Sony A700

[ddkb00]

I am so excited. I just ordered my Sony A700. I think this will be a big step up from my Minolta 5D.

YAY!!

[Canuck935]

Congratulations!! I think it's a huge step from the 5D. Nice to see more people on here with a700's. I think I may have been the only one for a while.

[Anbesol]

Yes, I made the step about 6 months back, same step, 5D to A700. You will love it. One thing I found particularly bothersome about the 5D was its lack of tonal range, it did real well on everything else. But the a700 is absolutely fantastic with range... Plus, the 12 megapixel sensor really pairs better with lens than the 6.

[Pink Dragonfly]

Congratulations! I've had mine for exactly a month now, and if you are just half as happy with it as I am, you'll be a fortunate person
ENJOY

Congratulations!! I think it's a huge step from the 5D. Nice to see more people on here with a700's. I think I may have been the only one for a while.

I think there's quite a few of us now

Mette

[ddkb00]

Thanks for the feedback. I am sure I will love it.

I am also glad there are a getting to be more Sony users.

I will keep you posted when I get it.

[r_w]

Same step as well, 5D to 700. I love it.

[NoKnees]

Welcome to the club.... I've had my a700 for about 10 months now. Had the a100 before that.... You'll love it, especially as you get more familiar with some of it's more unique, yet powerful settings like DRO, etc...

Make sure you pick up the latest firmware if you plan on doing any high ISO photography (1600 or higher) or any HDR photography work. Some say the newest firmware helps a bit with the auto-white balance settings for indoor available light shots too... Latest firmware is v4...

Key features are:
- Turn high ISO noise reduction off completely, instead of the old settings of high or low... This gives the noise a grainier, more natural film look, and allows you to keep more detail in your shots, especially if you work with RAW files.
- HDR Bracket mode... Bracket of 3 shots at a full 2 stops difference. Normal bracketing modes only allowed up to .7 stops difference between shots in bracket mode...
- AWB Tuning - Adjustments to the auto white balance, especially with Tungsten lighting...

[ddkb00]

Thanks so much for the Sony tips.
I will be doing a lot of indoor sports shooting so these tips will be very useful to me.
I didn't know that about turning the noise reduction off. I probably should have been doing that with my Minolta.

What is HDR photgraphy work? And what is DRO?

Sorry for all the questions.

Thanks.

[Anbesol]

HDR = High Dynamic Range.
DRO = Dynamic Range Optimization

HDR usually implies a stitching of two different metered photos to achieve the widest possible range. For example, if you shoot a very bright horizon with a very dark foreground, you shoot the foreground at 1/200th of a second, then the background at 1/1000th of a second, stitch them together, and that is an HDR image (example).

DRO is a feature within Sonys camera that tweaks the amount of range available to you. It works incredibly well by bending the tones and getting ultra dark tones and ultra bright tones. Typically I leave it on automatic unless a scene particularly calls for it. If you are battling with BOTH very high and low tones, you may want to increase the amount of DRO applied.

[A.M.D.A.]

Congratulations for the upgrade!

Once you have enough experience with the camera, please remember to write a review.

Here is a link for writing a review on the A700.

[ddkb00]

YAY... I got the camera on Tuesady so I am busy reading the manual and taking a few shots. It only came with firmware 1. How do I go about downloading the latest firmware for the camera?

I have a Volleyball Tournament to go to Saturday. Any tips for me? Should I shoot in manual or should I just shoot in Shutter Speed priority?
Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Canuck935]

For the FW upgrade, go to Sony Support and at the bottom select your OS. Follow the link for FW and it will have full instructions on how to update.

[NoKnees]

Glad to hear the camera showed up and you've had a chance to use it... Others followed up nicely on my last post about HDR and DRO...

I'll add a quick point about DRO relating to high ISO use... It will introduce more noise in the dark areas at higher ISO settings. Not so much in DRO and DRO+ modes, but definitely in DRO lvl 3 or higher. Not much of a problem at 400 ISO or lower settings... Play with it and figure out what you are ok with... DRO works pretty nice with flash use too. Helps balance out weird shadows, etc...

As for this weekend, what lens do you plan on using? How's the lighting in the gym? You'll want a shutter speed of at least 1/200, so you'll need to see how bright the gym is, how wide you can open your lens up, and adjust ISO to 800 or higher probably. I usually try to get a shutter speed closer to 1/500 if I can, but it's tough indoors without good light and a f2.8 or faster lens...

You can shoot shutter priority, or pick the most best aperture for your lens and then set the ISO high enough that it gives you working shutter speeds of 1/200 or higher. It's a fine line getting the balance between stopping the action, and adding high ISO noise...

