Hate my A7, love this lens

[villagranvicent]

This is the most underrated kit lens in history. Just check the DX0 charts and see for yourself. It is sharper -by a large margin- than the much more expensive Zeiss f4 zoom at all apertures and all focal distances:

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www.dpreview.com

Its is relative compact, light, with OSS. You can easily live with this as a one-lens kit with your A7. As my title says, I dislike my A7, but the money I could get for the body and lens, won't be enough for a Canon 24-70mm f4 without a body.

This is a must for any E-mount camera. Highly recommended!

 

[BBQue]

Interesting - so many reviews I have seen that love their A7 but are unhappy with the quality of the kit zoom. Have you tried a good prime? Or some legacy MF glass?

 

[villagranvicent]

Interesting - so many reviews I have seen that love their A7 but are unhappy with the quality of the kit zoom. Have you tried a good prime? Or some legacy MF glass?

Yes, I have had and tried many cameras and many lenses from different systems, at the moment I have a couple of Canon lenses, the 40mm pancake and 50mm 1.4, and a Zeiss ZM 35mm f2 which from time to time my Leica M8 borrows it to the A7, and the kit is very good.

I haven't read anything negative about this zoom lens yet, however the Sony APS kit zoom (I also have that one with another camera, it is really a poor performer.

 

[cxsparc]

Interesting - so many reviews I have seen that love their A7 but are unhappy with the quality of the kit zoom. Have you tried a good prime? Or some legacy MF glass?

....

I haven't read anything negative about this zoom lens yet, however the Sony APS kit zoom (I also have that one with another camera, it is really a poor performer.

Well, then you haven't looked earnestly enough

During my time with the A7, I had two 2870s and both had the issue that side image quality was very good wide open from 28-35 mm but actually went seriously downhill when stopping down. I made several test series to verify this odd behaviour, saw confirmation by others in the web, too. This seems to have been the case with not all copies, but I was too frustrated to continue after the 2nd did exhibit this behavior.

In the end, I found some, but little better IQ comparing to the 16 Mpx 5N and the 1855. Getting the A6000 and 1650 showed at least as much jump in IQ, so comparing bot would be even less of an improvement for this FF combo.

Also, haptically the plastic-rubber combo makes this lens just about the least appealing in the whole Sony range , though of course this doesn't have an impact on IQ, only in the eye of the beholder ;-)

 

[fredflintstone]

This is the most underrated kit lens in history. Just check the DX0 charts and see for yourself. It is sharper -by a large margin- than the much more expensive Zeiss f4 zoom at all apertures and all focal distances:

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/le...ss&cameraId2=sony_a7r&version2=0&fl2=35&av2=4

Its is relative compact, light, with OSS. You can easily live with this as a one-lens kit with your A7. As my title says, I dislike my A7, but the money I could get for the body and lens, won't be enough for a Canon 24-70mm f4 without a body.

This is a must for any E-mount camera. Highly recommended!

As the link you gave above shows, it is very sharp in the center. But by the time you get to the 2/3 distance, it is very lousy. If you go to dxomark.com and look at the sharpness profiles, you see that it suffers from a large amount of astigmatism in this region. And above 50mm, the center is not that sharp any more either. On top of that, it is very slow, only f/5.6 out there. The good things about it are the light weight and the internal zoom, so the length does not grow. But perhaps that is part of the reason for it's compromised optical qualities.

 

[Mike99999]

It is sharper -by a large margin- than the much more expensive Zeiss f4 zoom at all apertures and all focal distances:

False.

 

[SQLGuy]

This is the most underrated kit lens in history. Just check the DX0 charts and see for yourself. It is sharper -by a large margin- than the much more expensive Zeiss f4 zoom at all apertures and all focal distances:

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/le...ss&cameraId2=sony_a7r&version2=0&fl2=35&av2=4

Its is relative compact, light, with OSS. You can easily live with this as a one-lens kit with your A7. As my title says, I dislike my A7, but the money I could get for the body and lens, won't be enough for a Canon 24-70mm f4 without a body.

This is a must for any E-mount camera. Highly recommended!

As the link you gave above shows, it is very sharp in the center. But by the time you get to the 2/3 distance, it is very lousy. If you go to dxomark.com and look at the sharpness profiles, you see that it suffers from a large amount of astigmatism in this region. And above 50mm, the center is not that sharp any more either. On top of that, it is very slow, only f/5.6 out there. The good things about it are the light weight and the internal zoom, so the length does not grow. But perhaps that is part of the reason for it's compromised optical qualities.

 

[tonyreidsma]

When I read that statement I discredited everything else said...

 

[berni29]

Hi

Why do you hate the A7? Hate is a very strong word, and the A7 seems like a very good camera to me.

 

[osv]

This is the most underrated kit lens in history...

You can easily live with this as a one-lens kit with your A7. As my title says, I dislike my A7...

This is a must for any E-mount camera. Highly recommended!

disagree with all of that, but if you are happy, that's all that matters.

--
dan

 

[alan simpson]

Used my 28-70 for the first week that I had the A7, not used it since, over two years ago. Even forgot that I had it, think it is time to sell, anyone looking to buy one?

al

 

[osv]

there are a couple of fe28-70 lenses in the local craigslist, the one that's listed for $250 has been there for weeks... the other one just popped up, it's listed for only $200, the guy claims that it's brand new, part of the a7 kit.

