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Which to sell/keep - 35mm, 55mm, 85mm, 24-70mm?

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KaiWisLife

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Hi all,

Pretty new to photography but a friend sold me his camera and entire lens collection (listed below). I've just bought a 24-70mm 2.8 G Master, so I'm wondering if I need any of the other lenses, and what anyone recommends I sell/keep:

35mm Zeiss 2.8

55mm Zeiss 1.8

85mm Sony FE 1.8 (the one just released)

24-70mm G Master 2.8

I'm looking for an all-round lense selection - bit of holiday use, bit of city photography, bit of wildlife, bit of portraiture, so I'm thinking keep the 85mm for portraits, 55mm for high quality 'walk about' snaps, the 24-70 as a versatile holiday lens, and sell the 35mm as its surely made redundant by the 24-70 which has the exact same aperture?

Any thoughts would be enormously appreciated.
 
KaiWisLife said:
Hi all,

Pretty new to photography but a friend sold me his camera and entire lens collection (listed below). I've just bought a 24-70mm 2.8 G Master, so I'm wondering if I need any of the other lenses, and what anyone recommends I sell/keep:

35mm Zeiss 2.8

55mm Zeiss 1.8

85mm Sony FE 1.8 (the one just released)

24-70mm G Master 2.8

I'm looking for an all-round lense selection - bit of holiday use, bit of city photography, bit of wildlife, bit of portraiture, so I'm thinking keep the 85mm for portraits, 55mm for high quality 'walk about' snaps, the 24-70 as a versatile holiday lens, and sell the 35mm as its surely made redundant by the 24-70 which has the exact same aperture?

Any thoughts would be enormously appreciated.
Click to expand...
What camera do you have? It would appear that you have a full-frame Sony but it would be better to specify.

Anyway, there are times when you don't want the bulk of a 24-70 so you may want to use the 35mm prime. I personally would keep it; sometimes it's nice to shoot with a Zeiss prime.
 
you are right you probably don't need the 35 mm, but give yourself some time to see if that lens does not work for you.

you also have a 3 prime set up which I like if I shoot primes.
 
Leonard Migliore said:
KaiWisLife said:
Hi all,

Pretty new to photography but a friend sold me his camera and entire lens collection (listed below). I've just bought a 24-70mm 2.8 G Master, so I'm wondering if I need any of the other lenses, and what anyone recommends I sell/keep:

35mm Zeiss 2.8

55mm Zeiss 1.8

85mm Sony FE 1.8 (the one just released)

24-70mm G Master 2.8

I'm looking for an all-round lense selection - bit of holiday use, bit of city photography, bit of wildlife, bit of portraiture, so I'm thinking keep the 85mm for portraits, 55mm for high quality 'walk about' snaps, the 24-70 as a versatile holiday lens, and sell the 35mm as its surely made redundant by the 24-70 which has the exact same aperture?

Any thoughts would be enormously appreciated.
Click to expand...
What camera do you have? It would appear that you have a full-frame Sony but it would be better to specify.

Anyway, there are times when you don't want the bulk of a 24-70 so you may want to use the 35mm prime. I personally would keep it; sometimes it's nice to shoot with a Zeiss prime.

--
Leonard Migliore
Click to expand...
Thanks for quick reply. So the zeiss prime 2.8 35mm and the Gmaster 2.8 set to 35mm won't take the exact same shot (or similar?)

I'm beginning to see that it's perhaps more of a personal preference question to answer than a clear cut 'this is the one you don't need'
 
Don't ask me-- I would keep the primes and sell the zoom, or rather I would never have bought the zoom in the first place. I don't know much about the individual lenses themselves and whether they're the ones I would choose any each focal length, but that's the "trinity" I would want to have for FF.
 
KaiWisLife said:
KaiWisLife said:
What camera do you have? It would appear that you have a full-frame Sony but it would be better to specify.

Anyway, there are times when you don't want the bulk of a 24-70 so you may want to use the 35mm prime. I personally would keep it; sometimes it's nice to shoot with a Zeiss prime.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
KaiWisLife said:
So the Zeiss prime 2.8 35mm and the Gmaster 2.8 set to 35mm won't take the exact same shot (or similar?)
Click to expand...
Similar is the word. All lenses have their own character (which includes some amount of distortion and aberrations).
KaiWisLife said:
I'm beginning to see that it's perhaps more of a personal preference question to answer than a clear cut 'this is the one you don't need'
Click to expand...
Indeed. I'm with yardcoyote - I wouldn't want the zoom. But as you have all the lenses it makes sense to use all of them over the next few months and find your own preferences rather than rely on ours.
 
Keep the 24-70, it just makes photography fun and easy, as long as you don't mind carrying $2500 of camera kit around with you.

The 85mm is very useful to have if you should want to do portraits. BUT I'd be tempted to sell it and get a Sigma 135/1.8 or a manual focus Samyang for that actually.

I wouldn't bother with the 35mm unless you've basically changed your mind and want a relatively compact kit.

Personally I don't think 50mm type primes are worth the trouble unless I have one on a secondary body on hand. I have them because they're fast and quite cheap. But I find the situations I need to use them in rather limited- not quite wide enough for group shots and not quite long enough for portraits.

Above all I would be quite keen to sell off as much overpriced Zeiss as possible and put the money into other brand alternatives and look for an ultrawide zoom. I think it's too easy to get trapped into being a camera snob and would advise something that's fun, like an 11-16 or 10-20. I don't think there's much point getting into expensive long zooms on mirrorless systems, they soon reveal their inadequacy under indoor lighting.
 
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