You may want to take a couple test shots for the white balance too. Depending on the lighting in there, the camera might have a little trouble getting it right. With weird light, the camera sometimes picks a different auto adjustment, leaving you with a variety of white balances throughout a tournament. Sometimes better to just pick one manually to at least get something consistent.

AF speed set to fast
AF set to continuous, not auto
Drive set to High Speed
Shoot a lot of bursts, especially when tracking someone running down a pass, hitting, blocking, etc...
Set Shutter to release priority instead of focus. Key with bursts and continuous focus shots because when you switch views quickly, the focus may lag just a hair behind the action at first, but will catch up as the scene unfolds. You don't want to miss starting your shots while the camera is thinking about if it's in focus.
Bring a lot of CF cards, shoot a lot, and throw away a lot.

Okay, too long of a reply, but you asked, and I had a lot coffee this afternoon... ;)

Hmm, oh, and don't forget to enjoy the tourney!

- Greg

[ddkb00]

Greg,
Thanks so much for all this info. Wow - I really need to do a lot of reading; I can already see that the Sony A700 has so much more to offer than what the Minolta had.
I will probably use my Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens. It did an alright job with my Minolta so I expect it to do better with the Sony.

Canuck,
Thanks for the additional info on the firmware. I will need to get that done.

Thanks again guys.

Well, I need to go out and help fence now; and then come in and study the manual some more.

Dawn

[NoKnees]

Hope the info was more helpful than overwhelming... Honestly, if you set the USO high enough and just switch the camera to Sport/Action mode on the dial, you'll probably do just fine!

The good and bad thing with the more advanced DSLR cameras are the added features. When used right, you can get a little bit better result than you can with a good point and shoot or automatic camera. But when used wrong, you can easily do worse...

Assuming you are close enough to the action, that lens should work great. I shot a lot with my Minolta 28-75 f2.8 lens when the AVP came through town and liked the results.

One more thing that you will want to play with when you shoot. Wide or Center AF. You should get your best results with the wide area AF setting, but some people prefer spot.

And on the subject of volleyball, a tribute to the fallen Olympian, Misty May... Shot last month in San Francisco at an AVP tournament. Evidently dancing was more than her Achilles could handle..

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

[ddkb00]

Very nice picture. What great volleyball players.

I have to tell all of you that I went to a volleyball game yesterday with my new camera and WOW was I amazed the difference between my Minolta 5D and the Sony A700. The A700 was so fast; I thought something wasn't working right. I really like this new camera.

Now I need to study up on how to download the v4 firmware. Has anyone had problems with it? And do you download it to your disk and then out that into your camera and upload from the disk.

Sorry for all the questions. And thanks for all the help.

[Anbesol]

Yes, you unpack to an .app file, then put it on the memory card, the instructions on the page are very detailed.

[Ultra Magnus]

the instructions are on the sony website. It's actually quite easy... Make sure you have a fully charged battery, copy the file to a freshly formatted cf card, insert, and turn the camera on while holding down the menu button, if I recall... It does the rest.

It only takes a couple of minutes. There have been a few reports of a dead camera from a failed install, but I think that's quite rare. w/ V3 firmware, the high iso noise looks kind of blotchy. With V4, it's like others ahve said, a fine grain that's more easily dealt with by 3rd party noise reduction software. I actually don't mind the noise, has a certain quality to it. Before the upgrade I dared not go over iso1250, but after, I happily shoot at iso1600.

I came from an F828, so the speed and high iso performance of the A700 was very welcome.

BM

[ddkb00]

I finally dared to upgrade to firmware v4 from v1. Hm, only took me two months.

I have a basketball game to go to tomorrow, so hopefully I will see a difference.

Thanks everyone for all the tips.
Dawn

[Pink Dragonfly]

Thanks for reminding me! I'd kind of forgotten all about it... :blush2: At least now I can ask Dawn in beginners lingo if I'm having any trouble

Mette

[NoKnees]

Good luck! Remember to turn off the in camera high ISO noise reduction to get the most out of it. Additionally, take some practice shots early with a few different white balance settings, the only knock against the new firmware I've heard has been related to the AWB setting. I tend to use one of the fixed settings and shoot RAW if there is any doubt, so I have seen no issues.

Share the results of your shooting!

[ddkb00]

Mette,

The download went so fast I was sure I did something wrong. haha
And actually (if you want to know the truth) I did do it wrong the first time. But it turned out t be quite easy.
Well I am off to the game.

NoKnees,

Thanks for the tips, you have been great sharing, and I will try to share some of the pictures tonight when I get home.

Dawn

[Pink Dragonfly]

Thanks, Dawn Looking forward to seeing your shots!

Have fun!

Mette