April Foolishness 2024 'Signup Thread'

Going with the Sony 35/1.8 OSS and the Sony 11/1.8 for this challenge. Good luck to you all!

Mestari wrote: STF was my choice for April's Foolishness last year! I'm really curious what you will be able to produce with it with a99II - by dream camera that I never got due to its price. It really is a good candidate for this challenge and seeing the location you're from it may be interesting to watch your entries :) I just love that lens ;)

I'm looking forward to it. I've been in 'spray and pray' mode for the best of last month, with another minolta legend, the 200 2.8 HS AF. See also the recent dogs thread. I was hovering my lens and camera above the water for most of the time, to get as low as possible, not composing, only trying to get lizzy in focus and not drown the camera. It is rewarding when it works, but time to slow down a little. manual focus only for april.

Pieter, I have delayed long enough but looking back through my catalogues my last April Foolishness was 2020 and I never seem to have picked it up again after the pandemic. So it is about time I did, especially as Dyxum has always been so good to me and the April 2018 challenge turned in to a personal dedication on the second day when there were many photos featuring the number 70 for my seventieth birthday. Still gives me a thrill to look through the inventive captures. And there were TWENTYSIX of us in that challenge

So, I shall commit to 3 per week, with the aim to post more if I can, and my choice of cameras and lenses is: NEX-6 with SamYang AF FE 35mm f2.8 and a7RM4A with Sony FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G OSS, two of my most under-used lenses. (Hopefully I am allowed to use more than one camera?)

And as always I shall contribute to the commenting as much as I can.

pegelli wrote: Welcome Franz, the RD-175 is indeed quite foolish and certainly a challange. So it ticks all boxes for April. However you can choose two primes and any body you like so to keep your sanity it doesn't have to be 30 days of RD-175

If it functions, the RD-175 drives a lot of limitations, but the most noticeable is the workflow for files. Otherwise , I find it relatively easy to use once you understand the limitations. That being said, I will keep an a99ii in the mix if needed. I’ll spend some time checking batteries and functionality before I finalize my body selection. When l last checked, one of my two RD-175s had died.

I am on the fence if I should do a 200mm f4 & 200mm f2.8 or a 200mm f4 & 600mm f4. The RD-175 has a max aperture of f6.7 at a static ISO800 with a 2x crop factor @ 1.75mp, so pretty much any lens I attach will be limited by the camera and will have more than enough resolution. I will report back by Monday on the final configuration after checking gear. The 1000mm f8 with a 2x crop is also enticing …

Mestari wrote: I am in, not sure about the lenses though. I was thinking of having the 200-600 @600 as one and something light as the other. Maybe the 35GM? I am not sure though if I will be dedicated enough to drag that 200-600 everywhere with me. Then again, I do not have any other prime for E-mount, and all other for A mount are big and heavy, with the exception in 50/1.4 which is not that good until you close it to f4...

OK, I think I know.
Body will be A7RV.
Lenses will be:
35 1.4 GM
A mount Tamron 180 3.5 macro via LA-EA5.

I will try 3 pics a week. My garden will hopefully provide for some macro opportunities and GM is light enough to bring with me to work and then maybe have some cityscapes. This worked quite well last year, although no STF this time around and bodies will be different.

300 mm seems far too much for a shoulder problem. 35mm seems a better plan, Phil

I've decided to use a Voigtlander 21mm F/5 Skopar on an ILCE-1, B/W,
and my A6700 with a SEL85mmF18.
7 days a week, I try shoot each day, but I'll probably miserably fail in this goal.

Thank you Harm vb and Pegelli. I'm about to retire from Active Duty plus with soo many A mount deals, it made sense to get back into photography. Like others, I've used many systems but I'll always return to Minolta and the dyxum community.