p.3 #2 · Sony A900 initial impressions from 5D user
The new Phase One Capture One 4.5 Pro works really well with a900 files as well. Unfortunately for me, it requires Leopard OS X 10.5.5 which just does not run as well on my older hardware as Tiger. It's also a bit pricey. I was forced to test it on a PC for that reason. By the way, similar to the detail slider in ACR/Lightroom, I find the R-L Deconvolusion sharpening method works best for fine detail from Raw Developer set between 20-30 iterations.
p.3 #3 · Sony A900 initial impressions from 5D user
Can you share a little bit about the settings you used in Capture One Tariq? I'm still experimenting myself with the a900's raw files in various developers.
p.3 #4 · Sony A900 initial impressions from 5D user
I have not extensively used C1 4.5 Pro. All I did was a fairly quick check to see if it could read the "as shot" color from the a900 and assess detail. On both accounts, the results were very good/best performance I have seen and at least equal to Raw Developer. To try to replicate some of the Dynamic Optimizer effect, I did adjust the shadows and highlights under the High Dynamic Range slider. I also tweaked the curve between the shadows and mid tones to increase the local contrast in those areas which you tend to loose when you mess with the High Dynamic Range slider. To do this, I might pull the curve out slightly towards the middle and pull it back in higher in the highlights relative to the straight line curve. Sometimes it also helps to just barely pull it in somewhere in the bottom quarter. I don't know if that helps, but that's what I remember doing. The color and sharpening were left at default.
forestmage wrote:
Can you share a little bit about the settings you used in Capture One Tariq? I'm still experimenting myself with the a900's raw files in various developers.
p.3 #6 · Sony A900 initial impressions from 5D user
Tariq,
This was on the Imaging Resource review:
"When a DT lens is mounted, the camera automatically captures an APS-C sized frame. Only four thin brackets inside the viewfinder indicate where the cropping will occur; it does not gray-out as seen on the Nikon D3. Incidentally, you can choose to shoot an APS-C sized image when a full-frame lens is mounted in Settings menu 4. The image captured is 11 mega pixels maximum in that mode."
Is it true that you can choose to shoot an FF lens as if the sensor is APS and get an 11 MP image? Is there any difference between doing this and simply cropping the image in PS?
p.3 #7 · Sony A900 initial impressions from 5D user
Yes, it is true although the only benefit I see in doing so would be smaller file sizes. Otherwise, there is no difference between cropping an image later in PS.
wolfloid wrote:
Tariq,
This was on the Imaging Resource review:
"When a DT lens is mounted, the camera automatically captures an APS-C sized frame. Only four thin brackets inside the viewfinder indicate where the cropping will occur; it does not gray-out as seen on the Nikon D3. Incidentally, you can choose to shoot an APS-C sized image when a full-frame lens is mounted in Settings menu 4. The image captured is 11 mega pixels maximum in that mode."
Is it true that you can choose to shoot an FF lens as if the sensor is APS and get an 11 MP image? Is there any difference between doing this and simply cropping the image in PS?...Show more →
p.3 #8 · Sony A900 initial impressions from 5D user
Just thought I should add this raw conversion example for completeness to this thread:
Here is a quick and dirty controlled test I just did to show the per pixel quality the a900 is capable of producing. On the left are the exact sharpening settings that dpreview used . On the right, the same image converted with Raw Developer and using D-L convolusion sharpening with iterations set to 20. I think I can be happy with that per pixel quality. Lens was the Minolta 100 F2. If anyone wants the raw, let me know.
p.3 #10 · Sony A900 initial impressions from 5D user
moire wrote:
ACR really looks soft here ... If you have time could you add c1 results?
C1 default settings look very close to the Raw Developer results when using the deconvolution sharpening option. I think either of these converters are able to extract the most detail/least artifacts out of the a900 files. Those ACR results above are using the dpreview settings by the way which was to turn off sharpening in ACR and use unsharp mask in PS. Default ACR results will look better than that but not quite as good as the other two converters mentioned above. That's my experience anyway.
p.3 #11 · Sony A900 initial impressions from 5D user
Tariq,
Can you please list the other setting in RD you use on the sharpening page for A900 images. That is, you mentioned 20-30 iterations, but what is the radius used and what, if any, are your Noise Reduction settings. Thanks.
p.3 #12 · Sony A900 initial impressions from 5D user
rljones wrote:
Tariq,
Can you please list the other setting in RD you use on the sharpening page for A900 images. That is, you mentioned 20-30 iterations, but what is the radius used and what, if any, are your Noise Reduction settings. Thanks.
I'm not sure which page you mean exactly but I either use .5 or .6 for the radius. I either leave noise reduction at default(usually) or, for some landscape images such as the one I posted in this thread, I believe I turned noise reduction off. Everything will end up requiring slightly different settings for sharpness depending on subject matter, lens used, etc.
p.3 #13 · Sony A900 initial impressions from 5D user
tariq, it looks like you're really getting along well with your A900. These are some stunning files, and i'm very impressed with the DRO+ abilities. I am a jpeg shooter, and i love good out of camera files like that.
p.3 #14 · Sony A900 initial impressions from 5D user
ISO1600 wrote:
tariq, it looks like you're really getting along well with your A900. These are some stunning files, and i'm very impressed with the DRO+ abilities. I am a jpeg shooter, and i love good out of camera files like that.
