Category Archives: Uncategorized

Useful Accessory for the Sony Alpha 7: A L-Bracket

What is a L-bracket?

A L-bracket is a peace of metal which serves about three functions:

  • It makes it possible to mount the camera in portrait orientation on a tripod
  • It is a more solid connection to the camera than quick release plates because it has a much bigger area of contact to the camera.
  • It increases the size of the grip and makes holding the camera easier.
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my L-bracket

For me an L-brackets has improved the everyday experience of my Sony Alpha 7 and I think too few people know about L-brackets so I want to share my experience in this post.

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Old against New: Zeiss 2.8/28 vs Sony FE 2/28 vs Minolta MC 2/28

I wanted to see how my new FE 2/28 compares against my older manual lenses, so I ran a comparison between four lenses:

  • The Minolta MD 2.8/28 is very small, light and affordable
  • The Carl Zeiss Distagon 2.8/28 T* enjoys a very good reputation and it is a bit more expensive at around 250€.
  • The Minolta MC 2/28 is the oldest and fastest of the bunch, it was introduced in 1975. My copy has some fungus in it and other copies might be better.
  • The Sony FE 2/28 is brand new and the most expensive one at 450€.
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Minolta MD 2.8/28 | Zeiss 2.8/28 | Sony FE 2/28 | Minolta MC 2/28

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Minolta MD 20mm 1:2.8 vs Canon FD 20mm 1:2.8 – comparison review

I have owned the Canon FD 2.8/20 for about a year now and I am mostly happy with it’s performance. Now I got the chance to test it against the smaller and lighter Minolta MD 20mm 1:2.8. So, how do they compare?


MinoltaCanon

 

Specifications

Canon FD 2.8/20Minolta MD 2.8/20
Length62mm44mm
Diameter78mm 65mm
Weight305g240g
Filter Thread72mm55mm
Aperture Blades66
Short focusing distance25cm25cm

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85mm comparison- Minolta, Tokina, Canon and Samyang

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Minolta MD 2/85, MC 1.7/85, Tokina 2.5/90 Macro, Samyang 1.4/85, Canon FD 4/80-200 L

 

After I published the Minolta List several kind people offered to lent me Minolta lenses so I had a MD 2/85 and MC 1.7/85 plus several of my own lenses and made this test to see where the strengths and weaknesses of each lens are.

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Bokeh

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I also tested foreground bokeh but the differences here were less noticeable The reason might be that my test setup wasn#t very good. You can find  it here.

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