Decision time on A99

I have been instructed by my wife to get a A99 for vacation, woe  is me

There are two things about the A99 that bother me.

First, all my lenses except 1 are FF. But I lack anything below 70mm other than an old Minolta 35-70 F4 and a 50mm 1.7. I am unsure what to get and keep the cost < $1,000. I had been planning on the new Sigma 35 1.4. My shooting pattern with the A77 has been:

* 27,000 <= 33mm 95% with 18-250

* 22,478 > 33mm and <= 66mm 95% with 18-250

* 19,272 > 66mm

I am aware that my 18-280 can be used but I don't want to take 60% of my photos at 12 MP

The second item is the lack of on board flash, I do a lot of wireless flash with the A77 using both the HVLF42AM and HVLF42AM. I'm concerned because the control flash is the 43 forcing me to get a third unit to get the same effects I get now with the A77.

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Sarge
A77, A700 8mm Bower, 50mm 1.7, 35-70 F4, 90mm Tamron, 18-250 Sigma, 70-200 Sigma & 50-500 Bigma
Toys - Asus Transformer Android 4.0.3 tablet & Colorspace UDMA 500 gb
Albums at www.sony-snapper.com

Sony or (cheaper) Tamron 28-75 f/2.8. Very good all-rounders, not far behind CZ 24-70 image-quality-wise..

Bart

Yup, went through Dyxum's DB and those two were among the 8 or so that I culled out.

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Sarge
A77, A700 8mm Bower, 50mm 1.7, 35-70 F4, 90mm Tamron, 18-250 Sigma, 70-200 Sigma & 50-500 Bigma
Toys - Asus Transformer Android 4.0.3 tablet & Colorspace UDMA 500 gb
Albums at www.sony-snapper.com

18-33mm in APS C = 27-50mm full frame

66mm in APS C = 99mm full frame

Which basically means that you need to reanalyze your shooting patterns, unless you just want to get a used 24-105 Minolta lens.

Gary Friedmann suggested looking at the 28-75 from Minolta, calling it a bargain.

I got the CZ2470, best quality but heavy weight and limited portabiliy.

Used the A99 during my last vacation with a Min. 28-85 worked reasonably well especially together with the 50mm 1.7 and the 20mm 2.8 for lower light situations...

Congrats on the (forthcoming?) purchase.

I purchased the Tamron 28-75 and gave it the ol' college try. I'd used it (or an earlier version of the same lens) back in my Pentax days, when I liked it a lot. But it just didn't click with me on the A99. Image quality is okay. Maybe it felt too much like a (very good) kit lens. Not really sure. Anyway, I sent it back. Your mileage may vary, of course. It seems to be a good lens.

What I have now is a small set of primes:

• Sony 28 (purchased used via Amazon)
• Rokinon 35 (the manual-aperture, manual-focus non-cine model)
• Sony 50 f/1.4
• Sony 85 f/2.8

Which suits me quite well. My next purchase may be something in the 100-105 range, either the Sony or Sigma lenses.

The Rokinon 35 is quite good. I'm forcing myself to focus manually for everything now, which is a bit of a challenge, but I'm enjoying it. I like the 28 a lot, too. I would really like to get the Sigma 35 but I got the Rokinon on sale through BuyDig and paid less than half price. My only serious complaint about the Rokinon is not with the fact that I have to adjust the aperture manually or focus manually, but simply that the aperture choice doesn't get written to the EXIF data.

Again these are just the choices I've made for myself and I don't offer them really as recommendations for you or anybody else.

Will

I recently just got my A99 and I got the Sigma 24-70 mm and I am beyond well pleased with it.  When it came down to the Tamron and Sigma, I chose the Sigma as I have other lens that I am quite pleased with.

Good point, will need to check with ACDSee to see if their counts are on actual focal or equivalent focal lengths.

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Sarge
A77, A700 8mm Bower, 50mm 1.7, 35-70 F4, 90mm Tamron, 18-250 Sigma, 70-200 Sigma & 50-500 Bigma
Toys - Asus Transformer Android 4.0.3 tablet & Colorspace UDMA 500 gb
Albums at www.sony-snapper.com

So  far I leaning toward either

• Minolta AF 28-70 F2.8 G
  
• Sigma - 28-70 F2.8 EX DG

Has anyone tried the following:

• Tamron - AF 35-135 F3.5-4.5 AF tele-macro
• Tokina - AT-X 287 AF PRO SV 28-70 F2.8

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Sarge
A77, A700 8mm Bower, 50mm 1.7, 35-70 F4, 90mm Tamron, 18-250 Sigma, 70-200 Sigma & 50-500 Bigma
Toys - Asus Transformer Android 4.0.3 tablet & Colorspace UDMA 500 gb
Albums at www.sony-snapper.com

Why don't you just stick with your 77? Seems a lot of hassle for not much gain...

I have the A99 for almost a week and I got the very cheap Tamron 28-70 F2.8 XR Di.
Read the good stories of other users and ofcourse Kurt Mungers reviews...
Kurt Mungers conclusion:

I'm very impressed with the Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8 lens.  In fact, I'd prefer this lens to the Sony version.  Why you might ask?  Because not only is the Tamron slightly sharper wide open at the long end, it's almost half the money of the Sony! Aside from the sharpness differences, (really minor except at F/2.8-4 at 75mm) this lens is pretty much the same as the Sony 28-75mm F/2.8 SAM.  See that review and the comparison review to see what I'm talking about.

