Having Trouble Choosing Lenses

[hadyashraf]

 

So, here is where I would start:

• Minolta Rokkor MD 28mm F/2.8 (star lens, used around $40)
• Minolta Rokkor MD 85mm F/2.0 (portrait lens, used around $350)
• Sony SEL 18200 (zoom lens, used around $250)

 

I was thinking more of a 35mm f1.4 as a portrait lens ... 85mm is a bit narrow .. isnt it?! .. I'm not really that familiar with Full Frames .. so im not sure

 

Also, Im not sure why i don't need a full frame Zoom lens?! .. You think APS-C would be good enough?!

 

Finally, I respect Leica's just WAY too much ... and would love to shoot with one... maybe the portrait one..  would appreciate the help in choosing one

 

Oh, and the adapters ... Minolta dont have E Mounts do they?! .. i found some Samyangs with E Mounts... i would prefer not using an adapter .. but i dont really mind it for a Leica at all :D 

[hadyashraf]

https://www.yashry.com/product/424691/Phottix-Leica-M-Series-Lens-To-Nex-Adapter-Ring

 

Is this considered a good adapter?!

 

Do all Leica lenses work full frame?!

 

How cheap can i go on a legacy 50mm or 35mm f1.4?!

 

There prices are very much fluctuating... $400 to $18,000

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Leica-5cm-50mm-f1-5-Wetzlar-Summarit-M39-Lens-50-1-5-Germany-586/201377879335?_trksid=p2047675.c100010.m2109&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D33873%26meid%3Dfd7a00d5df68493fb65ac07c7d1e2363%26pid%3D100010%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D191697899915

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Leica-Leitz-summarit-5cm-F1-5-50mm-F1-5-Silver-Lens-For-Leica-L39-Screw/201442913727?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D33873%26meid%3D7c1e4784f0914de082099eb8319db6ec%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D201377879335

 

 

https://www.yashry.com/product/424520/Promaster-Mount-Adapter-Nikon-F-Nex

 

Will this operate the ISIS on my Nikkor 70-300 ?

 

 

My god do i have a shit load of questions ... 

forgive me

[hjns]

You are going a bit all over the place, which is fine, but difficult to answer. 

 

My budget is about $2,500 minus $1,700 (for the camera body) leaves us with $800 (for lenses).

 

So, are you going to stick to your budget or not? However, regardless of the amount of money that you are going to spend, you will have to make decisions. No lens is perfect for all situations. You have to prioritize, and only you know what you really want. 

 

I'm looking for a wide lens for Star Photography, a prime lens with large aperture for portraits and bokeh's, and a zoom lens for the fun of zooming in and shooting good pictures.

 

Maybe it is helpful if you tell us a bit more what you mean with a "wide lens for Star photography". Do you really want to make pictures of stars using a wide angle lens? In addition, with any lens you can make portrait photo's. Many primes have busy bokeh that not many people like, and thus would require a bit more work to manage that. Also many professionals use zoom lenses to make portrait photos with great bokeh. 

 

Furthermore, I would like to remind you that it doesn't take an expensive lens to make great photos. So you need to help us understand what for you is acceptable and what sucks in your opinion.

 

I was thinking more of a 35mm f1.4 as a portrait lens ... 85mm is a bit narrow .. isnt it?! .. I'm not really that familiar with Full Frames .. so im not sure

 

Again, help us understand your needs a bit more. With a wide angle 35 mm lens can indeed make great portraits of people. However, you need to go in very close to the person, like within one meter or so, and the wide angle perspective will sometimes make for an unflattery picture. For example, a 35mm focus distance will make the nose look larger. Not many people really appreciate that. 

 

If you make portraits from a bit further away, the perspective "normalizes", so I mainly take portraits using a 50mm lens or longer. This allows me to keep my distance (2m or farther away). Especially with my kids I have made nice and candid photos with my 85mm Rokkor F/1.7, 90mm Summicron F/2.0, 135mm Canon fd F/2.0, or even an old manual zoom lens. 

 

The longer the lens, the easier the bokeh that the lens renders is to work with. In other words, with a long tele lens, the background is more evenly blurred than with a short tele lens. 

 

Your proposed 35mm F/1.4 is unlikely to blur the background in the same even way as a short tele lens (think 85mm or longer), and therefore most people will grab a short tele lens. Then again, I have seen great portraits using a 35mm Voigtlander Nokton at F1.2.

 

Also, Im not sure why i don't need a full frame Zoom lens?! .. You think APS-C would be good enough?!

 

Good enough for what? The first professional Canon 1D was a 4 MP digital SLR and was considered a major breakthrough when it appeared in 2001. Do you really believe that professional image quality in 2001 was poorer than now? 

