After spending 3 years with my faithful and sturdy consumer grade camera Pentax Optio S55 (which had survived a bounce off a pavement, a drop into a puddle of water, a orange-juice spill plus rough and careless handling), I’m finally switching to a new camera :) and it’s no longer a consumer-grade, point-and-shoot camera. Instead of opting for the water, shock, freeze and whatever-proof Olympus Mju Stylus 720SW and the 20x optical zoom, prosumer-grade Olympus SP-570 UZ, I’ve decided to pick the Sony Alpha 200 dSLR camera. I would not go on to the details, but what I really like about it is the Supersteady Shot (which uses CCD-shift instead of lens-based optical stabilisation), sturdy build and the twin lenses package!
I just got it yesterday (in fact, less than 24 hours ago) and I’ve taken a total of 388 photos so far, which translates to about 24 photos per hour (excluding that 7 hours of beauty sleep = 16 hours in total). Well, that’s a lot! I bought it at a price of MYR2,850, and we wouldn’t stop asking the kind salesgirl for cheaper accessories and freebies. In the end, the entire package came with:
- Camera body (which is a duh!)
- Twin lenses
- Camera bag
- Shoulder Strap
- Tripod (woots! Now I can take night shots sans my shaky hands)
- 8GB Memory StickDuo card plus a CF card adaptor
- Two UV filters (perfect for landscape shots!)
- Instruction manuals in 5 different languages (namely Arabic, Chinese, English, Portuguese and Spanish)
I spent a few hours familiarising myself with the controls as well as playing around with the Shutter and Aperture priority modes (because it was what I’m looking for if I ever wanted to get a dSLR). Just as the plethora of camera reviews promised, the photos came out terribly awesome with almost little noise at ISO400 and below. It gets a little noisy at higher ISO settings, but heck, it’s better than the best shot I’ve ever got with my Pentax.
So before I log off and spend another day playing with my new love, I shall share a few photos I’ve taken so far. Anyway, the same old stuff, each photo is a thumbnail and is thus clickable – the larger version will be displayed in a lightbox. Have fun!
Wide Angle
The SAL1870 lens that comes along with the camera (you’ll get it too if you purchase the single lens kit) did extraordinarily good for indoor shots, since it comes with a pretty wide angle of view and thus can include more subjects into the photo without needing you to back all the way up against the wall.
For the last photo, I’ve uploaded it to Flickr as well, but I’ve flipped the canvas horizontally during post-processing.
Macros
I stayed over at my aunt’s house for the first night with my camera – not only because she’s a very nice person (and her sister, my other aunt, is equally angelic) to talk to, but also because I love her garden and her immediate neighbourhood that is flushed with greenery.
Panoramas
Yeap, I am a big panorama-fanatic and so wide angle lens means that I can stitch a panorama with less images :) plus the barrel distortion in the lens isn’t that distruptive, so Autostitch still manages to give me a decent panorama. A downside is that due to the limitations of my current laptop (which has a measly 512MB RAM), I’ll have to resize images before stitching them together (well, a 3800+px photo will be too big for my RAM to handle).
For the second panorama, I know a tilted crop is in desperate need but I was too lazy to do it :razz: heheh. Anyway it’s made possible with the Shutter Priority mode! To get more details and possible trails of lights from passing cars, I’ve set the shutter speed to 20 seconds – yea I know that’s a little bit of overdose!
And to wrap up…
A photo with my aunts and grandaunt!
My right eye (which is to your left) looks a little weird. Hmmm. Anyway, this should be the first time I’m posting a photo of myself, close enough for you to identify the person behind this blog :razz: heh!
Postscript
In case you’re wondering why my blog was loading ever so slowly for the past few days… I’ve got an email from my host today morning explaning that they’ve experienced a hard disk crash during that time. I’m glad that they’ve recovered all the data (phew!) and now the server is up and running. Dear readers, sorry for the inconvenience!
Eh? RM 2,850.. thats huge!
I was thinking of getting either A200 or A400, but on second thought, I dont think I have the time to snap around.
A400 – RM 1800 (basic). Is A200 superior to A400?
Must be fortunate to have such generous parents (LoL)
Actually the single lens package is about MYR2,000 only :) but I opted for twin lenses package because the second lens comes in a cheaper price. As far as I know, there are currently 5 Sony dSLR models in the Alpha series: α100, α200, α300, α350 and α700. α200 is the successor of α100 but is now succeeded by α300 and α350 (both models have Live View, which means you see what’s the optical viewfinder is seeing through the LCD screen, just like in the usual digital cameras). α700 is too expensive for me, haha!
