The Amazing Sony A1/A7/A9/APS-C & Anything else welcome Mega Thread!

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This isn't my thing at all and it never will be but I've watched a few of these...

This lady uses an A1 and what looks to be Sony 35mm f2.8 and 28mm f2.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yOLOI2Y2LU


Here's the home page if anyone is interested.

www.youtube.com

Paulie B

I’m Paulie B, a photographer primarily making my photos in New York City. I make videos about photography, people, and the energy of being out in the world. Here, you’ll find Walkie Talkie episodes where I walk and talk with other photographers, vlogs where I’m just out shooting, exploring, and...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

I found this guy annoying but he gets away with it.

Oh and a PS. Can anyone name that secret camera of his?

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjuP527Xt2Q&t=780s
 
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woof woof said:
This isn't my thing at all and it never will be but I've watched a few of these...

This lady uses an A1 and what looks to be Sony 35mm f2.8 and 28mm f2.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yOLOI2Y2LU


Here's the home page if anyone is interested.

www.youtube.com

Paulie B

I’m Paulie B, a photographer primarily making my photos in New York City. I make videos about photography, people, and the energy of being out in the world. Here, you’ll find Walkie Talkie episodes where I walk and talk with other photographers, vlogs where I’m just out shooting, exploring, and...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

I found this guy annoying but he gets away with it.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjuP527Xt2Q&t=780s
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She does some good work!! I've been watching Paulie B for a while now.
 
Micro-four-thirds said:
That’s certainly looking like a great quality lens.
How are you finding it compared to what your used to?
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It's almost been put up for sale. Several times. Last night I had the box out and the lens nearly went in it :D

There's no doubt that it's a good lens but it's tighter than 35mm which has been my most used focal length for quite some time and that has been troubling me as I'm used to standing at 35mm distance from my subject / scene and raising the camera to my eye and seeing what I expected from a 35mm lens. Back in my DSLR days a 50mm used to be my most used lens but I've got used to 35mm and although the change to 40mm might not sound much it is or at least it is for me.

Other than that. This lens is in the top 3 best lenses I've ever used and that in itself is unsettling me as the sharpness across the frame and the colour and contrast are IMO just so good it's left me wondering if I like this look or if I prefer a lens which leaves more of a recognisable trace in the picture. It does seem to be well made and the aperture ring and the focus ring seem to work well for me and the minimum focus distance is nice and I have enjoyed using this lens as a manual lens. Sadly it doesn't have end stops and markings though. I do wish they'd made a similarly built 35mm f2.x with a similar minimum focus distance.

Today the light was bad and that at least gave me something to do on my pc.
 
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I’m not buying yet but am thinking of getting a cheap but good 50mm 1.4 or 1.8 lens. You guys between you seem to have tried most of them so what would you recommend.?
 
Icee said:
I’m not buying yet but am thinking of getting a cheap but good 50mm 1.4 or 1.8 lens. You guys between you seem to have tried most of them so what would you recommend.?
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I'm not sure if this is considered cheap, but I'd recommend the Samyang 50mm f1.4 FE II all day long. If you want cheaper the Samyang 45mm f1.8 is a great little lens.
 
Icee said:
I’m not buying yet but am thinking of getting a cheap but good 50mm 1.4 or 1.8 lens. You guys between you seem to have tried most of them so what would you recommend.?
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Depends on how cheap and how good you want your optics+AF to be.

IMO the zeiss 55mm f1.8 gives the best balance between AF/optics/size/price especially when bought used. Since it's more than 10 years old now you can get used at good prices.

Sony FE 50mm f1.8 is optically not bad. In fact rather decent stopped down to f2.8. But AF is slow and noisey, also the cheapest option.

Samyang 50mm f1.4ii, AF is much improved from first version but still not prefect. You get f1.4 for not a lot of money. Pretty light too for f1.4 lens.

The "best" ones are Sony 50mm f1.2 GM or sigma 50mm f1.2 DN or Sony 50mm f1.4 GM. But they are all not cheap.

