We have owned the Epson R3000 for almost 2 years back in 2016. We have printed way more and way larger than ever thought. Recently we had an issue when we switched to matted black ink which had not used for 2 years! Getting the printer back to work with the photo black ink did take about 2 days and lots of cleaning cycles and frustration. I was ready to give up all the printing and get it done in the lab. Our print habit is usually a few A4 and 13x18cm prints every month and every 2 month an A3+ print. We have also used the printer at events to actually print pictures of the guests and hand them out by the end of the event. These make up for some real stress and requires quiet a bit of ink. While searching for ways to get my printer back in working order I did come across continuous ink solutions. There is not much documentation or details, looking at what I could find I decided to give InkRepublic a chance and ordered their system. With 900ml total ink it was less than 2 sets of all cartridges for […]
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Another article about my beloved 600mm f4 lens. When I take this lens to any event I could easily spend the whole event talking about this lens. It really creates gear envy with most photographers, non photographers are just impressed by the size which equates to “BIG PROFESSIONAL”. For me it is just one of the many tools. It is not the one I use the most, or the one I like to take with me. There are many drawbacks, it requires a dedicated bag, it is hard to shoot with this and have a 2nd body it always gets in the way. It is really heavy to carry around. But is has an amazing reach. Last night I did shoot a football (or soccer game if you are from the US) I had the Sony A99II with the 70-400 and the A99 with the 600mm. I did shoot 91 keepers with the 600mm and 330 with the 70-400mm. For this reason I did put the A99 behind the 70-400. 600mm is great but almost to big for the game. As soon as players get over the middle line they get too close. When the local team was playing defense […]
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I have been using the A99II for a few month an totally love it for action, sports and overall it is a great camera. This time I decided to use it with my Minolta 600mm f4 APO high speed lens from 1993. That is a pretty old lens. I attached the A99II and it just worked like with the old A99 not sure the AF is any faster but it supports the new AF points. It is definitely not the fastest and the age is showing but still good enough to shoot some real football (soccer). This was shot this week for the first game of the season. An evening game with not great lights. I had to push the camera between 2000-5000 ISO nost are shot at 4000 to get a reasonable shutter speed even at f4.0. Here some sample pictures not too bad for this old lady. For this lens a monopod is an absolute must have ! I use this gitzo monopod we got it on clearance sale, any cheap one will do just as well if you pick a sturdy one. And you will need a gimbal head and a dedicated bag. This big lens may […]
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At the end of 2010 I did get the Sony A-850 with lenses and the Sony HVL-F58AM as my first serious camera. I admit that I did use the flash not very often and I had absolutely no idea on what I was doing and the results did vary. Late 2011 I head read most of Joe McNally’s Books [amazon_link asins=’B004QQ3MK4|0321700902′ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’claireemotions-21|claireemotions-21′ marketplace=’FR|US’ link_id=’9e4e9faf-e4e0-11e8-acce-0b06c4a988d3′] and also Bryans Petersons Book on flashlight where I finally did understand how that black magic thing of a flash actually works or at least a little. [amazon_link asins=’0817439560,B00HTK667K|B00M0KJE4G’ template=’ProductGrid’ store=’claireemotions-21|claireemotions-21′ marketplace=’US|FR’ link_id=’ec1645d7-e4e0-11e8-a478-31960722d139′] To be honest my flash was not used much until late 2012 when I was hired to take pictures for the local Ice hockey team and their fans. Flash became a weekly requirement. I used the flash on camera but at least with a Flashbender to diffuse the light. I loved the old Sony Flash mount, you could actually carry the camera from the light. That benefit did go away with the Sony A99 and the mmi adapter. I can not even remember how many time the flash did take an unexpected beating but it did survive all these crashed. Eventually after […]
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Sony Finally released the update to the A99 the long awaited A99II. When the original A99 was released in 2012 I had initially decided to not buy it. However for a new assignment I had to get the A99. The camera was so much better than my A850 and A77 that after 1 month I bought a second A99, sold the 850 on ebay and the A77 was a backup. Fast forward to 2016 the A99 bodies have 250k+ actuation and only 55k for the A77. It has been frustrating to watch Sony release all the new features in the A7 series. And nothing in DSLR Format as a sports shooter I want the bigger body to balance the big glass. I am still waiting for the grip. Kind of disappointed that I lose the 3rd battery. The body is a little smaller but not to bad after a few gigs. Is it really better ? Well after 3 weeks I have not bought a 2nd one yet, but I keep swapping to the newer body. The file size is insanely big. After buying 300mb/s card, new card reader, PCI 3.1 slot the copy to the PC is actually a […]
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