m_appeal wrote: mawz wrote:The first two of those lenses are not in Sony\'s lineup but rather are out of production Minolta lenses. The 20/2.8 is comparable (but twice the size of) Nikon\'s offering, but both lenses are merely competent and do not perform as well as zooms in that range. Sony lacks the 14/2.8, 18/2.8 and 24/2.8 that Nikon also offers along with Nikon\'s world-class 24/3.5 PC-E.
Well, the 35 1.4 G is in production... and both it and the 35 f2 RS lenses are actually outstanding... probably better than the Nikon 35 f2, although admittedly I haven\'t tried them myself.
Actually the 35G is not really a notable performer. It\'s average stopped down and has serious edge sharpness issues wide open. It\'s a character lens for PJ work and street photography, not a landscape lens. The 35/2 RS is very good and filled the landscape lens role that the 35G can\'t, but is no longer in production.
And what zooms are you talking about? I doubt the 20 2.8 performs much worse than 16-35.. I\'ve seen some very good results out of it on A900.
Nikkor 14-24 & 17-35, the ZA 16-35 (which severely outperforms the 20/2.8 for edge performance), even the updated Canon 16-35L II are noticeably better performers from first parties. Both the Nikon and Soy/Minolta 20/2.8\'s are good lenses but neither qualify as excellent by todays standards and both are showing the age of their designs (The Nikon dates to teh early 80\'s, the Sony\'s a few years newer being nothing more than a Minolta 20/2.8 with D circuitry added).
And, yes, some of the primes are out of production, but they can be found on the used market. The 24 2.8 is not that great, but again on par with Nikon\'s offerings, which are not that great in that range apart from the 14-24 zoom.
You might not have noticed, but getting ones hands on the better Minolta wide primes (especially the 28/2, but also the 35/2 in particular) is not all that easy as supplies on the used market are low.
As to the Nikon 24/2.8, it\'s actually a pretty good lens, not up to the 14-24, but better than the 20/2.8. And Nikon has an absolutely world-class 24 available in the 24/3.5 PC-E.
Nov 27, 2009 at 10:23 PM
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