Envoyé le: Lundi 17 Octobre 2011 12h04
Objet: Re: Photography
O Sir Jee ... aap kis zamanay mein reh rahey hein?
It was a decade ago that Sony overtook both Canon and Nikon in making highest grade digital photography systems. Yes it is true that Minolta, Canon and Nikon had expertise in making lenses but that was all about that. And it was several decades ago too. Nearly two decades ago, cameras started being more than the optics they contained. It was then that the manufacturers with excellence in electronics, digital signal processing systems, phase array algorithms and sensors, high pixel-density displays, ... the likes of Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, etc. swooped the photography market. First they kicked aging and sluggish Kodak, Konica, Canon, Nikon, Minolta, Pentax out of the compact everyday use market and then moved onto the pro SLR domain.
Please keep in mind, today's digital SLR is first 'digital' than anything else. As for the optics, Sony owns Minolta's optics manufacturing division. So, ALL Sony lenses are made by a manufacturer with twice as much experience as Canon or Nikon, and it makes lenses twice as good and solid. Most Canon lenses are too "plasticky" to even hold the glass elements inside, firmly. Moreover, Sony gets its highest-end lenses made by Carl-Zeiss, a specialized German manufacturer of high-grade industrial, aviation and aerospace optics for over 150 years.
If you ever get a chance, do allow yourself to hold, weigh, feel and try Sony-Minolta and Sony-Zeiss lenses. You will be pleasantly surprised by the professional build quality and super-fast, ultra-sharp focusing.
As for the LCD's and LED's, don't even ask. About four months ago, I wanted to buy me an LED-enhanced-LCD TV. I spent nearly three months doing a thorough research. I read the specs of over 50 displays from 12 different manufacturers. I visited several superstores to compare the TV's side by side, live. What I was looking for, was the quality of display, colors and true-to-life natural representation, above all else. Suffice to say, no other TV even came close to what Sony had to offer.
A brilliant display with a powerful processor for nearly zero delay for PS3 and XBox 360 gaming, a self-reconfiguring WiFi connectivity which gives you thousands of HD channels from the internet, all for free, and hundreds of other options like playing a video file (using the TV's long list of integrated codecs) from a Laptop or a HDD placed in another room! Add to that the solid build quality and scratch-less glass finish ... Samsung, Panasonic and LG are thoroughly beaten by a large distance. Please note that it was after 8 years that I was looking to buy a TV, I was upgrading from an excellent Panasonic CRT and I was surprised to see how well Sony has progressed in its core area of expertise even against Panasonic (my personal favorite in TV's).
Regards,
-- Waqqas
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waqqasakhtar/4242090177/
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From: Zulfiqar Mehdi
Sent: 16 October 2011 19:57
Re: Photography
Sony?? reminds me of an interesting comment, I got into a Renault Car for a short trip inside France. The french host asked me, "how do u like this car?" I said "well I'm a but uncomfortable; Renault is famous for trucks, so if they have made a car it has feeling of a truck, on the contrary Mercedes is famous for luxury cars, so even if they make a truck it has feeling of luxury in its cabin"
Let Sony be color [that too CRT] TV manufacturer who could not even maintain their edge in LCD era. Camera is either Minolta, Nikon or Canon. The purchase is now over 2 years old; Sony did not have the option to switch the lens, I had some good lens made by Canon that could be installed in my DSLR.
Mehdi
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De : Kamran Soomro
À : Waqqas Akhtar waqqas_akhtar[at]yahoo.com
Envoyé le : Ven 29 Janvier 2010, 17 h 08 min 32 s
Objet : Re: Sony A350
Thanks for the info sir. This is exactly what I was looking for. I must admit, I am heavily inclined towards the A550 now.
:D
Regards,
Kamran Soomro.
