Oh Dear . . What HAVE I done?

[Pirate!!]

Ahoy!

Like the photocomp subject 'addiction', I've been placing the odd 'bet' on THAT auction site and . . err . . umm . . seem to have 'acquired' a number of lenses.

It aint over yet either! I'm usually as fortunate as a 3 legged dog, with one ear missing, that walks with a limp, blind in one eye and answers to the name of 'LUCKY'. Except that I keep winning . . even when I bid someone in the nads in a 'best offer' sale.

My old trout is going to go ballistic! I'm going to need a bigger signature block for all this stuff!

Oh dear . . oh dear . . . I might have to hold an 'excess to requirements' sale for A-mount KM/Sony fit lenses.

My @$$ is history.

[Just call me Al]

Pop down Lulworth Cove (the bay next to e'bay) Jim lad, & bury excessive treasure, away from prying eyes. Oh Ah.

[loz]

Be wise with your money.

Better to have one really good lens than several naff ones...

[bodoman]

Have i got a lens for you Pirate

Been down the same route, but have enjoyed the fun.

Being as i got the Alpha + 17-70 sigma for nothing, and then sold the Leica D2 i as was sitting here with a wad of cash and as far as i was concerned it was for having fun with.

To cut a long story short, i ended up with the following.

Minolta 70-21 F4 (Beercan)
Minolta 50mm F1.7
Sigma Af 400, 5.6 APO
Sigma 600mm F8 Mirror Lens
Plus 72mm CPL, Tamrac Bag, Remote Release.

Had some fun playing with them , now the len,s are going and time to get sensible as i remembered when i had my film slr i only had 2 lens,s, sigma 35-70 and 70-210 and never hankered after any other and was quite happy with these for about 18 years.

Sold the Beercan and putting the other 3 on ebay after crimbo, probably will loose some dough on the deal but i am not bothered, i owned and played with them for a while, nobody went hungry or suffered from my little period of madness.

I am going back to having just 2 len,s again as i dont take that many photos i just enjoy doing it when i do.
Going to keep the Sigma 17-70 i got with the Alpha and have just bought another lens for megabucks on ebay a Minolta 80-200 2.8 Apo high speed job.

Hopefully i wont have to buy any more lens as i retire in a couple of years with no company pension and a pathethic private one to live on and wont be able to justify spending big money on hobbies, at least i have enjoyed buying and owning some nice things and dont regret any of it

[Liquid101]

Originally Posted by loz

Better to have one really good lens than several naff ones...

Wise words indeed

[hot-fuzz]

Originally Posted by loz

Be wise with your money.

Better to have one really good lens than several naff ones...

That is the best advice i could give anyone after spending £900 on 4 mediocre lenses when i could have bought 1 1/2 decent lenses (and saved fo rthe other half)

[springtide]

OK then, spill the beans.. What have you bought? :D

So you currently have...

Minolta AF 50mm f1.7
---------------------
I assume your 50mm is still staying, unless you now have the f1.4?


Sony 18-70mm Macro
---------------------
Got the CZ 16-80 Or maybe the Tam 17-50 f2.8 ?


Sigma 55-200mm f4-5.6 DC
--------------------------
Oh, a long lens. I don't do long lenses. Maybe the Sig 50-150mm f2.8?
Or KM Beercan?


Sigma 70-300mm APO DG Macro
-------------------------------
I have no idea. Though the Sigma 55-200 is a long lens IMO. I get panic attacks when I go over 100mm Think I like the look at that Sony 70-200 f2.8 too much!


Or have you got yourself a nice range of CZ primes? A proper prime macro?

BTW - I've just sold my KM 7D for £286 on Ebay. Not bad for a 6MP DSLR that's now a 4 year old design!

[Pirate!!]

Originally Posted by springtide

OK then, spill the beans.. What have you bought? :D

So you currently have...

Minolta AF 50mm f1.7
---------------------
I assume your 50mm is still staying, unless you now have the f1.4?


Sony 18-70mm Macro
---------------------
Got the CZ 16-80 Or maybe the Tam 17-50 f2.8 ?


Sigma 55-200mm f4-5.6 DC
--------------------------
Oh, a long lens. I don't do long lenses. Maybe the Sig 50-150mm f2.8?
Or KM Beercan?


Sigma 70-300mm APO DG Macro
-------------------------------
I have no idea. Though the Sigma 55-200 is a long lens IMO. I get panic attacks when I go over 100mm Think I like the look at that Sony 70-200 f2.8 too much!


Or have you got yourself a nice range of CZ primes? A proper prime macro?

BTW - I've just sold my KM 7D for £286 on Ebay. Not bad for a 6MP DSLR that's now a 4 year old design!

