Poll: Will you buy one of the new Sony FE lenses?

[SAF Admin]

The new Sony FE lenses are already available for preorder!

 

Are you interested in buying one of them?

Cast your vote above and comment below!

 

Andreas

[addicted2light]

I initially looked forward to the 35, but then they made it big as a Coke 2l bottle and priced like a Ferrari, so thanks but no thanks.

 

The 28, on the other hand, if it should perform reasonably well could definitely be on my radar. But no converters for me, at least not based on the first impressions I've read online (it looks like the image quality with the converters is quite poor, for now).

[Vivek]

I will be buying the 28/2 from Sony (it has a 30 days return previlege) to try it out.  I am very sceptical because of the converters that remind me of the crappy NEX 16/2.8.  The others, I am not interested.  Sony can stuff their oversized socks with them.  Too big, too heavy and too pricey.

[Cojo]

I'll make up my mind once I actually try the 35 and the 90.

[gatormac2112]

It humors me how hard people are to please sometimes. Im not a Sony fanboy and even think they need to get their act together regarding some things (11+7 RAW anyone?), but the amount of complaining about lens size and weight just kills me. Is the 35mm f1.4 big and fat? Yes. Is that the only 35mm available for the FE mount? No. You have a choice. If you want the sharpest/fastest glass you are going to be hit with a size and price penalty. If you dont need that then you can "step down" to the 35mm f2.8 which is very sharp and plenty fast at half the price, not to mention its small and fits the A7 line perfect. Or you can go with the 35mm f2 Loxia, again: sharp, small, fast without the autofocus....gives you that rangefinder experience.

 

That is just taking 35mm into account. They have winners in the 55mm f1.8 and 50mm f2 Loxias. Hopefully this 28mm f2 is a winner....and its small and relatively cheap. The 90 macro honestly isnt that big or expensive for this type of lens. The 24-240 is ridiculous both in size and utility, but hey, someone must want one lol. That is the only potential dud out of these lenses imo. 

 

My take on it is that they are putting out a varied lens lineup OVER TIME that will please most everybody. It takes time. The FE system is only 2 years old.

[bwana]

It humors me how hard people are to please sometimes. Im not a Sony fanboy and even think they need to get their act together regarding some things (11+7 RAW anyone?), but the amount of complaining about lens size and weight just kills me. Is the 35mm f1.4 big and fat? Yes. Is that the only 35mm available for the FE mount? No. You have a choice. If you want the sharpest/fastest glass you are going to be hit with a size and price penalty. If you dont need that then you can "step down" to the 35mm f2.8 which is very sharp and plenty fast at half the price, not to mention its small and fits the A7 line perfect. Or you can go with the 35mm f2 Loxia, again: sharp, small, fast without the autofocus....gives you that rangefinder experience.

 

That is just taking 35mm into account. They have winners in the 55mm f1.8 and 50mm f2 Loxias. Hopefully this 28mm f2 is a winner....and its small and relatively cheap. The 90 macro honestly isnt that big or expensive for this type of lens. The 24-240 is ridiculous both in size and utility, but hey, someone must want one lol. That is the only potential dud out of these lenses imo. 

 

My take on it is that they are putting out a varied lens lineup OVER TIME that will please most everybody. It takes time. The FE system is only 2 years old.

Interesting...  the only lens I would buy out of the whole lineup IS the 24-240 zoom; perfect match for the A7 II!

 

bwa

[gatormac2112]

Interesting...  the only lens I would buy out of the whole lineup IS the 24-240 zoom; perfect match for the A7 II!

 

bwa

 

I guess im just a prime guy at heart, nor do I like slower variable apertures. It could be a great lens though, I'll wait and see!

[Vivek]

 

My take on it is that they are putting out a varied lens lineup OVER TIME that will please most everybody. It takes time. The FE system is only 2 years old.

 

Yes, it only took ~ 2 years for them to make a camera with a decent mount without plastic.  May be in ~ 2 years time we can see a really usable variety and not junk.

 

Given that, lenses will take may be about 5 -7 years to get some maturity.

 

Flash and others- not even in the radar.

 

BTW, has anyone seen the lenses with their hoods?

[bwana]

 

I guess im just a prime guy at heart, nor do I like slower variable apertures. It could be a great lens though, I'll wait and see!

I have lots of prime lenses; 6.5mm through 300mm, most of them manual.  But I do like zoom lenses for outings where I don't have options for movement.

 

bwa

[Robert Crawford]

I like fast primes.  I'll order the 35/1.4 if it tests well on Lens Score and DXMark.

