Sony a6500 - First thoughts

My long suffering NEX 6 has been showing signs of age, in particular there were times when the camera would start clicking through the menu options. This I have been able to fix by switching off and rotating the control dials, so it is probably caused by dirt on the contacts. It's a very intermittent fault, and most of the time the camera is just fine, despite having taken a humengous number (39433) of shots.

So it came to pass that I decided to add an a6500 to this year's tax allowance.

First impressions, it's a bit heavier than the NEX and the grip is more ergonomically shaped and protrudes more. I'm not too keen on the extra mass, but the grip is better.

The electronic viewfinder is very good indeed, I had thought that it might be the same as that used in the NEX 6, but, combined with the extra pixels on the sensor, this does appear to be an improvement. I am finding that, with contrast detect set at minimum, I can now accurately focus using that aid and with the lower 5.9 x viewfinder  magnification. I was never fully confident of contrast detect on the NEX6, but this camera appears to have raised its game in that respect.

However the apparent increased sensitivity of the contrast detect function sometimes means that, even at the minimum setting, the focused image is a mass of colour, making composition more difficult. It would be useful if contrast detect could be switched off when not using a magnified view. I have programmed a button (C3) to allow me to quickly change the contrast detect mode, but I'm not sure if I will be making much use of it!

Then there are the menus, an overwhelming array of choices, but, for heritage lens users, the camera now appears to default to release without lens. whereas previously you would need to set that parameter.

I like the fact that you can program a button (C1 in my case) to select the focal length in use, in body stabilisation is a real boon for users of old lenses. It's early days as yet, but IS brings a real improvement to the use of heritage lenses on this camera. I've not carried out any rigorous testing, but I've used my 75-150 Pentax zoom (112-225 mm FF equivalent)  at 1/100th and obtained crisp results. It's not a panacea, if you bounce on the shutter release you will get blurred shots!

It also seems that you need to remember to change the focal length to be used with the IS system. I've inadvertently left it set at 150 mm and taken shots using a 12mm lens resulting in some motion blurred images. Of course this only applies to manual focus lenses, auto lenses automatically inform the camera of the focal length.

A further improvement is the ability to set the minimum shutter speed to be used with auto ISO, again I have programmed a button (C2) to set this. I need to do some rethinking about what those minimum values should be, now that I have IS in camera, but for static subjects, and shorter focal lengths, the previously available (NEX 6) 1/60th minimum is far too pessimistic.

Actually my needs are few, I normally shoot raw using auto ISO, and aperture priority, with the occasional descent into shutter speed priority and manual operation, so I don't need all those menus etc.

One slight negative, possibly due to my ignorance of the camera's capabilities, is the need to restore full frame magnification before shooting, whereas my NEX would jump back into shooting mode at a half press of the shutter. The manual states that this should happen with the a6500 too, but for some reason mine does not. It's probably user incompetence!

Update - a helpful chap on the DPreview forum pointed out that AF in Focus Mag. = OFF will enable the shutter release to cancel the magnification mode and jump back into shooting. I don't know if there are any drawbacks as yet, but my autofocus lenses seems to work fine with this setting.

My old lenses appear to be coping well with the increased pixel density, although the edge definition provided by my Pentax 28mm f2.8 is not great on distant views. It's fine close up, so I wonder if this is a field curvature problem?

I've now published the results of a quick test comparing the NEX 6 and a6500 at ISO1600

Revised 12-8-17

Fatfield, Washington last of Autumn Colour?

Went for a local walk yesterday. The morning started rather gloomily, but then the sun came out and there was still some colour in the leaves.

Reflections in Mount Pleasant Lake

Woods above the Wear valley on the south, or Penshaw, side

South View Fatfield - Perfect reflection in the river Wear

Sony NEX 6 Pentax 28 and 35 mm lenses

Helm Crag near Grasmere

We try to get across to the Lake District whenever we can spare the time and there is the chance of decent weather over there. It's been difficult of late, with rain coming in from the Atlantic keeping the west side of the country dull and plenty wet. However today's forecast was for sun.

Helm crag is a popular walk from Grasmere, but one that we had never tried. It's not far, about 2 miles, but there's a fair climb with a little bit of scrambling, particularly if you elect to climb the Lion rock.

Not for cars?

 

Climbing the crag you get a good view over towards Easedale where the stream was running full and could be clearly heard  from a distance. Easedale tarn is visible from the top of the Lion rock.

So much for the sunshine - Grasmere town and

lake from the crag

The Lion and Lamb rocks. Not the best view and no sense of scale. Best seen from the north I think when you can see the body of the "lion", and they are much larger than this image suggests.

View from the top of the Lion rock.

Sony NEX 6 - Pentax 28mm f3.5 K, Samsung 35mm f2, and Zuiko 50mm f1.4

Manual Focus 24mm lenses on Sony NEX 6

My wife carried out a long threatened tidying of my study when two old 24mm lenses were unearthed. They are a Tamron Adaptall 2 01B f2.5 and a Sigma f2.8 Super Wide II macro. The Tamron appears to have led a hard life, while the Sigma looks to be pristine. Thinking back, I may have saved the Tamron from the skip at work!

Despite its ropey appearance the Tamron appears to be in good working order with a slinky smooth focus and aperture adjustment. Tamron Adaptalls were well constructed. The Sigma has a slightly sticky aperture ring. It all works, but you feel that it might not continue without some attention.

I did a few tests in the street using a tripod when the Tamron did not shine at all, pretty soft down the edges, while the Sigma appeared to do better than the kit 16-50 Sony zoom. I therefore took the Sigma out for a proper trial today.

