After many, many months of debating with myself, I have finally ordered one of these in its SE guise. Whilst the significant reduction in weight is appealing I'm wondering if I should have bought the normal one. The knurling of the focus ring looks nicer to hold.
Unfortunately, I'm unable to see either in the metal. Can anyone offer any views of any potential downsides of the SE?
UKPete wrote:
After many, many months of debating with myself, I have finally ordered one of these in its SE guise. Whilst the significant reduction in weight is appealing I'm wondering if I should have bought the normal one. The knurling of the focus ring looks nicer to hold.
Unfortunately, I'm unable to see either in the metal. Can anyone offer any views of any potential downsides of the SE?
AFAIK the only difference between SE and initial versions is that for the initial version the aperture can be de-clicked. And the SE version is smaller and 80g lighter (420g vs 340g).
I specifically opted for the SE vesion since I don't do video, liked the weight saving and I am not particulary impressed by the knurled focusing rings.
I read somewhere that the SE version was discontinued, while the normal version is still produced.
I had the original 40/1.2 since launch and I replaced it with the SE version and I haven't seen any difference except the SE being smaller and lighter, with the different style to the helicoid and without the declick capability. I much prefer the lighter weight and reduced size of the SE version, especially on my A7C & A7CII.
I also replaced my original 50/1.2 with the SE version and I also have the 35/1.2 SE. 40/1.2 SE is my favorite from the trio because it's the smallest and lightest and my copy of it is perfectly aligned for use at hard infinity for long distance shots whereas my 50/1.2 SE and 35/1.2 SE need a very slight pullback from hard infinity for best results.
All three SE lenses were discontinued earlier this year whereas the original 40/1.2 and 50/1.2 are still being produced. Not sure why since the SE versions always seemed to sell better than the originals while both were equally available in Japan market. SE versions were also priced a bit lower from the beginning.
