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Cannot afford Sony G and GM FE lenses? Cheap & Good Alternatives

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ttan98 said:
ttan98 wrote:
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ttan98 said:
my copy of 24-85mm is very compact , light, nice color rendering, sharp images and dirt cheap on Ebay, a general purpose travel lens what really not to like.

I strongly suspect it is far superior to the Sony std kit lens, 28-70mm(I don't own a copy).
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24-85 has been done by canon for 1.3x sensor size, it is not good at borders and corners, you have to close down apperture at f/8 or f/11 to get ok corners; it has another huge drawback, the focal length at telephoto varies with focus distance, at portrait distance it is more likely a 60mm lens and not a 85mm lens...
 
sportyaccordy said:
The 24-85 is not a good lens. Plus side is it works great with my Fotodiox- AFs like a modern USM/STM lens. But it is just garbage optically, particularly at 24 which is where I primarily use 24-xx lenses. It doesn't get better stopped down either. I haven't used it yet, but the 24-105 STM looks to be a much better alternative. It will generate photos you will actually want to keep.
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Good and (relatively) inexpensive:

Tokina Firin 20/2.0

Sony FE 85/1.8- great a/f

Samyang 135/2.0

Just happens to be the ones I own so have experience with them all.

Dave
 
Father Bouvier said:
sportyaccordy said:
The 24-85 is not a good lens. Plus side is it works great with my Fotodiox- AFs like a modern USM/STM lens. But it is just garbage optically, particularly at 24 which is where I primarily use 24-xx lenses. It doesn't get better stopped down either. I haven't used it yet, but the 24-105 STM looks to be a much better alternative. It will generate photos you will actually want to keep.
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Thank you.

And how accurate is focusing? In low light? Continuous?
 
Notthecase said:
  1. Notthecase wrote:
Thank you.

And how accurate is focusing? In low light? Continuous?
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Accurate yes. Low light is slow but should be fine for static subjects. I didn't test continuous properly but I tried it briefly and it didn't seem too good. Will try and make a video tmr since everyone had different ideas of what's good and whats not
 
Kudos for the thread. Those of us who started out with A7rii before the release of many new GM lenses learned to "make do" with alternatives.

So i still have the EF 85 f1.8 and it works very well. I often find myself cropping the 85mm images, so i bought a LN rated EF 100 f2 from KEH.com. And it looked new. Shoot it a lot these days. Has the same good AFc or AFs performance as the 85 and roughly the same size and a tiny bit heavier.

So my Canon mount list :

Canon 85 f1.8

Canon 100 f2

Sigma 15 Fisheye f2.8

I've gotten some interesting photos with the Sigma fisheye and probably don't use it enough. One can, while using LR, use their distortion slider to remove all Fisheye effect from the photos, or anywhere in between. Only the center AF points work with the Sigma 15, i think because of some effect with the fisheye nature of the lens. Recommended.
 
Philnw2 said:
Kudos for the thread. Those of us who started out with A7rii before the release of many new GM lenses learned to "make do" with alternatives.

So i still have the EF 85 f1.8 and it works very well. I often find myself cropping the 85mm images, so i bought a LN rated EF 100 f2 from KEH.com. And it looked new. Shoot it a lot these days. Has the same good AFc or AFs performance as the 85 and roughly the same size and a tiny bit heavier.
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What type of image do you shoot with on the 85mm for further cropping? I thought 85mm is sufficient for shooting portraits...
Philnw2 said:
So my Canon mount list :

Canon 85 f1.8

Canon 100 f2

Sigma 15 Fisheye f2.8

I've gotten some interesting photos with the Sigma fisheye and probably don't use it enough. One can, while using LR, use their distortion slider to remove all Fisheye effect from the photos, or anywhere in between. Only the center AF points work with the Sigma 15, i think because of some effect with the fisheye nature of the lens. Recommended.

--
Phil B
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ttan98 said:
Canon EF range(FF)
==============
24-85mm f3.5-4.5 - $150, general purpose lens, very sharp and good color renditions lens
20-35mm f3.5-4.5 - $150, general purpose wide angle lens
35mm f2.0 USM - $250-$300, motor is a little noisy
40mm f2.8 STM - $150
50mm f2.8 STM - $120
85mm f1.8 USM - $300-$350, still very good for portraits

Canon EF-S range(APSC)
================
24mm f2.8 STM - $200
15-85mm f3.5-4.5 - $250 general purpose travel lens good quality, a little heavy

Sigma EF-S range(APSC)
================
17-50mm f2.8 - $250 capable of giving VERY sharp images
17-70mm f2.8-3.5,- $250 general purpose lens, good quality

My expectations are, in the next few years there will be more 3rd party lenses from Tamron and Sigma in FE mount that will give us high quality images that are comparable to those from G and GM range at a far better prices e.g Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 G2 and 15-30mm f2.8. In the meantime I am using those above.

