N4865G
Leading Member
Well, I have had this lens for quite a while now, in fact it was my first 'kit' lens I bought along with Sony A7III - my first Sony full frame camera.
But, ever since expanding my lens collection by the magnificent 100-400GM, excellent 16-35GM and few Batis primes the good, old 24-105 got a bit neglected. At one stage I decided to run away from the 'mainstream' documentary focal length range and try to go to extremes not normally seen by our eyes - either the wide angle (hence 16-35) or my favourite telephoto. In fact, during the last several months the 100-400GM was a permanent resident on my A9 whenever I was travelling. After all, this lens can be so versatile, great for quasi-macro, close-up shots, fantastic for subject compression in the landscape genre, quite handy shooting people portraits, never mind it being my workhorse for outdoor sports photography.
When I was assigned to operate the flight to South Africa the COVID quarantine restrictions were very unclear. It seemed we would be stuck in our hotel rooms for 2 days. Hence I did not consider bringing along all my traditional armada of lenses, rather I thought, the 24-105 could be useful for taking a picture or two during the flight or at the hotel's garden.
Little did I expect, that my 24-105 will become my versatile photographic tool to document my sightseeing moments.
As we were free to go and explore the place I embarked on a full day tour of the favourite spots in the South Cape.
The 24-105 turned out to be a very reliable lens whether I wanted to capture the stunning landscape of the place, macro-zoom in on tiny, little insects populating local flora, or freeze the action of the local surfing community riding the waves of the frigid waters of the Atlantic Ocean. On the way back it proved to be equally reliable tool to capture my colleagues landing the plane back at our home airport.
As they say, the picture is worth a thousand words, so here are the few:
Very close minimum focusing distance allows for almost macro-like affect when shot at 105mm. This flower was very small.
She looks like a massive raptor, but in fact this little lizard was not more than 5cm long
Such a great place cannot be left without proper landscape vista shots
24-105 never hesitated acquiring focus on a distant surfer (yes, the A9 helped a lot, too)
At the culmination of the long day, the mandatory Camps Bay sunset picture was in order
The next day, this lens managed to capture stunning scenery from up above (through the thick, multilayer, heated cockpit glass - the worst filter of all)
Approaching home airport during the early hours of the morning, 24-105's incredible optical image stabilisation allowed for this picture to be shot handheld at 1/20th of a second.
As the trip came to the happy end I came to ever great appreciation of my original 'kit' lens. Is it perfect? No, I wish it had more reach (those surfer pictures were cropped a lot), it could have been faster at f2.8, but then again it would come at a cost.
The balance of portability of this lens with excellent rendering, amazing optical stabilisation and very useful focal length range makes this optics a very reliable companion.
Highly recommended!
--
www.dombuszek.com
But, ever since expanding my lens collection by the magnificent 100-400GM, excellent 16-35GM and few Batis primes the good, old 24-105 got a bit neglected. At one stage I decided to run away from the 'mainstream' documentary focal length range and try to go to extremes not normally seen by our eyes - either the wide angle (hence 16-35) or my favourite telephoto. In fact, during the last several months the 100-400GM was a permanent resident on my A9 whenever I was travelling. After all, this lens can be so versatile, great for quasi-macro, close-up shots, fantastic for subject compression in the landscape genre, quite handy shooting people portraits, never mind it being my workhorse for outdoor sports photography.
When I was assigned to operate the flight to South Africa the COVID quarantine restrictions were very unclear. It seemed we would be stuck in our hotel rooms for 2 days. Hence I did not consider bringing along all my traditional armada of lenses, rather I thought, the 24-105 could be useful for taking a picture or two during the flight or at the hotel's garden.
Little did I expect, that my 24-105 will become my versatile photographic tool to document my sightseeing moments.
As we were free to go and explore the place I embarked on a full day tour of the favourite spots in the South Cape.
The 24-105 turned out to be a very reliable lens whether I wanted to capture the stunning landscape of the place, macro-zoom in on tiny, little insects populating local flora, or freeze the action of the local surfing community riding the waves of the frigid waters of the Atlantic Ocean. On the way back it proved to be equally reliable tool to capture my colleagues landing the plane back at our home airport.
As they say, the picture is worth a thousand words, so here are the few:
Very close minimum focusing distance allows for almost macro-like affect when shot at 105mm. This flower was very small.
She looks like a massive raptor, but in fact this little lizard was not more than 5cm long
Such a great place cannot be left without proper landscape vista shots
24-105 never hesitated acquiring focus on a distant surfer (yes, the A9 helped a lot, too)
At the culmination of the long day, the mandatory Camps Bay sunset picture was in order
The next day, this lens managed to capture stunning scenery from up above (through the thick, multilayer, heated cockpit glass - the worst filter of all)
Approaching home airport during the early hours of the morning, 24-105's incredible optical image stabilisation allowed for this picture to be shot handheld at 1/20th of a second.
As the trip came to the happy end I came to ever great appreciation of my original 'kit' lens. Is it perfect? No, I wish it had more reach (those surfer pictures were cropped a lot), it could have been faster at f2.8, but then again it would come at a cost.
The balance of portability of this lens with excellent rendering, amazing optical stabilisation and very useful focal length range makes this optics a very reliable companion.
Highly recommended!
--
www.dombuszek.com
What aircaraft are you usually flying?? I am asking with a bit of envy as someone who always looked up to you guys since childhood.... 
