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- Tim
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I'm in the process of putting together an inexpensive EDC kit I can keep my vehicle and not worry too much about getting stolen or damaged. Lenses for this kit will be A-Mount, which can be had very cheap, perform very well if the right ones are chosen, and are fairly compact compared to most offerings. This will be used for grab shots, something I see along the road or on a walk at lunchtime, etc. I don't need ultra-fast focusing, and the vast majority will be in daylight. The camera will be a Sony A7R. 36MP FF with a great sensor. While it may be first gen. Alpha E FF, one in excellent condition can be had for $650. It will be coupled with a good used LA-EA4. Since I want to keep the kit compact I've decided on using only two zooms.
For the short/wide end I've settled on the 28-135 or 35-105. Both are fantastic lenses. The 35-105 is quite a bit more compact but has a narrower focus range. These two lenses will likely get swapped back and forth, but that 28-135 focal range is hard to leave behind.
On the long end, I decided on one of my favorite focal ranges, the 100-400. Most of these lenses are expensive and none are compact. After some investigation I decided to try the old Maxxum APO version of the lens. It's smaller and lighter than the Sigma or Sony (the latter by quite a margin). I found one in excellent condition with caps/hood on the other side my home state for $210, shipped. That makes it the third most expensive of my A-mounts, behind the 80-200/2.8 and 500/8 AF, but it's also inexpensive enough that if something happened to it, I wouldn't need to worry about spending $thousands on a replacement. Using this with one of the others covers everything across the range.
When I evaluate something like this for my own use, I test under the same conditions I would normally shoot using the same settings, upload, and process exactly like my normal shots. No remarkable or additional processing. I don't bother with charts or anything else, leaving those for the technical minded people. For me it all comes down to practical use.
The following shots are from a nature walk I did late yesterday afternoon on my way home from work. The lens has foibles. It doesn't focus as quickly as most of my others, but it's ok for the intended use. It hunts a bit when going from one end of focus to the other, especially in low light. Fringing is bad, like...really bad under the wrong conditions, so compositions is important. I had some shots of a squirrel against a bright sky that are unusable, unless of course you like squirrels with purple hair. None of that is earth shattering news, it's pretty much as expected.
As for IQ, it's about average for a lens of this age. Not as sharp as the best ones, but acceptable. Colors are great (not that there's a lot in the woods right now), typical old Minolta. Contrast is pretty good too.
A shot into the light. Nice contrast and color without being washed out.
A squirrel. This guy let me get pretty close, but this is a crop.
I think this is a Dark-Eyed Junco of the Slate variety. Not often I see those around here. This is a rather large crop and it held up pretty well. It would probably take a bit more if I wanted to. Note the bokeh is very smooth (what little there is!)
Oak Leaves. The light was great on this shot and the lens handled it well. Again, notice the bokeh. Ridiculously smooth and creamy, evidently one of the lens' strong points.
So what's the verdict? The lens is adequate. Not great, but not awful. It's capable of good photos and I'm sure once I spend more time with it to wring out its idiosyncrasies, it'll fine for the task at hand.
For the short/wide end I've settled on the 28-135 or 35-105. Both are fantastic lenses. The 35-105 is quite a bit more compact but has a narrower focus range. These two lenses will likely get swapped back and forth, but that 28-135 focal range is hard to leave behind.
On the long end, I decided on one of my favorite focal ranges, the 100-400. Most of these lenses are expensive and none are compact. After some investigation I decided to try the old Maxxum APO version of the lens. It's smaller and lighter than the Sigma or Sony (the latter by quite a margin). I found one in excellent condition with caps/hood on the other side my home state for $210, shipped. That makes it the third most expensive of my A-mounts, behind the 80-200/2.8 and 500/8 AF, but it's also inexpensive enough that if something happened to it, I wouldn't need to worry about spending $thousands on a replacement. Using this with one of the others covers everything across the range.
When I evaluate something like this for my own use, I test under the same conditions I would normally shoot using the same settings, upload, and process exactly like my normal shots. No remarkable or additional processing. I don't bother with charts or anything else, leaving those for the technical minded people. For me it all comes down to practical use.
The following shots are from a nature walk I did late yesterday afternoon on my way home from work. The lens has foibles. It doesn't focus as quickly as most of my others, but it's ok for the intended use. It hunts a bit when going from one end of focus to the other, especially in low light. Fringing is bad, like...really bad under the wrong conditions, so compositions is important. I had some shots of a squirrel against a bright sky that are unusable, unless of course you like squirrels with purple hair. None of that is earth shattering news, it's pretty much as expected.
As for IQ, it's about average for a lens of this age. Not as sharp as the best ones, but acceptable. Colors are great (not that there's a lot in the woods right now), typical old Minolta. Contrast is pretty good too.
A shot into the light. Nice contrast and color without being washed out.
A squirrel. This guy let me get pretty close, but this is a crop.
I think this is a Dark-Eyed Junco of the Slate variety. Not often I see those around here. This is a rather large crop and it held up pretty well. It would probably take a bit more if I wanted to. Note the bokeh is very smooth (what little there is!)
Oak Leaves. The light was great on this shot and the lens handled it well. Again, notice the bokeh. Ridiculously smooth and creamy, evidently one of the lens' strong points.
So what's the verdict? The lens is adequate. Not great, but not awful. It's capable of good photos and I'm sure once I spend more time with it to wring out its idiosyncrasies, it'll fine for the task at hand.