The zeiss 50mm f1.4 and Sigma 50mm f1.4 DN are some where in between.

There is also a Sony 50mm f2.5 G which is rather sharp and small. But not cheap for a f2.5 lens.

There also a sigma 50mm f2 DN. I'd place it on the same level as zeiss 55mm f1.8 but zeiss is much older so can be had cheaper (used), sigma is newer and much nicer to use.
 
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Icee said:
I’m not buying yet but am thinking of getting a cheap but good 50mm 1.4 or 1.8 lens. You guys between you seem to have tried most of them so what would you recommend.?
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The Zeiss 55 f1.8 is 'good', very neutral, sharp across the frame, suffers a bit of chromatic abberration. They're not expensive by mirrorless standards if bought used.
The Sony 50 f1.8 is optically OK, but the focussing system is exceptionally poor, and I wouldn't buy one even at Amazon's BF price of £135.
The Samyang 50 f1.4 MkI has possibly the nicest rendering of any native FE mount lens I've used. AF is better than the Sony 50 f1.8 (i.e. it's usable, but not brilliant).
The Samyang 45 f1.8 is tiny, light and decent, but rendeing is only ordinary.
The Sony 50 f1.2 GM is big, heavy, evenly sharp across the frame and outrageously expensive. ;)
 
MF! :D

Voightlander 50mm f1.2 is good with the only issues being lightly soft corners and some ca with backlit scenes. The Voigtlander 50mm f2 apo seems just about perfect to me. There's also the change found down the back of the settee priced TTArtisan 50mm f2. It has terrible corners, high vignetting especially at wide apertures when focused at a longer distance and it's horribly affected by flare but colour and contrast and sharpness in the central area seem good enough and I've taken some pictures I really like with this cheap and tiny lens.

I only have on AF 50-ish lens and it's the Sony 55mm f1.8 which I rate as being very good across the frame and the only real weak point being ca with backlit scenes. The bokeh seems good to me and seems to be regarded as being ok by many reviewers. It's 55mm rather than 50 though and that triggers me.
 
ancient_mariner said:
The Samyang 50 f1.4 MkI has possibly the nicest rendering of any native FE mount lens I've used. AF is better than the Sony 50 f1.8 (i.e. it's usable, but not brilliant).
The Samyang 45 f1.8 is tiny, light and decent, but rendeing is only ordinary.
The Sony 50 f1.2 GM is big, heavy, evenly sharp across the frame and outrageously expensive. ;)
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I still can’t decide whether the Samyang FE II renders nicer than the Sony f1.2 GM. There’s so many variables but I do sometimes think the Samyang had more ‘pop’, but is it a case of the grass is greener? I know I always had the green eyed monster seeing the rendering of Trev’s motorbike photos when I had the Samyang :thinking:

The Sony is obviously sharper but the Samyang’s sharp enough imo.

I like the rendering of the 45mm.
 
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woof woof said:
It's almost been put up for sale. Several times. Last night I had the box out and the lens nearly went in it :D

There's no doubt that it's a good lens but it's tighter than 35mm which has been my most used focal length for quite some time and that has been troubling me as I'm used to standing at 35mm distance from my subject / scene and raising the camera to my eye and seeing what I expected from a 35mm lens. Back in my DSLR days a 50mm used to be my most used lens but I've got used to 35mm and although the change to 40mm might not sound much it is or at least it is for me.

Other than that. This lens is in the top 3 best lenses I've ever used and that in itself is unsettling me as the sharpness across the frame and the colour and contrast are IMO just so good it's left me wondering if I like this look or if I prefer a lens which leaves more of a recognisable trace in the picture. It does seem to be well made and the aperture ring and the focus ring seem to work well for me and the minimum focus distance is nice and I have enjoyed using this lens as a manual lens. Sadly it doesn't have end stops and markings though. I do wish they'd made a similarly built 35mm f2.x with a similar minimum focus distance.

