More San Fran/Vegas/Yosemite/Death Valley lens choice...
Discussion
So I posted weeks ago about what lens or lenses to take along with me on this trip.
Wide angle was suggested as a must. I had planned to take, for my NEX-6 the 35 f/1.8, and then the 10-18mm F/4 and perhaps the Samyang 8mm fisheye. I can actually hire the latter two for the period for about £100 which I am happy with. However, on second thoughts I have the following issues:
1) The samyang version they have for hire is actually the larger, heavier videographers lens. It can be used for stills for sure, but it has a slightly slower aperture at F3.5 (not that it matters much for DoF, its more for if I use it at night, I don't want to use higher ISOs) and is bulkier due to a continuously adjustable aperture. The stills version has a simpler click-stop aperture ring.
2) A fisheye is really only good for a few select shots and I think the effect can quickly get "old" even if used sparingly. Not sure any of my locations are going to be so hemmed in that a fisheye might give you a nice effect (i.e. close proximity tall buildings like in NYC).
3) The Sony 10-18 may not be as good as I'd hoped. At anything above 10 mm wide open, its optical performance swan dives pretty bad. Stopping down to F/5.6 remedies this completely, but basically I think this lens is going to be no faster than 5.6 which may not be nice to use at night.
So, I am now thinking, ditch the Samyang and look for an alternative to the 10-18mm. For such small focal lengths, the slow aperture isn't going to mean much for DoF (i.e. you are not going to see a difference between F4 and F5.6), and it is optically stabilised and will only require slow shutter speeds to hand hold well enough anyway. However, in my dimmly lit room, F/5.6 at 18mm (on the 16-50mm PZ) the camera is choosing 1/30th and ISO 3200 which I think is too noisy to use, it's going to be worse on the strip in Vegas at night surely. At a more sensible ISO 400, I am looking at 0.25s for shutter speed and even with OSS, its going to be hit and miss with hand holding. Movement in frame will almost certainly be noticed.
And that is another point. I have a 16-50mm which goes F3.5-5.6 and in comparison sharpness wise, really doesn't give much away to the 10-18 mm and I think it might be a more useful focal range anyway. UWA to WA or WA to standard focal length. Will probably mean I can avoid having to crop so much in post to get certain shots in.
For the same price, I can hire the new Carl Ziess, Touit 12 mm F/2.8
So I am thinking the 12mm, 35mm and 16-50mm as a three lens kit to take with me. All are compact and light weight and I won't need to take a large camera bag. 16-50 for general day shots and any video work, 35mm for general day and night shots (thanks to fast aperture), 12mm for wide shots in the day and night. I have already seen shots of the type of scenery I will encounter taken with the NEX 5R and the CZ 12mm, and they look fabulous, and it is certainly wide enough.
So does this sound like logical reasoning or am I going down the wrong track?
Wide angle was suggested as a must. I had planned to take, for my NEX-6 the 35 f/1.8, and then the 10-18mm F/4 and perhaps the Samyang 8mm fisheye. I can actually hire the latter two for the period for about £100 which I am happy with. However, on second thoughts I have the following issues:
1) The samyang version they have for hire is actually the larger, heavier videographers lens. It can be used for stills for sure, but it has a slightly slower aperture at F3.5 (not that it matters much for DoF, its more for if I use it at night, I don't want to use higher ISOs) and is bulkier due to a continuously adjustable aperture. The stills version has a simpler click-stop aperture ring.
2) A fisheye is really only good for a few select shots and I think the effect can quickly get "old" even if used sparingly. Not sure any of my locations are going to be so hemmed in that a fisheye might give you a nice effect (i.e. close proximity tall buildings like in NYC).
3) The Sony 10-18 may not be as good as I'd hoped. At anything above 10 mm wide open, its optical performance swan dives pretty bad. Stopping down to F/5.6 remedies this completely, but basically I think this lens is going to be no faster than 5.6 which may not be nice to use at night.
So, I am now thinking, ditch the Samyang and look for an alternative to the 10-18mm. For such small focal lengths, the slow aperture isn't going to mean much for DoF (i.e. you are not going to see a difference between F4 and F5.6), and it is optically stabilised and will only require slow shutter speeds to hand hold well enough anyway. However, in my dimmly lit room, F/5.6 at 18mm (on the 16-50mm PZ) the camera is choosing 1/30th and ISO 3200 which I think is too noisy to use, it's going to be worse on the strip in Vegas at night surely. At a more sensible ISO 400, I am looking at 0.25s for shutter speed and even with OSS, its going to be hit and miss with hand holding. Movement in frame will almost certainly be noticed.
And that is another point. I have a 16-50mm which goes F3.5-5.6 and in comparison sharpness wise, really doesn't give much away to the 10-18 mm and I think it might be a more useful focal range anyway. UWA to WA or WA to standard focal length. Will probably mean I can avoid having to crop so much in post to get certain shots in.
For the same price, I can hire the new Carl Ziess, Touit 12 mm F/2.8
So I am thinking the 12mm, 35mm and 16-50mm as a three lens kit to take with me. All are compact and light weight and I won't need to take a large camera bag. 16-50 for general day shots and any video work, 35mm for general day and night shots (thanks to fast aperture), 12mm for wide shots in the day and night. I have already seen shots of the type of scenery I will encounter taken with the NEX 5R and the CZ 12mm, and they look fabulous, and it is certainly wide enough.
So does this sound like logical reasoning or am I going down the wrong track?
Should add
I am unsure whether the 10-18 is enabled for the faster Phase Detection AF in the NEX-6 (its only supported by a handful of lenses!) and I am also unsure if its supported by the Touit 12mm either. I am assuming that it probably is for the former, and probably not for the latter. In addition the Touit lens has no optical stabilisation, so its F5.6 + OSS vs F2.8 without.
I am unsure whether the 10-18 is enabled for the faster Phase Detection AF in the NEX-6 (its only supported by a handful of lenses!) and I am also unsure if its supported by the Touit 12mm either. I am assuming that it probably is for the former, and probably not for the latter. In addition the Touit lens has no optical stabilisation, so its F5.6 + OSS vs F2.8 without.
RobDickinson said:
Remember you can always stitch for width
True enough. Though I am not too good with this in photoshop and have never had consistent results. The in-camera pano mode is pants, even though it comes across as being all fancy. It shoots at reduced resolution and the files are often soft looking. I do prefer to get things in one frame.Reading around suggests that there isn't much in it in the real world and one review even suggests that at night the OSS actually makes the 10-18mm the better choice as you can have better luck with hand held shooting. But that was comparing both at wide open and I know for anything above 10 mm the Sony lens will be no where near as sharp.
Many are choosing the 10-18 as the best compromise on a cost basis. As I am simply hiring, I have no such requirement really. I hire one or the other, the cost is nearly the same.
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