A77 Kit question

Well Mike

The first question is obviously, how much money over and above the price of the A77 and Kit lens would you have to spend. I have the A77 and Lens and although I have many other lenses, the 16-50 stays on my camera most of the time.

If you are only learning DSLR photography now, I would stay with just the one lens to completely learn the camera. As you progress through your learning, a zoom lens is normally the next step. The 70300G is a good next step (70-200G or 70-400G if you have the finances). The only problem with this kit lens is that it is pretty good quality, so moving to cheaper lower quality lenses will be dissapointing.

The next step would probably then be an external flash, to capture really wonderful portraits. If portrature is going to be your main goal then a vertical grip could be an option.

I would also suggest two wonderful books one being Gary Friedmans book on the A77 and another one I found Sony SLT-A77 and A65 for Dummies by Robert Correll

I have the a77 w 16-50 and it is great for most of my needs but the range can be a bit short. If you don't have any other lenses you may want to look at an all in one such as the Sony 18-250, Sigma 18-250, or Tamron 18-270. Sigma is updating their product offering and a number of the current offerings are on sale.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/searc...7+4108103563+4108103536+4261208188+4261208187

A good place to start comparing A-mount lenses is Dyxum:

http://www.dyxum.com/

Definitely the 35/1.8, not just because it's a "fast normal", the classical student's lens, but also because it's a terrific piece of optics for an incredibly low price. You might want to look into the Sony 55-300 or Tamron 70-300 USD for your telephoto needs; the Sony is cheaper, smaller and lighter, but the Tamron is optically even better, every bit the equivalent of the famed Sony 70-300 G lens.

Another option to consider is the Sony 85/2.8, also a small and optically great lens available for a pretty low price. If you're doing portraiture it'd be invaluable, though I think if you don't its usefulness might be quite limited.

As a new owner of the combo, I'll gladly add my testimonial in favor of the A77 with the 16-50. I will also second the notion that the build quality, performance and just feel of the 16-50 may spoil you for some other lenses except the 35 1.8, which IQ more than makes up for its unashamedly plasticky body and feel. The 35 1.8 is an outstanding and economical solution for indoor shots with available light. The Tamron 70-300 Di USD is also an excellent choice for a telephoto lens to compliment the 16-50, and its build quality, image quality, along with its performance are comparable to the 1650. Don't know your budget, but Tamron extended their $100 Rebate for this lens through 2/28, rendering your net cost app $350. Good luck.

The Sony 16-50 is a fantastic lens to start with, the wide aperture will give you a lot of wiggle room indoors or any other darker situation. As others have noted, the Tamron SP 70-300 is a great complement to it, at a very reasonable price (tip-- make sure you do not get the 70-300 "macro"-- it is a completely different lens and not nearly as good). I have been extremely pleased with it, even in indoor situations where I did not think it would work very well (the a77's SSS works well even at 300mm).

The next lens I got was the Samyang 8mm fisheye, which is an absolute gem. For low light situations, the Sony 35/1.8 and 50/1.4 are considered good values, I got the ∑50/1.4 and absolutely love it. If you want to get into primes, a trick to tell what you might want is to set your zoom at particular focal length (e.g. 35mm) and keep it there. Go on a photoscursion you are somewhat familiar with-- and get used to having that fixed focal length (no cheating-- move yourself back and forth to frame the shots). I settled on 50 and 24 using that technique, and am quite happy.

Draek said:

Draek wrote:

Definitely the 35/1.8

Click to expand...

If the OP wants to use manual focus sometimes, I would advice to stay away from the 35/1.8.

This is a SAM I lens with a mechanical, manual clutch for the AF mechanism. That means that the AF/MF button on the rear of the a77 will not work, and the in-camera DMF feature (automatic switch to MF after each AF focus confirmation) will not work either.

I have one SAM I lens for my a77, and I never use it because this just annoys me too much.

I got the A77 about 16 months ago and got back into photography. I did some film stuff at school back over 20 years ago, the occasional point-and-shoot since then so the Alpha was a totally new experience for me.

I have learnt so much about the digital side to photography and relied on my knowledge that applied to this and film/lighting that I learnt all that time ago.

An early goal was learning how to use the camera in manual as quick as possible, it didnt take me long and auto settings I rarely use any more. I did have an experience doing a corporate awards event, the roof was terrible for flash bouncing and things were just wrong, auto helped me get back on track in this situation but other than that (or when i hand it to somebody else to take pics) I have it in M - but that's me and I am not knocking auto-modes at all.

I mostly use the 16-50 and love it as a quality lens, I also got a 70-300G which is fantastic when required, down side is that at f4.5-5.6 it's not a very fast lens for all circumstances.

I also got a 50AM flash and also now I got a 60M flash because I do many corporate, fashion and media events and i need the flash..

In learning digital photography I have also incorporated understanding Lightroom, my eventual choice for image management. This all takes into account the progression from JPG to RAW, lens and colour corrections, understanding clarity, vibrance and sharpening.

In all, the more I got into this the more I learned, the more I found myself needing to know stuff that would help me make the technical things part of my workflow and influence the way I took photos, the more this focused my vision of the picture I was taking and how it would be presented as a piece of work and why... (profound?)

Good luck with your choice, I find the Alpha has a great number of advantages over other brands that give you an edge in many styles of work, rapid focus, flip screen, EVF are just some of the benefits you will appreciate soon.

Thanks Roger....yes, that's one of the questions I'm trying to figure...how much to spend on a 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) lens. I see myself picking up a good zoom lens when I purchase the camera and kit lens mainly because a lot of what I'll be doing is outdoor scenery/wildlife and chasing my daughter around the countryside. It makes sense for me to have a decent zoom to learn with alongside that kit lens. I hear you about lens quality and I suppose it's a matter of getting what you pay for so I should expect to spenda bit on a decent zoom.



Thanks again for your help!



Mike

perfect...thanks for the links!

I assume this is the lens some of you suggested?

http://www.amazon.com/Tamron-70-300...61724502&sr=8-3&keywords=Tamron+70-300+Di+USD

Looks like a great deal...I guess I expected to have to pay more for a quality zoom.

I'm sure this is a bit of a loaded question in this particular forum but what do you all think of my camera choice considering what I want to do with it? I don't expect the noise issues will be much of a problem for me as I'm sure most of my shooting will be done outdoors or in well lit indoor situations.

M