Well, finally bought my new camera, lens advice please!

jamesoliverstone

jamesoliverstone

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Well, the D700 and all the lenses are gone, and I have been deliverating for a couple of months now about which camera to replace it with.

I opted in the end for the Sony A77 which is currently sat charging on my desk :)

I only have the kit lens, which is the 16-50 2.8 which I have to say, for a kit lens looks amazing! its effectively a 24-70 2.8 which for the price was just amazing! And my god, this camera is so fast!

So, I now have a much lighter weather sealed kit, but I am going to miss my favourite lens the 85mm 1.4 from my Nikon, so my question is which lens can I get that will get me closest to that?

I thought about Sony's 50mm prime, and the Zeiss (but its just too damn expensive). Now I know b****r all about minolta stuff, but I hear that I can put a minolta lens on this with no issues, so can anyone recommend so reasonably priced minolta primes that would be around the 80/100mm effective range that have good optics? I am not worried if they are MF as the A77 makes this easy :)
 
The Siggy 50mm f1.4 should be worth thinking about, it's a very good lens.
 
Rumour has it there's a Zeiss 50/1.4 coming next year.

The plastic fantastic "easy choice" lenses are so cheap they're almost disposable.. The 35/1.8, 50/1.8 and 85/2.8 are all stonking good value.

As for Minolta lenses, any AF minolta will work. There's an 85/1.4 in the classifieds at moment. Other, cheaper, faves are the 50/1.7, 28-135/4-4.5 and of course the beercan 70-210/4.

Enjoy the a77.
 
Thanks guys... hmmm I didnt think about the sigma 50 1.4... I have heard good things about that lens. I think Harpers down the road might have it, so I shall wander in and try it out...

Thanks for the heads up on the classifieds...

I have browsed the minolta AF and MD selections... what are they like optically? am i to assume your get what you pay for? as they are all incredibly cheap!
 
I have the Siggy 50mm on my 20D and the 85mm on my 5D. The 85mm is possibly better than the 50mm although bigger and heavier and unfortunately it's a bit long on an APS-C.
 
scottthehat said:
Wow. And what's so fast about it if you don't mind me asking.
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The camera itself, its incredibly fast to start shooting with and it focuses and shoots like nothing I have ever used... that 12fps with constant autofocus is pretty damn impressive!

I know that people generally dont like the EVF, but I find it really quite intuative and not at all as bad as I thought it would be.

Overall I am happy, but the truth in the pudding will be when I shoot in anger this weekend and get the images into the mac.

Then I will see how it stands up against my rather picky standards :D
 
woof woof said:
I have the Siggy 50mm on my 20D and the 85mm on my 5D. The 85mm is possibly better than the 50mm although bigger and heavier and unfortunately it's a bit long on an APS-C.
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Yeah, the 85 is going to be too long for my kind of work, but the siggy 50 should end up at 75ish mm so I will see how it feels through the viewfinder. :)
 
jamesoliverstone said:
Thanks guys... hmmm I didnt think about the sigma 50 1.4... I have heard good things about that lens. I think Harpers down the road might have it, so I shall wander in and try it out...

Thanks for the heads up on the classifieds...

I have browsed the minolta AF and MD selections... what are they like optically? am i to assume your get what you pay for? as they are all incredibly cheap!
Click to expand...

I had the minolta 85mm f1.4 for the SLR- at the time I thought it was awesome- not sure it was cheap!:lol: Thinking about it now- I'd say comparable to my Nikon 85mm f1.4 in terms of image quality and AF speed. Note I have the old D version not the new Nikon.
Might be a bit long for you though it depends on style- I've grown to like 85 on a crop and don't really like 50mm anymore.

Edit: I see you've said 85 is too long. I got distracted while replying- doh
 
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welcome to the world of Minolta AF/Sony Alpha! :)

First, check that you are running the latest firmware (1.04).
2. good as they are you don't want to be looking at MD (it's really called SR mount) lenses for use on an Alpha. For infinity focus the adapters need a glass element in them & that both magnifies & degrades the image.

Tamron 60/2 macro would fit into your 80/100mm equivalent on FF length, can't really think of any others atm [edit Sigma do a 70/2.8 macro giving you effective 105) - as I'm sure you know 50s give you 75 & 85s give you 127.
As mentioned the 85/2.8 is superb for the money apart from being a bit lightweight build.
 
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Always worth taking a look at Dyxum when wanting info on lenses for the Sony (Minolta) mount.
 
jamesoliverstone said:
The camera itself, its incredibly fast to start shooting with and it focuses and shoots like nothing I have ever used... that 12fps with constant autofocus is pretty damn impressive!

I know that people generally dont like the EVF, but I find it really quite intuative and not at all as bad as I thought it would be.

Overall I am happy, but the truth in the pudding will be when I shoot in anger this weekend and get the images into the mac.

Then I will see how it stands up against my rather picky standards :D
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HI, how do you find the af performance against the d700, as from the reviews i have seen the af seems ok but not quite as good as say the d7000.
 
heidfirst said:
welcome to the world of Minolta AF/Sony Alpha! :)

First, check that you are running the latest firmware (1.04).
2. good as they are you don't want to be looking at MD (it's really called SR mount) lenses for use on an Alpha. For infinity focus the adapters need a glass element in them & that both magnifies & degrades the image.

