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hello and welcome to yet another video
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and in this video it is something a bit
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different than usual because in this
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video I'll be talking about a Sony DSLR
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I don't usually talk about Sony dslrs
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but after I last made a video about the
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a100 I kind of got interested more into
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the uh Sony DSLR especially from their
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design language perspective because um
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the a100 still kept a lot of the minus
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design language and obviously the A200
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line of cameras all the way to the 300
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by 00 lines and so on and so forth
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changed a lot from the original min's uh
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design language so yeah but in this
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video I still will be discussing about
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my opinion based on how I shoot with
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this camera in case you might want to
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consider getting this camera or just
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looking for the uh second or third
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opinion about this camera so without
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further Ado let's get into the video
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[Music]
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so the Sony a230 now this camera came
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out way back in around 2009 I believe it
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was I can't really remember it precisely
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anymore but it's been almost 15 years
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since this camera was released and to be
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honest if it wasn't a DSLR it doesn't
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really feel that old to be honest with
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you and you know after using it for a
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while it is still a very enjoyable
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camera to use I actually forget that
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it's an entry level camera to use maybe
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it's because a lot of the uh Sony
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mirrorless cameras nowadays still has
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little amount of buttons so you still
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have to access the menus but anyway
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besides that point it is still a very
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responsive camera a very fun camera and
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also a camera that actually still
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delivers a really solid results coming
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out of the camera I'm sorry about the
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helicopter noise outside I live near the
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um Main Street and also there's a
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traffic noise as well but anyway back to
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the video um this camera you know yes it
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is an entry-level camera camera but
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there are a lot of things that makes it
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a very fun camera to use and it's a
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camera that um you know after using the
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a100 you can really feel that the uh
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design department at Sony at the time I
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don't know if you actually call it the
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design department but the department
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that designs this camera and also
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engineer this camera really want to make
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this camera as fun to use as possible
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and it really shows when you actually
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use it from how it grips to how it
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really operates and when you put your
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eye up to the viewfinder how it tries to
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focus right away though you can actually
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turn that feature off um all the way to
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just this like the the shutter mechanism
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it's very nice and light to listen to
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which is actually very very nice as well
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anyway um in this video it's not a full
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review video just as usual it will just
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be my opinion on this camera based on
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how I've used it um yes there are flaws
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as well despite me liking this camera so
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much um and if you're just here to look
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at the TAC you're welcome but if you're
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here uh just to get second or third
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opinion I hope that this video will
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actually help you quite a bit so um
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let's start first with the first section
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which is the um operational side of
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things and the usability this camera is
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built like well an entry-level camera it
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does feel very plasticky despite its um
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kind of futuristic design where you know
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it has this curves and this cutout
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things like that but despite feeling
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very plasticky it does still feel a
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little bit um secure in a plasticky way
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if that makes sense so it doesn't have
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this traditional just um very thin grip
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that Nikon was offering and Canon was
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offering and this really nice thumb grip
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here makes it very very secure that
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being said because it's a small entry
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level tlr it still feels very small and
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cramp when you just try to grip the
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whole um grip together like this
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otherwise everything is as you know what
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you expect from an entry-level camera
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it's not where they're sealed um there's
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basic d-pad there's only one dial in the
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front um but this camera still has very
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kind of nice nicely arranged buttons in
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the way that all of your essential
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buttons are at your fingertips on the
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right hand side of the camera so that
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means you can actually operate this
