martindesu
Senior Member
Is the A7 kit lens any good - it's not so expensive to buy it with the kit lens... but knowing me, I might never use it (only used my NEX-7 kit lens a handful of times)...
is it any good?
is it any good?
-
Welcome to the new forums! Please read this first. For known issues we are working to resolve, click here.
Is the A7 kit lens any good?
- Thread starter martindesu
- Start date
-
- Tags
- sony a7 sony alpha nex-7
Hey Martin,martindesu said:
I had a look at your photography site, and You are an experienced photographer and you take terrific photos; I am just a progressing beginner (completed a 5-week crash course/training, several workshops) and I apologize to take the courage to reply. I think the 28-70mm is a great zoom lens, it is really fun to use, I am very happy with it. I have a number of other, much more expensive, high quality Made-in-Japan legacy lenses from the 80s; still, I use the 28-70 in case I needed AF or zoom. It is an excellent workhorse, all-around lens. A number of people on this forum wrote negative comments about this lens, in a way that first/originally I did not want to buy this lens at all because of the many negative comments on this forum. Thank God, the shop had only the A7 kit, and I bought the 28-70. Since I have collected a number of legacy manual focus lenses, I pick one for every day (yesterday was my 24mm, today is 28mm day), but I always have the 28-70 with me.
Coal mine conveyor terminal on the Danube near Esztergom
Additional photos taken with the 28-70 can be found in my gallery album http://www.dpreview.com/galleries/6567299074/albums/landscape-photography-workshop-with-a7
All the Best, Miki
Last edited:
Coal mine conveyor terminal on the Danube near Esztergom
Is there any artistic reason for the horizon not being straight?
--
Tommie
Jabba23
Forum Enthusiast
Is the A7 kit lens any good - it's not so expensive to buy it with the kit lens... but knowing me, I might never use it (only used my NEX-7 kit lens a handful of times)...
is it any good?
martindesu
Senior Member
Hi Miki,
Thank you for the compliment! I wouldn't say I was experienced, but thank you
I've had my NEX-7 around 15 months now, and have carefully bought a few select lenses to use on full-frame... but they're all primes. Sometimes, it's nice to have a zoom lens! A workhorse as you say. Your image certainly has a good amount of detail, and thank you for posting the link to your album.
People are always more vocal in a negative sense, but I was sure that some people must be happy with the kit
I'll continue to have a look for sample images, and try to test out the lens in-store, but it's not the same.
Thanks again, and happy shooting (I like the prime-a-day idea!)
Martin
--
Martin
martindesu
Senior Member
Is the A7 kit lens any good - it's not so expensive to buy it with the kit lens... but knowing me, I might never use it (only used my NEX-7 kit lens a handful of times)...
is it any good?
Is the A7 kit lens any good - it's not so expensive to buy it with the kit lens... but knowing me, I might never use it (only used my NEX-7 kit lens a handful of times)...
is it any good?
martindesu
Senior Member
Is the A7 kit lens any good - it's not so expensive to buy it with the kit lens... but knowing me, I might never use it (only used my NEX-7 kit lens a handful of times)...
is it any good?
Hugh Paterson
Well-known member
Is the A7 kit lens any good - it's not so expensive to buy it with the kit lens... but knowing me, I might never use it (only used my NEX-7 kit lens a handful of times)...
is it any good?
I agree. It's not spectacular, but it's perfectly usable for the sorts of things you need a kit lens for - convenience, casual shooting, etc. It's the only OSS lens out at launch so for video it's indispensable and none of the 'softness' of the corners comes out in those. I think the real problem isn't that it's bad, but that every other FE lens so far is so damn good it's bound to look bad by comparison.
I bought one for the A7R, and it was terrible. I returned it and found a dealer with another one. It's good. Much the same as the 18-55 on NEX 7 experience, the lens can vary.
Comments - it is not bad at the long end, actually it can be extremely sharp, but you must not stop it down (at the short OR long end) if you want optimum performance. It is a very unusual lens in that it's best corrected wide open, and gets less sharp if you use a sensible aperture like f/8 (the MTF charts clearly show this, and they are not wrong). I've found that half a stop to a stop down may offer a slight benefit, f8 to f11 are best avoided, f16 to f22 and beyond (it goes down to an insanely small aperture at 70mm) return to acceptable sharpness.
Also, enabling OSS tends to make either the left or the right half of the image blurred (the centre is OK). Turning OSS off, when you don't need it, removes this blurring.
Get a decent example, bear the above in mind, and it can be used with confidence.
