If you clicked on the title, I suspect you understand what I mean.
Where are the high quality 28mm lenses? The 28-50-85mm triplet has been the holy grail of meaningful photography snice forever. Aren't you annoyed by the 24-35-50-85mm bullshit being forced down our throats by the SoCaNicon MBA bean counters, just because 4 "lenses" is better than 3 from the P&L point of view?
Shall we all travel to Tokyo, catch/kidnap Sony/Nikon/Canon execs and gently push well-lubricated 24mm and 35mm choices through their rectums to get the message to the corporate?
My go to 28mm E mount lens is the Sigma 28-45mm, although I'm also very fond of the Pentax 28mm f/3.5 K (for landscape shooting). I also really like the Loxia 25, which is sort of a longish 25. It kind of replaced my Pentax 28mm as my prime, even though it's a tad wide.
And I'm going to buy the Voigtlander APO-Lanthar 28mm f/2 when the E mount version is released.
Historically when I've brought the lack of 28mm options, I was pointed to the FE 28mm f/2.
There are some 28mm options, mostly MF. There is the Viltrox 28mm f/1.8 for example, possibly a couple of more obscure ones.
Competent photographers make great images with gear they have. Wannabees constantly look for ‘better gear” in order to make a nice image. With the plethora of lenses we have for Sony…if you can’t make great images…maybe pick up checkers as a hobby.
The relative absence of high quality 28mm lenses is a true mystery that continues year after year. There's the new Thypoch but it's manual focus. There's the Viltrox but with the non-clickable aperture ring. There's the Sony but it's one of Sony's earliest and weakest lenses. Where is the G or GM? Where is the Sigma? Where is the Samyang? Nobody knows!
Edited to add: there was the giant Sigma 28/1.4 ... a great lens, true high quality, but in a huge & heavy size designed for DSLRs, not mirrorless.
I think Chez has an immediate notification sent to him when a thread title contains 28mm in the title. I was actually surprised I posted before he did....barely.
tsdevine wrote:
I think Chez has an immediate notification sent to him when a thread title contains 28mm in the title. I was actually surprised I posted before he did....barely.
All in good humor.
Yeh…and I have some great travel images from my Sony 28. Mind you I just make books and prints from my images…don’t look at 100% at the corners at the sharpness of individual pixels.
chez wrote:
Competent photographers make great images with gear they have. Wannabees constantly look for ‘better gear” in order to make a nice image. With the plethora of lenses we have for Sony…if you can’t make great images…maybe pick up checkers as a hobby.
True, but this wannabe still wants a nice 28mm G or GM.
chez wrote:
Yeh…and I have some great travel images from my Sony 28. Mind you I just make books and prints from my images…don’t look at 100% at the corners at the sharpness of individual pixels.
I take awful pictures and share them online. Although I can't travel much since my son has a progressive disease that impacts his ability to fly, and his doctor appointments pretty much chew through a lot of my time off anyway.
Unless that backhanded insult wasn't directed explicitly to me, and was intended more generally to anyone who posts in this thread. Being a checker player, I'm not sure, since your reply was to my post.
tsdevine wrote:
I take awful pictures and share them online. Although I can't travel much since my son has a progressive disease that impacts his ability to fly, and his doctor appointments pretty much chew through a lot of my time off anyway.
Unless that backhanded insult wasn't directed explicitly to me, and was intended more generally to anyone who posts in this thread. Being a checker player, I'm not sure, since your reply was to my post.
Nope, was not directed at you at all…just a general comment about the constant whining about lack of equipment in an era where we never had it so good.
As a side, my wife has advanced Parkinson’s which has severely limited our travels. I right now sit on the Big Island Hawaii, house / dog sitting with my gear with me but have not taken any real images as I must take care of my wife… I know a little bit of what you must be going through.
Right now the Thypoch 28/1.4 is the best game in town. I wish it could autofocus for those people pics it excels at, but it’s pretty easy with people if you know what you’re doing. I had the Sony 28 for a while and it’s good too, but Sony should make a nice 28G or GM that is sharp but has the nice fade like the Thypoch.
chez wrote:
Nope, was not directed at you at all…just a general comment about the constant whining about lack of equipment in an era where we never had it so good.
As a side, my wife has advanced Parkinson’s which has severely limited our travels. I right now sit on the Big Island Hawaii, house / dog sitting with my gear with me but have not taken any real images as I must take care of my wife… I know a little bit of what you must be going through.
I'm sorry to hear that Chez....yes, I think I do. It is really tough. And I am truly sorry.
< Inserting a warning that below here probably falls under the category of too much information. And I don't ask that anyone reads it. >
My son was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension in 2015 and has been on drugs to try to minimize the damage to his heart. He started double therapy back then....then we added a 3rd drug, which was awful. He could not eat much, would often vomit. We had to switch to an infused form of that drug, which was awful in a different way. You'd put a site in, kind of like a diabetic would have.....and then hook the pump up. The drug causes kind of an immune reaction with about 10 days or so of site pain. Adults would often be prescribed opiates (not an option for children). And then you just hoped that site would last long. He continued to worsen, but they switched him to a different oral drug that worked on the same pathway as the subcutaneous drug. Eventually he reached "end state" pulmonary hypertension, and he had a Potts shunt procedure in 2023. Where they put a shunt between his pulmonary artery and his descending aorta, to lock the right side pressure to the left side pressure. (Right side pressure is generally 1/3rd the left side pressure...his right side pressure was higher than his left). Took him 6 months to sort of get back to a reasonable state. Then they added a 4th vasodilator, which works on the same pathway as that oral drug I mentioned after the pump.
