Ring Flash for a Sony DSLR Camera

[Shirley Roulston]

Has anyone used a Ring Flash for taking macro photos, there seems to be one for most cameras except Sony.
Shirley

[eccles]

Personally, I prefer to shoot butterflies without flash although I sometimes use the camera's onboard flash for fill-in. Sony makes a ring flash (HVL-RLAM) but they're not cheap. A quick search turned up Amazon as the best price at £194.

[Paul Brock]

Shirley

If you go to http://www.learnaboutbutterflies.com/Bu ... hy%203.htm and keep pressing 'next' at the bottom of the page, you will find useful information on ring and twin flashes; reports on various cameras etc. I met the website author Adrian Hoskins at Stockbridge Down yesterday; he uses Sony / Minolta equipment, including twin flash. I have a macro flash because I take pictures of museum specimens as well, but the light switches (top, bottom, side) can easily be turned on / off to obtain excellent results in the field.

I use a Minolta Dynax 7D with a Minolta 50mm macro lens and often use the macro flash on location. However, the extra equipment on top of the camera can cause unwanted shadows on sunny days, when trying to get very close to a butterfly! Good to see Sony / Minolta users out there, had a good chat with another Sony / Minolta enthusiast at Martin Down last week as well. As you know, Sony / Minolta is ideal for macro work, on account of the image stabilser.

Paul

[Shirley Roulston]

Thanks for that Paul, I'm taking Pilgrim Churches at the moment, keeping my eyes open for butterflies, 4 Orange Tips to-day at Llangian Church and I realised the 55-200mm lens wasn't very good for Churches, I'd left the 18-70 at home, in my bag was the jolly heavy reflex joby, same problem with Llanbedrog Church but got a very nice deep red Camilia, I have a lot of trouble with exposure but I can see some good photos coming out. With the Sony A100 the shutter speed doesn't show, so I really don't think Ive ever make water turn cloudy, I did take some nice photos to-day but their still in the camera.
Shirley

[Paul Brock]

Shirley

Combining churches with butterflies is good! Saw my first Orange Tips and Holly Blues of the year at Fawley churchyard earlier this month, along with many Speckled Woods. The OT and HB were beautiful fresh specimens; not only that, it's a very pleasant walk around the area....made a change from visiting well known sites.

Trouble is some churches are too well maintained. I live near one in Brockenhurst which has annoyingly few butterflies.....! Still, can't win them all, if I keep planting nectar sources, most will end up in my garden.

Paul

[Shirley Roulston]

Nice photo Paul, I know what you mean about not very well maintained, I kept putting my foot into strange holes, but there were flowers everywhere and there was only me there it was nice there but a bit spooky.
Shirley

[eccles]

With the Sony A100 the shutter speed doesn't show

Yes it does. The shutter speed and aperture are shown across the bottom of the viewfinder display, and across the top of the LCD display when you pull your eye away from the viewfinder. You may need to half press the shutter to get it to set aperture/shutter speed, at which point it will show you what it's set to.