FE lens recommendations

[Mr.Meerkat]

Hey all! 

 

I currently have an OG Sony A7 with the following three lenses:

- The kit 28-70mm, never use it for many reasons such as auto-focus is disgustingly slow nor is very accurate (very rarely do I use a tri-pod or take images of still objects so AF is something I'd like to use) plus it just isn't very sharp. 

- The cheapo 50mm f1.8 lens. Now this is a lens I use the most as it weights nothing, takes nice n sharp images and the bokeh you get from it, like damnnnn son! Considering I only paid £110 (new!) for it, I could not be any happier with it. 

- My pride and joy, the 24-105mm f4 G lens. What can I say about it? It's one large n heavy boi? Love it to bits but it just isn't very nice to carry around, especially as it makes the camera feel very unbalanced in the hand. Considering how heavy and large it is, it genuinely takes less space and weight less if I paired the 50mm with something like the 28mm f2 lens (for them wide angle shots). You can probably see where this is going...

 

How is the FE Sony 28mm f2 lens? When compared to the Samyang 24 mm f2.8 FE lens, which one would be the better choice? Any other lenses people would recommend? 

 

Thanks! 

[Bombastinator]

17 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

Hey all! 

 

I currently have an OG Sony A7 with the following three lenses:

- The kit 28-70mm, never use it for many reasons such as auto-focus is disgustingly slow nor is very accurate (very rarely do I use a tri-pod or take images of still objects so AF is something I'd like to use) plus it just isn't very sharp. 

- The cheapo 50mm f1.8 lens. Now this is a lens I use the most as it weights nothing, takes nice n sharp images and the bokeh you get from it, like damnnnn son! Considering I only paid £110 (new!) for it, I could not be any happier with it. 

- My pride and joy, the 24-105mm f4 G lens. What can I say about it? It's one large n heavy boi? Love it to bits but it just isn't very nice to carry around, especially as it makes the camera feel very unbalanced in the hand. Considering how heavy and large it is, it genuinely takes less space and weight less if I paired the 50mm with something like the 28mm f2 lens (for them wide angle shots). You can probably see where this is going...

 

How is the FE Sony 28mm f2 lens? When compared to the Samyang 24 mm f2.8 FE lens, which one would be the better choice? Any other lenses people would recommend? 

 

Thanks! 

28mm is slower than 50mm?  I’m a relic from the days of 35mm film but that doesn’t sound right unless the 28mm is kinda cheap.

[Mr.Meerkat]

Just now, Bombastinator said:

28mm is slower than 50mm?  I’m a relic from the days of 35mm film but that doesn’t sound right unless the 28mm is kinda cheap.

I mean the Sony 28mm is £350~ (so pretty budget) and the Samyang 24mm is £250~ (so even cheaper). As for why the 50mm is so cheap (£180 normal price, I got it on sale), I don't know. Maybe ask Sony what's up with their line-up 

[Bombastinator]

4 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

I mean the Sony 28mm is £350~ (so pretty budget) and the Samyang 24mm is £250~ (so even cheaper). As for why the 50mm is so cheap (£180 normal price, I got it on sale), I don't know. Maybe ask Sony what's up with their line-up 

I have a theory.  The 50mm could come as a default lens with new bodies so they make multiple times as many of them and there is an economy of scale issue.  Generally (at least in the old days) as fstop went down, weight and cost went up.  Better larger clearer lenses, tighter tolerances.

[Mr.Meerkat]

1 minute ago, Bombastinator said:

I have a theory.  The 50mm could come as a default lens with new bodies so they make multiple times as many of them and there is an economy of scale issue.  Generally (at least in the old days) as fstop went down, weight and cost went up.  Better larger clearer lenses, tighter tolerances.

But the kit lens on their A7/FE cameras is the 28-70mm, not the 50mm (or at least I have never ever seen one being included as part of a kit). To be fair, considering 50mms are known as "nifty fifties", I wouldn't be one bit surprised if Sony did sell the 50mm most (especially when the kit lens on the OG A7 is so awful, seems to be a bit better on A7II and A7IIIs) and thus, it is indeed an economy scale of issue  

[YellowJersey]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but, iirc, the original A7 was not a great focusing camera to begin with. It could be that the problem is the camera, not so much the lens. Have you tried the lenses on a third generation A7 camera? Just curious.

[Mr.Meerkat]

36 minutes ago, YellowJersey said:

Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but, iirc, the original A7 was not a great focusing camera to begin with. It could be that the problem is the camera, not so much the lens. Have you tried the lenses on a third generation A7 camera? Just curious.

No, I have not. And yes, I know the original A7 wis never know for its AF performance but what lens you use really do make a difference. When paired with the 24-105mm, the pictures are almost always in focus, and it doesn't take long at all. However, with the 28-70mm, maybe a quarter of the pictures (if not more), the focus is slightly off and it takes a noticeable amount of time for the AF to do its thing. 

[YellowJersey]

28 minutes ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

No, I have not. And yes, I know the original A7 wis never know for its AF performance but what lens you use really do make a difference. When paired with the 24-105mm, the pictures are almost always in focus, and it doesn't take long at all. However, with the 28-70mm, maybe a quarter of the pictures (if not more), the focus is slightly off and it takes a noticeable amount of time for the AF to do its thing. 

Ah, I get it now.

[AbydosOne]

On 12/5/2019 at 8:50 PM, Mr.Meerkat said:

As for why the 50mm is so cheap (£180 normal price, I got it on sale), I don't know.

On 12/5/2019 at 8:58 PM, Bombastinator said:

there is an economy of scale issue

As far as I can tell (I have the same lens), it's almost the same as the Sony A-mount f1.8 50mm, and the Minolta A-mount f1.7 50mm (also have this one) before that. There wasn't much (optical) engineering to be done; adapt the flange depth to E-mount and away you go, minimal R&D required. Sony paid off the design cost years ago, and now (after production costs) those lenses are pure profit.

[Mr.Meerkat]

2 hours ago, AbydosOne said:

As far as I can tell (I have the same lens), it's almost the same as the Sony A-mount f1.8 50mm, and the Minolta A-mount f1.7 50mm (also have this one) before that. There wasn't much (optical) engineering to be done; adapt the flange depth to E-mount and away you go, minimal R&D required. Sony paid off the design cost years ago, and now (after production costs) those lenses are pure profit.

That's good to know  

Great for A7 series owners, especially for people like me who picked it up for dirt cheap (£300 for camera, £110 for the 50mm)  

[pigspigs76]

Do you need auto focus? 

 

I would recommend just byepassing FE unless you plan on upgrading to a newer a7 

 

Rokkor along with many other older manual lenses are top notch. Something like a 16mm is super easy to focus for must use cases. 

 

Sure there are flaws but nothing post processing g won't easily fix with a click or two