u/Efficient-Isopod-106

The weather looked promising for a spot of astrophotography so my buddy and I headed out to Talybont Reservoir to get set up.

I had my smart telescope trained on M33, The Triangulum Galaxy but whilst that was busy I broke out the Sony a6700 with the 11mm f1.8 on a star tracker and had some fun experimenting.

I was experimenting with stacking with mixed results (new to this) so parked that for now and I put this shot together from two images - one 30s untracked capture to get the foreground and a tracked 45s shot with the star tracker enabled to cut out star trailing.

I like a cooler, slightly blue colour temp (personal taste) and a more natural look to the Milky Way, not too overdone.

I've wanted to capture this composition at this location for a little while. It's not perfect, but I'm super happy with the result!

Hey all :)

I visited Longleat Safari Park in the UK again today with my family, and got some great pics of the red pandas!

Such a beautiful animal!

The next time we visit we will have to do the VIP ticket as you can get super close to them.

Last night, I went on a trip up to Bannau Brycheiniog, the Brecon Beacons in Wales in the evening with friends to test our solar filters and setups ready for the eclipse tomorrow.

We had most of our kit with us so after Sunset we decided to stay out as it was quite a clear evening, despite smoke from nearby wildfires and light pollution, to see if we could see any meteors and capture the night sky.

I had my recently acquired Sony 11mm f1.8 with me so I dropped it on my a6700 while my Dwarf 3 smart telescope was capturing a nebula and captured a few nice shots!

I'm not very experienced with editing but did a few tweaks to try and bring out the detail, trying to not overcook it and make it look unnatural or overstated and I'm happy with how they came out.

Also, the Tamron 150-500mm with my friends solar filter on loan as the one I ordered hasn't arrived yet captures a nice sharp solar disc, so looking forward to building a composite image of the eclipse while the Dwarf 3 captures a timelapse :)

It's been an expensive, but fruitful week!

I have been on the fence about upgrading my a6400 to an a6700 for a little while and I had a look at trading in my old a6000 and some lenses I have upgraded from along the way with MPB.

I dropped into my local Camera Centre UK shop in Cardiff for a browse last week and was chatting to one of the guys there who mentioned they have an a6700 with less than 2000 shutter count for sale pre-owned. After a quick discussion, he gave me a better price than MPB for my old gear and a deal was struck so I went back the next day and picked it up. Result!

When I was there, I was looking at a Tamron 150-500mm F/5-6.7 Di III VC VXD that they had in the cabinet as well. After my recent experience at the Wales Air Show with my 70-350mm, I was thinking about getting something with just a little more reach that is still fairly compact and it looked like a great option.

I didn't walk out with it, but I've been mulling it over for a few days and watching reviews and was in Cardiff again shopping today so moved some funds around and thought what the hell. They knocked some off the price as the only one left was the display one (that I had tried the week before) and threw in a free HOYA UV filter as well.

It's awesome! Super zoom, sharp and a good size. There is a bit of overlap with my Sony 70-350mm which I really rate, but they will serve different purposes for me. The 70-350 is much smaller and lighter, so that will be a great one to keep in the bag for things like hiking, family trips, holidays etc where a lighter more versatile setup is preferred. The Tamron will be for trips where photography is the whole point like airshows, sport, birdwatching etc so lugging the extra weight is part of the plan.

I've attached some photos of the new lens on the a6700 body, along with some photos from a nearby hill looking towards Pontypridd in the South Wales valleys. The large grey building is the town library with shots at 18mm and 135mm for comparison, then 150mm and 500mm with the Tamron. There was noticeable heat mirage and haze today (local wildfires) but very impressed with the reach!

I still have the a6400 body so for my next airshow, I think a two camera setup could work. the a6700 with the big Tamron for air displays, and the a6400 with my 18-135 G OSS on it for static displays, cockpits, walking around etc.

So yeah, an expensive but good week of acquisitions!

Following on from my earlier post of the Swordfish at the Wales Air Show, I've caught up on culling the 1800+ photos I shot on the Saturday and picked out some of the best ones. All shot with my a6400 and the Sony 70-350mm.

I got talking to some of the other photographers there with some serious kit and while the 70-350mm is an awesome lens and a great size/weight for a walkabout telephoto lens, I think I'd like something with a little more reach for wildlife and these kind of events.

The Tamron 150-500mm F5-6.7 VC VXD looks like a possible contender, not overly huge and still fairly portable.

Any advice on alternate choices and recommendations is welcome!

Hey all :)

I spent a few hours on Swansea beach in Wales this weekend, enjoying the Wales Air Show and all of the displays.

I took my camera with me and it's the first time I've ever tried shooting an airshow on something other than a camera phone and I like how some of the photos have come out!

The highlight of the day for me was seeing the Navy Wings Fairey Swordfish (always loved the old stringbag!) and the Typhoon display was incredible - so loud!

Hope you like the photos :)

We're away for a couple of days and I brought my camera with me, and grabbed some nice photos on a walk around a local lake.

Shot in RAW +jpeg, these are the jpegs straight from the camera.

Love this lens!

Hi all, first post in here :)

I've dabbled in photography on and off over the years and have gotten back into it again recently, starting with an a6000 about a year ago and recently upgraded to a 6400.

I've got a selection of lenses and my EDC lens is the Sony 18-135mm which I love using, but I wanted a little more reach in some situations and after watching every review under the sun, I opted for the Sony 70-350mm instead of an all-in-one superzoom.

I had a chance to use it properly last week on a work daytrip to Longleat Safari Park and used it to capture some great shots of some of the animals there!

The next day I was on family taxi duty and found myself in Cardiff Bay with a few hours to kill, so I took my camera with me, and stumbled on the latest stage in an "Aqua Adrenaline" racing series and caught some great shots there as well.

I shot both times in RAW + jpeg. The animal pics are the jpegs straight from the camera and the racing shots were edited in Darktable which I'm still getting to grips with.

Loving this kit combo and really happy with the results so far.