Lens recommedation - Sony

[andburg]

Hi Guys

I'm off to Bruges in decemeber and wanting to get some wide angle shots, but also looking at going into the ice exhibition which from photos of last year is quite dark so was wanting toget a fast lens rather than the kit lenses I have, probably something fixed focal length.

Looking at 20-50mm and f1.4 to 1.8

any recomendations?

Sony Minolta A-mount, lookint at spending up to £200 wich really limits me

SAL35F18 and SAL50F18 are the obvious choices but from reports build quality is a bit low.

any help / advice is greatly appreciated

[rottie102]

andburg said:

any help / advice is greatly appreciated

20-50mm on a crop body (?) is nowhere near wide angle, you won't fit anything wide there.

Check those out if you want cheap, wide and fast : http://www.samyang.co.uk/index.php/dslr-lenses
But don't forget it's manual focus.

[sgrimshaw]

Be worth taking a look at the Minolta primes, 28mm and below will still be wide angle on a crop sensor.

[andburg]

crop body?

body is a sony A58 i think...its at home

maybe I'm expecting too much? what if i just wanted something faster than the kit 18-55 lens on a budget

[sgrimshaw]

The A58 uses an APS-C size sensor which means there is a crop factor of 1.5x

So, a 50mm lens effectively becomes a 75mm.

A 35mm "wide angle" becomes a "standard angle".

To be wide angle, you need to look at 28mm and below.

[sgrimshaw]

In case you're not aware of it, there is a great website for the A-mount format which has a good lens database.

http://www.dyxum.com

[andburg]

Guess I'm not gonna get close to what i want on my budget looking for anything under 30mm!

thanks for the help guys, i at least understand a little more

anything in budget is either f2.8 or 50mm+

looking around it seems kit lense is SAL1855 18-55 F3.5 to 5.6 so i guess 18mm is f3.5 so at 35mm its probably f4.5ish

would i notice much of an improvement with the sony 35mm f1.8 lense or a cheap 28mm f2.8 ebay lense?

[Lynchie999]

... theres not much wrong with the build on the 50 or 35mm sony lenses! I have the 50mm and its still going! what do you have at the moment ? a low end zoom lens won't give you the low light capabilities but will give you the wide angle... i would go for the 35mm 1.8 or see what Minolta lenses you can find on the eBay... :-)

.. if you want to stretch the budget a little the 16-50mm 2.8 lens is a very good lens, almost G quality glass, its the kit lens on the A77 cameras... on amazon for £330..

[rottie102]

...or you could just buy a cheap tripod and make the most of the 18mm of your kit lens? No need for f/1.4 if things are not moving

[JustADay]

I've got a Tamron 17-50mm f2.8 lens on a four year old Sony A290. For the money it performs brilliantly, even on a relatively old budget body like mine. I did a lot of research before buying it and although it won't perform quite as well as the Sony 16-50mm it is substantially cheaper- I got mine for £130 used on eBay. The quality would be a huge step up from the kit lens you have.

[AndWhyNot]

Someone's mentioned eBay, don't rule out buying used. Lots of us have bought from and would recommend the service of MPB Photographic in Brighton who have a small stock of Sony-fit options.

You could start by looking at ( what's available new) and seeing if you can find a used copy. That link's just for Sigma as I wondered if the 35mm f/1.4 was available in Sony fit. It is, but pricey. Clear the filters on the left to view all Sony fit options. There's a couple of f/2.8 wide zooms you might be able to look at.

[pipes]

You should be able to get a Minolta 2.8 28mm lens for about £80.00, my local camers shop had 2 for sale last weekend at that money ( I use this lens and well impressed with results)