camera/lens advice please

QuietOC wrote: I recommend selling the SAM and APS-C primes and the LA-EA adapter(s) and buying native full-frame AF lenses.

While I agree with this ... Mary Shelley would not approve

Oh, I'd missed the complete omission of native FE lenses.

I'm not a fan of Frankenstein's monster.

Part of the reason I moved to 4/3 and then m4/3 (and later tried fuji XF) was that they were NOT relying on any old tech and were designing for the mount, tech, and size of the new cameras. This also kept me only 'considering' rewinding all the way back to D700/5DII era bodies and grabbing some cheap AFD or EF lenses. Lenses design for film cameras didn't convert well to dSLR initially.

Size and design fit is also important to me (especially as an 85mm is probably the longest lens I'd consider, but will more likely stop at 50mm). The zooms are all pretty much too big for me. 24-70/4 is borderline but the Pan 12-60/2.8-4 on my Pan GX9 is too big to balance well. The % weight with A7II/24-70 was too similar (although the A7II does at least have a built-in grip).

That Samyang have designed AF lenses specifically for the Sony FE means I will almost certainly get one to support them and will probably not consider the 'designed for dSLR' versions.

Edited by dCap - 06 January 2021 at 22:14

dCap wrote: Oh, I'd missed the complete omission of native FE lenses. I'm not a fan of Frankenstein's monster. Part of the reason I moved to 4/3 and then m4/3 (and later tried fuji XF) was that they were NOT relying on any old tech and were designing for the mount, tech, and size of the new cameras. This also kept me only 'considering' rewinding all the way back to D700/5DII era bodies and grabbing some cheap AFD or EF lenses. Lenses design for film cameras didn't convert well to dSLR initially. Size and design fit is also important to me (especially as an 85mm is probably the longest lens I'd consider, but will more likely stop at 50mm). The zooms are all pretty much too big for me. 24-70/4 is borderline but the Pan 12-60/2.8-4 on my Pan GX9 is too big to balance well. The % weight with A7II/24-70 was too similar (although the A7II does at least have a built-in grip). That Samyang have designed AF lenses specifically for the Sony FE means I will almost certainly get one to support them and will probably not consider the 'designed for dSLR' versions.

Yes, my thoughts exactly. I made a list (okay, several, plus charts and graphs ) of suitable lenses that are neither too long nor too heavy not too expensive, are at least f2.8, work well and don't rattle, and it looks basically like this:

FE AF Primes:-
Samyang 14, 18, 24, 35, 45, 75
Sony     28, 35, 50f1.8, 50f2.8macro,
Tamron   20, 24, 35macro

Adapted primes FE AF:-
Sony 85mm f2.8 on LA-EA3

Adapted MF primes:-
Zeiss, Cosina, Miranda, Paragon, etc 28, 35, 50mm
The Pk-fit plastic lenses are amazingly dinky and work pretty well. Always had a soft spot for the Zeiss Tessar.

Adapted AF lenses:
Loads of Minoltas, but don't like the LA-EA2/4 on the Nex - too big and heavy. Might be better on the A7?
The Sony 30mm f2.8 macro, 35mm f1.8 and 50mm f1.8 all AF with LA-EA1/3 on the A7 and cover most of the FF field (proved with the A900) if you turn off the auto crop. Not sure if the corrections still get applied to jpegs if you do that...

Miranda F wrote: ... FE AF Primes:- Samyang 14, 18, 24, 35, 45, 75 Sony     28, 35, 50f1.8, 50f2.8macro, Tamron   20, 24, 35macro ...

I have many many scraps of paper with almost all of these scribbled on it.

My firm faves are the the Samyang 18 + 24 + 35.
Well, and the 28/2 that I now own and 50/2.8 which is almost certainly coming one day.

Ideally, and I might well do it, I'd try them all (Samyang 18/24/35, Sony 35/35, Tam 20/24/35) - I'm in A7II for the long term and see the 28/2 as my reference optic. It'll be the one I shoot with almost exclusively outdoors for most of this year. Then I might grab one of the others and use it for a quarter (e.g. Jul/Aug/Sep), look after it, shoot on non-windy days, then sell it and move to the next one.

