luben solev
Senior Member
Hi All,
I have looked through the 828 manual and unfortunately it looks as though I won’t be getting in line to get one. I love my 717 and I think it is a great camera, and I was in two minds of whether to buy the 828 or wait for the 10D replacement. Sony has made up my mind by not introducing the following much needed improvements to the camera:
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Low-light photography
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Infrared
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Tragically, shooting landscapes at f2 through a 3 filter stack (ND8 + ND2 + R72) really does kill a lot of the quality produced by the Zeiss glass and Sony CCD chip. I think it is a great shame that Sony is crippling its technology in such a way.
And this is what happens when you try to stitch the above image:
The reason to shoot IR this way is to achieve the false-colour IR look as shown on this image:
I have been told here that this is due to the fact that the blocking mirror is not multi-coated (as are Hoya filters and the Zeiss lens elements). If this is the case, then to replace it with a coated blocking mirror will be much appreciated and probably not that difficult.
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Timelapse
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Sony is one of the few companies that does NOT offer timelapse functionality on such a highly priced digital still camera. The irony is in the fact that Sony is the market leader in video capture with their Broadcast & Film camera offerings and as such should be far more used to timelapse than purely photographic companies such as say Nikon.
So how about looking at the 717 as a method of producing HD (1920x1080) or 2K (2048 x 1556) timelapse video at the fraction of the cost of a broadcast camera?
For usable timelapse the camera needs to be able to connect to a PC and allow the PC to control all aspects of the camera (including shutter, aperture and zoom). As the timelapse shots are taken they can be streamed onto the PC thus allowing far more frames to be taken without running out of Memory Stick space (1 minute sequence = 1800 frames in US and 1500 in UK & at 8MP RAW mode that will require a lot of memory!!!) Plus the camera needs to have enough battery life (or ability to connect to external power source) to take that many shots.
Sony has done three things that I was looking for:
I will of course continue to use my 717 which has served me brilliantly. After I get my 10D replacement, I will replace the IR blocking filter in front of the CCD and then use the 717 exclusively for IR work.
Just my 2 pence
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Luben
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The world is not black and white, but different shades of grey.
I have looked through the 828 manual and unfortunately it looks as though I won’t be getting in line to get one. I love my 717 and I think it is a great camera, and I was in two minds of whether to buy the 828 or wait for the 10D replacement. Sony has made up my mind by not introducing the following much needed improvements to the camera:
++++++++
Low-light photography
++++++++
- Noise reduction needs to be done on the fly and not as a second exposure. Imagine doing fireworks or funfair rides - shooting with the 717 means that you miss 50% of the event, while you are waiting for the NR to do its thing. And one can’t even use this time to reframe in preparation for the next shot, since the LCD is black. And when you are taking 15-30sec exposures it can really kill your time.
- Ability to take longer exposures than 30 seconds (2 minutes would be great) + a Bulb setting for subjects like fireworks, where you need to be in total control of when the exposure period starts and ends.
- Why is the exposure bracketing feature only available above 1/25s? It wouldn’t cost anything to implement it throughout the whole shutter speed range. After all, there are hundreds of photographers that use this feature to improve the dynamic range of their nightshots. This is (IMHO) just another example of unnecessary crippling of the camera featureset.
- And while we are on the same vain why can’t we use Burst mode on shutter speeds 1/25th or lower? Many people blend multiple exposures in Photoshop in order to reduce CCD noise and increase image detail. This is as important (if not more so) in night as it is in day photography. But to make this process easier, the Burst and Exposure Bracketing features need to be available at all shutter speeds. Maybe they could even be combined into one super “Stacking” function!!!! (sorry, just dreaming
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Infrared
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- I admire Sony for being the only camera manufacturer to offer truly IR capable cameras. So why go to all the effort to develop this technology, only to limit its use?!?!? Why not make Nightshot usable during daylight? i.e. In Manual mode with the IR emitters turned off. I know that there are perverts out there that are sad enough to use such a mode for voyeuristic purposes, but why do we need to suffer because of a small minority? After all, IR film is legal and the same should be with IR capable digital cameras!!! This is the type of B&W IR photos that many of us are trying to achieve and full IR capability will make it far easier to do so:
Tragically, shooting landscapes at f2 through a 3 filter stack (ND8 + ND2 + R72) really does kill a lot of the quality produced by the Zeiss glass and Sony CCD chip. I think it is a great shame that Sony is crippling its technology in such a way.
- Another improvement would be the introduction of a CCD IR blocking mirror that does not produce a hot spot in the middle of the image when you try to shoot IR without going into Nightshot mode. To see what I mean see the following image:
And this is what happens when you try to stitch the above image:
The reason to shoot IR this way is to achieve the false-colour IR look as shown on this image:
I have been told here that this is due to the fact that the blocking mirror is not multi-coated (as are Hoya filters and the Zeiss lens elements). If this is the case, then to replace it with a coated blocking mirror will be much appreciated and probably not that difficult.
++++++++
Timelapse
++++++++
Sony is one of the few companies that does NOT offer timelapse functionality on such a highly priced digital still camera. The irony is in the fact that Sony is the market leader in video capture with their Broadcast & Film camera offerings and as such should be far more used to timelapse than purely photographic companies such as say Nikon.
So how about looking at the 717 as a method of producing HD (1920x1080) or 2K (2048 x 1556) timelapse video at the fraction of the cost of a broadcast camera?
For usable timelapse the camera needs to be able to connect to a PC and allow the PC to control all aspects of the camera (including shutter, aperture and zoom). As the timelapse shots are taken they can be streamed onto the PC thus allowing far more frames to be taken without running out of Memory Stick space (1 minute sequence = 1800 frames in US and 1500 in UK & at 8MP RAW mode that will require a lot of memory!!!) Plus the camera needs to have enough battery life (or ability to connect to external power source) to take that many shots.
Sony has done three things that I was looking for:
- The ISO 64 sensitivity, which will make shooting traffic light trails, fairground rides or waterfalls that much easier (less ND filters to stack).
- The wider angle 28mm lens
- Ability to use Non-Sony memory
I will of course continue to use my 717 which has served me brilliantly. After I get my 10D replacement, I will replace the IR blocking filter in front of the CCD and then use the 717 exclusively for IR work.
Just my 2 pence
--
Luben
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The world is not black and white, but different shades of grey.
