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3213/2777479268_559aeee1a0.jpg" width="333" height="500" alt="_DSC0315" /></a>

What a sweetie :) And a nice protrait! Is she yours?

Mette

She is a very sweet dog. She belongs to a good friend. I can't have a dog at my place so my friends dogs are good substitutes. :thumbsup:

Here's another beercan shot, taken with my (well, it belongs to a friend now) a100 in October 2006.

Okay, I'll add an other... This one is a good case study photo, showing one of the few faults of the beercan when wide open. I could not easily get an angle on this that did not have a blown highlight somewhere on the web do to reflections, etc... For the beercan at wide open, these get a nice red CA around them, as seen here. You can clean this up via PP for the most part, but it's something to look out for when shooting in similar conditions... It's just a snapshot for me, so I probably won't bother to work on it more...

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/b...7_raw_crop.jpg

Bringing this one back. Mette, lets see some of your beercan shots!!

one more from me - this one was tough, it was a windy day so the branch was swinging back and forth, for every in focus shot I got there was a good 6-7 others out of focus :-\

ISO 320, f4, 1/2000th, 160mm.

That is so funny - I just logged on to post one at long last...and what thread do I find at the top of the list??!! Anbesol, it must some sort of Trans-Atlantic telepathy :D

I pretty much had it on all day today on an outing with its previous owner and his family. I just finished looking through 200+ shots and

[B]I LOVE THAT BOKEH![/B]

Even the shots where the d...ed birds were out of focus had great bokeh :D

This shot isn't a bokeh shot but it's the only one so far that's ready for upload...more to follow....

If it hadn't been for you guys, I wouldn't have known the beercan existed, so a great heartfelt THANK YOU :) :) :)

Mette