 

Oh, and the adapters ... Minolta dont have E Mounts do they?! .. i found some Samyangs with E Mounts... i would prefer not using an adapter .. but i dont really mind it for a Leica at all   

 

Why do you prefer not using an adapter? Do you have experience that they degrade the quality, or do you think it is just cumbersome to use? It is true that a poor adapter may even damage your lens or camera or both. However, I have bought more than 40 different adapters for my A7 and A7ii, varying in price between 10 EUR and 140 EUR, and I found only one sample to be doubtful (and yes, that was a 10 EUR specimen). 

 

There are probably three factors that could be a problem with adapters.

1. If the connection between lens - adapter - body is not secure, your lens may fall of your body. Not good, but you can very easily check that. I check every time I change lenses. Takes you 1 second.
2. Another issue could be that light is leaking from outside to inside the adapter. This will screw up your images with bad reflections. If the connection is secure, it is very easily solved by covering the connection with something to prevent the light leakage.
3. The last issue that I am aware of is potential misalignment. In other words, the lens is not precisely aligned with the sensor, screwing up sharpness and creating aberations, usually mostly visible in the corners. There is no way to solve this but ditch the adapter. Then again, you probably only notice this when pixel peeping in the corners of landscape pictures, and only with lenses that don't have corner issues themselves. 

https://www.yashry.com/product/424691/Phottix-Leica-M-Series-Lens-To-Nex-Adapter-Ring

 

Is this considered a good adapter?!

 

https://www.yashry.com/product/424520/Promaster-Mount-Adapter-Nikon-F-Nex

 

Will this operate the ISIS on my Nikkor 70-300 ?

 

No idea. 

 

Do all Leica lenses work full frame?!

 

No, not all Leica lenses work on full frame. Do a search for Leica and A7, and you will find that for some of the wide angles, it is difficult to prevent smearing in the corners. I only have pre-APO Leica-R lenses, and no experience with other Leica lenses, so I can not really comment on this from experience. Likely the Leica-M lenses will work great, especially non-wide angles (>40mm). Leica-R glass is a bit cheaper, though, and works great for me.

 

How cheap can i go on a legacy 50mm or 35mm f1.4?!

 

Half a second of browsing digs up a $15 Minolta Rokkor PG 50mm F/1.4 on EBay and $9 for a cheap adapter, also on EBay. I would really suggest you start with this kind of cheap glass, preferably with a couple of these cheap lenses like a 28mm, 50mm, 85mm, 135mm and 300mm. If you stick to one Brand (like Minolta), you only need one adapter. However, for very little money, you will get a LOT of invaluable experience to try things out and experiment with various focus lengths, before you spend loads on glass that is marginally better/sharper but has lots of electronics.

 

Finally, I respect Leica's just WAY too much ... and would love to shoot with one... maybe the portrait one..  would appreciate the help in choosing one 

 

If you really want to improve on the quality of your lenses, be prepared to start paying $300 and more. If you want to start with a set of Leica lenses, I would suggest going for either a 50mm Summicron-R F/2.0 or a 90mm Summicron-R F/2.0 or both. Going down to F/1.4 ups the price to >$700 for a Summilux-R 50mm or >$4000 for a Noctilux F/0.95. I don't have the money for a Noctilux, but between my Summilux-R 50mm and Summicron-R 50mm, I like my Summilux best. This is not because of bokeh nor sharpness, but more a subjective combination of how the images are being rendered.

 

Others can probably chime in for any Zeiss / Pentax / Olympus / Canon FD L range equivalents, which can all be very sharp and nice.

 

Hope this helps.

 

[JimmyD]

Since the very first Sonyy A7 came out I bought one and have have experimented with every one of the native Sonf FE (full frame) lenses and legacy manual focus glass of all sorts (Leica, Canon, Nikon, Minolta and Olympus). Legacy glass can produce some beautiful images--see Phillip Reeves work for example, mostly with Minolta glass--if you are very good / comfortable with manual focus and you don't care about not having the electronic communication / inofrmation from lens to camera recorded with every shot.

 

For most of the world, native Sony or Zeiss glass made for Sony FE will consistently produce better images. I love images produced by my Olympus 24mm f/28, Minolta 58mm f/1.2 and Zeiss ZM 85 f/4, but adapters (particularly less expensive ones) have inconsistent quality and can be a pain. Depending on your preferred / most used focal length, I would build up one (high quality) lens at a time, starting perhaps with the phenomenal Sony/Zeiss 55 f/1.8 or the Zeiss Loxia 50 f/2 if you do like manual focus.