Well the Sigma 55-200mm f/4-5.6 DC was one of them which arrived this morning. The next 2 are:

Tokina 70-210mm f/4-5.6 and a Minolta 28-85mm 3.5 - 4.5 (Macro).

Then there are all the others I might end up winning.

I'm looking to cover the middle ground in the focal length from there the kit Sony lens ended and my 70-300mm began. What I'll do is try them all out and may farm one or more out once I've decided which will be keepers. The Sigma 55-200mm is brand new too! The Minolta is looking favourite at the moment, but I'll wait and see after 'road testing' them all. Each has good user reviews.

The Minolta AF 50mm is a corker of a lens, and the Sigma 70-300mm is great for aircraft shots. I could use a really short lens, but have been outbid time and again, so the kit lens will have to do for now.

[Pirate!!]

Originally Posted by bodoman

Have i got a lens for you Pirate

Been down the same route, but have enjoyed the fun.

Being as i got the Alpha + 17-70 sigma for nothing, and then sold the Leica D2 i as was sitting here with a wad of cash and as far as i was concerned it was for having fun with.

To cut a long story short, i ended up with the following.

Minolta 70-21 F4 (Beercan)
Minolta 50mm F1.7
Sigma Af 400, 5.6 APO
Sigma 600mm F8 Mirror Lens
Plus 72mm CPL, Tamrac Bag, Remote Release.

Had some fun playing with them , now the len,s are going and time to get sensible as i remembered when i had my film slr i only had 2 lens,s, sigma 35-70 and 70-210 and never hankered after any other and was quite happy with these for about 18 years.

Sold the Beercan and putting the other 3 on ebay after crimbo, probably will loose some dough on the deal but i am not bothered, i owned and played with them for a while, nobody went hungry or suffered from my little period of madness.

I am going back to having just 2 len,s again as i dont take that many photos i just enjoy doing it when i do.
Going to keep the Sigma 17-70 i got with the Alpha and have just bought another lens for megabucks on ebay a Minolta 80-200 2.8 Apo high speed job.

Hopefully i wont have to buy any more lens as i retire in a couple of years with no company pension and a pathethic private one to live on and wont be able to justify spending big money on hobbies, at least i have enjoyed buying and owning some nice things and dont regret any of it

Have you seen the price of some of the Minolta 'G' lenses? Minolta made some minty fast/wide aperture glass, but you will have to sell a kidney to but one these days!

[Brammers]

Going to have to break my self-imposed posting ban for a quick natter on A-mount stuff here.

My lineup reads:

Sigma 20/1.8
Minolta 35/2 RS
Minolta 50/1.4 RS
Minolta 58/1.2 MC
Carl Zeiss 135 1.8
Beercan (old, knackered one I got for £40)

I've recently rid myself of a Sigma 18-125 (great value, but I'm an all prime man now) and a Minolta 135 2.8 (really is a pocket rocket, but I got the 1.8)

Springtide, how do you rate your CZ? The... how to put this? More vocal crowd over at DPreview have been whinging about build quality and manufacturing variations for aaaaaaages, but tbh I place little faith in David Kilpatrick and the like... Care to give me a quick run-down? It's a little slower than I'm used to, but everyone says the IQ is absolutely stunning. Any focussing errors at wideangle? I did get backfocus on my 7D, but I'm atributing that to dropping it one too many times...

And what about your Sigma 105? Those are going really cheaply on ebay atm, last one was only £150. Quite tempted for that price...

Bodoman - I really want to know how your 80-200 HS goes - the consensus is that it focuses faster than the 70-200 SSM. How's the IQ? Is it really big and heavy? Or is it doable? I won't be buying another lens for quite a while now, and an STF is probably next on the list followed by an 85, but something like that would be great if the lottery came out right.

Pirate, what do you want a 55-200, 70-210 AND a 70-300 for??? I'm not sure I'd class the 28-85 as a step up from the 18-70 either... The middle ground between your 18-70 and 70-300? Do you mean you want something smaller than the 70-300?

Be careful - while buying and selling high quality lenses won't lose you money (I bought my 135, sold it for a profit, and its new owner has just sold it for a further profit...), the cheap stuff can do... Wouldn't want you to end up with a load of duplicate stuff that you then can't shift!

So... What else is coming? :P

[Pirate!!]

Originally Posted by Brammers

Pirate, what do you want a 55-200, 70-210 AND a 70-300 for??? I'm not sure I'd class the 28-85 as a step up from the 18-70 either... The middle ground between your 18-70 and 70-300? Do you mean you want something smaller than the 70-300?