I'm convinced that judicial use of the DRO+ function results in the best out of camera jpegs of any camera available at ISO's below 400. This plus the available fuji like color pallete should appeal to a lot of film shooters as well as Fuji S3-S5 fans who are used to great out of camera jpegs. Some of the files I see coming directly out of the camera remind me of looking at chromes/slides on a light table.
p.3 #15 · Sony A900 initial impressions from 5D user
tariq,
thanks. yes, the 0.6 radius (top of sharpening tab page with noise reduction settings in bottom half of same page), is what i was referring to.
your observations regarding colors, etc is what led me to switch over to the sony A700 about a year ago after i visited the sony center in tokyo. on my return, i ordered an A700 and began comparing to the 5D (Sigma SA14, etc) and found i really liked the colors i was getting with the sony.
i noticed you've used the 100/2.0. most of the minolta primes are truly wonderful lenses. i prefer the minolta 85/1.4 over the zeiss version. the 50/3.5 macro is a nice find if you come across one. the 24/2.8 (after a little adjustment with focusing in the A900) gives better images than the Zeiss 24-70/2.8 (CA at the outer 1/3 seem to exist at all f-stops with the Zeiss, but disappear with the Minolta prime by f4 to 5.6).
i've used Raw Developer for several years now through many systems. Brian, who runs it, is amazingly responsive to optimizing his product (so please support him).
p.3 #16 · Sony A900 initial impressions from 5D user
rljones wrote:
i noticed you've used the 100/2.0. most of the minolta primes are truly wonderful lenses. i prefer the minolta 85/1.4 over the zeiss version. the 50/3.5 macro is a nice find if you come across one. the 24/2.8 (after a little adjustment with focusing in the A900) gives better images than the Zeiss 24-70/2.8 (CA at the outer 1/3 seem to exist at all f-stops with the Zeiss, but disappear with the Minolta prime by f4 to 5.6).
i've used Raw Developer for several years now through many systems. Brian, who runs it, is amazingly responsive to optimizing his product (so please support him)....Show more →
I was looking for that 50 3.5 macro but could not find one so I'm currently awaiting the arrival of a used Minolta 50 2.8 Macro. I'm surprised to hear that the old Minolta 24 2.8 performs better at 24mm than the Zeiss Zoom. Perhaps I will give one of these a try.
I just bought a license for Raw Developer the other day. I'm very impressed with the way it handles just about anything I have thrown at it. It also does some interesting things when you resize/interpolate an image up in size compared to other methods and I quite like the results. It seems to add just a tiny bit of grain/noise which can mask other artifacts when going up in size.
p.3 #17 · Sony A900 initial impressions from 5D user
i started collecting lenses last year when i realized the A900 would become a reality in the near future. a few that i'd recommend if you can find them:
the 35/1.4 G is excellent in any version (minolta or sony). some CA at 1.4 but by 2.8 there is almost no CA and the image is very sharp. because of these findings, i sold my zeiss 24-70. i prefer the quality of primes (less CA) and don't like having a monster lens to carry around all day. (it is bulky and heavy; similar to the zoom for the contax 645, which i also got rid of.)
besides the minolta 85/1.4 i mentioned earlier, the short tele is well served by the sigma 70/2.8 is also a great lens in the sony mount with no visible CA. (thus, with the 24/2.8, 35/1.5, 50/3.5 and 70/2.8 or 85/1.4, are better covered than by the zeiss.)
the minolta/sony 100/2.8 macro (which itself is wonderful, but the 100/2.0 is better at infinity) is a very good lens. next, a Voigtlander (cosina) 125/2.5. wow. what a lens. but they made only a few copies with minolta/sony electric contacts. with this lens, the zeiss 135/1.8 and the 135 STF are not necessary. the resolving power of this lens exceeds the 100/2.8 macro. but yet has a bokeh not so far off from the STF.
i had the 135 STF and this is a great alternative to the Cosina, which will be very difficult to find now. even wide open the STF is amazingly sharp with bokeh better than the zeiss 135/1.8. but it, like the cosina, is manual focus.
the 200/2.8 APO (again: wow) and the 400/4.5 APO are worth getting. (the minolta 300/4 is nothing special. the 300/2.8 APO is nice, but a large lens.)
p.3 #19 · Sony A900 initial impressions from 5D user
rljones wrote:
i started collecting lenses last year when i realized the A900 would become a reality in the near future. a few that i'd recommend if you can find them:
the 35/1.4 G is excellent in any version (minolta or sony). some CA at 1.4 but by 2.8 there is almost no CA and the image is very sharp. because of these findings, i sold my zeiss 24-70. i prefer the quality of primes (less CA) and don't like having a monster lens to carry around all day. (it is bulky and heavy; similar to the zoom for the contax 645, which i also got rid of.)
besides the minolta 85/1.4 i mentioned earlier, the short tele is well served by the sigma 70/2.8 is also a great lens in the sony mount with no visible CA. (thus, with the 24/2.8, 35/1.5, 50/3.5 and 70/2.8 or 85/1.4, are better covered than by the zeiss.)
the minolta/sony 100/2.8 macro (which itself is wonderful, but the 100/2.0 is better at infinity) is a very good lens. next, a Voigtlander (cosina) 125/2.5. wow. what a lens. but they made only a few copies with minolta/sony electric contacts. with this lens, the zeiss 135/1.8 and the 135 STF are not necessary. the resolving power of this lens exceeds the 100/2.8 macro. but yet has a bokeh not so far off from the STF.
i had the 135 STF and this is a great alternative to the Cosina, which will be very difficult to find now. even wide open the STF is amazingly sharp with bokeh better than the zeiss 135/1.8. but it, like the cosina, is manual focus.
the 200/2.8 APO (again: wow) and the 400/4.5 APO are worth getting. (the minolta 300/4 is nothing special. the 300/2.8 APO is nice, but a large lens.)...Show more →
Much appreciate this information. I snagged a Minolta 24 f2.8 from KEH and it should arrive next week. Looking forward to testing it with the a900.