Silap silap. Its not A400 its A300 I was drooling for.
Single lens package for RM 2000? You should really find some ‘lubang’. My friend got it for RM 1600. Anyway, you bought it. What’s important is the warranty and having bought from a reliable company saves you the hassle of sending it for warranty claim.
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Actually α300 and α350 are almost the same, except for the number of megapixels they have. Although α350 has 14.2MP, the image quality still fails to reach that of the 12.2MP of α700.
The price quotation is from the appointed Sony retailers, haha. There’s not much room for bargaining or haggling, but you can ask for cheaper accessories if you’re buying their cameras – they’re more than willing to give you freebies and discounts :)
Yep warranty is extremely important! And the good thing is that if you’re a Sony α user, you can have your camera cleaned for free as long as your warranty is valid. Cool!
waaaalllllllaaaaaaaaaaaa! What a surprise, finally u grab it one, the Sony Alpha 200. OMG twin lenses! hehe. It doesn’t matter what kind of brand u buy, but the important thing is who will use it. I’m sure, with your magic fingers, brilliant imagination, u will create a masterpiece bro.. Hehe Keep it up and love photography, pls make me jealous with ur stunning photos!
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almost forgot! by the way, really cool photos! ehehe and wanna ask something, are u using lightbox pluggin?
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The reason behind my choice is simple – budget :razz: other entry-level dSLR are a little too expensive for me, so I opted for Alpha 200 instead. Anyway I find it a joy to use so far! The other lens is actually a telephoto lens, I think I’ll only use it when I want to spy one somebody, muahaha. Thanks for the compliments, you’re way too generous! I don’t have magic fingers and all those stuff la, haha! My work pales in comparison if you try looking at what professional photographers have shared on Flickr. Mine is just amateur photos, lol!
Anyway you’re photos are brilliant as well, you’re just being very humble! I love your latest post, where the buildings are brightly illuminated at night and there’s nobody on the streets! Well it takes a lot of courage to head out in the wee hours of the morning!
I’m using a WordPress plugin called Lightbox 2.0 for WordPress. There’s quite a number of other Lightbox plugins available (after a simple Google search), so yeap basically you have a lot of choices! If you are going after functionality and customisability, I recommend this Lightbox plugin.
how inspiring! That’s wonderful that you get to get such an amazing new gadget! Gotta love wide angles and stitching abilities of photoshop. LOL. :)
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cool buy…i am sure u will make very good full use of it ;)
more great photos for us to see hehehe
Haha.. ya ya.. very close enough :eek:
I like the photos under MACROS.
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didnt know that you’re getting sony alpha.
i’m targetting canon 400d, but the price is beyond my budget. Initially, i wanted to get sony alpha (because my friend also using that, and we can exchange lens), but my sony t10 perform badly under room lighting and dark condition.
However, after seeing the pictures taken by your a200, i’ll reconsider a350 again.
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TERRY， 照片拍得很棒！表姨喜欢“手和花生”的那张相片。
刚刚把你的照片开了给THANG BY和3姨婆看了，全家照那张拍得好哇，我们都很喜欢。下次来要记得给邻居KIKI拍张哦~~
Congrats on your new camera!! It looks so fantastic, the quality of the photos are amazing. I’m jealous that you were able to get lenses with them… I’m hoping I can get wide lenses from my family this year… it would make everything so much more better. Your macros are shots worth to die for… alas, I do not have the skills like yours…
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@letti
Panorama stitching can be done through Photoshop, but so far it’s still imperfect to a certain extent. It will be better if you can use Autostitch, which is completely free for personal use, and most importantly, create nearly flawless panoramas.
@med
Yea I definitely will, thanks!
@saffa
Oh thanks! The macro’s set is my favourite as well… right after the panoramas! I definitely love the wide angle shots.
@hp84
I was kind of trying to keep it a secret from everyone because I wasn’t even sure whether my parents are willing to splurge on something that is so expensive, haha! But I’m glad that in the end, they did. My budget was under MYR3,000, so I’m basically left with Sony α200. I’ve taken into consideration the money I’ll have to spend on accessories, such as a Memory StickDuo, a CF card adaptor, camera bag (it doesn’t come with the camera, geez) and tripod (I need it very badly).
Most consumer-grade camera perform badly for indoor shots because many of them have misaligned flash lights (thus casting a shadow on subjects) and that their flash are usually too harsh. Combined with the inability to have control over shutter speed or aperture, this is a lethal weakness for consumer-grade cameras for indoor shooting.
