...a3000 on the road !

...well, it was a quick trip to the mountains to view the Aspen's... that can always be a hit or miss as Aspen viewing is like picking fruit ripe...you can be a bit early or late...and its all based on your perspective and when you can get there ...so the camera of choice this day was the Sony ICLE-3000 (a3000)...and for the most part equipped with the SONY 16mm f2.8 prime lens...as you can see the day was blazingly bright !, and you can also assume I like the a3000 ...I find the a3000 easy to use, its very light,has a great grip/hold and has a shutter sound that is just a simple click, sort of like a Jack-In-Box clacker... ...that probably does not make sense unless you grew up in the fifties and sixties...even then it may not makes sense...but, a simple, comfortable 'click'...me like ! ...in fact I like a3000 and it will remain a 'weapon of choice' in the future ...the only performance area that was a concern is the EFV and LCD Live View display...as I mentioned in a previous post the resolution of both devices are 'adequate' but certainly not stellar...this is exasperated in bright sunlight and at 8000 feet the sunlight can be incredibly bright...trust me on this one! ...so bottom line, love the camera, but the displays (consider them 'framing devices') are merely adequate... keep in mind the a3000 with kit lens is a $395 proposition and that is for a full 20mp APS-c Sony sensor...so one must accept trade off's and or wait for the a5000/a7000 which will be right around the corner...it's only money ! Enjoy the pix

...so what's with the gorilla in the room ???

...have you ever gone to shoot, and ripped off a few 'warm up shots' and those turn out the best of the day...well Bingo with the gorilla... ...just walked in from the parking lot, nearly tripped over the cage fence and there we were ! ...the gorilla in the room !!!

this was shot with a Pano G6 (ISO 800) and the Tokina 300mm (600mm FOV) reflex (mirror) lens with a constant aperture of f6.3 ...think small and light and hand-holdable...bravo ! ...you might notice that this pix is not as sharp as my usual tripe...reason being, its a mirror lens, and they have to double bounce the image, thus it becomes the second translation, it loses sharpness. It also loses contrast, so this image has been run through 'levels' and 'un-sharp' mask in Elements. I am NOT a top-ranked post-processor !

...bottom line here, an m4/3 camera with a small mirror 300mm (600mmFOV) is light, breezy and easy to focus with 'focus assist'. But in reality for those shots that are 'keepers' you will want a slight editing session in Photoshop or whatever...Still a GREAT gorilla  

...corporatesville !

...shooting headshots can be nerve wracking...I mean almost everyone has been 'distrubed', has a 'crisis' brewing at their desk, and, oh by the way, these pix had better be pretty 'damn' good ! ...to top this off, some of the environments can be only slightly brighter than a 'bat cave' and of course room and elbow space is at a premium... so, off I went to downtown Denver this morning to slay the beast... the setup was the Olympus EM-5, attached to a 'frame' holding the Oly FL-50R flash in TTL Flash mode. The lens was the marvelous Pano 12-35mm set @ f2.8  ...well, YOU be the judge ???

...by any other name...WOLF !

...let's start by saying the Sony ILCE-3000 ( a3000) will be the bloggers fodder for 2013 ... it is a 'marked man'... but, let me take it from the TOP ! ...bottom feeders beware !

Sony announced a few months ago that the SLT technology was going away...that means the beloved a33, a55, a58, a65, a77 and a99's were going to be replaced with some new version of technology...and behold it is called mirrorless. The ILCE-3000 (a3000) is the first of a series of these cameras. Simply put, Sony has taken the electronics of the NEX series, coupled a NEX E-mount lens bayonet and slammed the contraption into a DSLR style body... a  NOT-A-Bad idea.

...so what we have here is a 20MP sensor (brand new chip), coupled with the admirably rated 18-50mm (27-83mm FOV ) kit lens and retailing for $400. I mean, we can stop right here ! The intricacies of the functions can be debated at will, and will-be... But you are looking at a 20mp Sony with full E-mount lens capability for under 400 bucks... (as photographed with the 50mm f1.8 prime E-mount lens)

...the drawback of the a3000 is that it is a 3000 series Sony, and is priced waaay accordingly and with a feature set typical of that series...including an EVF and LCD with adequate but not stellar resolution...but let me assure you that it DID NOT stop me from doing studio shoots straight out of the box (50mm f1.8 Prime).

Check the pix and you decide ??? (no post-processing)... I already have !!!