Hello from Suffolk UK

[suffolkbobby]

Hello Sony friends.
First of all we old country bumkins from the County of Suffolk UK have a unique way of expressing ourselves so please don't take anything that is written as offensive, quite the opposite, Its our humour.
Now to begin I'm almost 70 and my legs rarely allow me to get out. I've been using Sony cameras since 2009.
I mainly use the A100,  in fact I have two of them, they were so cheap. There are less menus to scroll through, the battery life is brilliant and that shutter clunk is to die for. One addition I bought for this camera since there is no live view or tilting screen is the Minolta Angle Finder which allows me to shoot low without getting too low and has a degree of magnification.

The next is the A35 translucent bought on a whim as i fancied a live view camera and again this was pennies, half the weight, but half the battery life and without the focus peaking I assumed it had.
It's too light for my liking even though it works a treat.
My final camera is the A7II. I traded in the bought in error a6000 which I hated to try full frame and of course peaking...the jury is still out on that one.

Now for lenses,  at the time I had short arms and very deep pockets hence my love of M42 mount vintage glass all bought for a song. I have since weakend a little bit, I'll illuminate later.
2 x Helios 58mm, the 44-2 and the 44M4 plus the Japanese Helios 28mm and Derek Gardener 28mm,  a 300 mm that was too cheap to pass up. 
For close up and macro I found an Minolta 50mm macro and a Cosina 100mm with 1:1 adapter which may be ancient but gives modern glass a run for their money.

My original Sony kit lenses are the 18-70 and 18-55 plus the Sony 75-300 to complete the a mount collection.

Now this where the Gear .Acquistion Syndrome comes into play.
I can use the vintage lenses on all the cameras and manual focus is second nature, I can get better results with the A100 than I do with the mirrorless, the peaking really does nothing for me.
One weirdo is the Industar-61 adapted for e-mount by a chap in Ukraine to operate like a tilt shift. I bought it to help support him during their troubled times. It really is fun to play with and no two shots are the same.
When I saw an article on Britin Star lenses, particularly the 35mm f0.95 and the 60mm x2 macro which are e mount but still manual focus. I ordered them on approval and I loved them, so much I kept them which means the a7 is no longer totally redundant...However, I was recently offered an 85mm full frame autofocus lens on a trial basis. This is when I found that I have no idea how to use autofocus. All the squares popping up all over the place and the image moving in and out confuses me...
Manual focus is so sedate in comparison...which suits my lifestyle.

[Olaf W.]

Welcome to our forum!