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camera from just uh one hand in most
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situations because the modile is still
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on this side um whereas typical
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entry-level dslrs at the time would have
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um their mode dial on this side of the
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camera but it's nice if they actually
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give you this function button so you can
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actually program it um so it's actually
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pretty good and you also have this DC in
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um should you want to actually put in
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the power uh on the side and onto the
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other side there are actually dual
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memory card slots on an entry level
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camera yes dual entry sorry dual card
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slots on an entry level camera uh that
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being said you can either pick either
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one or the other which is the standard
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SD card or the um Sony memory stick uh
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card then you have the um HDMI out and
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the mini USB connection um the screen
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itself if you look to the back it's only
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2.7 in but it's actually still very nice
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screen the one that you can actually
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still viewed during semi bright lighting
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situation and it's not too reflective
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and it's also detailed enough that you
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can actually judge your color and your
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exposure to a certain extent so that's
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actually very nice um what's not so nice
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is actually the uh hot shoe up here it's
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a proprietary Sony hot shoe and of
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course um it only take certain
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accessories that will actually accept
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this hot shoe so you cannot just you
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know go and grab a third party flash
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from the typical third party brand out
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there and just mount it on this camera
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it won't work but um on the other hand
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this camera has a very nice and Tall
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flash away from the lens which means
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that there's a very last chance of
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getting that red eye effect if you're
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shooting a lot of portraits with flashes
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especially at night time so that's
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pretty nice moving on underneath you'd
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find this um battery compartment which
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is actually quite nice and far away from
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the uh tripod mount which means that if
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you're having one of those um bigger
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tripod mount plate mounting underneath
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the camera um it won't really get in the
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way when you need to change your battery
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the battery is somewhat smaller than the
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um the one on the a100 so that is a
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little bit of bummer but in the same
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time because it is a DSLR that requires
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less and there's no live view feature in
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here uh this one tiny letal battery
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actually last for a long time so this
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battery has lasted for quite a long time
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in my usage I think the last I charged
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it was quite a few days ago almost a
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week ago at this point so yeah and it's
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only been one bar down and to be honest
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I love this camera so much that I've
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been taking it out too many places that
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I go to and I really enjoy using this
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camera and shooting with it um so much
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so um and talking about using this
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camera has a very nice and easy menu
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system unlike their A7 line of cameras
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a6000 line of cameras I understand those
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cameras has a lot of features but at
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least some organizing some organization
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work can actually go into those cameras
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as well but no but on this camera
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everything is very nice to use very
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intuitive everything is where you need
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it um or where you expect it to be
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things like that and if you're a
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beginner looking into learning about
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photography there's also a nice
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graphical design at the home screen just
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for you to actually see which settings
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does which like what effect has on which
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kind of subjects or if you set this
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value how will affect your subject
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things like that or which scenario it
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could potentially be used in for so yeah
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um this camera despite having a very
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fast AF speed it actually shoots only at
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2.5 2 5 frames per second um which is
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still okay for today's standards if
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you're just doing a general purpose of
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photography of course it doesn't you
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know win any awards but to be honest if
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you're just like shooting um basic food
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photography basic travel photography
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basic um portrait basic landscape
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photography you don't really need more
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than that to be realistic with you and
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um talking about frames per second the
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shutters sound on this camera is really
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nice
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yeah it's not too loud like Canon and
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Nikon dslrs at the time um and there's
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that very nice kind of tactile feedback
