Is it worth ....

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fudge

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Splashing out on some good glass for my sony nex 3 . Mainly for portraits and capturing my new baby. I was thinking of spending £300 to £450 on it . Or would I be better off investing in a new system? Also what lenses would people recommend ( focal length , aperture, zoom or prime) ?
 
Good glass is always worth splashing the cash for... if you can afford to! I would look into a nice prime lens around 85mm ish and a fast zoom around the kit lens focal length for what you have mentioned.

Cheers.
 
Another one for good glass,they do a nice E50mm F1.8 which will give you an nice portrait lens :)
 
The thing is 'good glass' for the Nex range is rather limited (unless you go the manual focus legacy lens route obviously). Of course there are the Zeiss lenses but they are way beyond the budget mentioned. If you stick with your Nex and on that budget, you can look at the Sony E 50mm f1.8 OSS for £200 @Wex and/or the 20mm f2.8 pancake lens (also £200). The Sigma prime lenses are also excellent and great value (around £100 to £160 each: 19mm f2.8, 30mm f2.8 and 60mm f2.8). Unfortunately there is no 17-50/16-50 f2.8 zoom equivalent for the nex system yet, just a 16-70mm f4 ZA OSS Lens @£750 and the new Sony E 18-105mm f4 G OSS Lens (£499 @Wex) - the latter would probably be the best option if you preferred a zoom to prime/s.

Alternative would be a new or used dslr (Sony, Nikon, Canon, Pentax) with for example a Tamron 17-50 f2.8 and/or a 35mm 1.8 /50mm 1.8. For example (all new prices, used would obviously be cheaper): Sony A58 is around £290, 35mm 1.8 is around £130, 50mm 1.8 is around £90, 85mm f2.8 is around £150 or the Tamron mentioned is around £280 or £180 grey import.
 
Thanks for the advise. Looks like the 50 mm may well be the one to go for. I ve also seen the 35 mm 1.8 . It's a bit more money but would it be a better choice ?
 
 
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With the crop factor doesn't it end up a 50 mm?
 
This depends on whether you are happy with the system you are using and how much you have invested so far.

But as a portrait lens I would suggest at that sensor size 50mm to 100 mm is about right you cannot afford much with a fast aperture it seems.

What lenses do you have?
 
Depends what you mean by 'portraits' - head shots, environmental, full body, indoors, small room/big room, outdoors, ...
 
nex 3 has focus peaking, so for 50mm and above u can go legacy leneses easily and cheaply.
look into how well nex does with flash, a off camera flash with a stofen or lambancy helps alot indoors. you would probably need nex flash slot to hotshoe adapter, then a trigger and a flash like a yn 560
 
The only lens I have at the moment is the 16mm pancake, as at the time I wanted pocketable travel camera. Due to the fact that in 6 days my first child is meant to arrive I now want a more applicable lens for taking pictures of him/her. The legacy route is interesting but would I need adapters and I have no idea which lens would work.
 
Well I have the a37 and I have both the 50 1.8 and the 85 2.8 and the 85 is a great lens for portraiture. Better bokeh, it's sharper and is a more flattering lens for the subject. It also allows you to be further away from the subject which makes them feel more at ease.
 
Basedon what you have and what you want to do I suggest that you buy a 18-105mm lens it may not have wide apertures of some of the others but it will give you a useful range to tog your baby as he/she grows and move around. Then you can aim for a fast prime.


Though you could buy THIS and a 50 f1.8 on budget and giving you something versatile to work with and fast prime.
 
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Tbh, I'd be tempted to go with an 18-200. As if by magic, Granty (James) has one advertised in the classifieds for the £300 you stated. Lol.

You get the wide angle and a nice length for unimposing portraits from a distance.
 
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