I shoot alot with two bodies now, M9 and A7.mod. Less dust and lens changes. Usually I use the A7 for 50 and longer, M9 for 35 and shorter, though of course I break that rule from time to time. With A7 I used 50 cron, 75 and 90 Summarits, 135/3.4 and then my longer stuff, 180 ED, 300 and 500 nikkors.
Charles, it took me years to appreciate the 50 cron. What you show, and what few realize, is the lens is so good close. According to Puts it actually outperforms the 50 Lux ASPH at MFD. Yet that seems to take nothing away from incredible infinity performance at 5.6 +
The Moab area is really off the hook for all sorts of photography. The town itself is a great subject. If you like cars, there are all sorts of very interesting wheeled vehicles. Wide range of people. The nature has many "looks" and the flowers alone are really sweet. You see DSLRs everywhere, which means few bat an eye when you shoot. People of all types are very very friendly: strikingly so.
You can fly in wearing a bathing suit, and rent anything you would ever need in Moab. A fully modified Jeep is around 200 a day. Of course I drove down with all my gear from Idaho. ...Show more →
Really impressed by your work in the last pages... only to mention someone, but without detracting others, Jordan with Hocking Hills series, Joshua with Monument Valley panoramas, René with the variety of the subjects, Ronny with the incredible-dreamlike visions of Iceland, Chuck with the inspiring stacked captures, brick33308 with the street portraits serie, Charlie with the Moab area series
From me a jump back to Venice with Joshua, Bobby and Luz... I'd like to share with you the incredible lesson Joshua gave me that night. Can you see the three people with umbrella on the first pic?!? Well, those people seems to me like a problem because in that windy an rainy evening I wanted to capture the square lights and reflection due to "acqua alta" so I lost time hoping they move away... after some moments Joshua said me "What idea! Could you help me to ask these girls to pose for us?" I was stunned by the ability to transform a problem into an opportunity... so stunned that for the rest of the evening I limited myself to help Joshua to take pictures he had in mind and the result has been very funny... Joshua, thanks for the lesson and would be nice to see your result of that session here
ManuelLaMantia wrote:
Really impressed by your work in the last pages... only to mention someone, but without detracting others, Jordan with Hocking Hills series, Joshua with Monument Valley panoramas, René with the variety of the subjects, Ronny with the incredible-dreamlike visions of Iceland, Chuck with the inspiring stacked captures, brick33308 with the street portraits serie, Charlie with the Moab area series
From me a jump back to Venice with Joshua, Bobby and Luz... I'd like to share with you the incredible lesson Joshua gave me that night. Can you see the three people with umbrella on the first pic?!? Well, those people seems to me like a problem because in that windy an rainy evening I wanted to capture the square lights and reflection due to "acqua alta" so I lost time hoping they move away... after some moments Joshua said me "What idea! Could you help me to ask these girls to pose for us?" I was stunned by the ability to transform a problem into an opportunity... so stunned that for the rest of the evening I limited myself to help Joshua to take pictures he had in mind and the result has been very funny... Joshua, thanks for the lesson and would be nice to see your result of that session here
All with Zony 16-35 f/4 @f/8
Manuel...Show more →
Hi Manuel,
Your images are great! We did get semi wet but we did have fun that night, didn't we? I am not home right now and I can post some images from that night later on. BTW, thank you for your kind words!
From Watkins Glen this morning, a good portion of the Gorge Trail was closed...but it was an unplanned visit anyway. All shots taken with the Sony a7R II.
Here are 2 more images from the Lower Antelope Canyon. The sun does shine through an opening in the sculpted sandstone at around 10:30 for several minutes and with a little "trick", you can make that light path visible. If you look closely, you can see sand/dust trickling through under the light path . The second image shows how narrow the passage in some sections of the canyon. You can barely fit through.
AGeoJO wrote:
Here are 2 more images from the Lower Antelope Canyon. The sun does shine through an opening in the sculpted sandstone at around 10:30 for several minutes and with a little "trick", you can make that light path visible. If you look closely, you can see sand/dust trickling through under the light path . The second image shows how narrow the passage in some sections of the canyon. You can barely fit through.
uhoh7 wrote:
Charles, it took me years to appreciate the 50 cron. What you show, and what few realize, is the lens is so good close. According to Puts it actually outperforms the 50 Lux ASPH at MFD. Yet that seems to take nothing away from incredible infinity performance at 5.6 +
Charlie, very nice! Yes I would like to see the curves for the 50 Cron IV. As you mentioned Puts mentions that the 50 Cron IV is indistinguishable from the 50 Lux Asph at comparable f stops on the M9. In essence the 50 Cron IV for whatever reasons seems unaffected by the thicker glass on the sensor with the A7rII whereas the 50 Lux Asph is problematic. I would have thought the 50 Cron IV having been designed for film may not behave well.
I have sold recently my two 50 Cron DR which was a favorite of mine as it seem to lose a lot of edge definition with the A7rII whereas with the A7s it was fine.
The other issue is getting the adapters right. The 50 Cron IV has amazing detail catching ability and the adapter has to be right. I tested 3 VM-E adapters and the last one was fine. I am in the market for a backup 50 Cron IV as this lens is so small/light, I prefer this lens to just about anything else when I travel light.
Portrait shot this afternoon with 50 Cron IV and A7rII @f/2.0 of Marisa on our long weekend. Default sharpening to "0", and contrast reduced by -20. WB balanced adjusted.
At least it was a spectacular sunset! 
