My Actual 1st Camera.

Hey hey, long time no post lol. So I actually managed to get my hands on my own camera now. I found a Sony Alpha DSLR-A300 on ebay with the kit lens for £50 all in with shipping. It looked good and the seller had good reviews. So I went for it. While I was waiting for it to arrive I also went onto MPB.com and purchased a Minolta 70-210mm lens which was about £20 (bargain), I feel this would help me out as I take most my photos while I am out and about in the work van. So this should help me zoom in on things from a distance.

The Sony A300 is perfect for me as a beginner wanting to learn and see how I get on with the hobby before splashing out the big bucks. It is an entry-level digital camera that was launched way back in 2008, hence the price I grabbed it for. It has a 10.2 Megapixel APS-C CCD sensor as well as a very cool (to me) tilting 2.7 LCD screen that has live view, which i am really enjoying when taking photos from low down, its class. Its also has 9 AF points which will do for me but no where near what todays cameras come with, up to 61 AF points 😳.

The Minolta lens I picked up as I said above is a 70mm-210mm with f4.5-f5.6 (which i am still to learn about)

So far I am absolutely loving this camera, BUT, I have had one drama with it. which is why I have been a little slow posting as it put me in a little bit of a downer. So, the Sony takes a CF memory card instead of an SD, so with trying to keep costs down, I just ordered my self an SD to CF card adapter (photo below), popped it into the CF slot on the camera and all seemed well. Then I was lucky enough that my next days work took me to Wales, on a day of really heavy day of snow. I shot some absolutely awesome photos and could not wait to get home and get them into Light Room, This is where I had the drama lol.

So I hooked the camera up to my Macbook and looked to start transferring the photos over. Only to be met with a message saying this mac can not read the device. (or something along those lines) Now I tried absolutely everything, I MEAN EVERYTHING, to try and get these photos onto my laptop. Nothing will work I keep just getting the same message, ive tried other adaptors, other leads ect ect and the only thing that I have been able to come close with is recovery Programs, that will show me tiny thumbnails of the pictures I shot, but then asks me for upwards of £50 to recover them 😭.

I have for now, given up with retrieving the photos until I can figure out a way to recover them without the steep cost, the photos look fantastic from the thumbnails though so I may end up just having to pay for my mistake. I have now purchased a few Genuine New Sandisk CF cards from Vinted that work perfectly with no issues transferring the photos onto the Macbook.

This is one of the images I shot while on my way to Barrow-in-Furness, I shot this from quite a distance away, down on the main road at the bottom of the hill, using my Sony A300 and the Minolta 70-210mm lens, and i am made up with the quality of the image. I have edited the image a little but only in the sense of fetching the colours up a little and cropping the image a little.

Thats it for this post, Next I hope to do a little Vs post and shoot a few photos on Mikes Nikon and the same photos on my Sony and see if there is a noticeable difference between them as the Nikon does have better specs.

Until then, have a good un!