[Jan Anne]

Voted for the 35/1.4 FE, I'm a big sucker for fast lenses and my main two lens setup is fast 35mm in combination with an ultra wide lens (14 or 15mm).

 

When I first saw the 35/1.4 FE last september at the Photokina I was in awe about it's size as it is bigger than the already big Nikkor 35/1.4G I used on the D800E. After the initial shock the size started to intrigue me however thinking Zeiss was going the OTUS route with this lens; uncompromising optical performance at the cost of size and weight.

 

My current main lens is the Voigtlander 35/1.2 II (already a monster in Leica M terms), though I really like its unique character and ultra fast speed I would like my main lens to be an autofocus lens. So when the wide-open performance of the 35/1.4 FE is on par and preferably a bit better (and I think it will be by a mile or two) I think I can't contain myself to buy the new lens. Its a bit bigger than I would have liked but the big size isn't a problem for a working lens as I already have the Zeiss 35/2.8 for when I need to go lightweight (like hiking).

 

Pictures of the new lenses are now plentiful but here's the image I took of the lens lineup at the Photokina:

[addicted2light]

Nope, I take it back: I will not buy the 28, at least if the rendering is the same as the one showed in the first images.

 

Sharpness aside (the previews are to small to judge that) I'm really not liking the "signature" of the lens. If you buy a fast prime is to use it most of the time at that large apertures, otherwise why bother. So it should be designed, IMHO, for a good transition from sharp to oof areas, or rendering of the blur (or bokeh or whatever you want to call it). 

 

From these first examples the 28 managed to botch the job even on a simple beach scene; I cannot image the holy mess it could output using it in a wood with backgrounds pretty busy to start with!

 

It looks like I'll stick to my legacy glass.

 

Obviously YMMV.

[Phillip Reeve]

Nope, I take it back: I will not buy the 28, at least if the rendering is the same as the one showed in the first images.

 

Sharpness aside (the previews are to small to judge that) I'm really not liking the "signature" of the lens. If you buy a fast prime is to use it most of the time at that large apertures, otherwise why bother. So it should be designed, IMHO, for a good transition from sharp to oof areas, or rendering of the blur (or bokeh or whatever you want to call it). 

Hmm, from what I have seen so far the bokeh isn't super smooth but still noticeably better than what I get from my Minolta MC 2/28 for example. Do you have a fast wideangle lens with better bokeh?

 

There are a few available full resolution images btw: http://phillipreeve.net/blog/sony-fe-28mm-2-what-we-know-so-far/

[Vivek]

Hmm, from what I have seen so far the bokeh isn't super smooth but still noticeably better than what I get from my Minolta MC 2/28 for example. Do you have a fast wideangle lens with better bokeh?

 

 

That seems to be Sony's thinking, sadly.  What we need is a competitor with a FF sensor mirrorless to kick Sony's rear. 

 

Hopefully, that will make them do things better.

[addicted2light]

Hmm, from what I have seen so far the bokeh isn't super smooth but still noticeably better than what I get from my Minolta MC 2/28 for example. Do you have a fast wideangle lens with better bokeh?

 

There are a few available full resolution images btw: http://phillipreeve.net/blog/sony-fe-28mm-2-what-we-know-so-far/

 

Many thanks for the link! 

 

I used for a while a 28/2 Olympus OM Zuiko when I still shot with the Canon 5D mk II. It wasn't that smooth (hence why I ended up trading it) but it wasn't half that bad either.

 

That seems to be Sony's thinking, sadly.  What we need is a competitor with a FF sensor mirrorless to kick Sony's rear. 

 

Hopefully, that will make them do things better.

 

That would be great, unfortunately I'm not seeing any manufacturer, beside maybe Fuji (I absolutely loved *any* Fujinon medium and large format lens I shot with, but I have no experience with the "digital" ones), taking into consideration nowadays other characteristics of a lens beside its sharpness. I'm not saying that we should all behave like Leica aficionados and starting to call spherical aberrations "glow"      but there is much more to a lens that its sharpness, IMHO.

[Cojo]

Now that sigma has said it will make FE lenses, I may just wait to see what they bring to the table!

[Phillip Reeve]

That seems to be Sony's thinking, sadly.  What we need is a competitor with a FF sensor mirrorless to kick Sony's rear. 

 

Hopefully, that will make them do things better.

Every lens has it's tradeoffs and from what i have seen so far I think Sony balanced them well with this lens. Of course I would like to have super smooth bokeh but if I only get okayish bokeh thats still better what I have currently.