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On Fri, Jan 29, 2010 at 3:58 PM, Waqqas Akhtar
Wa-Alaikum Assalam,
No, that is not true. Entire Alpha series has ultra-sonic motors built right into the camera body and they're pretty quiet. My Sony Alpha 100 makes no more sound than that of Canon 450D of my Pakistani work fellow here but at the same time (and we tested it in a 1-to-1 race) it goes from 18mm to 150mm in almost the same time that Canon 450D takes to go from 18mm to 55mm. Sony's focusing system is super-fast.
As for my expereince with it, I am extremely satisfied with it and I love it beyond words can say.
I'd give you the following advice:
1. Consider buying A550 instead of A350. A550 has a much larger, 11.8Wh FM500H battery (A100 also has the same but it was dropped in A2xx/A3xx series) giving it an increased battery life i.e. 1,000 shots when using the viewfinder. Sony has also returned the separate Auto Exposure Lock buttons (which were also there in A100 but not in A2xx/A3xx). There is also a wider selection of external buttons for giving fast access to a variety of shooting settings such as drive mode, ISO and D-Range, freeing up the four-way controller for AF-point selection, which is a very convenient combination. Plus, it has a CMOS Exmor sensor (much better than CCD sensor), takes continous shots at 7fps (with focus and exposure locked) and sports an excellent HDR mode that combines multiple exposures with a new 5-level manually selectable Dynamic Range Optimization. But above all, it has the newest, industry leading, LIVE-Preview system.
2. It is recommended to drop the 18-55 kit lens and buy (atleast) the 18-200 Sony-Zeiss lens. You will see a marked difference in your photos.
Regards,
-- Waqqas.
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De : Kamran Soomro
À : Waqqas Akhtar
Envoyé le : Ven 29 Janvier 2010, 11 h 59 min 02 s
Objet : Sony A350
A.A Sir,
I'm looking to buy a DSLR soon. I heard from someone that the Sony A100's motor makes a loud whirring sound when focusing. What is your experience with the camera? What would you say about the A350?
Regards,
Kamran Soomro.
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De : Waqqas Akhtar
À : Farrukh Majeed; Abdul Rauf Sher Khan
Envoyé le : Lun 11 Janvier 2010, 16 h 33 min 19 s
Objet : Compact Digital Camera Recommendation
The newest camera models from Sony that I was telling you people about (with Exmor CMOS sensor technology) are:
DSC WX1 & DSC TX1 but these are in the price range of ~ EUR 270 - 300.
I will however recommend you to go for one of the 6-month older models (as those have already seen the initial price drops) which are:
[1]. DSC W230 & DSC W290 in W-series (solid build quality, focused on functionality and lots of fine features)
[2]. DSC T90 & DSC T900 in T-series (stylish, glossy surface-finish, slim, easy-to-carry, touch-screen interface)
Normally, these are in the price range of € 175 - € 270 and mostly are a very good value for money.
See for example:
http://www.pixmania.com/fr/fr/r/sony-w290
It is being sold for € 175 (without the shipping price).
But if you have the patience to sift through ebay items and the time to wait for the arrival of the item (takes almost two weeks), you can get yourself an economy of almost € 50 for any item in both [1] and [2].
See for example:
http://cgi.ebay.com/SONY-DSC-W290-12-1-MP-BLUE-DIGITAL-CAMERA-W-ACCESSORIES_W0QQitemZ370313576826
Even with a shipping cost of $36, the camera will cost you $196 in total i.e. € 135 only!
Ebay is THE most inexpensive place for buying items, that is, anything that can be boxed and shipped, you should always consider buying it through ebay!
As for the comparison to Canon SX200 that Rauf has recently bought, this is the one that I was suggesting from Sony:
http://www.pixmania.com/fr/fr/3471485/art/sony/cyber-shot-dsc-wx1-or.html
OR,
http://www.cdiscount.com/photo-numerique/appareil-photo-numerique/sony-cyber-shot-dsc-wx1-gold/f-112012311-SONYDSCWX1G.html
I like it more (even though it has 10 MP as compared to 12.1 for Canon) because it comes with the newest generation CMOS (4-color resolution) sensor as compared to the older generation CCD (3-color resolution) sensor on-board canon, which increases the color depth and in the photos and extremely low-light efficiency by nearly 200% and all that at a slightly lower price than that of Canon!