--
dan

 

[fredflintstone]

This is the most underrated kit lens in history. Just check the DX0 charts and see for yourself. It is sharper -by a large margin- than the much more expensive Zeiss f4 zoom at all apertures and all focal distances:

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/le...ss&cameraId2=sony_a7r&version2=0&fl2=35&av2=4

Its is relative compact, light, with OSS. You can easily live with this as a one-lens kit with your A7. As my title says, I dislike my A7, but the money I could get for the body and lens, won't be enough for a Canon 24-70mm f4 without a body.

This is a must for any E-mount camera. Highly recommended!

As the link you gave above shows, it is very sharp in the center. But by the time you get to the 2/3 distance, it is very lousy. If you go to dxomark.com and look at the sharpness profiles, you see that it suffers from a large amount of astigmatism in this region. And above 50mm, the center is not that sharp any more either. On top of that, it is very slow, only f/5.6 out there. The good things about it are the light weight and the internal zoom, so the length does not grow. But perhaps that is part of the reason for it's compromised optical qualities.

 

[SQLGuy]

Used my 28-70 for the first week that I had the A7, not used it since, over two years ago. Even forgot that I had it, think it is time to sell, anyone looking to buy one?

al

 

[aspalmat]

This is the most underrated kit lens in history. Just check the DX0 charts and see for yourself. It is sharper -by a large margin- than the much more expensive Zeiss f4 zoom at all apertures and all focal distances:

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/le...ss&cameraId2=sony_a7r&version2=0&fl2=35&av2=4

Its is relative compact, light, with OSS. You can easily live with this as a one-lens kit with your A7. As my title says, I dislike my A7, but the money I could get for the body and lens, won't be enough for a Canon 24-70mm f4 without a body.

This is a must for any E-mount camera. Highly recommended!

After doing my own testing, side by side with these 2 lenses, I can say the Zeiss was noticeably sharper. Center sharpness was close, with the Zeiss being slightly better. Where it was noticeable better is in the corners as stated earlier in this thread. The Zeiss 24-70 sharpened up in the corners when stopped down, and the kit lens really didn't. Except for at 24mm on the Zeiss, where it is a known weak performer. On the other hand, the 28-70 performed even worse at 24. ;-)

With that being said, the kit lens is respectable , and as a lightweight travel lens, it is fine. But to say based on the link provided, that it is a better lens than the Zeiss, simply is not true. This is the fallacy of relying on test charts and lab tests, and not going out and shooting the lenses for yourself. When I actually went out, and compared pictures with the two, the Zeiss was clearly the sharper of the two, and it was not really close.

 

[villagranvicent]

It is sharper -by a large margin- than the much more expensive Zeiss f4 zoom at all apertures and all focal distances:

False.

Have you seen the DXO charts?

 

[SQLGuy]

It is sharper -by a large margin- than the much more expensive Zeiss f4 zoom at all apertures and all focal distances:

False.

Have you seen the DXO charts?

Yes. Here they are. This is what you pay for with the Zeiss: https://www.dxomark.com/Lenses/Comp...F4-ZA-OSS-on-Sony-A7R-II__1244_1035_1253_1035

Click on Measurements, Sharpness, Field Map

 

[ttan98]

This is the most underrated kit lens in history. Just check the DX0 charts and see for yourself. It is sharper -by a large margin- than the much more expensive Zeiss f4 zoom at all apertures and all focal distances:

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/le...ss&cameraId2=sony_a7r&version2=0&fl2=35&av2=4

Its is relative compact, light, with OSS. You can easily live with this as a one-lens kit with your A7. As my title says, I dislike my A7, but the money I could get for the body and lens, won't be enough for a Canon 24-70mm f4 without a body.

This is a must for any E-mount camera. Highly recommended!

you own a good copy and past owners had given it a bad review.

Sony may have tighten up their QC for this lens and quality may have improved since then.

 

[Limburger]

I wasn't aware I had such a great lens and such a crappy camera.

Lemme try write something more nuanced...

The A7 is a great walkaround camera given its features, big sensor and small footprint, in particular with small primes like Voigtlanders I like this system. Given its price tag makes it great value.

The 28-70 is a good (3/5) but not great (5/5) walkaround zoom but for me lacks at the wide end. In a museum 28 is ofter too long for me, if it were 24-70 it would become a 4/5 for me.

You can take a decent picture with it but there are also subjects that make this lens only so so.

Got my lens and camera for €999 new last year, body was just as expensive as body & kit. Why I dunno.

This though does indicate this is no future classic but dare say good value. For video the OSS alone makes this good value for some casual amateur recording.

Think this discribes the camera and lens a bit better for what they are.

It doesn't get much use since now I got two Voigtlanders (35 1.4 & 50 1.5) but still own it since it is good enough for walkaround/citytrips.

All pics 28-70 except when stated.












Voigtlander 50 1.5

--
Cheers Mike

 

[stevo23]

This is the most underrated kit lens in history. Just check the DX0 charts and see for yourself. It is sharper -by a large margin- than the much more expensive Zeiss f4 zoom at all apertures and all focal distances:

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/le...ss&cameraId2=sony_a7r&version2=0&fl2=35&av2=4

Its is relative compact, light, with OSS. You can easily live with this as a one-lens kit with your A7. As my title says, I dislike my A7, but the money I could get for the body and lens, won't be enough for a Canon 24-70mm f4 without a body.

This is a must for any E-mount camera. Highly recommended!

It's not underrated - everywhere you turn, someone is singing it's praises. I have no idea why as it produced terrible results for me. I sold it pretty fast.

In reality, the Zony does a much better job of putting together all those things that seem to matter when creating a decent image. The Sony does not seem to have that.

DxO gets it right and scores the Zony higher.