New A100 Auxilary Lenses

[Steele Productions]

I just purchased an A100, this is my first DSLR and first venture into photography. I own and operate a video production company so I have been shooting video and film for a long time. I am going to be shooting stills for a manufacturing client, they have a huge manufacturing floor that I need to take some pictures of and I am worried about having a lens that is wide enough. I would love to drop six or seven hundred dollars on a really nice super wide lens but I shot my budget on the camera. How are the auxilary lenses, I am interested in a fisheye and wide angle, can anyone make some suggestions, I appreciate the help.

[cr_mmurillo]

Well there is a fisheye lens that's new SAL-16F28 - 16mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens for $999. It can shoot 180 degrees. That should be enough to cover the floor.



Sony Accesorries

[Photo-John]

He's talking about screw-on, converter lenses, Matt. And the reason they're so cheap is that they're pretty crappy. If you've got a paying client, I would make the investment in a good lens. Better to spend a little more than have an unhappy client and have to do the job over.

Another option is to shoot multiple frames and stitch them together. You could easily do that with a tripod and the kit lens.

[Steele Productions]

PJ, Thanks for the advise. I am glad I asked for advise before I took the chance and wasted my money on poor equipment.
Any tricks to taking multiple shots to cut together? I have done it in the past and had some difficulty, the shots would match in some areas but not in others.

[Photo-John]

PJ, Thanks for the advise. I am glad I asked for advise before I took the chance and wasted my money on poor equipment.
Any tricks to taking multiple shots to cut together? I have done it in the past and had some difficulty, the shots would match in some areas but not in others.

I haven't done any really difficult stitching. There are very definite techniques and a lot of software available. I think you should post on the Digital Imaging forum and see if anyone there can help. You can also check the panoramic software reviews and the panoramic gallery category. Ask the people posting panoramics in the gallery what they're using. I think that Photoshop CS and CS2 include some powerful stitching tools, but I haven't tried them.

[Sushigaijin]

hi.

The sony brand accessory lenses are of high quality. This is contrary to what we have learned about screw on adaptor lenses over the last couple of decades, but sony has really done well with their current line.

Here is a full-frame image taken with the vcl-m3358. The m3358 is an accessory close-up lens, of the same quality as the WA, TC, etc that sony manufactures. The optics are good, the color is good, the resolving is good - I would suggest that the sony brand accessory lenses are a worthy solution for some situations, among them being lack of money for expensive lenses. Canon also makes some nice accessory lenses. I cannot and will not vouche for other manufacturers, I do know that a lot of them suck.

camera is sony DSC-H5, VCL-M3358. EXIF embedded. Obviously the A100 is going to take better pictures, but hopefully this will convey my confidence in the accessory lenses.

Erik.

[Jingle]

Super shot, simply stunning. I am also doing Macro shooting lately but not this close as yet. I still have to find a new Macro lens as my old 100m Macro is now 150m on KMDSLR. Of course it is good for the telephoto and long lenses as you get more lenght. My 20M wide angle is now a normal lens.