Today the light was bad and that at least gave me something to do on my pc.
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I can see where your coming from, having seen the images you’ve posted from some of the manual focus primes compared to the more modern prime lenses there is a definite difference and I think depending on the subject both certainly have their advantages.
Have you tried recreating the film era type effect in post processing from the modern lenses? I only do basic editing with affinity at the moment so I’m not entirely sure what’s possible with regards to more detailed editing and putting more character into the images.
 
Micro-four-thirds said:
I can see where your coming from, having seen the images you’ve posted from some of the manual focus primes compared to the more modern prime lenses there is a definite difference and I think depending on the subject both certainly have their advantages.
Have you tried recreating the film era type effect in post processing from the modern lenses? I only do basic editing with affinity at the moment so I’m not entirely sure what’s possible with regards to more detailed editing and putting more character into the images.
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I have tried but I'm not very good at processing. I have the free version of Nik filters which will run on my old version of CS5 and I've created some presets to act at least as a starting point but I think the percentage of pictures I'm happy with after I've fiddled with them is quite low. Moving things on to include more lens optical attributes rather than just trying to get a film like look is pretty much beyond me.

There's also the question of kit fondling and enjoyment :D which can make film era lenses or even something like the very cheap and not really very good TTArtisan 50mm f2 or Pergear 35mm f1.4 such nice things to use. Technically better modern lenses like the Sony mount Voigtlanders are perhaps a half way house as they give me the tactility and enjoyment of use and can still include some optical footprint in the picture whilst largely eliminating some of the more obvious and extreme qualities of the film era lenses and modern cheap and not very good lenses. I'm always going to have decent modern AF lenses and more characterful ones, it's just that this 40mm is being a bit of a shock to my system at the moment.
 
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Micro-four-thirds said:
I can see where your coming from, having seen the images you’ve posted from some of the manual focus primes compared to the more modern prime lenses there is a definite difference and I think depending on the subject both certainly have their advantages.
Have you tried recreating the film era type effect in post processing from the modern lenses? I only do basic editing with affinity at the moment so I’m not entirely sure what’s possible with regards to more detailed editing and putting more character into the images.
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You can't really add rendering or 'character' effects in Lightroom for example. Colours, yes. I edit a lot of mine in a more film like style. And even adding grain or similar doesn't always work well I've found. I guess a mist filter might give a softer look though as a start.
 
LeeRatters said:
You can't really add rendering or 'character' effects in Lightroom for example. Colours, yes. I edit a lot of mine in a more film like style. And even adding grain or similar doesn't always work well I've found. I guess a mist filter might give a softer look though as a start.
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That’s an interesting idea, I seen shots taken with those and quite like the effect it provides.
 
Micro-four-thirds said:
That’s an interesting idea, I seen shots taken with those and quite like the effect it provides.
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I've tried a mist filter but found the effect to be mostly subtle and I could really see it without looking closely at identical with and without pictures. I think the effect is most visible if there are lights in the frame.

I had to stop myself earlier today as I nearly bought another characterful film era lens. I had to remind myself that I have too many already.
 
woof woof said:
I've tried a mist filter but found the effect to be mostly subtle and I could really see it without looking closely at identical with and without pictures. I think the effect is most visible if there are lights in the frame.

I had to stop myself earlier today as I nearly bought another characterful film era lens. I had to remind myself that I have too many already.
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A good cure thats working for me is to procrastinate just long enough that someone else buys the item........ (then get 'missed' sellers remorse :ROFLMAO: ).... worked for me this weekend, saved £599 :) - or in non man maths - didn't spend £599 :D
 
I was looking at film era 28mm lenses and had to remind myself that I already have Minolta Rokkor, Canon FD, Olympus Zuiko and Nikon AIS. Oh, and the AF Sony f2.
 
Mr Perceptive said:
A good cure thats working for me is to procrastinate just long enough that someone else buys the item........ (then get 'missed' sellers remorse :ROFLMAO: ).... worked for me this weekend, saved £599 :) - or in non man maths - didn't spend £599 :D
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My latest tactic to convince myself I don't "need" something is to call up a dealer to haggle and verbally kick them in the nuts as hard as possible, the only flaw in my plan is if they agree to the price :cool:
 
Golly. Does the teaser give any indication of size ?
 
