BIF with a55

[PeaceFrog]

I am very glad to hear that you are enjoying your new camera. The A55 certainly is one of the most interesting cameras (at least to me) that has been announced in the last several years since it offers some new features and it is great to hear positive feedback about it.

You are obviously very confident in your skills and if you are as good at flight shots as you say you are then camera shouldn’t be an issue. I never had any trouble getting tons of in-focus shots of Brown Pelicans at close range with my old Digital Rebel (original) and the old 75-300 III. It will be interesting to see your results once you get a chance to try to photograph some of the challenging subjects.

If the A55 is that much better at focus than the Canon 50D then it is indeed very impressive because the 50D does very well for flight shots.

Greg

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http://www.pbase.com/dadas115/

 

[Condor99]

The battery life of the SLTs should be measured in hours, not in shots. Within one hour, you can easily take 500 photos and a few short videos and the battery still says, "50 %".

Well battery life is rated in shots, not hours. When the a55 was first announced I read lots of things like this:

"Both Sony Alpha Translucent Mirror cameras, are not the best in the field, in terms of battery life. Even so, the Sony Alpha A33 gives you a battery life (CIPA standard) with approximately up to 340 images. The Sony Alpha A55 give you a battery life up to 380 images."

People read that and actually believed it. Then there were reports from some early adapters who claimed to get 2000 shots. These people were called liars, idiots, fools, and morons and no one believed them. Those people were the morons because they don't understand the CIPA standard and how batteries are rated. Sony is very conservative when rating their batteries because it is better for them to do so. So I am reporting what my battery life is in real world conditions to counteract the FUD going around about this camera.
--
Tom Seiler
My portfolio:
http://picasaweb.google.com/SeilerBird/MyPortfolio
Sony a330 Copper > Sony 18-55
Sony a55 > Tamron 200-500
Sony 75-300

 

[Condor99]

If the A55 is that much better at focus than the Canon 50D then it is indeed very impressive because the 50D does very well for flight shots.

I loved my 50d/100-400. But the difference in focusing speed is amazing. Sony wins hands down except in one situation, that is when it has to travel the full focus range. Since the 100-400 has a range limiter switch the Canon beats it. I was not expecting the a55/200-500 to outperform an L lens but it does. Focusing is almost instantaneous.

--
Tom Seiler
My portfolio:
http://picasaweb.google.com/SeilerBird/MyPortfolio
Sony a330 Copper > Sony 18-55
Sony a55 > Tamron 200-500
Sony 75-300

 

[PeaceFrog]

The way you shoot has a huge impact on how many shots you get from a battery charge. If there was some actual controlled testing like is sounds like there was since they said CIPA standard then the shot counts probably are meaningful when compared to CIPA numbers for other models…

I know that I can get well over 2000 shots on a single charge with my 50D but I also do a lot of bird photography and lots of burst shooting (many shots in a short period of time). When I compare how many shots I get on a charge to what some of my friends get with their 50D’s I get many more shots than they do per charge. A while back I did a little test with a 30D where I used a rubber band to continuously hold down the shutter button in drive mode to see how many shots I could get in a charge and was able to get well over 10K shots before the battery went dead. At least with CIPA standard different cameras are tested in a uniform way so there is at least some hope of making a meaningful comparison. It is good to hear that you find that the battery life is acceptable though.

Greg

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http://www.pbase.com/dadas115/

 

[PeaceFrog]

Do you get many condors there in Florida?

In all seriousness, I have a friend who is headed to CA and one of the birds she would like to see is the condor. Can you suggest any reliable locations to see and photograph them?

Greg

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http://www.pbase.com/dadas115/

 

[PeaceFrog]

Nice set of shots. I think the rough-wing is actually a Northern Rough-winged Swallow and the one below it looks a lot like a Cliff Swallow to me. Nice fast birds and certainly a good test for a camera rig.

Greg

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http://www.pbase.com/dadas115/

 

[Condor99]

Do you get many condors there in Florida?

Not as many as I would like...

In all seriousness, I have a friend who is headed to CA and one of the birds she would like to see is the condor. Can you suggest any reliable locations to see and photograph them?

There is really only one place. The south rim of the Grand Canyon in front of the Bright Angel Lodge in May and June. The birds in CA don't have a regular meeting spot like the AZ birds do. If you look at my web site below and poke around you can find several hundred Condor shots, almost every one was taken in the same spot. They have a range program on Condors every day right at that spot at 3 pm because that is the best place and the best time to see them.
--
Tom Seiler
My portfolio:
http://picasaweb.google.com/SeilerBird/MyPortfolio
Sony a330 Copper > Sony 18-55
Sony a55 > Tamron 200-500
Sony 75-300

 

[PeaceFrog]

It looks like he is a fan of setup photography. I don’t know that I would really call that different.

Greg

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http://www.pbase.com/dadas115/

 

[PeaceFrog]

Thanks very much for the info. California Condor is a species that I haven’t gotten yet. I did recently see some Andean Condors in the wild which were pretty impressive. Hopefully my friend can see one or two in CA this week.