And also because it can shoot at 10 frames per second as compared to just under 1 frame per second for Canon which helps it to make stunning panoromas with the built-in image stitch processor in one casual quick sweep (something that even my $1400 SLR struggles to do that well). In addition Sony offers an intelligent auto-focus (AF) technology that uses upto 40-point focusing in every photo that you snap as compared to just 9-point AF for Canon, which makes Sony WX1 more versatile for a wide range of shooting purposes with multiple subjects in a photo. Plus, Sony is offering a wide-angle capability starting at 24mm (as compared to 28mm for Canon) which means that you can fit a larger group of people in a Sony photo from the same distance as you can with a Canon (nearly 40% more). There are several other technical advantages that Sony has (in terms of ISO sensitivity and F-number) which are, as important as they are, slightly too technical for a common user to know of.
On a personal preference, I hate the fact that Canon cameras only record videos in *.mov format which are a big hassle to edit / crop / re(en)code on Windows platforms. On the contrary, Sony has already migrated to MP4 standard which is not only more disk-space efficient but also universally compatible with online video-sharing services (like youtube and dailymotion). It's almost time somebody tells Canon that sticking with Apple's standards is doing it no good.
However, I do like the impressive 12x optical zoom offered by canon in contrast to that of only 5x offered by Sony (although that makes the Canon camera nearly twice as fat as the slimmer Sony).
Regards,
Waqqas
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De: Waqqas Akhtar
À : Irfan Subhani
Envoyé le : Jeu 6 Août 2009, 18 h 29 min 52 s
Objet : Re: SLR camera guidance
Wa-Alaikum -as-Salam,
You're most welcome to ring me up anytime.
Mine is a Sony A-100 DSLR:
http://www.digital-slr-guide.com/sony-dslr-a100-guide.html
Since I keep a regular eye on what is going on in the SLR world and since I just love knowing of the amazing advancements there ;-) , for some time now I am much impressed by a pair of really nice SLRs (from Sony again :p) ... the Sony A-300 & A-350 ... take a look:
http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sonydslra350/
Copied below is a discussion with a few friends to give you some more info.
Regards,
Waqqas.
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De: Irfan Subhani
À: Waqqas Akhtar
Envoyé le: Jeudi, 6 Août 2009, 17h41mn 30s
Objet: SLR Camera Guidance
AOA,
I hope that you are fine. Few months back I saw your photography in link sent by you by a SLR camera. It was really impressing. Actually I want to buy a SLR camera. Can you please guide me in this respect. Also about the lenses.
Though it is quite debatable issue. Do you have any landline number so that I can talk with you. I shall be waiting for response and proper guidance.
Thanks.
Arfan Ul Haq SUBHANI
Doctorat
Arfan.Subhani[at]ensiacet.fr
Materiaux, Nanomateriaux et Multimateriaux
INP
4 Allée Emile Monso
BP-74233, 31432 TOULOUSE Cedex 04
Toulouse, FRANCE
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De: Waqqas Akhtar
À: Usman Javaid
Envoyé le: Lundi, 16 Février 2009, 09h30mn 40s
Objet: Your Gallery with Sony Alpha
Thanks dear :)
I hope you are doing fine too. Best Wishes to you as well.
As for buying an SLR, I have a Sony Alpha-100 with a Zeiss-Sony 18-200 mm lens and a super-fast Extreme-IV Compact Flash card.
