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

nandbytes said:
I'd skip both and go with tamron 28-200mm.

I'd personally look at something like 28-200mm, 12-24mm f4 (or tamron 17-28mm) and a small prime like samyang 45mm f1.8.

While there are many small lenses there isn't anything small and light past 85mm. So the tamron 28-200mm is very nice lens IMO that covers an excellent range with a reasonable sharpness and size.
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I know where you’re coming from, but when I had a similar lens on my Z6 I rarely used the long end.
 
Stephen L said:
I know where you’re coming from, but when I had a similar lens on my Z6 I rarely used the long end.
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You are really happy with focusing on the wider ends then may be go with primes and one maybe zoom.
I used to do that in fact for a fair while I shot just primes like voigtlander 15mm, Zeiss 35mm/2.8, Zeiss 55/1.8 and canon 100mm f2. Was very small and got along very well. Nowadays you actually have lots of options from laowa, samyang, tamron etc so should be even easier to build a kit.
What are your most used focal lengths?
 
robj20 said:
Gone through the same thoughts recently. Tamron 28-75 nice and light but lack of 24mm is a problem.
Going for the Sigma 24-70 f2.8 and the Tamron 28-200 for my zoom lenses.
Already got the 35 f2.8 and 50 f1.8 eventually will add something like the Samyang 14mm and a Macro at some point and that will do me.
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I'd think very carefully before buying the 50mm f1.8 as there are reports of iffy focus. I had the 50mm f2.8 macro and it was utter garbage on my A7 and I'm now very wary of anything if reviews even mention focus issues.
 
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woof woof said:
I'd think very carefully before buying the 50mm f1.8 as there are reports of iffy focus. I had the 50mm f2.8 macro and it was utter garbage on my A7 and I'm now very wary of anything if reviews even mention focus issues.
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Already have it, its great value IMO yes the focus is slow but its accurate and the image quality is fine, especially for a £100 lens.
 
nandbytes said:
You are really happy with focusing on the wider ends then may be go with primes and one maybe zoom.
I used to do that in fact for a fair while I shot just primes like voigtlander 15mm, Zeiss 35mm/2.8, Zeiss 55/1.8 and canon 100mm f2. Was very small and got along very well. Nowadays you actually have lots of options from laowa, samyang, tamron etc so should be even easier to build a kit.
What are your most used focal lengths?
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Generally between 12mm and about 60mm on APSC. So about 16mm and 85mm on FF. For longer shots I’ve been known to be happy with my Oly OM 100mm.
 
Stephen L said:
Generally between 12mm and about 60mm on APSC. So about 16mm and 85mm on FF. For longer shots I’ve been known to be happy with my Oly OM 100mm.
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OM 100mm f2.8 is wonderful little lens with a such a nice rendering :love:
Miss mine. Wish my son would stay still so I can use such lenses. :(

Anyway 12mm is 18mm on FF. You could go full on samyang :D
18mm-35/45mm-75mm primes are all nice and small. If I am not mistaken bar the 45mm the other 3 also have the same filter size.

Personally I'd go for either 16-35mm f4 or tamron 17-28mm f2.8 at the wide end since you use that a lot and minimise your lenses changes and then buy a prime or two at 35mm-100mm ranges. There are plenty small f1.8 options in that range and all them are very good so you can't go wrong.
 
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nandbytes said:
OM 100mm f2.8 is wonderful little lens with a such a nice rendering :love:
Miss mine. Wish my son would stay still so I can use such lenses. :(

Anyway 12mm is 18mm on FF. You could go full on samyang :D
18mm-35/45mm-75mm primes are all nice and small. If I am not mistaken bar the 45mm the other 3 also have the same filter size.

Personally I'd go for either 16-35mm f4 or tamron 17-28mm f2.8 at the wide end since you use that a lot and minimise your lenses changes and then buy a prime or two at 35mm-100mm ranges. There are plenty small f1.8 options in that range and all them are very good so you can't go wrong.
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Now there’s a thought. Another quandry I have is whether I will gain anything by going to the 7C. You have/had both A6xxx and C - have you found a great difference in iq?
 
Well, I’ve been talked into it by MrsL. (Sort-of ;)). Just ordered a silver A7C plus Tamron 28-75. Was going to order from E-Infin as they were a few hundred cheaper on the package. But I contacted Panamoz and they agreed to price-match, and with a silver body.:banana:. Now to decide what to do with the A6500 and lenses (I’m keeping the Sony 10-18 for now as it’s do-able on FF).
 
