Received my Tamron 17-70mm today...

scottyinfrisco wrote:

I don't know if this helps, but I went from m4/3 to FF, shooting Sony and Fuji simultaneously right now. I miss the m4/3 lens size and love the FF low light.

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you - I didn't pick up on this reply being directed to my comments ... so yes, it helps and I suspect I'd be in the same boat. I imagine I'd love pixel peeping good FF images, but eventually realize that any gain does me no practical good

FF lenses are all big.

I've been keeping my eye on what's out there ... they're making strides and if there are a handful of interesting lenses now, who knows what might be available in a couple more years (and I'm not about to switch systems completely just yet). My LR catalog has 28K photos (culled recently from 90K!) but I've identified about 1,000 of those as my "best" and when I look at exif info on those, 80% are shot from 24-120 equivalent. That bumps up to around 97% if I go to 300mm on APS-C so I'd need at least 400mm on FF. The big question is whether I'm going to continue to do "opportunistic" photography like I've been doing for the last 20 years, carrying my gear when I'm doing other things ... or whether I'm going to dedicate time specifically to photography (like I used to do before some life changes) as I approach retirement in a few years. That's probably the biggest factor in whether I want small & light or something more moderate.

I just have to stick to "research" and keep GAS from turning that into buying for several years.

I'm by no means a pro, so APS-C to me is the right compromise for me.

It is for me, too, but I'm finding APS-C mirrorless to be kind of awkward in terms of offerings - mostly because Fuji's 16-80 isn't all that great (and Sony's 16-70 isn't very good, either) so I end up looking at things like this 17-70 (when I don't need the speed)  and then wondering why not just go FF for a 24-120 rather than pay $800 for an almost-as-big third party lens that sacrifices the WA end ?

Too many choices - all great, but none perfect. I think it was easier 20-40 years ago when everyone offered similar lineups (and there was no internet forums to point out all the little ways in which A>B>C>A

- Dennis
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Gallery at http://kingofthebeasts.smugmug.com