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woof woof said:
Oooooh. I want... :D

It's in Sony mount but is it optimised for Sony?


Actually. Scrap that. It has a focus tab and I just don't get on with them so it's a non starter for me, at any price. Even at Pergear prices I wouldn't want one. Oh well.

£559.73 saved. Free Money. I'll now have to find something to spend it on.
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I have that lens in VM mount adapted to my Nikon Zf. It’s a fabulous optic. Note the scalloped focus ring. You don’t have to use the tab.
 
Thank you for all the suggestions, I will troll through them a let you know when I get one.
 
trevorbray said:
I have that lens in VM mount adapted to my Nikon Zf. It’s a fabulous optic. Note the scalloped focus ring. You don’t have to use the tab.
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I've had lenses with tabs in the past and I just can not see them as anything other than an annoyance and a hinderance and I've never been able to get accurate control and focus with them. I did think about buying one and just not using the tab but I know that it would be in my way at some point and I know it'd trigger me every time I use the lens so sadly that rules that lens out for me.

I've been looking for a decent manual 28mm for quite some time. I have the film era ones which are all f2.8 and of these the Minolta Rokkor and the Nikon AIS are the best but each have issues. The Minolta makes just an oddly shaped combination when mounted on my Novoflex adapter and the Nikon works backwards to everything else I own apart from other Nikon lenses. There is a TTArtisan in Sony mount which is just about impossible to get so there is maybe a real gap in the market for someone to make a decent lens or even a cheap one, without a tab.
 
woof woof said:
I've had lenses with tabs in the past and I just can not see them as anything other than an annoyance and a hinderance and I've never been able to get accurate control and focus with them. I did think about buying one and just not using the tab but I know that it would be in my way at some point and I know it'd trigger me every time I use the lens so sadly that rules that lens out for me.

I've been looking for a decent manual 28mm for quite some time. I have the film era ones which are all f2.8 and of these the Minolta Rokkor and the Nikon AIS are the best but each have issues. The Minolta makes just an oddly shaped combination when mounted on my Novoflex adapter and the Nikon works backwards to everything else I own apart from other Nikon lenses. There is a TTArtisan in Sony mount which is just about impossible to get so there is maybe a real gap in the market for someone to make a decent lens or even a cheap one, without a tab.
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See, I didn't mind the tab on the old CV40/1.4 Classic I had before :) Easy one finger operation :) And also sort of lets you know where focus is by the tab position. I actually manual focus the X100f in the same way from underneath (index finger sits in the perfect place) just moving left/right - that does spin much easier though.
 
I've been looking for a decent manual 28mm for quite some time. I have the film era ones which are all f2.8
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Nikon have made some 1.4 28s haven’t they? Not very budget friendly I imagine though!
 
LeeRatters said:
See, I didn't mind the tab on the old CV40/1.4 Classic I had before :) Easy one finger operation :) And also sort of lets you know where focus is by the tab position. I actually manual focus the X100f in the same way from underneath (index finger sits in the perfect place) just moving left/right - that does spin much easier though.
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One finger focusing doesn't work for me. I find it inaccurate and I much prefer using my index finger and thumb for the extra control and stability.
 
the_accidental said:
Nikon have made some 1.4 28s haven’t they? Not very budget friendly I imagine though!
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Did Nikon do a 28mm f1.4 MF lens? I know they did a 28mm f2 MF.

This is the problem with wider lenses, once you go wider in focal length and aperture the prices only go one way and quickly plus they're usually rare.

I did have a 28mm f1.9 Vivitar some years ago but sold it.

I've managed to get to 23:25 without buying any lenses so I might be safe for today plus Mrs WW wants a car when she gets home (she's in Thailand) and I've been thinking about changing one of mine too so I really should stop buying lenses I'll only use twice a year :D
 
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Ah, I might be misremembering an older AF lens as they look similar to late MF like the series E.

Off to do some looking for my curiosity…
 
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