Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Cameras...

The fun part about starting a hobby is the shopping. The process of surveying for the best specifications, reading through reviews, checking with peers, rummaging through forums, scouting for best bargains and then comes the finale. You purchase it and excitement stops.But then, for some hobby like dslr photography the fun doesn't have to stop there. The anticipation for getting the next gadgets continues. You got to have lenses. Good lenses.

I do not mean that the kit lens SAL17-70 is useless. It does won itself some pretty impressive rating from http://www.dyxum.com/. Same goes for the SAL70-200 which it is pretty sharp as compared to the SAL75-300.

But good is often the enemy of excellence. So the pursue has to continue.I knew the G lenses are out of my league (for now) and that there are loads of superb pre-owned minolta lenses at a bargain. I have basically been reading tons of reviews on the Minolta 50mm F1.7. Though with the crop factor of 1.5 this lens is actually a 75mm (not an ideal range), I read that it has some impressive sharpness even in low light conditions. And its excellent for portraits. This was my first "must haves'.I managed to hunt down a bargain at forum Free Trade Zone (Malaysian Photography). An old school minolta enthusiast put his Minolta 50mm F1.7 for sale at RM450. It was a no brainer. I called, we met after 30 minutes. Inspection shows no oily blades, no fungus, snappy operations. I took two shots. Wow!

I thought I would be content with the range offered by kitties 18-70mm, 70-210mm zoomy and super fast prime 50mm but then I saw picture like this:

Above: picture from ephotozine taken with Sigma APO 70-300mm. Taken using macro 1/800sec at f/8 and ISO500. Not that I want to make it my life purpose hunting down dragon flies and shooting them during flights. Not that I have the skills, at the moment, anyway. But there is something about the game of gadget chase that, if its out there, you got to have it. My range is currently limited to 200mm. I have to do something about it. Why 200mm when you can have 300mm?


The Sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG Macro offers a pretty decent image quality for the money. With a beautiful lens case.

I have been reading superb reviews about the Minolta 24-85mm and the Minolta 28-105mm. These are pretty old lenses like the Minolta 50mm F1.7, but there are plenty lying around Ebay if you are willing to pay for the shipping. These lenses are known for the legendary Minolta colours and sharpness for that price.

Above: The Minolta 28-105mm F3.5.
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Pictures below are taken at the Buttrefly and Bird park in KL.
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