Hi guys,

 

Just picked up a Sony A7 with kit lens and 50mm f1.8.

 

Looking at selling the kit lens possibly and replacing it with something just as wide or slightly wider, but dont really want to spend an awful lot.

 

Any experience with the Canon FD 28mm f2? Anything similar or slightly wider?

Sony FE 28/2 is a nice lens and not terribly expensive. You can always get a used one to save some money. Then you don't have to deal with adapters and manual focus but can use the native functions of the camera.

 

Apart from that most legacy 28mm lenses are ok, but like I said if you pay for a new camera body with a lot of functions, pay for a lens that can use them.

........ like I said if you pay for a new camera body with a lot

of functions, pay for a lens that can use them.

   

Thaz a solid concept. But this IS the Legacy Lens 

forum, and one of the outstanding functions of the 

shallow depth live view camera concept is it's use 

as a "digital back" for low-cost and no-cost lenses 

from older, deeper bodied systems.

 

To me, it's the outstanding feature. And this type 

of camera doesn't just "rescue" old lenses, by use 

of their modern features [which your quite rightly 

prize] these cameras actually enhance usability of 

vintage lenses. Frinstintz ... manual focusing with 

manually operated iris was toadall pain on classic 

SLRs. In most lighting conditions the MF focus aid 

of a live view camera focuses more accurately and 

more easily at working [stop down] aperture than

focusing the same lens wide open on classic SLR

focusing screens.

   

I find that I need few of the super-duper features 

of modern cameras, but that their essential nature 

[live view rather than the SLR system of the past] is 

in itself a terrific benefit that needs no modern lens 

to "activate" such benefit and convenience. I do use 

a kit lens for no-brainer event shooting, but when I 

really get involved in image making, I love the way 

these new cameras convenience the use of all my 

ancient lenses.    

   

I just wanna repeat that my remarks above are all 

in the context of this "Legacy Lens" forum. I'm very

sympatico with your advice recommending native

lenses in the more global sense :-)  

I can wholeheartedly recommend the Minolta MC W.Rokkor 28mm f2 or it's slower and cheaper counterpart in f2.8. If you want to go wider, there is a 24mm and even a 21mm for the classic SR mount by Minolta.

 

Another fantastic line of lenses (but a bit more expensive) are Zeiss Contax C/Y lenses, there is both a 28mm f2 (nicknamed Hollywood for good reason) and the far cheaper 2.8. But their 25mm is not that great and the excellent 21mm too pricey.

I have used these at one time or another on the A7r. And all of them were more than good enough for critically sharp over 1 meter wide prints (if you know what you're doing, i.e. if you don't shoot them wide open expecting sharp borders, but stop them down a bit, and when present if you take into consideration filed curvature, focusing if needed at the working aperture instead of wide open and/or at the borders instead of the center of the image etc.):

 

Contax Distagon 18/4**

Contax Vario-Sonnar 28-85/3.3-4**

 

Minolta Rokkor MC 24/2.8

 

Minolta M-Rokkor 28/2.8**

 

Nikon Nikkor-N Auto 24/2.8

 

Olympus OM 24/2.8

Olympus OM 28/2

Olympus OM 28/2.8

 

Tamron Di LD IF AF 17-35/2,8-4*

 

Yashica ML 28/2.8

 

In bold the ones I still use. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with the ones I sold instead, it is just mostly a matter of what film cameras I have.

 

*This one has a ton of field curvature and you can forget about super sharp borders @17mm, but for certain subjects, at leas my sample, is quite good and you get AF coupled with an LA-EA4

 

**Not cheap, I would buy instead a Sony 28/2 at this point if I were you, unless of course you intend to use them on a film camera as well like I do

Ah, yes, forgot to mention the Olympus wides. Very small and light and excellent glass too!

I find 28mm a bit of a misnomer, I personally prefer 35mm as a good allrounder. In fact the 35mm Sonnar f2.8 virtually lives on my a7R ll, and my Leica M 24mm, 50mm and 75mm seem to spend most of their time in my bag. One lens I might consider in the long term would be a Nikkor 35mm Shift lens? When I used to have one it received a lot of use, and not just for correcting verticals.

Thaz a solid concept. But this IS the Legacy Lens 

forum, and one of the outstanding functions of the 

shallow depth live view camera concept is it's use 

as a "digital back" for low-cost and no-cost lenses 

from older, deeper bodied systems.

If we restrict ourselves to what other people appear to be asking for, there will be no progress. I read between the lines that this person is new to the system, doesn't know a lot about vintage lenses but wants a cheap option for a wide angle lens. That means that people with more experience don't have to accept the premise of the question, if it isn't helpful.

 

One thing I forgot to mention, is that the sensor on A7 is not very good with adapted wide angle lenses. You may experience blurring or colour shifts.

In my experience that only happens with wide lenses made for viewfinder cameras, like e.g. the Biogons.

Lenses made for SLRs with their long flange distance are fine on the A7.

In my experience that only happens with wide lenses made for viewfinder cameras, like e.g. the Biogons.

Lenses made for SLRs with their long flange distance are fine on the A7.

It depends on the angle of the light hitting the sensor. The pixel sites are recessed so you get blurring and colour shifts at sharper angles. I got it with slr primes at 17 and 24mm. The problem is worst with some rangefinder lenses and Sony did a firmware update to mask some of the issues. But they're still there.

The Pentax K 28mm f3.5 is a fantastic lens for landscapes if you don't need speed.

I compared it to quite a few old 28mm lenses and it came out on top (Canon FD 2.8, Pentax-M, Sigma Mini-wide II, Zeiss Distagon).

Very sharp and beautiful colours.

 

It's not the easiest lens to find though.

I second that lens. There is an M42 version (Pentax Super Takumar) of that lens too. Might be easier to find and easily adaptable as well. 

+1 for the Takumar 28mm f3.5. Bench sitter by Noel Parsons, on Flickr

+1 for the Sony 28mm, even though its not technically legacy glass.  Lots of decent legacy glass; my vote on this front at 24mm would be for the Olympus OM 24mm 2.8 (very small, sharp and light), or at 28mm I like the Nikon AI-s 28mm 2.8.