There is another 28/2 that's a fun lens: the 28-70 f/2 GM.
OK, it's a tad heavier than the prime 28/2, and a teeny bit more expensive (I admit to a slight exaggeration...). It probably qualifies as "less discreet" than the 28/2 prime, too.
But it's ridiculously sharp and a beautiful lens for shooting people.
LOL - Yes that's a much bigger and much more expensive option. I don't think that fits the brief. But hey - it is a 28mm F2 and it IS quite lovely by all accounts. I have never even seen one in person but that will change someday I'm sure.
28mm is tough. This review of the Viltrox 28mm f1.8 in the conclusion section lists a few alternatives - and the list is slim:
https://phillipreeve.net/blog/review-viltrox-fe-28mm-1-8-af/#Conclusion
Of these I own the FE 28/2 only and based on the conclusion and the comparisons to the other options I think it suits me fine. Honestly when I shoot this focal length and need a bit more capability I like my Pentax SMC FA 31/1.8 better. But using the FA 31 on the Monster Adapter is not like shooting the FE 28 natively. The focus is fairly quick and accurate - unless it is acting up. The SMC FA 31/1.8 also has some fringing in some lighting scenarios but overall rendering is very nice. It's also crazy sharp at least in the center and pretty sharp all over. It does make me frustrated that a better 28mm isn't really available on the full frame E mount platform.
Voigtländer has announced a 28mm f2. I don’t know if/when it will be available for E mount, but it could be an interesting lens if you don’t mind manual focus.
Cool! In fact I bought the A7C to go with primes only (and the 28-60) and also to experiment with MF primes. The only thing I am not sure about is to do it via Leica M adapter, or native FE. Any opinion on that? How much would it matter for IQ, considering sensor stack?
The differences in sensor stack do matter, specially with wides, and Voigtlander is one of the few manufacturers that tends to adjust their M mount lenses for the E mount sensor filter stack (most of the time, but not all of the time).
https://phillipreeve.net/blog/diffe...mean-for-us-sony-e-nikon-z-leica-m-kolari-ut/
I'm curious to see how much of that they did with the 28/1.5 Nokton that they recently released, though I'd be more interested in a 28/2 Ultron or APO-Lanthar (better corrected at the cost of speed) and it seems that may finally be on the way... A 28/2 would be a sweet alternative to my Voigtlander 21/3.5 in my most minimalist kit (basically pairing either w/a 50mm), and it might be the only other MF lens I'd consider buying at this point.
The old Sony 28/2 is fine if you're shooting a lower res body or don't intend to crop much on a high res one, specially if you intend to stop it down a bit.
My sister has been shooting one for years on an A7R III and I like the shots, I just wasn't fully convinced by the output at f2... But there's not a lot of other options. There's the Viltrox 28/4.5 body cap, the manual Laowa Argus 28/1.2 (slightly tempting), and there used to be a decent version of the manual 7Artisan 28/1.4 that was adjusted for E mount despite being sold in M mount, but it seems to have disappeared from the market unfortunately.