LeeRatters said:
You just need to buy 1 or 2 or maybe 28 additional bodies & you'll be all set ;)
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I've enjoyed trying different lenses and I suppose the costs must run into the low thousands now so that's maybe equivalent to two mid to higher end modern lenses which isn't really a lot. If I did try and sell them I'd claw back some of that money but maybe not enough to make the whole thing worthwhile. I'm not exactly starving. So, I might just stop buying but keep and occasionally use the ones I have at least until / if my eyesight starts to go and MF becomes a problem.

Looking at new manual lenses I have the 3 Voigtlanders and I was tempted to get the new 35mm f1.2 but I have the 40mm which I've read renders just about identically plus the 50mm f2 which is just a fantastic lens and the 35mm f1.4 which is very compact so looking at it coldly I don't need the 35mm f1.2 as if I stop obsessing about the 5mm difference the 40mm will do about the same job. I don't intend to try or collect different modern AF lenses as to me they lack the appeal and personality of MF lenses.
 
robj20 said:
Already have it, its great value IMO yes the focus is slow but its accurate and the image quality is fine, especially for a £100 lens.
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I think lenses with the cheaper focus mechanisms maybe perform better on the newer bodies but I'm not going near them again for my creaking old 1st generation A7 :D
 
Stephen L said:
Well, I’ve been talked into it by MrsL. (Sort-of ;)). Just ordered a silver A7C plus Tamron 28-75. Was going to order from E-Infin as they were a few hundred cheaper on the package. But I contacted Panamoz and they agreed to price-match, and with a silver body.:banana:. Now to decide what to do with the A6500 and lenses (I’m keeping the Sony 10-18 for now as it’s do-able on FF).
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I'm still on the fence and resisting jumping. So far :D

I gave my GX80 and GX9 a quick road test yesterday and they perform well in good light and have all the features I want that need to be overcome with the arguably lacking in some ways A7c.

One thing I've struggled with for some time is keeping the A7 level in either orientation as quite a few of my pictures need rotating by a small degree and cropping. Not a lot but 2 degrees or something like that. This is something that doesn't seem to happen with my RF style MFT cameras.
 
woof woof said:
I've enjoyed trying different lenses and I suppose the costs must run into the low thousands now so that's maybe equivalent to two mid to higher end modern lenses which isn't really a lot. If I did try and sell them I'd claw back some of that money but maybe not enough to make the whole thing worthwhile. I'm not exactly starving. So, I might just stop buying but keep and occasionally use the ones I have at least until / if my eyesight starts to go and MF becomes a problem.

Looking at new manual lenses I have the 3 Voigtlanders and I was tempted to get the new 35mm f1.2 but I have the 40mm which I've read renders just about identically plus the 50mm f2 which is just a fantastic lens and the 35mm f1.4 which is very compact so looking at it coldly I don't need the 35mm f1.2 as if I stop obsessing about the 5mm difference the 40mm will do about the same job. I don't intend to try or collect different modern AF lenses as to me they lack the appeal and personality of MF lenses.
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I've been casting an eye over the Voigtlander 21mm f4 as a sideline to the 28-75 zoom. Any experience of it?
 
Stephen L said:
I've been casting an eye over the Voigtlander 21mm f4 as a sideline to the 28-75 zoom. Any experience of it?
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Nupe. Maybe Lee?

The modern Voigtlanders are fantastically made though.

I have film era 17 and 19mm lenses and the Sony 20mm f1.8.

I might get an A7c next year as I have a significant birthday and a camera will be cheaper than a new car :D Next year I'll also begin to receive an income and I haven't had one of those for over 10 years now :D
 
woof woof said:
I've enjoyed trying different lenses and I suppose the costs must run into the low thousands now so that's maybe equivalent to two mid to higher end modern lenses which isn't really a lot. If I did try and sell them I'd claw back some of that money but maybe not enough to make the whole thing worthwhile. I'm not exactly starving. So, I might just stop buying but keep and occasionally use the ones I have at least until / if my eyesight starts to go and MF becomes a problem.

Looking at new manual lenses I have the 3 Voigtlanders and I was tempted to get the new 35mm f1.2 but I have the 40mm which I've read renders just about identically plus the 50mm f2 which is just a fantastic lens and the 35mm f1.4 which is very compact so looking at it coldly I don't need the 35mm f1.2 as if I stop obsessing about the 5mm difference the 40mm will do about the same job. I don't intend to try or collect different modern AF lenses as to me they lack the appeal and personality of MF lenses.
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Fair play to you Alan. I love how you have so many old manual lenses. As you say, you love them all for their own reasons.
 
