Trying to decide what lens setup to go with. Please help!

[socialseb83]

Ok so here's my dilema. I have a sub $1000 budget. and I'm a wedding photog.

i have narrowed down my options to these two:

 

a. buy the new sony 28mm f2 with af and oss  &  the samyang 135mm f2 mf

 

or 

 

 

b. buy the new sony 24-240... zoom 

 

 

things to consider. i'll be using these for weddings. i like really shallow dof. i don't like distortion (duh). i absolutely MUST have high IQ. 

i shoot with an a6000 and an a7ii, and i already have 3 different 50mm lenses (a leica sumarit, a nikkor 50 f1.2, and the sony 50 f1.8)

 

i need something for wide angles, and something for portraits. 

 

i may be leaving out other things to consider but this should be enough info to strat this thread. please advise!!!!

[Reality Studio]

The 24-240 lens does have distortion in the raw files, but the A7 series of cameras correct this fairly well in camera. It is of course more difficult to get shallow dof with this lens but it is possible if you get close enough to your subject, or if you stay on the long end of the lens. Some examples of pictures with shallow dof that I've taken with the A7s and the 24-240mm lens:

 

At 24mm: https://www.flickr.com/photos/132260244@N08/16816642339/in/set-72157651684658702

At 66mm: https://www.flickr.com/photos/132260244@N08/16816642489/in/album-72157651684658702/

At 105mm: https://www.flickr.com/photos/132260244@N08/16826573940/in/set-72157651684658702

At 240mm: https://www.flickr.com/photos/132260244@N08/17014090015/in/set-72157651684658702

 

Bokeh on this lens though isn't great, it's kind of noisy but that tends to be the case with general purpose lenses alas. Here's a bokeh sample:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132260244@N08/17012648622/in/set-72157651684658702

 

There are more pictures of the 24-240mm lens on my Sony A7s in these albums:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132260244@N08/sets

 

The reason I like this lens more than primes is because you can use it for a bit of everything, and because of that you don't miss unexpected photo opportunities because you have the wrong prime lens on. You can leave this one lens on all day and never miss a shot. Wide, long, close or far, it doesn't matter, you can always get a picture because of the very useful 24mm to 240mm focal range.  On your A7ii you can even set it to aps-c mode and change its range to around 36mm to 360mm.

 

The only time I use my 55mm 1.8 prime is when it's indoors (tighter quarters) on a shoot specifically setup to photograph a model so it's all more controlled. In your case you already have the 55mm 1.8, I'd use that for staged indoor close quarters photography and then switch to the 24-240mm after that to capture more impromptu shots like at the church, wedding reception, etc...

[adonnan]

24-70 f/4 - Lightroom corrects distortion with one click. F/4 at 70 is a good smooth dof. Just shot a wedding yesterday with this exact setup.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jasham]

The 24-240 lens does have distortion in the raw files, but the A7 series of cameras correct this fairly well in camera. It is of course more difficult to get shallow dof with this lens but it is possible if you get close enough to your subject, or if you stay on the long end of the lens. Some examples of pictures with shallow dof that I've taken with the A7s and the 24-240mm lens:

 

At 24mm: https://www.flickr.com/photos/132260244@N08/16816642339/in/set-72157651684658702

At 66mm: https://www.flickr.com/photos/132260244@N08/16816642489/in/album-72157651684658702/

At 105mm: https://www.flickr.com/photos/132260244@N08/16826573940/in/set-72157651684658702

At 240mm: https://www.flickr.com/photos/132260244@N08/17014090015/in/set-72157651684658702

 

Bokeh on this lens though isn't great, it's kind of noisy but that tends to be the case with general purpose lenses alas. Here's a bokeh sample:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132260244@N08/17012648622/in/set-72157651684658702

 

There are more pictures of the 24-240mm lens on my Sony A7s in these albums:

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132260244@N08/sets

 

The reason I like this lens more than primes is because you can use it for a bit of everything, and because of that you don't miss unexpected photo opportunities because you have the wrong prime lens on. You can leave this one lens on all day and never miss a shot. Wide, long, close or far, it doesn't matter, you can always get a picture because of the very useful 24mm to 240mm focal range.  On your A7ii you can even set it to aps-c mode and change its range to around 36mm to 360mm.

 

The only time I use my 55mm 1.8 prime is when it's indoors (tighter quarters) on a shoot specifically setup to photograph a model so it's all more controlled. In your case you already have the 55mm 1.8, I'd use that for staged indoor close quarters photography and then switch to the 24-240mm after that to capture more impromptu shots like at the church, wedding reception, etc...

Do you find though that the distortion is correctable in post processing? Do you use LR and is it set up yet to do corrections for the 24-240?

[Reality Studio]

Do you find though that the distortion is correctable in post processing? Do you use LR and is it set up yet to do corrections for the 24-240?

 

I don't have Lightroom because I don't usually do photography in a paid professional manner, it's mostly just for free or for casual fun use as I'm primarily a video guy. So I've never tried to correct the 24-240mm in post. I use a more cheapo software called After Shot Pro to do some basic tweaks to the already corrected jpg's from the camera, that's about it and for my casual photography use that's been enough. I've read on other forums that FE lenses like their 24-70 Zeiss correct very well in lightroom so I presume the 24-240 would be the same once they get a profile for it. Personally I would have thought that the in camera correction would be better since Sony made the lens hence they know exactly how to correct for it in the camera itself but people seem to speak very highly of Lightroom post correct as well, I just don't have any experience with it.

[jasham]

I don't have Lightroom because I don't usually do photography in a paid professional manner, it's mostly just for free or for casual fun use as I'm primarily a video guy. So I've never tried to correct the 24-240mm in post. I use a more cheapo software called After Shot Pro to do some basic tweaks to the already corrected jpg's from the camera, that's about it and for my casual photography use that's been enough. I've read on other forums that FE lenses like their 24-70 Zeiss correct very well in lightroom so I presume the 24-240 would be the same once they get a profile for it. Personally I would have thought that the in camera correction would be better since Sony made the lens hence they know exactly how to correct for it in the camera itself but people seem to speak very highly of Lightroom post correct as well, I just don't have any experience with it.

Thanks for your helpful reply I'm new to the Sony world and have read that especially with jpegs the camera software does correct for distortions pretty well.

[mopswerk]

If you're on budget, why not looking into legacy lenses? What I saw from 24-240mm samples > Bokeh not that great. Possibly the Samyang 135mm might provide the better results.

[Austerror]

The Capture One software should correct automatically also. As the lens profile is saved in the RAW file.

 

I don't have wedding experience, but I had thought they required low light performance?

[ShotGal]

I'm late to the party but wanted to say thanks for this thread.  Wondering if the OP used the 24-240 for the wedding and has samples?

 

I'm changing systems and have an outdoor wedding to either shoot - or supply cameras for.

I just picked up an A6000 to hopefully use as a 2nd body to use with the Sony 24-240 - on APS-C that shoud pack quite a range!  Praying the lens OSS works because they body has no IBIS..

On the wide/portrait side I have an A7II w/Zeiss 24-70 2.8 available to carry as the main camera.

 

Other options from my BIG camera system A850 body with the Zeiss 24-70 2.8 - also available lenses 135 2.8,  85 1.4, 50 1.4 but it's all outside - even the reception - and with weddings you want Zooms all the time.

FWIW I wouldn't correct in camera (which means shooting JPG only?) - use RAW and do everything in Lightroom instead.

Any comments or suggestions on this set up are welcome.