For APS-C users; although this lens works fine on an APS-C camera, the equivalent focal length of 42-112.5mm is a little long for me.  You may be better served with the Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8, Sony DT 16-50mm F/2.8 SSM, or the one stop slower CZ 16-80mm.

.See my comparison review here as indicated by my comparison review.  Sony CZ 24-70mm F/2.8Full frame users; This lens performs quite nicely, and seems to have the quality optics needed to handle the 24+ megapixels of Sony full frame cameras.  The Tamron would be a great less-expensive alternative to the   http://kurtmunger.com/tamron_sony_28_75mmid141.html
But check out the Zeiss comparison with the tammy too
http://kurtmunger.com/tamron_af_28_75mm_f_2_8id144.html    

I second that! The A77 is a great camera as you probably already know.

There will always be something newer and arguably better, but we all know it is not the camera that is responsible for great pictures, it is the photographer.

Ask yourself what you can't do with your A77 that warrants an upgrade. Is it worth the money?

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Karl Scharf >>> ( Sony SLT-A77, Rokinon 8mm, Sigma 10-20 f4.0-5.6, Sigma 18-250 f3.5-6.3, Sigma 50-500 f4.5-6.3 OS, Minolta 70-210 f4.0, Minolta 50 f1.7, Kenko 1.4x DGX ) <<<

Get Minolta Maxxum 20mm f/2.8 prime and Minolta Maxxum 24mm f/2.8 primes in good condition.

Both lenses are compact, sharp, reliable, not too expensive. Both lenses have infinity limiter - easy to use in dark or manual mode.

Sigma f/1.8 analogs should be tested, mine was soft up to f/4; probably because of particular lens copy was bad.

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Person is taking photos, not camera. When photograph is bad, it's because photographer doesn't know how to choose settings optimal to "own preferences". Then blames camera for bad IQ.
This is same as blaming car about arriving to wrong destination.
http://stan-pustylnik.smugmug.com

Ed,

Can I ask where are you going for vacation?

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Person is taking photos, not camera. When photograph is bad, it's because photographer doesn't know how to choose settings optimal to "own preferences". Then blames camera for bad IQ.
This is same as blaming car about arriving to wrong destination.
http://stan-pustylnik.smugmug.com

Ed, that Minolta 35-70 isn't half bad.

We use it on the A900 and the A99.

But you may want a bit wider.

Mike

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Images of Nature, Landscapes, Wildlife...

Whistler BC and an Alaska Cruise, this is my second time for the Cruise but the first time was with a broken Pentax K1000 and a Sony Mavica. In July it will be Durango CO and the Grand Canyon

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Sarge
A77, A700 8mm Bower, 50mm 1.7, 35-70 F4, 90mm Tamron, 18-250 Sigma, 70-200 Sigma & 50-500 Bigma
Toys - Asus Transformer Android 4.0.3 tablet & Colorspace UDMA 500 gb
Albums at www.sony-snapper.com

Well it's like this, it's our 40th anniversary and she is picking a new diamond ring. She picked my gift and yes its marginal in increased value but I not going to turn it down.

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Sarge
A77, A700 8mm Bower, 50mm 1.7, 35-70 F4, 90mm Tamron, 18-250 Sigma, 70-200 Sigma & 50-500 Bigma
Toys - Asus Transformer Android 4.0.3 tablet & Colorspace UDMA 500 gb
Albums at www.sony-snapper.com

Ed,

For trip like this I would have al angles covered from 20mm to 500mm +TC

If you want to capture wide scenes in 1 shot, then wide lens is needed. If you'll have time then panoorama, made of 50mm lens captures will be hard to beat, but from moving ship you may not tave as much time.

FF is wide with WA lenses, you'll be able to get close to some objects and include lot of background.

Pleasure of primes is in compactness and relability through aperture range, price for Maxxum primes at KEH or ebay is not too high either.

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Person is taking photos, not camera. When photograph is bad, it's because photographer doesn't know how to choose settings optimal to "own preferences". Then blames camera for bad IQ.
This is same as blaming car about arriving to wrong destination.
http://stan-pustylnik.smugmug.com

Yes, I would prefer 28mm, since that is about what the 18-250 gives me on the A77.

--
Sarge
A77, A700 8mm Bower, 50mm 1.7, 35-70 F4, 90mm Tamron, 18-250 Sigma, 70-200 Sigma & 50-500 Bigma
Toys - Asus Transformer Android 4.0.3 tablet & Colorspace UDMA 500 gb
Albums at www.sony-snapper.com

With A850

I have 20mm f/2.8 Maxxum (small, reliable, sharp from f/2.8 till f/22)) (Sigma 20mm f/1.8 was soft wide open, infinity focus wasn't calibrated)

Sigma 24mm f/2.8 Super II - very sharp, compact, good bokeh (does see little use after I got 20mm lens

Minolta 17-35mm f/2.8 - 4 does see little use after FF camera purchase (corners are soft up to f/8, heavy vignette), it was good on APSc camera...

Minolta Maxxum 28mm f/2.8 - compact beauty, very sharp and reliable through aperture range, inexpensive.

-- Person is taking photos, not camera. When photograph is bad, it's because photographer doesn't know how to choose settings optimal to "own preferences". Then blames camera for bad IQ.
This is same as blaming car about arriving to wrong destination.
http://stan-pustylnik.smugmug.com

ooooh ... you're in the Diamonds for Camera|Lens program!!  (Hey, just get the 24-70z.) Congrats on the 40th!