Before I bought this one, I tested Sony Alpha-100, Canon 400D, Nikon D80 and Pentax K200D side by side in several stores and at the "Salon Mondial de la Photo", here in Paris. With all of these SLR's being within 1000 EUR price range (with kit lens but w/o external flash), each camera does have specific advantages which makes photographers recommend and select one over another, depending on whom you ask. :)
Plainly speaking, all of the above cameras are excellent choice, each for some of it's outstanding qualities.
For instance, Pentax K200D with the lowest price tag among these has economy on it's side. Canon 400D has the advantage of wide-range of Canon lenses available in the market if you ever need to buy specialized lenses later and Nikon D200 has much greater customization of menus/functions available as compared to other cameras in this list and that does come-in handy when you're snapping photos in bulk. But what steered me towards Sony Alpha-100 finally, were four outstanding features, all rolled into one:
1. It's the only camera in this group that has real optical image stabilization (Sony calls it Super SteadyShot technology) built into the camera body which actually works! It works by moving the CCD sensor in a split second in response to a last-moment camera shake. With this feature built into the body, you can use even less-expensive, non-stabalized lenses for low-light photography. Here's one such photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/waqqasakhtar/1269821697/
2. It has a drive motor built into the camera body (unlike Canon 400D), which means you can use non-motorized lenses as well and enjoy the precision of auto-focus claculation algorithm with all kinds of lenses. Here's a photo with Sony's powerful 40-point auto Hue-Saturation-Light (HSL) metering:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waqqasakhtar/1799481060/
But the price-to-pay for built-in drive motor is the weight of the camera body. I believe it's the heaviest in the group. (Note: For me, I like the solid feel of Sony-Alpha in my hands when I'm shooting but some people prefer to move around with lighter cameras in thier neck, for, it can be quite tiring to carry it all day if it's heavy. You can trust me on that one ;) )
3. Alpha 100's rigid but user-intuitive interface, straight out from Sony's HCI labs impresses me. And a wonderful addition is a gyro-sensor in the camera body which detects and rotates the information screen upwards no matter the orientation of the camera. Now, that's a uniquely nice touch. :) Plus, Sony is the only one to offer light-intensity and camera tilt information on both the default screen panel and the view-finder, which is highly practical for night-time, time-lapse photography.
Like this shot for instance: http://www.flickr.com/photos/waqqasakhtar/3066889502/
4. 18-200 mm Sony-Zeiss lens. As much as the camera is important, in SLR photography the lens makes a hell lot of a difference. In my experience Zeiss lenses are some of the best out there. Since Sony offers this excellent 12X zoom lens in the package, it was the final deal-maker for me.
Here's one photo that I took at 10X zoom. See the sharpness:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waqqasakhtar/871407749/
Here's another one at 9X zoom. This time, with Super SteadyShot on. See the fine details in the hair:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waqqasakhtar/871718127/
Note: As far as kit-lenses are concerned, Canon offers a very low quality canon-built 18-55 mm (3X zoom only) lens which pulls the camera's capabilities down significantly and although Nikon was offering a nikon-built 18-70 mm (4X zoom) lens, which is somewhat better but then the lack of any kind of image stabilization and any kind of internal sensor cleaning technology in the camera body, coupled with the fact that Nikon is the most expensive in the list put Nikon on third place in my evaluation. Pentax K200D landed fourth primarily because of the limited range of Pentax lenses and the non-customizable, amateurish light-metering functionality.
Well, as for you, you have a choice among the newer versions of the above mentioned cameras. Sony Alpha-350, Canon 450D, Nikon D-90 and Pentax K20D
Although Nikon D-90 comes with vido clip recording feature but I would recommend you to consider buying Sony Alpha-350 for, it has among other enhancements, the revolutionary "Live View" technology. Now, because the screen doesn’t black out while you’re shooting, the A3xx is the first SLR family that lets you track a moving subject on the screen, shooting all the way. See this blog:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/06/technology/personaltech/06pogue.html
Other pleasing features are: Eye-start Autofocus, also from the A1xx family, which starts up the autofocus system so the camera's ready before you even match your eye up to the viewfinder. Super SteadyShot stabilizes images with any lens mounted. Sony has built into this model, up to 3.5 stops of extra exposure with their body-based image stabilization system. Anti-dust is also built in, with a static-free coating on the CCD's filter that is shaken each time the camera is powered off.