Quite. My kit 18-70mm and Sigma 70-300mm end and start @ 70mm, so I was looking for something that I could use as a walkabout lens that started and ended somewhere in between both . . say circa 35/50mm to circa 150/200mm. As it turns out, I got more than I bargained for which is OK as I'll trial all of them and decide which will be keeper(s) and move the other(s) on. So I started to bid on multiple lenses after researching them on Dyxum.

I won a Tokina 70-210mm (which was a 'best offer' price - bid the vendor in the nads and still was accepted) and a Minolta 28-85mm (Macro). I think I'll be keeping the Minolta 28-85mm anyway and decide between the Tokina and Sigma.

I'll let you know in due course. The problem is of course that the Tokina starts @ 70mm, so it looks favourite to go at the moment.

[Alan Westy]

Talking of 3 legged dogs Here's a picture of our 3 legged dog called Lucky (He's still got both eyes and ears though), He was called Lucky before he got knocked down, we rescued him from the vets as the lady he was with at the time broke her neck in the accident, and could'nt look after him any more.

[springtide]

Originally Posted by Brammers

Springtide, how do you rate your CZ? The... how to put this? More vocal crowd over at DPreview have been whinging about build quality and manufacturing variations for aaaaaaages, but tbh I place little faith in David Kilpatrick and the like... Care to give me a quick run-down? It's a little slower than I'm used to, but everyone says the IQ is absolutely stunning. Any focussing errors at wideangle? I did get backfocus on my 7D, but I'm atributing that to dropping it one too many times...

And what about your Sigma 105? Those are going really cheaply on ebay atm, last one was only £150. Quite tempted for that price...

IMO

Too early for me to say about the quality CZ 16-80. Only had it a couple of weeks and have used it, well for a few shots in the house.
Seems to focus nice and quickly on my A700 and images seem pretty sharp. But haven't really given it a real test yet.
Build quality of the CZ 16-80, well not the best but it's not terrible. I personally think that it's not as good as my Tam 17-50, but there again think it's about the same (if not slightly better) than the Canon EF 17-55 f/2.8 IS USM which is a £650 lens. I don't think either the CZ or the Canon is built that badly, just a little to much plastic for most people's liking.
I got the 16-80 lens after recommentations over at DynaxDigital, and just wanted a slightly longer lens for walking about over the Tam 17-50. Will still keep the 17-50 when I want the f/2.8. Shame isn't it, you can never have everything!

The Sig 105 is a cracking lens. Can't really praise it enough really, but there again it was my first prime. Not used it yet on the A700, but did use it a lot on my 7D.

Here's a pict taken with the Sig 105 (cropped) of a Grape Hyacinth on my 7D..
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/197/4...3da2d815_o.jpg
Haven't embedded the image, as it's the full res version.

I hope that helps.


Pirate!!@

If I'm honest, I still don't really understand what range you are trying to cover.

Lens reviews (to compare) can be found at:
http://www.photozone.de/active/surve...r%20AF'%22

It sounds like you are trying to cover a hugh range with a single walk about lens. If this is the case, you'd be maybe better of looking at the Tam 18-250 (the 18-250 gets better reviews than the 18-200), as it probably offers similar quality and speed to the Sig 55-200.

Better quality altenatives to the 55-200, would be the Sig 50-150 f2.8.

The Tam 24-135 is OK (a step up from the kit) and can be found cheaply on Ebay. It's reasonably sharp (obviously not as good as the 17-50) but a bit slow to focus. Full frame though, which makes it a bit of a beast.
I assume the Sig 18-125 is of similar quality as someone previously stated.

I will probably sell my 24-135 at some point and get either the Sig 50-150 or maybe the Sig 70-200 (f2.8s) but I don't use "zoom" very much so it's way down my shopping list.

As I said, I don't really think I truely understand what you are looking for so probably haven't been much help, that is if you were asking for help!

[Pirate!!]

OK, if I had my Sony kit lens I can go up to 70mm . . if I take my 70-300mm Sigma, I start at 70mm. It's a walkabout compromise lens that will afford a degree of wideangle and a tad of zoom as unless I'm out and about with my entire camera bag's contents often I can find myself in front of a building where a wideangle would be handy or sometimes in front of a bird or similar where a bit of zoom is needed.

It's no big deal, just a means to an end. I do on occasion take my camera in the car 'just in case', hence a middling range lens.

I can't afford a collection of quality primes. Mind you, for what it's worth, I have been giving the newly aquired Sigma 55-200mm a bit a go, and it's surprisingly not that bad! I'll post a review on Dyxum in the near future.

[bodoman]

Originally Posted by Pirate!!

Have you seen the price of some of the Minolta 'G' lenses? Minolta made some minty fast/wide aperture glass, but you will have to sell a kidney to but one these days!

Sorry the lens is a G lens (white), i can still operate with one kidney and as soon as the stitches come out, i will be out and about with the lens