Stephen L said:
I've been casting an eye over the Voigtlander 21mm f4 as a sideline to the 28-75 zoom. Any experience of it?
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I have the 21mm f/3.5 in E mount. Lovely little lens if you want something wide and don't need a big aperture. Literally fits in your pocket ;) I don't use it often but that's nothing to do with the lens, just my preference.
 
LeeRatters said:
Fair play to you Alan. I love how you have so many old manual lenses. As you say, you love them all for their own reasons.
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And every one of them is slightly different from the same focal length and aperture lens from the other makers and they're all physically slightly different too. It's a cheap enough hobby :D
 
woof woof said:
And every one of them is slightly different from the same focal length and aperture lens from the other makers and they're all physically slightly different too. It's a cheap enough hobby :D
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I had a lot more myself but I slimmed down to just my Yashica ML primes (as I have a FX3 Super 2000 something) and Helios 44-2 - I don't know why because that Helios hasn't left the house for years.....
 
LeeRatters said:
I had a lot more myself but I slimmed down to just my Yashica ML primes (as I have a FX3 Super 2000 something) and Helios 44-2 - I don't know why because that Helios hasn't left the house for years.....
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I've got a Contax RTS with the 50mm and 28mm Yashicas.
 
Stephen L said:
Make a very tempting case for the lens, especially as you can get it in E mount. Lovely crisp shots, especially the waterfalls.
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Aside from being MF, you can't really go wrong. And if you are stopped down a little just set the focus & forget it unless you have something really close to you. I don't use it a great deal but that's more to do with me & the focal length than the actual lens.
 
Stephen L said:
Make a very tempting case for the lens, especially as you can get it in E mount. Lovely crisp shots, especially the waterfalls.
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After earlier saying I don't use the Voigtlander 21mm much because it's quite wide compared to how I normally shoot..... Here's a 3 shot panorama from it :rolleyes: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:


*** by Lee, on Flickr
 
LeeRatters said:
After earlier saying I don't use the Voigtlander 21mm much because it's quite wide compared to how I normally shoot..... Here's a 3 shot panorama from it :rolleyes: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:


*** by Lee, on Flickr
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It’s very tempting to regularly use manual lenses, but these days there can be (small) alterations to my sight day from day. It seems to show more on wide-angle lenses.
 
If anyone here has a Sigma 56mm f1.4 DC DN they don't use much and are considering selling in the classifieds, I think I'm in the market. :)
 
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Stephen L said:
Well, I’ve been talked into it by MrsL. (Sort-of ;)). Just ordered a silver A7C plus Tamron 28-75. Was going to order from E-Infin as they were a few hundred cheaper on the package. But I contacted Panamoz and they agreed to price-match, and with a silver body.:banana:. Now to decide what to do with the A6500 and lenses (I’m keeping the Sony 10-18 for now as it’s do-able on FF).
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hang on, now. I thought MrsL. was supposed to be against your GAS?? Anyway, looking forward to hearing how you get on with your new toy! The Tamron is remarkably light for a f2.8 but not if you compare it to f4 equivalents. Welcome back to FF :)
 
lunar22 said:
hang on, now. I thought MrsL. was supposed to be against your GAS?? Anyway, looking forward to hearing how you get on with your new toy! The Tamron is remarkably light for a f2.8 but not if you compare it to f4 equivalents. Welcome back to FF :)
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I think she’s finally resigned to it. She just pats me on the head (heavily, admittedly) and says “there, there” . I’m also getting a couple of primes as walkarounds. The Sony 35mm and not decided on the other but something at the wide end. Maybe the Samyang 18mm.
 
Stephen L said:
It’s very tempting to regularly use manual lenses, but these days there can be (small) alterations to my sight day from day. It seems to show more on wide-angle lenses.
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I started using them because they're often cheap and can be used to fill the gaps in a lens line up for lengths that don't justify spending hundreds on. Cheap isn't necessarily the case with Voigtlander and Zeiss though.
 
woof woof said:
I started using them because they're often cheap and can be used to fill the gaps in a lens line up for lengths that don't justify spending hundreds on. Cheap isn't necessarily the case with Voigtlander and Zeiss though.
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Obtusely, once a cheap lens becomes known for its quality, the price rockets. I never seem to find them in their early stages of metamorphosis. :(
 
Anyone using the Tamron 17-28?
 
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