Wow!! Awesome shots Bob, Ryan, Joshua, Werner and Phillipe !
And previous page Charles,Phillipe, Michiel ,mttran , Bob and Oldraven
and everyone else superb shots to.. I use the like button
Sunrise, morning before last...wider shot of Seattle and Lake Washington at sunrise with the Cascade Mountains. I was going to go there last night for the NYE fireworks but couldn't rent a dumptruck. I hate driving around midnight on NYE in anything smaller...
I just got a Sony A7, and don't know if I should save up for the Sony FE 55mm, or just buy an old manual lens. Which one do you recommend for a wide old lens? What about a fast lens from 28mm to 40mm? F1.8 is fine.
I just got a Sony A7, and don't know if I should save up for the Sony FE 55mm, or just buy an old manual lens. Which one do you recommend for a wide old lens? What about a fast lens from 28mm to 40mm? F1.8 is fine.
The FE 55 1.8 is special. It also helps that it will AF. Love it on the Sony a7 bodies and also on the a6000. If you are looking at manual focus this focal length has plenty of options. The Rokkor 50's, Canon fd 50, 55, the nikon 50, 55 AIs, Oly OM 50 1.8 are all fantastic options. Like I said plenty of options - just depends on what you can afford.
I just got a Sony A7, and don't know if I should save up for the Sony FE 55mm, or just buy an old manual lens. Which one do you recommend for a wide old lens? What about a fast lens from 28mm to 40mm? F1.8 is fine.
My 2 cents...
Manual lenses are fun, but take some practice as you drop to f1.8 or get to longer focal lengths. You'll struggle with moving kids, if that's your target. The A7 will struggle a bit with lower light and autofocus. The longer lenses work pretty good with focus peaking, but down in the 28-40mm range, I found peaking not very accurate and had to magnify or learn to use the lens distance scale (they generally aren't accurate unless you buy Novoflex adapters or maybe Kipon - higher cost ones that maintain infinity focus at the stop).
I preferred manual lenses for darker times with the A7.
Wide angle, fast, and either old or inexpensive is a bit tough unless you expand to f2.
OM 28mm f2. $350
OM 35mm f2. $400.
OM 40mm f2. $600.
Canon FD 35mm f2 (quite a few people have this lens) $300.
Minolta MD 35mm f1.8 ($350 - really good, Peire has one).
Tim Devine shoots alot with 28mm. Check his shots to see if that's your preferred focal length.
The Nikon and Contax 28mm f2.8's are both really good, but a bit slower than you asked about ($200-300).
Canon FD 24mm f1.4L is good, but might have too much field curvature if you want to shoot landscapes ($700-1000).
The Nikon G 28mm f1.8 is very nice, but you'll have to get a Nikon G adapter (Fotodiox or Metabones - a bit clumsy) ~ $650.
Canon EF 28mm f1.8 is good ($510), but you need a $100 adapter and autofocus will be slow.
Vivitar 28mm f1.9. I think someone on the forum used one...maybe Tjack (xposhore) has one. $190.
The Nikon G 35mm f1.8 is very nice...same issue as the other G ~ $550.
Voigtlander has a M mount 35mm f 1.4 ($650) and 40mm f1.4 classic (Gregg and Jim Schemel have one) ~ $450.
Rokinon/Samyang has a 35mm f1.4 $400 (used maybe $300).
The Minolta Cle 40mm f2 is good (Rich Nelridge/naturephoto1 has one) ~ $450.
Minolta MD 45mm f2 is decent and really cheap (I have one and so does Peire/Shapencolour) ~ $35.
Konica Hexanon 40mm f1.8 is probably a bit better than the Minolta, but probably not 5x better (Peire/shapencolour) ~ $150.
Canon FD and FL 50/55mm f1.2/1.4 are all decent $110-$400.
Minolta 50mm f1.4 is good. $100
Contax 50mm f1.4 or 1.7 are good. $280-350.
Fast 50mm (f1.4) is really the most economical except for maybe the MD 45, Vivitar, or Rokinon/Samyang/Bower. The Rokinon is the only modern lens (the construction isn't as robust as other makes, but the image quality is great).
My A7II focuses much faster and I now value the 55mm f1.8's autofocus. I sold some of my manual lenses and got the 16-35mm f4 OSS, which is really good. I kept the long manual lenses.
