W3PYF
Leading Member
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I see a continuing range of questions here, people wondering which of several $1000-$2000 lenses they should buy.
I’d like to propose something may have slipped off the forum since the availability of so many FE lenses: There are a lot of quality old lenses from the film era that can be adapted for use on the latest A7 series cameras.
Example: a Canon FDn 200mm f4 lens I purchased for $64 on eBay.
Now, I tend to shoot it on a TechArt Pro autofocus adapter. But the reality is, on an A7 series with IBIS, a $15 dumb adapter works just as well.
Now, is it better than a $2000 GM lens? Unlikely. Is it good enough for you? Let the images answer that.
All of the zoo images were shot through plexiglas at the Stone Zoo in MA:
Now, some from a recent trip to Croatia:
And two from St Mark’s Square in Venice:
Is the $64 solution good enough for you? Perhaps, perhaps not. But I traveled for almost a month in Italy and Croatia, and rarely found an occasion to want a 200mm lens. Spending $2000 or more for a GM would not have increased the likelihood I’d feel the need for a 200mm lens.
PS: ignore the EXIF indication of lens focal length. The TechArt Pro doesn’t really need the EXIF programming to work well at all focal lengths, and it has a bug that reports all lenses as a Sony DT lens. I assigned C3 on my A7III to pick the IBIS setting I want, and that’s all. I shot only a 15mm Voigtlander and the Canon 200mm on the TechArt - and I can tell the which images were shot with which lenses without the EXIF!
I’d like to propose something may have slipped off the forum since the availability of so many FE lenses: There are a lot of quality old lenses from the film era that can be adapted for use on the latest A7 series cameras.
Example: a Canon FDn 200mm f4 lens I purchased for $64 on eBay.
Now, I tend to shoot it on a TechArt Pro autofocus adapter. But the reality is, on an A7 series with IBIS, a $15 dumb adapter works just as well.
Now, is it better than a $2000 GM lens? Unlikely. Is it good enough for you? Let the images answer that.
All of the zoo images were shot through plexiglas at the Stone Zoo in MA:
Now, some from a recent trip to Croatia:
And two from St Mark’s Square in Venice:
Is the $64 solution good enough for you? Perhaps, perhaps not. But I traveled for almost a month in Italy and Croatia, and rarely found an occasion to want a 200mm lens. Spending $2000 or more for a GM would not have increased the likelihood I’d feel the need for a 200mm lens.
PS: ignore the EXIF indication of lens focal length. The TechArt Pro doesn’t really need the EXIF programming to work well at all focal lengths, and it has a bug that reports all lenses as a Sony DT lens. I assigned C3 on my A7III to pick the IBIS setting I want, and that’s all. I shot only a 15mm Voigtlander and the Canon 200mm on the TechArt - and I can tell the which images were shot with which lenses without the EXIF!
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![Shot in 1960 with a Leica IIIa, 135mm pre-WWII Hektor [EXIF shows the D70/Nikon Micro-Nikkor of my copy stand]](https://www.dpreview.com/forums/data/attachments/1829/1829038-5643c7ceed86111182181165ac660fa2.jpg?hash=J9lUctt13k "Shot in 1960 with a Leica IIIa, 135mm pre-WWII Hektor [EXIF shows the D70/Nikon Micro-Nikkor of my copy stand]")