Tamron 60/2 macro would fit into your 80/100mm equivalent on FF length, can't really think of any others atm [edit Sigma do a 70/2.8 macro giving you effective 105) - as I'm sure you know 50s give you 75 & 85s give you 127.
As mentioned the 85/2.8 is superb for the money apart from being a bit lightweight build.
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Excellent info :thumbs:

Thanks very much. I will check the firmwares and such later (I have read about the error in the early releases).

I think I will just try the 16-50 2.8 for a while, but I may well splash out on the sigma 50 as it looks pretty good...
 
Be very interested to see some 'real world' shots with that lens James, it comes with a lot of good reviews, I bought my 77 as body only so maybe a lens to put on my lust list lol
 
Sony have recent patents for 50/1.2 & 50/1.4s - it's widely expected that there will be a new 50 with SSM (Minolta/Sony's in-lens sonic motor for AF) next year (probably along with a new FF body).
 
I sold my 900 to get the 77 expecting a FX version to be released later, if that comes in under 2K it'll be mine :D a good time to be a Sony user :thumbs:
 
I'm just waiting for the insurance company to finally pay out on my destroyed A350 (cheers mother in law, nice of you to drop it for me) and I will be straight out for new Alpha.

Question, I know this sounds a touch daft really, but does anyone miss SLR when they move to SLT? Are there any downsides?
 
Golgarth said:
I'm just waiting for the insurance company to finally pay out on my destroyed A350 (cheers mother in law, nice of you to drop it for me) and I will be straight out for new Alpha.

Question, I know this sounds a touch daft really, but does anyone miss SLR when they move to SLT? Are there any downsides?
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I briefly owned the 33 and found the evf not very good at all but the evf on the 77 is fantastic, I don't mis my 900 at all and hoping the predicted new Sony FX is also an slt
 
Golgarth said:
Question, I know this sounds a touch daft really, but does anyone miss SLR when they move to SLT? Are there any downsides?
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I've only played with them at length rather than owning them but I wasn't totally convinced by the A55's screen but could happily live with an A65/A77.
The downside is the 1/2 stop light loss due to the translucent mirror but coming from an A350 high ISO is still going to be a big improvement.
 
Golgarth said:
Question, I know this sounds a touch daft really, but does anyone miss SLR when they move to SLT? Are there any downsides?
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One downside is when shooting while wearing glasses excess external light can interfere with my view through the viewfinder because it is not as bright as the image from a pentaprism. It is very sharp though, and there is enough eye relief to see the 100% viewfinder and all its information while wearing glasses.

High iso raw images are noisier than those from the SLT-55 and DSLR-A580, maybe half a stop difference, so although decent images can be had straight from the camera, to get the absolute best out of the camera, shooting raw is preferrable.

Needless to say there are big pluses to counter these minuses, for instance that fabulous vibration-free shutter which takes full advantage of the in-body stabilisation.
 
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jamesoliverstone said:
So, I now have a much lighter weather sealed kit, but I am going to miss my favourite lens the 85mm 1.4 from my Nikon, so my question is which lens can I get that will get me closest to that?
Click to expand...

Others have already recommended the Minolta 85/1.4 (with good reason). I'll put a word in for the Zeiss 85/1.4, its very very sharp, even wide open and has lovely bokeh. The construction is extremely robust but screw driven AF is quite slow - it's not something I would use in situations where that's a factor but your camera does video so it might be an issue for you if you want to use it that way.

Anyway, you've already been given a link to dyxum so I suggest spending a few hours reading through the reviews in the lens databse, I find it an invaluable resource.
 
Plumped for the A77 myself earlier in the week .... and have been pleasantly surprised with the EVF.

I just hope a third party grip is released soon ... cant afford the official one.

But its a good choice camera for sure.
 
Can't believe you're selling it already, that's gonna take a serious hit on cost
 
If you can be swayed to stick it out with Sony (and I think the inbuilt stability coupled with classic minolta glass should be enough), then I've got a minolta 85 1.4 for sale in the fs section here:

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=373329

It's a great piece of glass.

Also got a handy walkaround on there too - both a very decent one (the Tokina) and a budget one (the minolta 28-80).
 
I was on the edge of selling it as I just couldnt get over the loss of full frame, but I have updated the firmware and stuck with it and its just a change in the way I shoot really, so far I am very happy with the choice, but I am taking it to Guatemala in Jan to do a shoot so the proof will be in the pudding so to speak :)

I am going to get an 85 1.4 which means that I may just have to stand back a bit more then usual, but still within portrait distances... plus I can shoot at a wider aperture and get a little more DOF too...

I will share the pics when I get back... now to get an adapter for the hotshoe so I can trigger my flashes!
 
If you absolutely need full frame then it might be worth swapping over to something like an a850 or a900 to tide you over until a full frame SLT comes out?
 
Get the Zeiss 85mm, you'll never look back again! Apart from the CA and not so fast AF (havent really found AF to be an issue given it's portrait application), it's excellent.
 
Get the Minolta AF 50mm f/1.7. Wonderful little lens, and I think you can get them for around £50 used. I used one on my A290 and it was fantastic!
 
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