Podcast Episode 11 – Welcome to 2012, Review of 2011, CES Announcements or Lack Thereof

PodCast – Alpha Tutorials

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Welcome to 2012! In this first show for the year we catch up on news and wrap up everything that we’ve looked at in the tutorial sections thus far.

News

We knew that it was going to come at some point, but we were a little nervous about how long it might take. At last; Sony have announced a firmware update for the NEX-3, 3c and NEX-5. It makes the cameras compatible with the LA-EA2 adapter that we spoke about with Darryl from Sony South Africa last year. The LA-EA2 adapter has a Translucent mirror which basically turns an NEX into an Alpha A35-like camera with high speed Phase Detection Autofocus. It also offers autofocus compatibility for the older lenses that don’t have their own internal focus motor. This means that you could use – for example – old Minolta lenses.

You can get the details about the update and a link to the download files at this link: http://blog.sony.com/%CE%B1nex-camerasnew-firmware-enables-translucent-mirror-adapter-compatibility

Remember to check out Episode 2 of the podcast for a tutorial on how to update the camera’s firmware.

Another interesting news story is one that I spotted on Peta Pixel. It seems that ‘out there’, some photographer with a Sony A55 damaged his Translucent mirror by using a cleaning Fluid. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH THE FOCUSING SCREEN OR MIRROR OF YOUR CAMERA WITH ANY KIND OF FLUID! Sorry… I got sidetracked. Where was I? That’s right: Turns out he used plastic or cling wrap as a replacement. Now there is no chance that we are going to recommend that you do that, but who knows? It might be information that comes in handy one day, in an absolute emergency. Here is a link to that article: http://www.petapixel.com/2011/12/27/plastic-wrap-can-be-used-as-a-pellicle-mirror-substitute/

Our final news item is about the new XQD memory cards which were announced by Sony ahead of the CES and PMA combined show which kicks off in Vegas as we start recording this show. No… we are unfortunately not there. The new memory standard – which has also been adopted by other manufacturers and is found in Nikon’s ‘just announced’ D4 – allows for larger capacity and higher speeds in the world of ever-increasing resolutions; be it in stills, or in video.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/06/sony-xqd-memory-card-official/

There is bound to be more news coming out of CES, but we have to record this show at some point so we will shoot a CES wrap-up show next week should there be any big Sony camera announcements. (Which there were not really)

Tutorial

Over the last couple of shows, we have been going through some of the fundamentals of photography. I just wanted to recap on them in this show and remind you about where you can go to get the more detailed information.

Episode 1 and 3

We looked at the three means of controlling light (which is our paint, if you will). Those three things are: ISO (the camera’s sensitivity to light), Aperture (the diaphragm inside a lens which is used to control the amount of light passing through the lens itself, as well as into the camera), and Shutter (the mechanism in front of the film, or sensor that controls the amount of time in which the film, or sensor is exposed to light). A lower number ISO means a low sensitivity and – obviously – the higher the ISO setting, the greater the sensitivity. The trade-off is that with increased sensitivity, comes increased ‘graininess’ in the image (more commonly known as “Noise”). Apertures are fractions. This means that they look like they work in reverse to ISO, where the smaller the F/number, the more light comes through. Also, less area in front of and behind your subject will be in focus. This is called depth of field. Shutter speeds are also fractions. This means that when it says ‘1000’, it is actually a ‘1000th’ which is a great deal quicker than – for example – a 30th. The faster the shutter, the more movement it will freeze. Balancing the above-mentioned three things is how you create your exposure.

Episode 4

We explained the different exposure modes. ‘M’ is for ‘Manual’; where you need to balance all three exposure controls manually. ‘A’ is for ‘Aperture Priority’; where you can set the ISO and Aperture, and the camera sets the Shutter Speed for you. ‘S’ is for ‘Shutter Priority’; which is the reverse of ‘Aperture Priority’ mode, and finally; ‘P’ which is for ‘Program’ mode. In this mode, you can still set the ISO, but the camera will take control of everything else. We suggest using this mode even over and above the ‘picture’ or ‘scene’ modes. In essence, they are ‘Program’ modes, but without overrides such as the ‘Exposure Compensation’ button that allows you to lighten or darken an image. This feature can be used in ‘Program’, but not in the other scene modes.

Episode 7

Your camera measures light as an 18% grey which it believes to be correct exposure. We explain how easily the camera’s light-meter can be fooled with such thinking in therefore giving less than pleasing results. We thus arm you with the knowledge of when you need to take control and override what the camera thinks

Episode 8

This is where we looked at the different light-metering modes of Centre Weighted, Evaluative, and Spot. We looked at the pros and cons of all of them and where best to use them.

Episode 9

We looked at the three different types of focusing modes on your camera and how they will effect your image taking.

Episode 10

White balance was the topic and we dealt with the fact that different light has different colours. We looked at how the camera handles this and how you can use it to your creative advantage.

These points are all fundamental to the use of any camera. As we move forward, we will look at things more specific to some models of cameras than to others. There will be other general items, but none may be more significant to the improvement of your images than the ones we have covered thus far. They are the life-blood of photography.

Viewers Question or Feedback

Viewer Invisible Cut sent us some feedback on the website.

Hi guys. Don’t you find that metering modes work exactly opposite to what they should? When evaluative metering is selected, focus AND exposure are fixed at shutter half press which can lead to an incorrect exposure if I recompose. If I select center-weighted or point-metering, focus is locked but exposure is not locked… your subject will most likely not be in the center of the screen, so you do have to lock exposure with the AEL button and then recompose. Would it not make sense to lock focus and exposure when using center- or point-metering, but NOT lock exposure when using evaluative metering? I love the colors on my alpha, but I find that I have to exposure-compensate a little too often. When I go out with my buddy who has a Nikon (focus is locked but exposure is not locked when shutter is half pressed), it seems he can concentrate on framing while I have to concentrate on framing and on changing exposure (even in MF, when exposure is not locked, it is still heavily influenced by the selected exposure point).

What do you think? I guess I have to get a 65 in order to see what I get before I press the shutter…

Thanks a lot and keep up the good work.
Love TWIP
By the way… it’s always fun when you are on the show and you change their Canikon talk a bit

Conclusion

That brings us to the end of another show. Be sure to check out our website http://alphatutorials.co.za for more articles and information. There are three articles following our first show; each on one of the areas of exposure: ISO, Aperture, and Shutter Speeds. You can also send your questions to us on the site.

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