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What do I buy? A7 35 / 55 1.8 search.


BostonBokeh
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Hi! I have an A7.

 

Ok this is me seeking opinions. I went to best buy today to have a look at this lens;

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FSB799Q?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=AAK72K4OIWDXL

 

Obviously it's a great lens, perfect for what I am looking for (full frame, great for street photography, portraits and bokeh) correct?

 

Of course, it's expensive. So while in the store, one of the employee's showed me his A7, along with a kid of 5 lenses along with adapters he purchased on eBay. Anywhere from a 1.8 50mm cannon, to other random lenses he seems to enjoy, for a total of 200$

 

What I am trying to decide is, is this $800ish, though exactly what I am looking for, smart? Or do I save 500 or so dollars and buy some cheap adapters and a decent 50mm 1.8 on eBay?

 

Any recommendations are more than welcome :) !

 

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This lens is sharp throughout the frame even wide open at F1.8 and have good contrast and flare control. A different 50mm 1.8 will be lacking with these three factors wide open. Adapted Minolta 50 1.7 is pretty good value if you don't need the best optics.

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Based on what you said, if you buy "some cheap adapters and a decent 50 mm on ebay".  Cheap adapters are going to give you cheap pictures, you get what you pay for. If your not concerned about quality, than go cheap. If you want the Zeiss pop, go Zeiss!  You refer to the 800ish as "exactly what your looking for", it is there, I would direct you to find the answer your looking for.

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The Zeiss will be sharper wide-open, especially at the borders, but how much this is important is up to you.

 

You can check a nice comparison here on the forum between the Zeiss and a 20$ Minolta 50mm:

 

http://www.sonyalphaforum.com/topic/1253-20-minolta-1755-from-1968-vs-1000-zeiss-1855-from-2013/?hl=minolta

 

It's much closer than you may think, and this was a cheap lens even in its days. With better lenses (i.e., lenses that nowadays you can buy for a song, but that when new were outrageously expensive) the difference is probably even less.

 

If you can live with that (pretty good) level of performance you can either:

 

- buy a 10$ K&F adapter on ebay or amazon (this is my favorite brand, but not the only one obviously; the only problem is that is advertised as a generic adapter, without specifying the brand, so you'll have to look at the picture to recognize one) and a manual focus lens

 

- buy an LA-EA4 and one of the Minolta AF 50s (pretty fast AF)

 

I would steer clear from the af lenses of other manufacturers, because at least for now you will not get a decent af performance with the adapters, so you will still have a manual focus lens, just a lot more expensive.

 

In any case if I were you I would pick up a 10$ adapter and a cheap 50mm MF lens of your choice (search here on the forum for recommendations) just to try before committing to spend large amounts of cash; for a 20/30$ investment you will be able to see for yourself and for for your tastes how good (or bad) the results are.

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it is just the question if you need AF or not.

 

I myself hate AF it´s not joyful for me, i love a real aperture ring so you can see direct the impact of the aperture to you picture, decide how much DOF you need, and where the best point is for the sharpness.

Sometimes It takes more time but it is much more joyful IMO.

And if you found the right focus point it is much faster than

 

Yes the FE55 is one of the best lenses out there, you will not regret it if you by it,

but the minolta MF lenses are not much worse

just wide open the sharpness is not so good, but that can be very nice.

For portrait it is distracting to have sharp borders and to much information.

Only for Landscape and documentary project´s you need this all over sharp pictures, but than go to F 5.6 or better F8 and you have what you need there.

So i would go for the Minolta MC 50mm 1.4 PG or the Takumar 50mm 1.4

if you like the Zeiss rendering and sharpness you can go for the Contax Planar 50mm 1.4 or 1.7

 

And cheap adapter can be very good, i can not see big differences between 10$ and 200$ adapters

 

and yes I agree with " addicted2light " the test from Phillip Reve is very inspiring !

 

if you find out you can not take good pictures without AF you can later buy the FE55 and you will not loose so much money .....on the way you learned to make good photos and understand better the impact of aperture (DOF + distance to the object) and focus point

 

Loxia 50 is also great..the best MF lens for sony A7 IMO...... i use the Voigtländer Nokton 50mm 1.5

 

If you need Af......... only go for native lenses or LA EA4 and A-mount glas!

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Hey ! Thank you all so much :)

 

I'm currently on the road from Boston to NYC for the day, and look forward to checking out this 20$ lens you're talking about.

 

Even if I go with Zeiss it seems almost silly not to get this other lens as well just to try it out or have it.

 

Again I'll be able to reply in more depth later

 

Oh, saw some stairs the other day :P

 

6940d2f00de543c5a886bbf3e07e0df5.jpg

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Also is there an adapter that will make the Minolta 50mm full frame ?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

The Minolta is already full frame...like the entire MC/MD line (old, manual focus only) and pretty much (with very few exceptions) the entire AF line (different lens mount from the MC/MD line) :)

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BTW, I see others have recommended the Contax Planar 50/1.4 or 1.7 as well. Given I shoot with both Contax and Minolta MC/MD glass, I'd like to make a wild generalization to help you choose (but keep in mind that some lenses performs differently, for example the 35/1.8 Minolta MD or the 35/2 AF are pretty darn sharp).

 

Contax Zeiss glass is usually sharper and with bolder, magenta-ish colors, and sometimes harsher bokeh (notably in the case of the two 50mm mentioned). For better (i.e. softer) bokeh in the Contax lineup generally look for the Sonnars and the Vario-Sonnars.

 

Minolta glass is usually a tad less contrasty than Zeiss, with pastel-like colors and almost always seriously beautiful bokeh. That is not to say the Minolta is unsharp glass: I routinely use my Minolta 50/1.2 at full aperture on the A7r with great results, assuming I remember not to breathe because the depth of field at that aperture close up is maybe a fraction of a mm! 

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Hey thank you again for your replies !! I will

Be taking this all into consideration ! :)

Any chance you could share some of your photos ? Would love to see examples of your bokeh (if any) shots too

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Many examples I have of the lenses we discussed here have not been taken on Sony cameras, or are on crop cameras. This gave me an idea.

 

I have quite a few of legacy 50mm-ish lenses; most of them came with other lenses or cameras I bought (literally "thrown in" buy the previous owner as gift or bought as a lot). The other day finally I started testing them on the A7r for my own education side-by-side. Next month (now I'm quite busy, sorry!) I'll publish the results on my blog, but for now these are some examples, so you can get an idea.

 

BTW, these "old" lenses are mostly deficient in terms of coating, not in terms of optical quality. To counteract this you have to pump up clarity a fair bit compared to a new lens (that is already pretty contrasty by itself), but then most of the difference with newer glass goes away. And please keep in mind that at full aperture very little (a few mm at most) is in perfect focus.

 

Minolta 55 Rokkor MC f/1.7

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Minolta 55 Rokkor MC f/1.7 (25 clarity added)

 

Minolta 55 Rokkor MC f/2.8

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Olympus 50mm OM Zuiko f/1.8 

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Olympus 50mm OM Zuiko f/2.8

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Pentax Super-Takumar 50mm (8 element version) f/1.4 (don't be fooled by the lack of contrast, if you add clarity & contrast this is a pretty remarkable performance, regardless of the age of the lens)

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Pentax Super-Takumar 50mm (8 element version) f/2

 

Pentax Super-Takumar 50mm (8 element version) f/2.8

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This is probably the weakest of the bunch in terms of sharpness, but it pumps out beautiful reds and blues...

 

Yashica 50mm ML f/1.7

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Yashica 50mm ML f/2

 

Yashica 50mm ML f/2.8

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