Greg

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http://www.pbase.com/dadas115/

 

[PeaceFrog]

I remember reading in the preview for the A55 that there was a long delay after doing a 10FPS burst were the camera pretty much locks up for what seemed like a long time (it has been a while since I read it but I think it was like 30 seconds or something like that). Do you experience this when you are shooting in 10FPS mode? It seems like the delay would be rather limiting. I know when I am shooting I usually do a burst and then it seems that without fail the bird does something neat right after it so I always try to make sure I have plenty of buffer left and the reported was one of my biggest concerns about this camera.

Greg

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http://www.pbase.com/dadas115/

 

[PeaceFrog]

That is very impressive. I only have limited experience with the 200-500 but I remember the focus on that lens being very slow on the 30D. If it is faster than the 100-400 on a 50D then the A55 must really have a great AF system.

Greg

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http://www.pbase.com/dadas115/

 

[Condor99]

I remember reading in the preview for the A55 that there was a long delay after doing a 10FPS burst were the camera pretty much locks up for what seemed like a long time (it has been a while since I read it but I think it was like 30 seconds or something like that). Do you experience this when you are shooting in 10FPS mode? It seems like the delay would be rather limiting. I know when I am shooting I usually do a burst and then it seems that without fail the bird does something neat right after it so I always try to make sure I have plenty of buffer left and the reported was one of my biggest concerns about this camera.

I have found that rarely do I do a burst of 19 shots, usually 5 to 10 is normal and then there is no waiting. If I keep doing bursts of 19 I will fill my chip up way too soon. It is 16 gig and only good for 950 RAW shots. Then I have to transfer them and edit them. So I keep my bursts to a minimum.

--
Tom Seiler
My portfolio:
http://picasaweb.google.com/SeilerBird/MyPortfolio
Sony a330 Copper > Sony 18-55
Sony a55 > Tamron 200-500
Sony 75-300

 

[Condor99]

That is very impressive. I only have limited experience with the 200-500 but I remember the focus on that lens being very slow on the 30D. If it is faster than the 100-400 on a 50D then the A55 must really have a great AF system.

I will be very interested to see if anyone who has actually owned both cameras agree with me. I am not a Sony fanboy and I love Canon stuff, it is just too expensive for my blood. My 50d/100-400 cost about $3000. My a55/200-500 costs $1500. I had to sell my Canon to buy a motorhome last year and when I went to replace it I discovered Sonys IBIS and fell in love. But I love Canon also. And I shot Nikon film for years so I love Nikon also.

--
Tom Seiler
My portfolio:
http://picasaweb.google.com/SeilerBird/MyPortfolio
Sony a330 Copper > Sony 18-55
Sony a55 > Tamron 200-500
Sony 75-300

 

[PeaceFrog]

That is good to hear. The way I interpreted the preview was that if you do any burst at all in 10FPS mode that it locked up the camera for a while which sounded very bad.

In one of your earlier posts it sounded like you often did 19 shot bursts and you listed different situations with differing amounts of keepers which made it sound like you took the whole 19 shots frequently. At 10 fps you do get to 19 in a big hurry.

Greg

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http://www.pbase.com/dadas115/

 

[Condor99]

That is good to hear. The way I interpreted the preview was that if you do any burst at all in 10FPS mode that it locked up the camera for a while which sounded very bad.

Exactly what I was led to believe also. The amount of FUD this camera has had to endure is amazing.

In one of your earlier posts it sounded like you often did 19 shot bursts and you listed different situations with differing amounts of keepers which made it sound like you took the whole 19 shots frequently. At 10 fps you do get to 19 in a big hurry.

Actually I try and avoid bursts of 19 so the camera doesn't lock up. With a flying bird how many do you need? 5 to 10 works for me. The only time I did burst of 19 yesterday was when it was flying straight at me, and only then to see what would happen. But for my money if the camera does lock up for a minute it is no big deal. I am retired, I have lots of time on my hands.
Tom Seiler
My portfolio:
http://picasaweb.google.com/SeilerBird/MyPortfolio
Sony a330 Copper > Sony 18-55
Sony a55 > Tamron 200-500
Sony 75-300

 

[mike_2008]

That is good to hear. The way I interpreted the preview was that if you do any burst at all in 10FPS mode that it locked up the camera for a while which sounded very bad.

Exactly what I was led to believe also. The amount of FUD this camera has had to endure is amazing.

All entry level sony cameras have been heavily fudded, both from canikon users trolling but mostly from disgruntled a700 users, sadly enough.

 

[jamo spingal]

Thanks for sharing your experience of the A55, your portfolio and the few initial shots on the A55. I think you will have inspired a few more of us to save up our pennies.

 

[cirept]

Hey,nice shots. Everyone always talks about the 10fps mode, how does the normal 7 fps continuous shooting do with this type of photography? I'm assuming you have more control in this mode with regards to ISO, etc

Thanks
Eric

 

[Condor99]

I have only had the camera for two days and I have not tried all the options yet. But I really don't think I will be using 7 fps since 10 fps works so well.

--
Tom Seiler
My portfolio:
http://picasaweb.google.com/SeilerBird/MyPortfolio
Sony a330 Copper > Sony 18-55
Sony a55 > Tamron 200-500
Sony 75-300

 

[Petes]

Tom,

I have been following this thread with great interest. Do have a question for you, have you done any printing with your images? I'm especially interested in finding out how they look at 12x18 size.

--
Pete Smith
http://www.pbase.com/petersmith