Certainly NOT your father’s Oldsmobile.
Jan 26, 2009: I had a chance to attend BarCamp Charlotte last weekend. If you are unfamiliar with the concept, barcamps consist of a loosely organized group of bloggers, internet marketers, computer programmers, film makers, web developers and new media types. While photographers weren’t as well represented as some of the other disciplines, there were several dSLR shooters in attendance. I also met at least one other Sony Alpha owner.
The Charlotte camp was held in an art community known as Area Fifteen, located in the NoDa art district. Area Fifteen is large meandering building with artist studios, large open areas, a labyrinth of hallways and winding stairways.
With the eclectic group of people and the fascinating backdrop of Area Fifteen, there was no shortage of photo subjects. I kept the A350 busy recording as much of the activities as I could, while still participating in the individual BarCamp sessions.
The most interesting thing about covering an event like BarCamp Charlottte, is the absolute lack of
self-consciousness of the part of the participants. There were video cameras and photographers everywhere. One of the principle themes of the barcamp movement is transparency and openness. That was a refreshing change from some ofther events I have photographed.
I took nearly 300 images during the day. No one said “Don’t take my picture!” No one turned away to hide from the camera. I could have been invisible…no one was the least bit concerned that I was aiming my lens at them. It was exciting to have the freedom to photograph whoever and whatever I wanted without interference.
I used a variety of lenses for the shoot. Because most of the activities were held indoors, I wanted the Minolta 50mm f/1.7. This gave me the ability to shoot available light under most conditions. I also brought along the Sony 18-70mm, primarily for the wideangle focal length. I thought about bringing along the Minolta beercan, but I figured the weight and f/4 aperture would be a negative.
Instead, I decided to continuie experimenting with a new acquisition, a Vivitar 135mm f/2.8 screw mount lens attached to the A350 with a M42 adapter. This arrangement has its drawbacks — no auto focusing, no Super Steady Shot, no automatic exposure. It is also a fixed focal length — no ability to zoom.
Grab shot somewhere in the depths of Area 15.
On the other hand, 135mm on the A350’s APS-C sensor equates to something like 192mm on a 35mm film camera. That meant I had the equivalent of a 200mm f2.8mm, great for capturing individual candids.
I shot some available light images at ISO 400-800, but decided to use flash for most of the images. For a flash unit I went with another oldie but goodie; a Minolta 4000 AF mounted on Control Grip 1000 flash bracket. The old Minolta flash was connected to the A350 with a Sony FA-CC1AM Alpha Off-Camera Cable. Not exactly state of the art, but extremely capable.
So how well did this somewhat primitive setup work? Quite beautifully. You can check out the BarCamp Charlotte gallery I assembled here.
I wanted to get the images online as soon as possible after the event.
I did very little post processing, other than converting the RAW images in Adobe Lightroom. Thankfully, very few of the images required any retouching, including the images from the old Vivitar.
I converted, tagged, organized and exported the entire gallery the evening after BarCamp. The next day I added some links and edited some of the CSS files. I had the gallery posted to the web by noon.
I’m not trying to brag. I just wanted to point out the images I got from the older equipment required very little editing to be ready for the web.
If there is a BarCamp in your area, I recommend you check it out. You can find out about future events in Charlotte by signing up at the BarCamp Charlotte website.
All in all, I am quite pleased with how well the old M42 lens and the 25 year old flash unit worked on the modern A350. Stay tuned. I’ll talk more about the using the M42 adapter on the Sony Alpha in the near future.
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Has anyone heard the rumors about the new Alpha 800 due out in 3 months?
It’s ok to have a comment.
amazing stuff thanx 🙂
This is the way things should be, get off what we are on now
Hi Tom,
I am new to your blog and am finding your articles very interesting. I will become a regular reader from now on.
I have been using my A350 for close to a year now and love it. From a Minolta x570 to this is like night an day….but i still love my X570 especially all the manual stuff and the real film.
The digital world was here so i decided it was time to take the jump so i purchased one of sony’s cybershot point and shoot 4 years ago…but from X570 where you have full control to this cyber shot did not do it for me so gave it to my wife. So at this point i took the real jump back to SLR to the current a350.
My question to you would be, in your blog you mentioned that you used a M42 to mount a Vivitar lens on you a350….is there anything to do the same to be able to use all my old X570 Minolta manual lens, understanding that they are fully manual and that some lose of performance will certainly result….but i would like to experiment and see what can be done and what results can be aquired. Just curious
Thanks and Compliments to you great blog.
Joe
Tom,
I have a sony A350 that is new to me and was given some tamron Af lenses that work great. I have a XD11 that I really liked and now I would like to use the Rokkor Macro lense that I used on the XD11 on the A350. I also have a 300mm fixed tel which would be cool to try out as well. I have seen some adapters on the web to us a MD /MC on a Sony alfa , do they work, is the resolution still good. I’m not up to speed with the m42 lenses , is it a screw type mount and you manually adjust everything ?
Help …………Please
Hello,
Great post about Charlotte. I was looking for blogs about Charlotte in general. I am a realtor and have interest to invest in Charlotte property.
hello… robin woods blogging… have a nice day! just visiting here….