David
Comments - it is not bad at the long end, actually it can be extremely sharp, but you must not stop it down (at the short OR long end) if you want optimum performance. It is a very unusual lens in that it's best corrected wide open, and gets less sharp if you use a sensible aperture like f/8 (the MTF charts clearly show this, and they are not wrong). I've found that half a stop to a stop down may offer a slight benefit, f8 to f11 are best avoided, f16 to f22 and beyond (it goes down to an insanely small aperture at 70mm) return to acceptable sharpness.
Also, enabling OSS tends to make either the left or the right half of the image blurred (the centre is OK). Turning OSS off, when you don't need it, removes this blurring.
Get a decent example, bear the above in mind, and it can be used with confidence.
David
martindesu
Senior Member
Thanks for all the replies.
I'll "try before I buy".
I'll "try before I buy".
viking79
Forum Pro
Is the A7 kit lens any good - it's not so expensive to buy it with the kit lens... but knowing me, I might never use it (only used my NEX-7 kit lens a handful of times)...
is it any good?
martindesu
Senior Member
Thanks for the detailed reply Eric.
I have the nFD 50/1.4, but if I go full frame and want something at 20mm, then maybe nFD isnt the best option (looking at your site).
For a zoom, the OSS is handy, so maybe I can get a good price on a bundle
--
Martin
http://www.martinirwinphotography.com
I have the nFD 50/1.4, but if I go full frame and want something at 20mm, then maybe nFD isnt the best option (looking at your site).
For a zoom, the OSS is handy, so maybe I can get a good price on a bundle
--
Martin
http://www.martinirwinphotography.com
Last edited:
harold1968
Senior Member
Is the A7 kit lens any good - it's not so expensive to buy it with the kit lens... but knowing me, I might never use it (only used my NEX-7 kit lens a handful of times)...
is it any good?
Red G8R
Senior Member
It will be my only lens on the A7 for now and it will be just right for my purposes.
Brian Caslis
Senior Member
This is one opinion. I think the kit lens is very good. It's smaller than the kit lens on APS-C DSLRs. How can it be "huge". The image quality is excellent if you stop down. It's probably better than almost all kit lenses out there, so it's pretty silly when someone says it's crap. You can see some examples on my Flickr stream.I just handled one with a sony a7. My question is what is the point? It's huge! Optics are crap compared to the sensor. Sony should have just released the a7 with the 35mm 2.8 as it's kit.Is the A7 kit lens any good - it's not so expensive to buy it with the kit lens... but knowing me, I might never use it (only used my NEX-7 kit lens a handful of times)...
is it any good?
--
Martin
http://www.martinirwinphotography.com
Brian Caslis
Senior Member
I've tested the kit lens based on comments from someone else about blurry edges. What I found was unexpected behavior at the wide end (28mm).I actually reviewed all the FE E mount lenses, haven't posted the 55mm yet. The 28-70mm is good for a kit lens (think f/8 to f/11 for full frame), but crap compared to the 55mm (mainly because that lens is so good at even large apertures).Is the A7 kit lens any good - it's not so expensive to buy it with the kit lens... but knowing me, I might never use it (only used my NEX-7 kit lens a handful of times)...
is it any good?
--
Martin
http://www.martinirwinphotography.com
It is a kit lens, good in the center all zooms, a little weak at the edges, but if you consider the fact of the larger sensor, you actually resolve a lot more detail than you would with say a NEX 7 and kit 18-55mm.
If you just want sharp images and don't care about AF, pick up some old Canon FDn lens or something.
The lens is definitely not up to A7r, like the NEX 7 vs NEX 6, the 18-55mm is limited by the 6, so using it on the 7 and you won't really take advantage of the extra MP. Notice at 70mm the 28-70mm is actually better than my ZEISS 24-70mm at the edges, but worse over the rest of the range.
Kit 28-70mm on A7: http://erphotoreview.com/wordpress/?p=3992
ZEISS 24-70mm f/2.8 on the A7: http://erphotoreview.com/wordpress/?p=4056
ZEISS 35mm f/2.8 on the A7: http://erphotoreview.com/wordpress/?p=4125
To recap: it is a kit lens, but a pretty decent one. It does seem to take photos at times with blurry edges for no apparent reason. Maybe OIS doing something weird or similar. I haven't cared enough to look into it, as overall it seems fine. I have seen bad copies floating around, mine appears to be a good copy. I think $300 is a fair price for it, but the primes will deliver far more consistent performance.
Eric
- At f3.5 - 4.5, the edges are sharper than at f8 - 11.
- At f8 - 11 with OSS on, the edges are more blurry
- at f3.5 - 4.5 the edges are about the same with OSS on or off
I'm not sure how typical your experience is. I find my kit lens extremely good around f8 (in fact I find this the best aperture to shoot it at), but soft in the corners wide open.
Last edited:
Similar threads
- Question
Keyboard shortcuts
- f
- Forum