p.40 #1 · Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM Image Thread
sundial40 wrote:
Davev
Thanks for the quick response. I guess that other than he focus settings, I am in good shape. Interesting, I also use Topaz Denoise. I assume that us why many of the images shown in the forum have such a smooth background. I have been using it for my m43 and it makes a great difference in clarity of the image.
On the A7R3, I set my AF/On button for spot focus and it enables shutter speed to vary for exposure control, but the lens is set at wide open. So at 100mm, the F is fixed at 4.5. And I can't seem to find a way to adjust the F when I use the rear AF/On button to focus with the centered spot. It is nice to shift between spot focus and wide area focus when set C2 for BIF, but not being able to select the F value is a bummer. Any thoughts as to why this is?
Paul...Show more →
Nope, no answer for that. I normally shoot wide open, so I rarely adjust it. When I do, I go into manual mode.
p.40 #3 · Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM Image Thread
What the heck is this large light spot in the center of my image? Three very similar pictures show the same thing. I've not seen this before in any of my images, even the images taken a few minutes earlier in the evening.
No CPL, just a B+W MRC filter that's been on it through all my shots since I've had it.
p.40 #7 · Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM Image Thread
99.99% of the time the answer is the filter. UV filters are largely pointless and certainly not worth ruining shots.
jhinkey wrote:
What the heck is this large light spot in the center of my image? Three very similar pictures show the same thing. I've not seen this before in any of my images, even the images taken a few minutes earlier in the evening.
No CPL, just a B+W MRC filter that's been on it through all my shots since I've had it.
p.40 #8 · Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM Image Thread
RoamingScott wrote:
99.99% of the time the answer is the filter. UV filters are largely pointless and certainly not worth ruining shots.
It's not even a UV filter, it's a clear filter. It's not clear to me it's the filter at all. Unfortunately not having a filter on the front is not an option. I'll try to re-create this shot again if the weather cooperates and if I can replicate this behavior I'll try it w/o the filter to see if there is a difference. My experience has been that 99.9% of the time it's NOT the filter, but rather some bizarre optical behavior of the lens.
p.40 #9 · Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM Image Thread
jhinkey wrote:
It's not even a UV filter, it's a clear filter. It's not clear to me it's the filter at all. Unfortunately not having a filter on the front is not an option. I'll try to re-create this shot again if the weather cooperates and if I can replicate this behavior I'll try it w/o the filter to see if there is a difference. My experience has been that 99.9% of the time it's NOT the filter, but rather some bizarre optical behavior of the lens.
These types of questions come up quite a bit in all the corners of this forum, and almost universally, some sort of filter is on the lens when it happens.
The problem is it's very hard to reproduce something like this, since like you said, it doesn't effect every shot and only crops up under extremely specific lighting conditions. I can only speak to my anecdotal conversations with people online, as well as the fact that my 100-400 has been through thousands of exposures, often in similar lighting conditions as that shot, and I've never seen any strange optical oddities like that. I don't use filters unless the shot requires an ND (almost never).
p.40 #11 · Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM Image Thread
Photo cross posted in the Sony FE Image Thread and taken at 6:29 PM.
Looking at a wading Great Egret in breeding plumage and radiating circular ripples.
Cropped; tripod mounted100-400mm GM set to 145mm and A7rIII; silent shutter.
ISO 200, f5.0 1/500 second.
Exposure corrected +0.29 Stops.
May 11, 2019
At Gatorland, Orlando or Kissimmee, FL.
p.40 #15 · Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM Image Thread
RoamingScott wrote:
These types of questions come up quite a bit in all the corners of this forum, and almost universally, some sort of filter is on the lens when it happens.
The problem is it's very hard to reproduce something like this, since like you said, it doesn't effect every shot and only crops up under extremely specific lighting conditions. I can only speak to my anecdotal conversations with people online, as well as the fact that my 100-400 has been through thousands of exposures, often in similar lighting conditions as that shot, and I've never seen any strange optical oddities like that. I don't use filters unless the shot requires an ND (almost never)....Show more →
I went out and pointed my 100-400 @ 400mm up at the pure blue sky, put it in aperture mode and took shots at f/5.6, f/8, and f/11 with and without the B+W MRC Clear filter and it made not one bit of difference. Still get the hot spot in the center. It's there at f/5.6, slightly worse at f/8, and slightly better again at f/11.
So not the filter - 100% not the filter. I've had some similar issues when taking images with a fully gray overcast sky - weird optical issues showing up, especially if you have to tweak the image at all in post.
p.40 #16 · Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM Image Thread
jhinkey wrote:
I went out and pointed my 100-400 @ 400mm up at the pure blue sky, put it in aperture mode and took shots at f/5.6, f/8, and f/11 with and without the B+W MRC Clear filter and it made not one bit of difference. Still get the hot spot in the center. It's there at f/5.6, slightly worse at f/8, and slightly better again at f/11.
So not the filter - 100% not the filter. I've had some similar issues when taking images with a fully gray overcast sky - weird optical issues showing up, especially if you have to tweak the image at all in post.
Do you have DRO enabled, or any of the other built in corrections? Not sure if any of those apply to RAW files, but it's all camera-based processing that changes scene to scene at the camera's discretion.
p.40 #18 · Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM Image Thread
jhinkey wrote:
What the heck is this large light spot in the center of my image? Three very similar pictures show the same thing. I've not seen this before in any of my images, even the images taken a few minutes earlier in the evening.
No CPL, just a B+W MRC filter that's been on it through all my shots since I've had it.
Thoughts?
- J
I've had the same thing happen to me on a couple of occasions with this lens - both with and without a UV filter. I only use UV filters in areas such as sand dunes, and I photograph in those areas very rarely. I know for certain the other occurrence was using no filters at all.
This is not a filter issue. It's something with the lens, and as you said, only happens in very specific lighting scenarios.
Over at dpreview there were talks (quite a while ago) of a vignetting occurring with this lens and to turn off a specific setting. I've turned that setting off, but haven't really shot landscapes with the 100-400 since that, so I'm not sure if that resolves this issue for me. (or what the setting was - but there's a long discussion of vignetting with the 100-400 over there)
While I love the lens overall, this issue with my lens has removed a bit of confidence for me to use this lens in landscape scenarios. We'll see because I'm taking it to Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Glacier for a week and a half...
p.40 #19 · Sony FE 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 GM Image Thread
liftedspirit wrote:
I've had the same thing happen to me on a couple of occasions with this lens - both with and without a UV filter. I only use UV filters in areas such as sand dunes, and I photograph in those areas very rarely. I know for certain the other occurrence was using no filters at all.
This is not a filter issue. It's something with the lens, and as you said, only happens in very specific lighting scenarios.
Over at dpreview there were talks (quite a while ago) of a vignetting occurring with this lens and to turn off a specific setting. I've turned that setting off, but haven't really shot landscapes with the 100-400 since that, so I'm not sure if that resolves this issue for me. (or what the setting was - but there's a long discussion of vignetting with the 100-400 over there)
While I love the lens overall, this issue with my lens has removed a bit of confidence for me to use this lens in landscape scenarios. We'll see because I'm taking it to Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Glacier for a week and a half......Show more →
Exactly. Every once in a while I get these results under certain conditions and it takes away a bit of confidence with a lense that otherwise is outstanding. I've seen this kind of thing before and it appears to me to be a reflection from the sensor surface reflected off of the diaphragm and back to the sensor. There are some older Nikkor lenses that do this in a very similar way.