Hope you find my exposition here helpful.
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Great thread, ttan98! I have an Sony A7 (original) that I used adapted lenses with, but the contrast detection AF is miserably slow with my Canon Metabones IV T, and Sigma MC-11.. so slow, that I am going to upgrade to either the A7RII or A7III (not to mention being able to use the IBIS features of either camera body on my legacy glass).

Curious about how you feel about adapting EF-S lenses on the FF... given the vignetting and distortion. I have largely stayed away from doing that (although I do own some EF-S glass, from older Canon APS-C bodies that have come and gone). What has been your experience with the Sigma APS-C line?

One other question I have, is how really good the AF is with the LA-EA4 adapter, and Minolta AF lenses (on bodies like the A7II, A7RII, and if anyone has experience with the A7RIII and A9)? In particular, bodies with Eye AF... does that work at all with this adapter?
 
1 lens to go for is the Tamron 24-70 2.8 G1. It's pretty much on par with the GM for 1/4 the price and it works brilliantly with the cheapo $100 Fotodiox adapter on gen II PDAF bodies. ~$650 for a 2.8 zoom is pretty effing good.
 
sportyaccordy said:
1 lens to go for is the Tamron 24-70 2.8 G1. It's pretty much on par with the GM for 1/4 the price and it works brilliantly with the cheapo $100 Fotodiox adapter on gen II PDAF bodies. ~$650 for a 2.8 zoom is pretty effing good.
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sportyaccordy said:
1 lens to go for is the Tamron 24-70 2.8 G1. It's pretty much on par with the GM for 1/4 the price and it works brilliantly with the cheapo $100 Fotodiox adapter on gen II PDAF bodies. ~$650 for a 2.8 zoom is pretty effing good.
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Yea 28mm on the wide end is a deal breaker for me. I'd rather have a 24-70/4, I have primes for the fast stuff.
 
txsizzler said:
ttan98 said:
Canon EF range(FF)
==============
24-85mm f3.5-4.5 - $150, general purpose lens, very sharp and good color renditions lens
20-35mm f3.5-4.5 - $150, general purpose wide angle lens
35mm f2.0 USM - $250-$300, motor is a little noisy
40mm f2.8 STM - $150
50mm f2.8 STM - $120
85mm f1.8 USM - $300-$350, still very good for portraits

Canon EF-S range(APSC)
================
24mm f2.8 STM - $200
15-85mm f3.5-4.5 - $250 general purpose travel lens good quality, a little heavy

Sigma EF-S range(APSC)
================
17-50mm f2.8 - $250 capable of giving VERY sharp images
17-70mm f2.8-3.5,- $250 general purpose lens, good quality

My expectations are, in the next few years there will be more 3rd party lenses from Tamron and Sigma in FE mount that will give us high quality images that are comparable to those from G and GM range at a far better prices e.g Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 G2 and 15-30mm f2.8. In the meantime I am using those above.

Hope you find my exposition here helpful.
Click to expand...
Great thread, ttan98! I have an Sony A7 (original) that I used adapted lenses with, but the contrast detection AF is miserably slow with my Canon Metabones IV T, and Sigma MC-11.. so slow, that I am going to upgrade to either the A7RII or A7III (not to mention being able to use the IBIS features of either camera body on my legacy glass).

Curious about how you feel about adapting EF-S lenses on the FF... given the vignetting and distortion. I have largely stayed away from doing that (although I do own some EF-S glass, from older Canon APS-C bodies that have come and gone). What has been your experience with the Sigma APS-C line?
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I own a number of EF-S lenses and 2 of them are only worth mentioning, Sigma 17-70mm and 17-50mm f2.8.

The latter lens is an excellent lens my copy anyway, I can get very sharp images in crop mode(and vignetting in FF mode like you say) on my A7RII using MCII and Techart II. This lens will give you sharp images even at f2.8. Focus is accurate and sharp. Color rendering is good as well.

The former is similar and even more, I can get eye focus as well whereas I cannot get from the 17-50mm. This is the lens(Art model) that is listed in the Sigma website where MC11 will work well. If you don't have a good APSC zoom lens eg Sony 18-55mm or 16-50mm then this lens is for you.
txsizzler said:
One other question I have, is how really good the AF is with the LA-EA4 adapter, and Minolta AF lenses (on bodies like the A7II, A7RII, and if anyone has experience with the A7RIII and A9)? In particular, bodies with Eye AF... does that work at all with this adapter?
Click to expand...
No experience in this area because I don't own the LA-EA4 adapter.
 
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