That would be a more structured (and cheaper) way of repeating what I did when I first joined A-mount in 2005, coming to Minolta fresh I needed to understand what the lenses were like and there was virtually nothing reliable online at that time. I tried a lot of them but some just for a month or so.

With Sony 28/2 and Sony 50/macro as my main lenses (only got the 50/1.8 as it was half price and was silly not to, I'd have tried it anyway and paid more than that used). It would take 8x lots of 3 month sessions, so 2 years to try the small 18-35 zone primes that interest me the most.

The immediate (unknown, untried) keeper would be the Samyang 18/2.8 as this fits an 18 + 28 + 50/macro trio.

The 24s + 35s would be neat to think of as alternatives to my 28/2. And the 35/2.8s have to both be tried at starkly different price points. Sony 35/2.8 would be used. I love the idea of the 35/2.8 and would be nice to have a lens that small (despite some negative reviews, I could see the Sony 35/2.8 being a keeper as a super small (and WR) option).

Thankfully, the zooms are too big for me and I don't need a tele.

dCap wrote: The 24s + 35s would be neat to think of as alternatives to my 28/2. And the 35/2.8s have to both be tried at starkly different price points. Sony 35/2.8 would be used. I love the idea of the 35/2.8 and would be nice to have a lens that small (despite some negative reviews, I could see the Sony 35/2.8 being a keeper as a super small (and WR) option). Thankfully, the zooms are too big for me and I don't need a tele.

Yes, 18mm and 24mm look my key FL for FF, with something good in the 40-50mm region, preferably close focussing and semi-macro. On the A58 I used to find the DT18-55 SAMII focussed close enough for casual macro and a spacer made it focus closer still - but the (current) A_mount DT lenses all seem to be very sharp near their MFD - not true in general!

Most of the FE lenses have a very poor magnification, and it seems we have to go back to the old tradition of 'macro' lenses which were only 1:2. I have at least four specialist macro lenses in A-mount (30, 50, 90, 105) most of which are FF so I'm loathe to buy more!

I mostly use MF in macro anyway (hand-holding AF doesn't work when the AF is too slow to follow the rocking) but it would be nice to have a decent close-focussing or semi-macro AF FE lens a tad wider than 50mm. Not sure what to do about that.

I'm still attracted to the CZ 35/2.8 for the size alone (and also WR). Might try it one day (used with the intention of flipping). But will see how much I enjoy the 28/2. With lockdown imposed while my new A7II camera was in transit I've not even unpacked it from the box yet. But I will next week. Indoors shots are fun and all but not the reason I bought it ... likely to be waiting until April until I get to use it outside.

The Tamron 24 and 35 half-macro tick a lot of boxes for me (on paper) - and size too. But after 10 years in m43 I want some FF f2 to play with. Will re-look at the f2.8s once I've found played wide open a chunk.

Thankfully - for my bank account - I'm staying at the low end of the price range for the moment, so the AF 1.4s are not even on my radar. They are also too big for the way I like to carry and shoot.

The Ultron 35/1.7 (in Leica M mount) is the lens that made me get Voigtländer ink back in 2008 - something that someone in here posted was "a photoshop fake image". But it is still there on my arm and will feature in the relevant week of the Photo 150 challenge. It was a lens I used a lot in 2004 on a film body.

There are two Voigtländer Sony FE lenses I'd love to try - and am looking forward to working my way towards them in a few years time. That statement alone is part of the reason I exited m43, I like to have something on the horizon that is currently out of reach. With Oly on pause and Pan focusing on FF (and letting fuji make a better video camera!) it was time to exit.

One day I'll get me some Voigtländer glass again. The 10/5.6 would be amazing to have. And one of the longer ones. Need to see and feel 28mm as my walkabout before I commit to anything else. I'd not rule out an eventual switch to just manual focus - but couple/three years AF to play with first.