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you get from the mirror of course you
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get that but like um it's very nice and
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soft as well so that's something that I
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really like overall I'm having a much
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more positive um impression of this
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camera compared to the a100 of course
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that's a completely different beast at a
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much older age as well but this camera
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definitely fixed a lot of things that
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this camera um had problems with and
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when you're focusing with vertical lines
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it will or actually try to focus
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everything vertically this camera
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doesn't struggle so a lot of cameras a
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lot of entry level cameras at that time
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definitely struggled um photographing a
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lot of things vertically because they
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don't have an a cross type sensor um
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autofocusing system I don't think this
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actually has a you know sophisticated um
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cross cross type sensor autofocusing
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system either but at least it deals much
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better than most entry-level cameras at
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that time from other manufactures so
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that is something that I'm really quite
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um happy about uh simply because it just
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locks on to a lot of things very quickly
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and also very accurately unless if
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you're using the 50 mm f1.8 of course
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because it is a larger aperture but if
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you're just using the standard lens
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everything just um gets locked into um
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focus really really quickly so that's
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pretty good and of course being Sony it
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does accept all of the amount from
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minala as well because this is a minala
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lens um the Mina amount uh yeah oh and
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one thing about this lens just real
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quick is I like how cute this is cuz um
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okay just cut my nails but you can
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actually pop this out as a hood like I
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don't know if you see it yeah that is
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the lens Hood itself and then to not use
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it collapse it back there lens hood back
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in so yeah there is that um
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otherwise there's not really much to say
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there is the eye sensor here that
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activates like on default activates the
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autofocusing system when you put your
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eyes up to the eye up to up to the
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viewfinder um sorry my tongue is just
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twisting quite a bit it's a really hot
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day today um and then at the back here
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you find this LCD screen that auto
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rotates depending on which rotation of
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the camera you have it in so that's
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actually quite neat but yeah otherwise
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there's not really much else to add to
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this camera only shoots up to 4,000 of a
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second if you're interested um which if
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you're shooting a lot in day like bright
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daylight condition with f1.8 f1.4 lenses
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that might not be so ideal but for most
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you know F scenarios it is perfectly
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okay to have only 4,000th of a second
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shutter speed and also this camera
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doesn't have any Wi-Fi Bluetooth NFC
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what have you um it is an older camera
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but of course just like with any older
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dslrs you can always add those II um SD
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cards into the camera assuming it's
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still available in your Market um if not
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brand new then used and of course get a
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uh the pictures on your smart devices
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automatically transferred there so there
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is that um otherwise if you're into
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self-timer this camera can do self timer
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between two or 10 seconds so yeah that's
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pretty much it um anyway now moving on
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to the image quality section the camera
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actually produce really nice image
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quality um yes it's only 10 megapixels
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but to be honest with you the 10
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megapixels is completely fine for
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today's standards if you're only
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uploading it to Instagram Facebook other
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social media platforms they generally
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don't use over 2 megapixels um on the
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images so 10 will leave you a lot of
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room to crop and also D noise and
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talking about D noise um this camera I
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I'm comfortable shooting it up to ISO
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800 which actually says a lot because um
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at the uh time period of when this
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camera was released uh I wouldn't be
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more confident than ISO 400 or 200 on
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other uh entrylevel dslrs um whether
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it's Canon or Nikon maybe 400 uh mainly
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but not up to 800 but on this camera yes
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the noise already starts to show at 800
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but at least um it's still acceptable if
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you're only shooting let's say your
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family members or just shooting um
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personal events here and there nothing
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professional of course um if it's
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professional I would still keep it
