an OR photo outfit by Sony

You have an open body cavity  a foot or two from where you are standing, doctors and nurses surround and are hunched over  the patient, their eyes  seemingly shooting darts into you with the demand to take the shot, NOW! In particular, with cardiac patients, hearts visibly beating under the lights, I literally have seconds to take the shot(s). And these shots have to be well-exposed,  in focus, and with very generous depth-of-field (which can be a challenge given the short shooting distance). There cannot be retakes/reshoots.

The equipment has to be light with ergonomics for the cramp space (mindful not to brush your scrubs against anything). Since it's next to impossible to use the viewfinder (this would necessitate leaning over the body cavity), I've come to rely on a flipping finder (so only the camera is over the body cavity) with my arms extended out. And when using a finder, i.e., Live View, I'll need to get in focus and maintain focus, fast!

Enter the Sony SLT camera, in this case, the a57 (could also use the a65, or the new a6000). The one thing these cameras have in common is their fast phase detect auto-focusing system using Live View. Small, light, and very inexpensive, these cameras also have flipping high resolution screens (and NOT articulated finders which make you view the scene away from the lens axis, e.g., Canon 70D). For my lens, I use a 30 year old Minolta 50f2.8 macro, which is as good as any modern macro for sharpness and chromatic aberration, and available on eBay or on Craigslist for $200 (mental note: buy the next one that comes up on craigslist for under $200). For my ring flash, I use the lightest, least expensive, and most power efficient (2 AAA's lasts a long time) flash available: the Metz 15 MS-1. It connects wirelessly, avoiding the cables and the flash body mounted on the hot shoe (see the Nikon with the Sigma flash, below).

 

 

Shown below are two setups used in the past that were the standard, until I "discovered" Sony's phase-detect Live View.

left: Nikon D90 with 120mm Medical-Nikkor and battery pack (6AA's)

right: Nikon D90, Micro-Nikkor 85f3.5, Sigma Ringflash (4AA's)

3 times the weight and volume of the Sony setup, primitive Live View, static LCD, manual focus

almost twice the weight of the Sony setup, top-heavy and awkward, static LCD with primitive first gen contrast detect autofocus.  But this lens is very sharp! February 20th.

The Sony Diaries #4: High ISO? no worries with the Sony a99

There has never been a free lunch with high ISO's. Using high ISOs (ISO1600 and higher) meant putting up with noise/grain, colour shifts, and overall image degradation. Back in the film days, rating an ISO400 film at ISO800 was, literally, pushing it. In digital, as sensor technology (and size) evolved, the high ISO quality boundaries expanded; still, an image taken at ISO3200 shows image degradation in comparison to one taken at ISO400 (a difference of 3 stops).

I knew that, in theory,  a well exposed image may be taken at high ISO's without noticeable or significant image deterioration. I never had much success with this theory so I kept my ISO rating at ISO800, maybe ISO1600 for dark reception venues, even with my full frame Canon 5d2.

Enter the Sony a99. This is a full frame camera with what I think is (shared by reviewers across the internet universe)  the best, unsurpassed, AWB and light metering implementation ever. Coupled with Sony's SLT technology, with its phase detect LIVE VIEW (on the industry's highest resolution EVF OLED finder and matching screen) which means what-you-see-is-what-the-sensor-gets-exactly (along with the thumb wheel for instant +/- EV adjustment), my images are almost always well-exposed!

I have now taken to using the AUTO ISO setting (ISO50-ISO6400) when I am on either Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority Mode. My images are almost always well-exposed and colour-balanced.

Here are samples of what I mean (as well as showcasing the Sony a99's micro-adjust feature):

Zeiss 24-70f2.8 at 50mm, 1/60@f3.2, ISO2500, full-frame 24MP

detail area from above, cropped to 1.5MP

Zeiss 24-70f2.8 at 50mm, 1/60@f3.2, ISO2500, full-frame 24MP

detail area from above, cropped to 2.1MP

Tamron 70-200f2.8 at 200mm, 1/125@f3.5, ISO6400, full-frame 24MP

detail area from above, cropped to 1.0MP

The image taken with the Tamron is note-worthy in that this lens was a so-so lens when used with the Sony a65 and Sony a57, consumer-oriented cameras without a micro-adjust feature. I was prepared to live with this since this Tamron is priced at less than half of what the Sony G version and the equivalent Canon and Nikon offerings go for. What I didn't realize is that the lens is actually innately very sharp; the a99 allowed me to micro adjust the focus plane so that the Tamron potential is realized!

Needless to say, I'm a Sony fan!