However I would strongly recommend you to buy the Alpha-350 kit which has either the Sony 18-250 mm lens or the Sony-Zeiss 18-70 mm lens. If you can invest slightly more, the kit with Sony-Zeiss 18-200 mm lens is the ideal pick! (that's the same lens that I bought).
Welcome to the world of SLR photography.
Regards,
Waqqas.
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De : Usman Javaid
À : Waqqas Akhtar
Envoyé le : Dimanche, 15 Février 2009, 21h34mn 50s
Objet : Your Gallery with Sony Alpha
Hi Waqqas,
I really enjoyed watching your gallery on Flickr, great stuff.
Would you please tell which SLR do u have and what would you suggest me to buy.
Apart from that, life is great with me and hope you would soon be doing fine too. Good luck.
Thanks.
Usman
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De : Waqqas Akhtar
Envoyé le : Mercredi, 23 Mai 2007, 22h56mn 32s
Objet : Re: Sortie Photos....
Salam!
The idea to go out for photography in Paris seems cool.
I shall be able to confirm you my presence by tomorrow evening or by Friday mid-day. Tomorrow evening we have a reunion requested by the Administration of the Centre de Parachutisme. News are that they may spare a few training instructors for this long weekend to allow us to do some more para jumps. If that is the case, I will be gone for 3 days starting Friday evening. But if I am not busy there (I have heard other rumors that the parachuting base is closing for full 3 days), in that case I will be free and will definately want to do some clicking and flashing! I will upadate you ASAP.
On the Camera side, first, thank you for congratulating me. Second, I have no words to express my excitement. The camera has exceeded all my expectations. After reading sooooo many reviews and after asking sooo many Canon, Nikkon and Sony users about their comments, I had set high expectations for Sony DSLR and I was afraid that I might be disappointed. So much so that, I decided not to buy the standard kit lens for the fear of getting less than optimal photos. Instead, I bought the Sony 18-200 AF Lens (manufactured by Konica-Minolta Lens division). The lens has 11 X-coated antishine elements and gives pretty sharp images. I am happy that I made this choice. I am attaching a photo I shot of the drop zone of the Parachuting base at near telephoto end (at 150mm). F/8, Exp 1/500sec, ISO100, Metering: Pattern, Exp Compensation: 0-step.
Link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/waqqasakhtar/1414924338/
Rest, you have to see the Sony beauty to feel it. ;-)
Regards,
Waqqäs
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De : Waqqas Akhtar
À : Ejaz Asi
Envoyé le : Vendredi, 8 Décembre 2006, 18h37mn 07s
Objet : Re: Greetings from Paris!
I have visited the flikr link you sent me. What a treat it is to watch your photography!
You have a highly developed sense, what I call the 'sense of scene'. Keep it up!
I would realy love to share my work with you sometime.
Which camera do you use? You have an SLR?
I am planning to buy Sony DSLR Alpha 100 or the recently launched NIKKON D-40.
I can't seem to decide among the two. Any opinions?
Regards,
Waqqäs
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waqqasakhtar/
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De : Ejaz Asi
À : Waqqas Akhtar
Envoyé le : Vendredi, 8 Décembre 2006, 14h08mn 07s
Objet : Re: Greetings from Paris!
Thankoo...
I thoroughly enjoyed your email and yeah that night picture of yours look great.
Would share the pictures when it happens inshallah.
For now, you could feast your eyes at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejazasi/
I think you could upload yours at Flickr as well... keeps everyone in the loop na.
Thanks for remembering and best of luck for your future as well.
Ejaz
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