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around 400 or lower but if it's
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nonprofessional then it's 800 then it's
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totally fine on this particular camera
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and 10 megapixels again is quite nice
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the color depth is quite nice the color
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signs is quite nice I like it much more
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than the uh a6000 line of cameras well
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yeah those cameras has much more robust
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files has much more detail files but in
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terms of color signs I really love the
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color signs out of this camera and if
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you're shooting raw um the raw files
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though not as robust as modern cameras
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of course but it is still robust enough
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to do some basic retouching basic
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manipulation Basics adjustments so it's
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actually still quite nice you can just
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put it into your Lightroom and just
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apply some presets or adjust the
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brightness contrast um what have you the
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whites the blacks the uh the um
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individual color tones to a certain
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extent before you actually start
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breaking the image apart so yeah it's
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quite nice seeing how robust the images
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out of this camera is especially for the
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age and for the price that you can
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actually get nowadays but of course
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being an old camera always always
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remember that watch out for those Moran
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iling patterns because it will show up
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nowhere near as much as let's say
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cameras from Nikon and Canon at the time
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for their super entrylevel camera um
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line of cameras back then but it will
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show up um eventually so just be careful
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when shooting with pine sorry with fine
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patterns um yeah otherwise um that's
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pretty much it for the image quality
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it's very nice it has very nice color
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signs very nice colored depth very nice
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skin tones as well so yeah now over onto
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the um conclusion this camera overall
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personally I really had a lot of fun
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using this camera it's a camera that
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despite being an L camera it's a camera
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that I can only just you know point a
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camera and then it will shoot whatever I
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wanted to shoot uh within just matter of
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seconds it is still quite fast for an
00:15:08
entry-level camera and very responsive
00:15:11
and reliable as well so that's actually
00:15:13
pretty good yes there are floss that I
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don't really like for example this
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viewfinder it's only 95% coverage and of
00:15:21
course um it's not big and bright if
00:15:23
you're using a lot of manual glass for
00:15:25
example or plan to use a lot of them I
00:15:28
don't recommend using this uh particular
00:15:30
viewfinder simply because of um how
00:15:33
small and very unclear it is compared to
00:15:37
the uh other
00:15:39
entry sorry compared to the other entry
00:15:42
level cameras but otherwise there are
00:15:45
features in this camera especially for
00:15:47
the price point that you don't really
00:15:48
find in many other uh entry-level DSLR
00:15:52
such as the uh in body image
00:15:53
stabilization or the um Sony calls it
00:15:56
the study shot inside yeah and it really
00:15:59
helps a lot when you're shooting at
00:16:00
night for example and even though the uh
00:16:04
sensor um steud shot or ibys doesn't
00:16:09
work as effectively as more modern
00:16:12
cameras or even cameras from 6 seven
00:16:14
years ago uh it is still quite effective
00:16:17
enough if you have very steady hand at
00:16:19
night to actually get away with not
00:16:21
having a tripod so that is actually
00:16:23
quite nice there are I believe nine
00:16:25
autofocusing points in here yep there
00:16:27
are nine autofocusing point points in
00:16:29
there which to be honest it does the job
00:16:33
like it gets the job done because it
00:16:35
still spreads far enough that it's um a
00:16:39
little bit further out than the rule of
00:16:40
third so you still can comfortably in
00:16:43
general field of Photography uh frame
00:16:46
your images properly so I have no
00:16:49
complaints about the autofocusing points
00:16:51
whatsoever in fact um I still love my 5D
00:16:54
Mark I's nine autofocusing points
00:16:57
despite having the R5 right there um so
00:17:01
yeah I have high standards when it comes
00:17:03
to accuracy but I don't have high
00:17:05
standards when it comes to let's say how
00:17:07
many points they are as long as if it's
00:17:09
accurate which in this case this camera
00:17:11
is quite accurate at focusing then it's
00:17:14
totally okay but yeah otherwise one last
00:17:17
point that I would like to actually
00:17:18
mention that I actually mentioned
00:17:20
earlier in the video already but I have
00:17:21
to stress this um as well that this grip
00:17:25
here that Sony has it's either you love
00:17:28
it you hate it I'm not on the loving it
00:17:30
side in fact I quite hate it but it's
00:17:32
actually feels very secure in the same
00:17:35
time I just don't like how it's designed
00:17:37
um because it automat automatically just
00:17:40
puts my hand um crammed together like
00:17:42
this but in the same time because it
00:17:43
forces my hand to cramp in together like
00:17:45
this with a very nice secure thumb rest
00:17:48
here um or thumb grip there it's it's
00:17:52
it's a very secure feeling in the same
00:17:53
time which is something that's very
00:17:54
contradicting but I quite like it um but
00:17:58
but in the same time which is something
00:18:01
very contradicting but somehow I both
00:18:04
hate it and feel secure about it uh but
00:18:07
yeah oh one more thing if you're getting
00:18:11
these old dslrs try not to put in you
00:18:13
know super fast or higher capacity cards
00:18:16
this is the 32 gig um SD card and you
00:18:20
know it's it's it's okay but the slrs
00:18:24
back then tend not to have the
00:18:26
technology to accept super large and
00:18:29
fast SD cards that we have today so yeah
00:18:33
that's the downside but also an upside
00:18:35
in the same time that you don't have to
00:18:36
invest a lot in SD cards but yeah anyway
00:18:38
I'm going off track I do hope that you
00:18:40
find this video somewhat useful um if
00:18:42
not a lot than a little if you need a
00:18:44
free photography guide book it's
00:18:46
absolutely for free on my website the
00:18:47
link is down in the description section
00:18:49
below just click and download and it
00:18:51
will not bombard you with any news luur
00:18:53
nonsense there's also my free
00:18:55
photography courses up there on my
00:18:57
website as well and also some paid ones
00:18:59
as well if you're interested in it so
00:19:02
yeah I worked really hard on those um
00:19:05
videos especially the paid ones um
00:19:07
please at least check it out uh
00:19:08
otherwise I thank you so much for
00:19:10
watching if you have any questions any
00:19:12
suggestions anything to share any
00:19:14
experience to share any stories to share
00:19:16
feel free to just comment those down in
00:19:18
the comment section below as well
00:19:21
otherwise I wish you a great time stay
00:19:24
safe have fun shooting till next time
00:19:26
bye for now
00:19:30
he
00:19:33
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