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Sony Alpha 6000 in a CT - what I learned so far


Ed Cesnalis

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First an image from today: 13988167_1139600219412175_87921487115469

 

 

Best stabilization may be hand held out of the vent using a native OSS (stabilized) lens.  The lens is supposed to buy you up to 4 stops, I think its less than 2 but its there.

 

Skip the kit lens's and get the body only and a prime or at least a good quality OSS zoom.  Perfect length for me is 24mm but they don't make such a prime and I'm using a 35mm which is often too long.  35mm in a cropped sensor is like a 52mm in a 35mm format.

 

To get clear images I need to use Manual and keep my lens stopped down to mid range and I need to set shutter speed pretty high.  I leave ISO on auto and when the light is low I use multi frame auto ISO that the camera blends into a single image to reduce the noise that you get in high ISO low light shots.

 

Focus area needs to be a centered pattern or something that won't focus on a wing tip when in the frame.

 

Mounting the camera in a stick mounted gimbal and firing it remotely works very well but the work load becomes to high for me alone.  As the airplane moves the gimbal compensates and if you don't actively re-frame the camera will soon be in an unusual attitude.

 

Multi firing mode can help get the clear shot.

 

Remote firing and remote viewing from a tablet and or an infra red remote can make shooting out the vent easier.  Shooting out of the other side through the window can work if there is no reflection.

 

A CT can be a big lens in the sky putting a bright spot in the frame, you need to be aware.

 

I hope this helps someone, there doesn't seem to be a better choice out there for stills from a CT at a reasonable price.  

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Damn that's nice!

I need help understanding some of what you've said here.

Are you still using the fixed mount you showed us a month ago?

Can you fixed-mount the camera against the side of the instrument panel so its aimed out the pilot-side vent, put a remote trigger on the stick like a push-to-talk, and then use the view under the wing to frame you pictures?

Mike Koerner

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Mike,

 

The fixed mount was useful only to keep the camera in position.  I need to get both my hands on it when actually shooting.

 

A mounted gimbal would be best but it would be shooting thru the plexi.  The handheld gimbal and co-pilot or just hand-held when solo is where I'm at now.

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I'm still shooting jpg but should go raw plus jpg soon.  I got LR and PS but only use LR to date.  The only actual photo editing that I have done is with LR spot removal tool.  Its great for dust spots on the imager showing up in the blue sky.

 

If you don't use LR then you leave all decisions RE color / light balance up to the camera.

 

I started using facebook's hi-quality uploads and linking to them to fix up compressions.

 

As I said above clarity comes from hi-quality lens, stopped down to at least F7, fast shutter speeds and OSS lenses only.

 

Low light noise is eliminated with multi-shot noise reduction.  

 

It took me a month to learn these fundamental lessons.

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But...at infinity focus,  everything is in focus from 40-50 feet out to infinity.  Isn't it?     My thinking has been to take whatever F-stop the Alpha gives me so I can have the highest shutter speed.    A range of ISO choices that go with these awesome modern Big Sensors is new to me, so the sense of "where things get grainy" that we've all gotten good at judging with film...looks like that's a new ball game.

 

 I just hauled my A6300 to Red Stewart field ( SW Ohio ) this morning but was too busy getting current and dodging clouds in the J-3 to worry about photos.   Too bad, too, because after the serial thunder storms here and now winds of 1, gusting to 2,  from Dayton you can see all the way to Cincinnati.

   Thanks again for sharing your findings.    I was a little surprised to hear that equiv 50 mm was still too telephoto.   My mission is trying to pick out the family farm and the farms of other friends in the Ky. hills from 2,000 AGL.  Quite different from what you're doing.    Hoping the G-series 18-105MM zoom ( which is OSS ) will work in my case.

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But...at infinity focus,  everything is in focus from 40-50 feet out to infinity.  Isn't it?     

 

I screwed up every shot one morning.  I set my focus manually so the wingtip wouldn't fool the auto focus, I just twisted till it read infinity and expected everything to be in focus.  I did some high / tight canyon flying for nothing, every image was blurred.  Infinity isn't a point on a lens it is a range.  True for a manual focus lens or a new electronic one like these E-mounts.

 

That shoot is when I realized I needed to auto focus but on a center pattern.  After that I got focused subjects but because I let the camera choose a wide open aperture the resulting depth of field is narrow and now infinity is out of focus.  Forest fire smoke made that ok some of the time but had to learn that I need everything in focus on most shots.

 

This is where you stop thinking like you are using film and are locked into an ISO.  ISO can change a lot and when it gets too high you can let the camera combine 3 images for noise reduction.

 

Now its easy, except for really low light I just shoot Manual with F-7 or higher and shutter speed at 640 or higher depending on lens length and stabilization method.  For the most part I use wide lenses and stabilized lenses so even 1/60th can work but 1/800th plus 11 frames / second will produce some good images.

 

Your 6300 might have a smaller feature set but at the minimum you can shoot Manual for clarity (mid range F-stop and high SS) and shoot ISO - AUTO.

 

--------------------------------

 

Zoom with your  wings, not your lens.  Compose the shot by positioning the airplane.

 

Look for water reflections,  shoot strait down some,  all shots don't have to have sky.  Change altitudes to change backgrounds.

 

Use Google Earth to plan your shots.

 

13909087_1138457852859745_50254157228382

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Your 6300 might have a smaller feature set but at the minimum you can shoot Manual for clarity (mid range F-stop and high SS) and shoot ISO - AUTO.

   I believe the A6000 and the A6300 have the same feature set.

 

   Doing some testing downtown San Francisco, I found when I got home that some autofocus settings had ruined my day.    I've switched to spot until I understand the speed-of-light-but-on-the-wrong-object autofocus a bit better.

   In my case, picking out a farmhouse from 2,000, I don't have the luxury of composing with the aircraft.  I have to open up the right side of the J-3, bank to 30 degrees or so, and religiously avoid spinning it in while I snap off a few handheld telephoto shots to be cropped later.  I'm shooting a needle in the haystack while you're shooting those beautiful haystacks themselves.    Gotta love the gigantic sensor for what it allows you to do after the fact.

 

Thanks for the tips.    

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   I believe the A6000 and the A6300 have the same feature set.

 

   Doing some testing downtown San Francisco, I found when I got home that some autofocus settings had ruined my day.    I've switched to spot until I understand the speed-of-light-but-on-the-wrong-object autofocus a bit better.

   In my case, picking out a farmhouse from 2,000, I don't have the luxury of composing with the aircraft.  I have to open up the right side of the J-3, bank to 30 degrees or so, and religiously avoid spinning it in while I snap off a few handheld telephoto shots to be cropped later.  I'm shooting a needle in the haystack while you're shooting those beautiful haystacks themselves.    Gotta love the gigantic sensor for what it allows you to do after the fact.

 

Thanks for the tips.    

 

A picture is worth a thousand words.  Lets see what you mean please.

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