α350 is great, and I recommend you to get it if it’s not beyond your budget. It comes with a tilting LCD screen and so you don’t need to bend your body in order to get your eyes near the optical viewfinder :)
@YONG YONG BY
Thank you! Do you know that in that photo with the peanuts, it’s actually your hand? I just realised it because of the pattern on the teeshirt the person is wearing. I can’t believe that I’m so forgetful to forget to take a photo of that adorable beagle, Kiki, next door! Next time when I drop by your house, I’ll definitely remember to do this.
@Destiny
Thank you! The amazing quality of the photos is actually due to a combination of several factors – the CCD-shift optical stabilisation technology in the camera (they call it ‘Supersteady Shot’), the huge CCD sensor (which delivers photos up to a resolution of 3872*2592) as well as the noise reduction mechanism (which is present in most dSLRs).
Wide angle lenses are extremely useful for indoor group photo taking (where distance between the subjects and photographer is limited) as well as landscape photography.
Awww don’t say that, I bet your photos will be equally, or even more, brilliant than mine if you get your lenses too!
虾米？ :shock:
那是我的手哦~~我不记得我有吃花生耶。嘻嘻，加油啊~~等看你云顶拍的照片。
Ahhh, no wonder la everytime i land here, it kinda lag.
Anyway, congrats on ur new toy! New camera must show more pics u know! Hahaha.
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Hey congrats dude! Wow, you jump to a package even more expensive than my current setup, haha. =D Get a good lowepro bag, =D And well, if you really like landscape, go for a CPL filter, =)
Congrats dude, it’s a real fine camera, I just land my hand on one that day, it’s very cool and packs a lot of technology, hehe. =D
Enjoy, I know how excited you’re, heheheheh. :lol: :lol:
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hey… you look a lot taller now :shock:
photoshop? hehe kidding.
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@Levine
Yea I think the harddrive crash was quite serious. Luckily they’ve recovered everything! Will be spamming photos in the next few updates, so… lo and behold!
@ingSiang
Woah are you serious? Lol but I guess the accessories adds quite a lot to the original price. I wanted to get a camera pouch but it’s too expensive so I’ve settled for the free camera bag instead (which is extremely bulky, but heck, at least it’s better than nothing).
I have a UV filter already, which helped me a lot by clearing up hazy landscapes due to UV light refraction. The next one on my list is a PL filter, since it enables me to shoot through water and eliminate unnecssary glares from reflective objects. Is there a difference between PL and CPL filters?
@lix
LOL! Of course I’ve grown taller – I wouldn’t want to be stuck at that high-school height. A little taller will be better, heh.
Beautiful photos! The camera really captures color very well! Can’t wait to see more photos when they come! My favorite picture has got to be the brick tho! :)
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Such lovely photos! Finally you can get your hands on a dSLR camera!!! I’m still dying to get one which is in a few years time :mrgreen: I don’t think the server is entirely fixed yet as my blog is still down. :sad: Have a good day! :razz:
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congrats for ur new camera brother.. :)
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[...] Got a new dSLR – Sony Alpha 200! [...]
Oh my goodness! I absolutely love this camera! I have seen commercials and various people talking about it, but I cannot get over the panorama shots! I love that. I would love to do a panorama shot of the main avenue that crosses through my university. Or of the “vastness” of my bedroom. Speaking of bedrooms, your Auntie has excellent taste in linens and that wardrobe is beautiful! I am trying very, very, very hard to get a Canon ANYTHING. I’ve only ever had point & shoot, and my first and only Casio point & shoot died in July after 3.5 years of excellent service. I had a small and simple funeral for it and now it rests quietly in the back of one of my drawers. :cry:
Hey Melle! Thanks for dropping a comment! It has been a long time since we’ve talked… geee! Speaking of the panorama shots, I’m wondering if you know that this application, Autostitch, does a great job – I’ve been using it to create all my panoramas! And guess what, it’s free!
I couldn’t wait to see the photos you’ll be posting when you get a new camera. Teehee! Actually to get great photos you don’t need to have a great camera – it’s the photographer that makes a difference. Of course better cameras can complement your style too!
Canon cameras are great! I chose to settle for Sony because of my budget restraints… and nowadays better dSLRs keep rolling out and I am regretting that I didn’t opt to wait a little longer. Heh!
Sorry to hear about the passing of your camera. I have a point and shoot Pentax camera, about 3 years old, now under dad’s ownership. I told him to get a new one because I’m expecting it to die soon too. You’re such a sweet and sentimental person – for keeping the spoiled camera in your drawer! You reminded me of an uncle of mine (he passed away already though) who kept a double-lens reflex camera at home. It died on him about 10 years ago but he still kept it until the day he passed away. Awww!
p/s: I couldn’t help but be very excited of your new website!