They added a new drug (drug #5) in February, which is the first drug to interfere with the cause. But it has some side effects, that we've had to just manage through. His right side pressure has dropped somewhat, to the point the shunt is shunting the wrong way at rest. But over the past month, he's been having pretty bad fatigue and some light headedness and dizziness. Likely it's due to over-vasodilation from the other medication he's on. He had been doing so well over the summer. But his doctor does not want to lower any of those medications until he has a heart cath in 2-3 months. He wants my son to try to tolerate it. We had to pull him out of school, and he started online school. Similar to when he had that Potts shunt.
So I'm a little punchy, sorry about my comments. I definitely feel for you and your wife's situation. My traveling is usually 1 family vacation a year, where I try to balance things. Although this summer he was doing so well, we did take a couple of mini trips. Airplanes are pressurized to about 6,000 feet, and that lowers the available oxygen. He's only flown twice, once before he was diagnosed and then once about 6 or 7 years ago. They always want to do a high altitude stress test before okaying any flying, it it just kind of pushes us to do driving trips.
My photography oriented trips are mostly day trips, when I can. Although I did go to a Friday-Sunday day photo workshop last January.
My youngest son Ted, while on our vacation in Michigan. (Not taken with a 28mm lens.)
tsdevine wrote:
I'm sorry to hear that Chez....yes, I think I do. It is really tough. And I am truly sorry.
< Inserting a warning that below here probably falls under the category of too much information. And I don't ask that anyone reads it. >
My son was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension in 2015 and has been on drugs to try to minimize the damage to his heart. He started double therapy back then....then we added a 3rd drug, which was awful. He could not eat much, would often vomit. We had to switch to an infused form of that drug, which was awful in a different way. You'd put a site in, kind of like a diabetic would have.....and then hook the pump up. The drug causes kind of an immune reaction with about 10 days or so of site pain. Adults would often be prescribed opiates (not an option for children). And then you just hoped that site would last long. He continued to worsen, but they switched him to a different oral drug that worked on the same pathway as the subcutaneous drug. Eventually he reached "end state" pulmonary hypertension, and he had a Potts shunt procedure in 2023. Where they put a shunt between his pulmonary artery and his descending aorta, to lock the right side pressure to the left side pressure. (Right side pressure is generally 1/3rd the left side pressure...his right side pressure was higher than his left). Took him 6 months to sort of get back to a reasonable state. Then they added a 4th vasodilator, which works on the same pathway as that oral drug I mentioned after the pump.
They added a new drug (drug #5) in February, which is the first drug to interfere with the cause. But it has some side effects, that we've had to just manage through. His right side pressure has dropped somewhat, to the point the shunt is shunting the wrong way at rest. But over the past month, he's been having pretty bad fatigue and some light headedness and dizziness. Likely it's due to over-vasodilation from the other medication he's on. He had been doing so well over the summer. But his doctor does not want to lower any of those medications until he has a heart cath in 2-3 months. He wants my son to try to tolerate it. We had to pull him out of school, and he started online school. Similar to when he had that Potts shunt.
So I'm a little punchy, sorry about my comments. I definitely feel for you and your wife's situation. My traveling is usually 1 family vacation a year, where I try to balance things. Although this summer he was doing so well, we did take a couple of mini trips. Airplanes are pressurized to about 6,000 feet, and that lowers the available oxygen. He's only flown twice, once before he was diagnosed and then once about 6 or 7 years ago. They always want to do a high altitude stress test before okaying any flying, it it just kind of pushes us to do driving trips.
My photography oriented trips are mostly day trips, when I can. Although I did go to a Friday-Sunday day photo workshop last January.
My youngest son Ted, while on our vacation in Michigan. (Not taken with a 28mm lens.)
Tim - that sounds absolutely awful for your son and you. That poor kid! 😢. If you don’t mind, I’m going to add your son to my daily prayers. We humans need all the help we can get.
Chez - I’m sorry your wife has Parkinson’s. It sucks. My dad was caregiver for my mom the last 15 years of her life as she had a slow form of muscular dystrophy. It was a lot of work and he didn’t regret one minute. Stay strong. I’ll pray for your wife too.
mudlake wrote:
Tim - that sounds absolutely awful for your son and you. That poor kid! 😢. If you don’t mind, I’m going to add your son to my daily prayers. We humans need all the help we can get.
Chez - I’m sorry your wife has Parkinson’s. It sucks. My dad was caregiver for my mom the last 15 years of her life as she had a slow form of muscular dystrophy. It was a lot of work and he didn’t regret one minute. Stay strong. I’ll pray for your wife too.
Would never turn down anyone helping pull for Ted. Sometimes I feel we're on a never ending roller coaster ride.
In any case I'll helped derail this thread, which I regret.
I would like to see another AF offering from Sony or Sigma at least. But I suspect the CV 28/2 APO will be the "one". Although I'd still eye a Otus ML 28 if Zeiss doesn't veer towards a 25 or 35.
Getting back to the topic, the absence of 28mm offerings is a mystery as NJP says. I'm happy with my Batis 25 f2.0 which is only a tad wider, but it IS wider.
Oct 31, 2025 at 06:15 AM
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tsdevine wrote:
Would never turn down anyone helping pull for Ted. Sometimes I feel we're on a never ending roller coaster ride.
In any case I'll helped derail this thread, which I regret.
I would like to see another AF offering from Sony or Sigma at least. But I suspect the CV 28/2 APO will be the "one". Although I'd still eye a Otus ML 28 if Zeiss doesn't veer towards a 25 or 35.
Hi Tim,
I am very sorry to hear about your son's condition. Never worry about sharing the difficulties you face. It is an important part of our humanity to share in each other's troubles and I think we should make room for that here. I wish you and your son the very best as you continue in his treatment.
And Chez, I am very sorry that your wife is facing her disease too. I lost a good friend to Parkinson's almost 10 years ago and it was heart breaking.
