Steve Spencer
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mb126 wrote:
It's criminal to go 12 posts without mentioning the Canon 200 f/2.8. Fast AF with MC-11, sharp, great rendering, light, and stabilized on a sony!
Well, the OP did ask for small and with the MC-11 it is about 900 grams has a 83mm diameter and is 136mm long. Unfortunately to me that is not small. It is a good optic, however, and would probably be my choice if AF were a priority but many in that situation would be looking at one of the Sony zooms. I really hope Sony makes a small nice lens in this range, but I wouldn't hold my breath. I think if they make a 200, it will be a 200 f/2.
Like Bastian, telephotos this long (and in my view even shorter) really need some sort of special glass (ED, APD, fluorite, etc.) to control CA. That rules out a number of options including the wonderfully sized Olympus OM 200 f/5 and 200 f/4. It rules out all the Minolta MC and MD glass. It rules out all of the Zeiss lenses as well except the huge, quirky, and expensive 200 f/2 APO. It rules out the Nikon 200 f/4 (Q, K, Ai, or AiS, none of them have special glass to reduce CA). So to me that leaves the 1) Voigtlander 180 f/4 APO, which is wonderfully small and excellent close up, but I think a bit less excellent at infinity focus and it is ridiculously expensive these days. 2) The Nikon 180 f/2.8 ED (the AiS version is probably best for Sony) -- quite decent performance but not fully corrected for CA and a very nice price but at 800g before the adapter it isn't light and its pretty long and fat too, so not that small. 3) The Pentax A* 200 f/2.8 ED - this is a very nice lens and quite well corrected, unfortunately it is bigger than either the Nikon or Canon and still fairly expensive. 4) The Minolta AF 200 f/2.8 APO -- this lens is a quite good performer but like the Nikon and Canon AF lenses is quite large and pretty heavy. In addition you need to use the LAEA - 4 adapter which is not light, and limits performance quite a bit. 5) the Canon 200 f/2.8L describe above, and what was my choice the 6) Leica R 180 f/3.4 APO, which is far from a perfect lens, but is a quite strong performer at infinity. It is pretty heavy at 750g (before the adapter) and although it is as long as the others is much skinnier than anything except the Voigtlander at 68mm in diameter. As Rich pointed out it also has the trick up its sleeve that it can become a quite decent 360 f/6.8 lens is you add the Leica 2X APO teleconverter. Mine was stolen and I haven't replace it yet and I am ambivalent about doing so. On one hand it is bigger than I would like and it is starting to show it age (top lenses like the Leica 180 f/2.8 APO are clearly better), but on the other hand nothing has been made for a long time at this focal length and I am not convinced anything will be made and for my type of shooting (mostly infinity focus landscapes) this lens really does as well as anything except the larger and much more expensive Leica R 180 f/2.8 APO. I hope Voigtlander makes a new version of the 180 f/4 APO, but they even shortened the 125 f/2.5 APO Macro to 110. I am not at all sure they want to or there is much if any money to be made in a lens this long.
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