Inspired by Greg Watermann

[jackdevant]

My a-mount dinosaur photo, inspired by Greg Watermann. Inspired and very much anti-E.

 

 

Shot by my a5100 pocket camera. Why mirrorless adapter, you might ask... As I'm waiting for a99II, I have to borrow A7rII for some shoots in extra bad lighting.

[Guest Peter Kelly]

Ah, that brings back memories! I had an almost identical line-up (other than the CF tripod and mono, just aluminium for me...and I cant see the 85 f1.4!), but, for all the benefits, it was just too heavy.

 

When the A7 came out I sold everything, other than the 16mm fisheye and the 24mm Samyang T/E (as they are fine with the adapter!).

Although I don't have anything like the 300mm  (mine is now seeing great service in Scotland doing 'birding'!) the basic kit is so much easier to cope with. My 'wedding kit' is at least 3Kg lighter, so I have no regrets.

 

Plus, low light performance is no contest!

 

Still, it would have been nice to have both...LOL

[jackdevant]

Hi Peter,

 

funny that you mentioned 85 mm F1.4 ZA. During my 3 year a-mount period I sold two lenses. First one, Sony/Minolta 50 mm I sold very fast, I really disliked IQ full open. Actually 85 mm was sold after purchasing Sony 24-70 ZA. I started to use it less and less, plus there I did not find regular use for 1.4 aperture, having 3 mm DOF at 80 mm and FF.

 

cheers

 

Jack 

[Guest Peter Kelly]

Hello Jack,

 

That was exactly my experience with the 85mm too! I shoot weddings and there are the very occsional shots where it is lovely, but they are fiendishly difficult to get a good hit rate nailing the focus exactly where you want it.

Indeed, I'm often fascinated by this apparent fixation with 'paper-thin' DoF as I'm sure most who say they love it have little experience of it for real; they just come across those very rare wedding shots and like the look of them!

 

I'm absolutely certain that the main reason for fast lenses existing at all is because film was so poor in low light, so you HAD to have big apertures to get anything (that was the reason for the f0.7 Zeiss lens used by Kubrick in the making of Barry Lyndon). The 'smooth' bokeh of such lenses was a by-product put to good use on occasion.

 

I've found that the 55 f1.8 is perfect when I want those shots now and the f4 FE lenses are a perfect combination of weight and quality when paired with the low light ability of the A7Rii.

Add to that, in my case, that I can crop the 42mp when using 200mm and still get pretty much the quality of the A99 and 300mm means I don't need that huge beast (although I did love it!).

 

I'd still like a little more reach but, if I absolutely have to at any point before Sony release a dedicated lens, I can get myself a 70-400 and slap it on the LA-EA3!

[jackdevant]

Hi Peter,

 

I tried 70-400, but I returned it. For my kind of work it was too slow in AF and too dark. I had mk I, silver body version. May-be white body mk II is better in AF speed...