Some questions...

[dormy]

1)
Does anyone here use creative style function? If so what are your preferred settings?
Or do you all just shoot in raw and edit later?

2)
I have the kit 18-70mm lens, should i go for a 75-250mm or 75-200mm lens (3rd party)? I wanna do both macro and telephoto. what about close up macro (insects/flowers) what lens should i get?

3)
I see some photographers using a lens hood, do I need it for my lens?

4)
Do you guys turn off autofocus when doing landscape photography?

many thanks!

[greenieadi]

1. Yes, I do use Vivid or Neutral most of the time. But I don't have any preferred settings, up for you to fiddle around to create your own style.
I do shoot raw almost all the time and to post-process is part of my workflow.

2. If you're not exclusively into macro or telephoto, Sony 18-250mm is a good start. But I'll choose the Sony 70-300mm G lens, quite sharp for macro and 300mm is a good reach for telephoto. But to be honest it's never long enough for telephoto even if I use the Sony 500mm AF Reflex. But for zoo outing 300mm should be long enough.
But if you want to do more frequent macro shooting a dedicated lens like Sony 50mm/100mm f2.8 Macro or Tamron 90mm / 180mm macro is the choice. For telephoto can consider longer reach like Sigma 50-500mm or Tamron 200-500mm, both are heavy.

3. I use it for outdoor shoot to minimize flare and also as a protection against lens from being scratched.

4. No, I use AF.

Anyway, all the four question answered is based on my style. You must find out what you are comfortable with. For me I bought a 2nd hand FZ50+Close-up filter+2 slave flash+diffusers for macrophotography as I felt a dedicated macro lens is a waste of money. I don't do macro often and the FZ50 can be my backup cam or my wife can use for hoiday trips.

My 2cents.

[dormy]

ok thanks for the reply
but when i do landscape photography (esp shots with sky/clouds), my lens can't get a focus, so i have to shift my camera to focus on something first (press shutter halfway) then shift the camera again to re-compose the shot

[doomslayerz]

look for a cheap 55-200 sony lens around the classifieds maybe?

[pipo999]

Originally Posted by dormy ok thanks for the reply but when i do landscape photography (esp shots with sky/clouds), my lens can't get a focus, so i have to shift my camera to focus on something first (press shutter halfway) then shift the camera again to re-compose the shot

Not sure what lens you are using but try to focus on a specific object. Reading from your sentence you lens cannot get the focus and starts 'hunting', meaning it zooms up and down but does not get the focus set.

RAW is like a digital negative and allows you to correct a shot that normally might be worthless, for instance, due to white balance issues. IF your camera allows you and your memory card is big enough you might want to set RAW+JPEG, this allows you all possible freedom.

[simranjits]

Why not manual focus and set focus to infinity , everything will be in focus? thats the proper technique to take fast street shots.

[weishengg]

Originally Posted by simranjits Why not manual focus and set focus to infinity , everything will be in focus? thats the proper technique to take fast street shots.

hmm... i think the proper term is hyperfocal distance?

[Galdor]

Originally Posted by dormy 1) Does anyone here use creative style function? If so what are your preferred settings? Or do you all just shoot in raw and edit later? 2) I have the kit 18-70mm lens, should i go for a 75-250mm or 75-200mm lens (3rd party)? I wanna do both macro and telephoto. what about close up macro (insects/flowers) what lens should i get? 3) I see some photographers using a lens hood, do I need it for my lens? 4) Do you guys turn off autofocus when doing landscape photography? many thanks!

Hi,

1) Yes I use the Vivid mode at time.

2) Option 1 - Go for the beercan. Cheap & great quality although it'll only give you a reach of 210mm.

Option 2 - Sigma 75-200mm f2.8-3.5 Cheap & fast lens.

Option 3 - Hunt for the older Minolta 75-300mm (Big beercan).

