Some test results

gardenersassistant

gardenersassistant

Well-Known Member
I took delivery of a lightly used Sony A7sii a couple of days ago. Here are some images from a test session I had with it yesterday.

#1

1892 11 2021_05_16 DSC00164_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#2

1892 16 2021_05_16 DSC00230_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#3

1892 33 2021_05_16 DSC00354_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#4

1892 35 2021_05_16 DSC00372_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#5

1892 93 2021_05_16 DSC00618_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr
 
AlanLichty

AlanLichty

Moderator
A level of macro detail that is impossible to ignore - not sure what your test criteria might be but it sure looks amazing to my eyes.
 
gardenersassistant

gardenersassistant

Well-Known Member
AlanLichty said:
A level of macro detail that is impossible to ignore - not sure what your test criteria might be but it sure looks amazing to my eyes.
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Thanks Alan.

Test criteria: usability and image quality.

For the most part the usability is the same as with the A7ii (for example the same buttons in the same position, and I set them up to work the same way). One unexpected advantage was the the A7sii seems to give me stronger and more reliable focus peaking signals than the A7ii. Since I am using manual focus this is very significant.

In terms of image quality I think it might be better in a couple of respects. I have the impression (difficult to prove) that it is picking up more from the dark areas in the image, avoiding the blackness of "the flash didn't reach here", which I don't like. Also, the images may be coming out a bit "cleaner" from the very heavy processing they get subjected to.
 
Debbie Stahre

Debbie Stahre

Well-Known Member
gardenersassistant said:
I took delivery of a lightly used Sony A7sii a couple of days ago. Here are some images from a test session I had with it yesterday.

#1

1892 11 2021_05_16 DSC00164_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#2

1892 16 2021_05_16 DSC00230_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#3

1892 33 2021_05_16 DSC00354_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#4

1892 35 2021_05_16 DSC00372_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

#5

1892 93 2021_05_16 DSC00618_PLab4 LR 1300h DNAI DNAIc by gardenersassistant, on Flickr
Click to expand...
A+
 
JimFox

JimFox

Moderator
Staff member
This sure looks like a passed test to me! I would give it an A+ Nick. :)

Just amazing detail in these. My favorite is #2, and #3 is a close second.
 
gardenersassistant

gardenersassistant

Well-Known Member
Kurt Harrigan said:
Nice.
Click to expand...
Thank you Kurt.

Kurt Harrigan said:
What lens do you use with this and how many images do you stack with?
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They are single captures, not stacked. My subjects are often moving around, as were those in #2 and #3 in the top post and the additional ant image above, and/or are on foliage that is moving (sometimes a lot) in a breeze, and/or engaged in some activity such as grooming, blowing bubbles or wrapping prey. Also, even when none of this is the case (and sometimes when it is), opportunities can suddenly turn up and then be gone in a few seconds. Stacking is not practical in such circumstances. (Also please see my next post below for a bit more on this.)

I use a Laowa 100mm 2X macro lens with a pair of Kenko 2X teleconverters, which combination goes from infinity focus to 8:1 and from f/11 to f/90. I have been using f/45 a lot. (This means the effective aperture varies from around f/56 at 1:1 to around f/135 at 8:1), but today I have been out experimenting with smaller apertures for magnifications in the range of around 1:1 to 4:1. I am still fine-tuning the technique.
 
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gardenersassistant

gardenersassistant

Well-Known Member
gardenersassistant said:
My subjects are often moving around, as were those in #2 and #3 in the top post and the additional ant image above, and/or are on foliage that is moving (sometimes a lot) in a breeze, and/or engaged in some activity such as grooming, blowing bubbles or wrapping prey. Also, even when none of this is the case (and sometimes when it is), opportunities can suddenly turn up and then be gone in a few seconds. Stacking is not practical in such circumstances.
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I forgot to mention that I like producing sequences of images. For example, I captured these five sequences during the session from which the five images in the top post are taken.


1892 Illustration 2 - Five sequences by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

Images #2 and #3, and the extra ant image were taken from the first two of these sequences. The third sequence is another "animal wandering around" sequence. The fourth is a grooming sequence and the fifth started off as a "moving around" sequence but turned into another thing I like to do, which is to zoom in and out on a subject.
 
Kurt Harrigan

Kurt Harrigan

Well-Known Member
gardenersassistant said:
Thank you Kurt.



They are single captures, not stacked. My subjects are often moving around, as were those in #2 and #3 in the top post and the additional ant image above, and/or are on foliage that is moving (sometimes a lot) in a breeze, and/or engaged in some activity such as grooming, blowing bubbles or wrapping prey. Also, even when none of this is the case (and sometimes when it is), opportunities can suddenly turn up and then be gone in a few seconds. Stacking is not practical in such circumstances. (Also please see my next post below for a bit more on this.)

I use a Laowa 100mm 2X macro lens with a pair of Kenko 2X teleconverters, which combination goes from infinity focus to 8:1 and from f/11 to f/90. I have been using f/45 a lot. (This means the effective aperture varies from around f/56 at 1:1 to around f/135 at 8:1), but today I have been out experimenting with smaller apertures for magnifications in the range of around 1:1 to 4:1. I am still fine-tuning the technique.
Click to expand...
It appears that you get plenty of depth of field using this combo. What kind of shutter speeds and iso do you often use?
 
gardenersassistant

gardenersassistant

Well-Known Member
Kurt Harrigan said:
It appears that you get plenty of depth of field using this combo. What kind of shutter speeds and iso do you often use?
Click to expand...
I use 1/200 sec, which is the fastest I can use with the flash I am using. (The flash sync speed for the camera is 1/250 sec, but I get a dark bar across the top of the image with that.)

In that session I used from ISO 640 to ISO 5000. Five of the six images from that session that are posted above used ISO 2000 or 2500, the other used ISO 800. Today I used from ISO 500 to ISO 8000.
 
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