[Youpii]

If you buy a fast prime is to use it most of the time at that large apertures, otherwise why bother. So it should be designed, IMHO, for a good transition from sharp to oof areas, or rendering of the blur (or bokeh or whatever you want to call it). 

The other reasons to buy a prime is size and optical quality (sharpness, distortion, etc), and also low light capability (to a lesser extend now with high ISO cameras).

No need for a nice bokeh when you take a picture of the background.

I mostly take photos when traveling around the world and for health reasons I can't carry a large 24-70 or 16-35 lens all day long so the 28/2 seems perfect for me.

 

I'm sure a lot of people will rather buy the large 24-240mm instead. Different people have different needs.

So it's nice that Sony gives us the choice.

[addicted2light]

The other reasons to buy a prime is size and optical quality (sharpness, distortion, etc), and also low light capability (to a lesser extend now with high ISO cameras).

No need for a nice bokeh when you take a picture of the background.

I mostly take photos when traveling around the world and for health reasons I can't carry a large 24-70 or 16-35 lens all day long so the 28/2 seems perfect for me.

 

I'm sure a lot of people will rather buy the large 24-240mm instead. Different people have different needs.

So it's nice that Sony gives us the choice.

 

Youpii, I was talking not about a prime (I agree that they are a great choice, and I use almost only primes myself), but about a fast prime. When you pay a premium for just a stop more (from 2.8 to f/2), especially like you said given that with today's Iso capability a lens just a bit faster is no longer an absolute necessity, you want it to perform at its best at the wider apertures.

 

A personal example: I'd rather carry the Minolta M-Rokkor 28/2.8 than the Olympus 28/2 I was talking about earlier. Yes, it is a stop slower, but it is a vastly superior lens in my opinion in the way it renders the scene (sharpness, bokeh etc.) and it is quite smaller. That would be different if my priority were lowlight use; in such a case a 28 (or better still a 24) f/1.4 would be a much more interesting proposition with 2 additional stops of light.

 

But an f/2 just "sits in the middle" if does not have any additional characteristic to make itself useful, like a good bokeh. Given that many 28/2.8 will perform extremely well anyway for just one stop less (and often for a ton less money) I just think that Sony should have something more up to its sleeve to lure us into buying this lens.

[Albi86]

I'll get the 28mm as soon as a few reviews are out confirming the absence of weird behaviours.

 

It's compact, light and it has AF. Great choice for those minimalistic days out where I don't have the chance to take my time and MF.

 

The lens seems sharp and with a nice 3D pop. The 21mm converter is the icing on the cake. 

 

BTW, frontal converters are an original design by Zeiss and were employed in their Contaflex fixed-lens SLRs from the 50's.

[Cojo]

Has anyone seen any portraits with the 90mm macro yet? If so post a link!

[JimmyD]

At US $449 the Sony 28mm f/2 is a tremendous value.  IMHO it's build quality is very good (comparable to the Sony/Zeiss 35mm f/2.8),  it is plenty sharp and, while this can be somewhat subjective, to me it does have nice bokeh and rendering.  This lens together with the Sony/Zeiss 55m f/1.8 or the Loxia 50mm f/2 is a killer combo; if you also want longer add an M mount prime like a Zeiss ZM 85mm f/4 or Leica 90mm f/2.8 and you have a small, light kit with outstanding IQ.

[flyingrooster]

FE 28/2.0 as an addition to the FE 55/1.8 for me. While it's optics are not as outstanding as the ones from the 55/1.8 wide open (also a lot harder to achieve for a wideangle lens), it's very nice and up to now I'm really pleased with it. These two make up for a small, fast and complementary lens duo when packing light.

[Jan Anne]

Actually followed up on my vote and picked up the 35/1.4 FE today at a local camera shop.

 

The lens itself is impressive, in size, the all metal build and the butter smooth focus ring, miles better than the plastic fantastic Nikkor 35/1.4G I used to have.

 

The aperture ring is super smooth with 1/3rd stop indents, there's an extra resistance when you hit f/16 so one doesn't overturn to the automatic aperture setting, a very nice touch.

 

Performance wise it outperforms my CV35/1.2 wide-open and at f/1.4, it's sharper with more contrast and punch but without any of the glow of the Voigtlander (which is welcome in some situations), didn't test it at smaller apertures yet but most lenses do well here anyway. As I like mechanical vignetting I turned the shade control off, with it activated the vignetting is pretty much gone on the a7S and made the image a bit too boring for my taste (but its nice to have the option to control this).

 

So whom else bought the lens they've voted for?

[bwana]

...

So whom else bought the lens they've voted for?

Preordered but not in stock yet...