For macro, you can consider the following lenses:

i) Minolta/Sony 50mm Macro
ii) Sigma 70mm Macro
iii) Tamron 90mm Macro
iv) Minolta/Sony 100mm Macro
v) Sigma/Tamron 105mm Macro
vi) Sigma/Tamron 150mm/180mm Macro

or use a Raynox close up filter on your kit lens.

3) Depending on yourself. I know there are photographers out there who do not use the hood and they will use their hands if necessary to block off stray lights. Personally I feel that it's good to have since it's provided with the lens, why not just use it.

4) No, I use AF.

You can try to focus on something which has high contrast first or MF if you have difficulties getting the AF to work.

[haylui]

1. i use standard at time
2. i am using the 70-300mm kit lens and happy with it
3. i seldom use a lens hood, but will try to use it when walk around since there is one time i nearly scretch my lens on a lamp pillar (phew)....
4. MF, camera would be fooled by plain colour background or at very low contrast

[sherchoo]

Does anyone here use creative style function? If so what are your preferred settings?
Or do you all just shoot in raw and edit later?
Never shoot RAW... yet

2)
I have the kit 18-70mm lens, should i go for a 75-250mm or 75-200mm lens (3rd party)? I wanna do both macro and telephoto. what about close up macro (insects/flowers) what lens should i get?
I would avoid an all in one lens. If you're looking to do macro, you'll need to invest in a macro lens. I went thru the same thing and ended up wasted spending on a few lens but all I need was a Tamron 90mm f2.8 (cheap and great macro lens). It was good for most macro but lack the working distance. That's where a Tamron 180mm f3.5 will come in handy.

3)
I see some photographers using a lens hood, do I need it for my lens?
Nope

4)
Do you guys turn off autofocus when doing landscape photography?
Most of the time

many thanks!

[boombox]

1)
Does anyone here use creative style function? If so what are your preferred settings?
Or do you all just shoot in raw and edit later?

Well, if I do go Jpeg, I'd use Neutral, but if situation calls - and that I have to shoot and print on the spot, I may change to a variety of Creative Styles - from B/W to Sepia (on a700)

If I do RAW or cRAW, I'd usually go AdobeRGB mode.



2)
I have the kit 18-70mm lens, should i go for a 75-250mm or 75-200mm lens (3rd party)? I wanna do both macro and telephoto. what about close up macro (insects/flowers) what lens should i get?

You can get a bunch of lenses, or just get one that can do most of it, but if you are getting just one - prepare to sacrifice a bit of quality...

Insects, especially the skittish ones, require you to have further stand off distance - Insectmen and women usually choose the Tamron 180mm Macro for the job.

Flowers usually don't demand that great a magnification due to their sizes. and the one lens that I see that can fit much of your needs is the 70-210mm f4 beercan. With 0.25x magnification, and a reach of 210mm at the long end while not sacrificing aperture size, it's a very good investment. Solid construction, beautiful image quality, this lens is a legendary piece that needs no introduction. Unmodified it can do some decent flower shots...

But if you want to work with insect shots without breaking your bank and still have a reasonable amount of quality - it's recommended that you use a stack of close up filters (should the Tamron 180 be too hefty on your bank, which i think at this juncture - you are still at an exploratory stage - and investing right now may be unwise for your economics as you may have second thoughts about a genre of photography - in this case, macro altogether)... Some members have used the Raynox close up filters, for example, to a great effect, and they shot insects pretty well, just not the very skittish ones, because close up filters usually need you to be so close that you may accidentally squish some of them while shooting... (as well as scaring away bees, and butterflies)



3)
I see some photographers using a lens hood, do I need it for my lens?

Your current 18-70 is extremely flare resistant... and usually the hood becomes something that protects your lens from physical damage, but for older generation lenses, especially the KM, film era lenses, they are vulnerable from lens flare, so it's a good bet to keep them on.



4)
Do you guys turn off autofocus when doing landscape photography?

Well, I usually use AF to more or less get to that mostly, then after that, I'd disengage and do fine tuning. That is provided your diopters' well adjusted before hand.