The results are a bit mixed. It seems to be prone to CA, although not excessively so, and, more worryingly, it is slightly soft down one side. Otherwise it produces nice clean, colour neutral but contrasty images  that look a deal better than those produced by the kit zoom. I had considered using it in preference to my "Standard" Pentax K 28mm f3.5, but that lens produces images that are  genuinely sharp from corner to corner on the crop sensor, so it will probably retain its place on the camera.

It has to be born in mind that these older lenses may have had a hard life, so, in addition to sample variation, maltreatment over the years may have caused a bit of damage. Tamrons are normally pretty sound, I suspect that mine is not representative of the breed!

Sigma 24mm f2.8 Super Wide II at f8

Click for a bigger image. No problems with sharpness here, but a touch of CA on the right hand edge of the actual pixels crop. To put this into perpective, it's easily removed in LR, and I've seen similar results  from a Canon L zoom. If you can source a good one, without misalignment issues, the Sigma could be a wise buy.

The Malmaison Hotel in Newcastle is located within an old co-operative society warehouse that is a listed building. It was one of the first ferro concrete constructions within the UK, and was built to the designs of a French engineer, who pioneered the technique, between 1900 and 1902.

Sony NEX 6

Focusing and using the the Sony NEX 6 with manual focus lenses

I've had the camera for several months now and taken around 6000 shots, mainly using manual focus lenses by Pentax and Olympus.

At first I tried the focus peaking facility, but found that it was either too in yer face, and blotted out parts of the composition, or it would result in false positives. I therefore changed my modus operandi to the 10 x magnification feature, and would focus with the aperture wide open, stopping down to shoot.

I have noted elsewhere that, if you do this, it is important to point the camera at a neutral tone and open the aperture before clicking for a magnified view. If you don't do this the camera may show a greatly overexposed image that is very difficult to assess. I guess that the camera's exposure system fixes a value based upon the 100% view, and uses that for the magnified image.  Opening the aperture after selecting magnify does not change the meter reading, the image will be overexposed.

More recently I have taken another look at focus peaking and have found that it works well if you set it at its minimum value and focus wide open, stopping down to shoot. This is a bit quicker than using 10x magnification and works for many subjects. With intrinsically low contrast scenes it is better to use the 10 x feature.

Another control that I make a great deal of use of is exposure compensation. If I have the time I will review each shot after taking the photo and then dial in some compensation to get a better exposure. Irritatingly, the camera will assume that you wish to move onto a different viewing mode if you are reviewing images, rather than answer to the  helm and adjust the exposure. In the past I would press the button that is used to toggle between reviewing shots and normal operation, but this button is hard to find with the camera to your eye. In fact a light press on the shutter release does the same thing, switching off the review and returning to normal mode. This may seem a trivial thing, but it has transformed my enjoyment of the camera.

Should this be necessary I hear you ask, is the exposure system so bad that you need to adjust every shot? In practice I find it reasonably reliable, no worse than the Canon DSLRs that I also use, but not perfect, and a small adjustment is often needed to optimise exposure. What about the exposure preview histogram then? Well I do use it on occasion, but it only tells a partial story, and the proof of the pudding is in the image recorded on the card.

What about the lenses that I use?

Well the star performer has to be the Zuiko 50mm f1.8. It's very sharp, does not suffer from CA, and provides neutrally coloured images, noticeably colder than the Sony lenses that I have. Unfortunately, with an equivalent angle of view as an 80mm lens on a FF camera, it's not the most useful of focal lengths.

The Samsung/Pentax 35mm f2 is another very good lens, but this is a rather more expensive optic and you might expect it to do well. Mine cost me £175 a few years ago ( it's a Pentax/Samsung auto focus job).

I have tried three heritage 28mm f2.8 lenses. A pentax M, a Zuiko and a Canon FT. I was least impressed with the Canon, maybe I got a bad copy, I took it back and swapped it for the Zuiko. There isn't much to choose between the Pentax and Zuiko lenses, they are both sharper than the standard Sony Zoom, without being exceptional, while they both suffer from CA. My copy of the Pentax is a little better than  the Zuiko, as that exhibits some softness down one edge - again probably something peculiar to the particular lens that I possess. However the Pentax does suffer from some noticeable barrel distortion, fixable but annoying. I find the Pentax 28mm is my most used lens (42 mm FF equivalent), it is my default choice, near to ideal for many of the shots that I like to take. I shall continue my search for a really good, but economical, 28mm optic!

I also possess Pentax f3.5 M and K 28mm lenses, and I am tempted to give them a run out. The older K design always produced excellent results on my film cameras, and surely the CA can't be any worse than the M f2,8! (Update - see later post, the Pentax 28mm f3.5 K is a very good choice).

The Sigma 19mm is OK to Good, not perfect. I tend to use it as an auto focus lens, and, perhaps as a result, get more unacceptably unsharp shots from it than I do with my older manual focus lenses. I like to know what I am focusing on, and auto focus systems always seem to have a mind of their own. Maybe they know they are in the hands of a Luddite and act accordingly.

The Sony 55-210 lens is a reasonably good performer, particularly considering the price, but it's far from perfect. I have had mine back for adjustment, after finding some shots very badly soft down one edge, and it is now a lot better, but I still get some less than crisp edge details. I also find that it produces very warm images, almost as though there was a warming filter attached. It's a personal thing, but I prefer the colder, more realistic, results from my 50mm Zuiko.

Sony 55-210 warm rendering

Zuiko 50mm F1.8 cold rendering

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