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E-mount lenses for a wedding?

Rawfa

Active member
Hi guys,

My sister is getting married in July and I´ll be taking pictures. I´m not a wedding photographer, so I don´t have 2 bodies with different lenses. All I have is a NEX7, a 16mm f2.8, a manual 23mm f1.7, a manual pentax 50mm f1.4 and an e-mount Tamron 18-200mm. As far as I´m concerned there is no fast e-mount zooms around, so I was thinking about getting the Sony 16-50mm f2.8, but using it manually with the NEX7 may not be the best idea in a ceremony full of moving subjects and unmissable emotional moments. I thought about getting the LA-EA2 to go with it, but apparently is lose light with this adapter (also aperture setting for video capture is fixed at the maximum aperture of the lens or f/3.5!) . At the moment I´m thinking the best option would be getting a RX100 for wide angle shots and the the Sony e-mount 50mm 1.8 to go with the NEX.

What are your thoughts?
 
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pegelli

Well-known member
Indeed the 50/1.8 is nice for more close-up shots.

Using A-mount lenses on a NEX kinda defeats the purpose, especially with an adapter the whole thing becomes quite bulky and unbalanced (the 16-50/2.8 is quite big compared to a NEX)

As an alternative to the RX100 maybe get a second hand 3 or 5 and the sigma twins (19/2.8 and 30/2.8) . Both are cracker lenses and not too expensive these days. 2 bodies and 3 primes should work well at a wedding.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
I would also suggest a Sigma 30/2.8 DN. Yes, the 50/1.8 OSS is also good to have around.

In addition, I would strongly suggest this set up for using manual focus lenses:

NEX-6 and a Speed Booster in EF mount. This allows for many lenses to be used. They can be way faster than the E mount lenses and also sharper with better bokeh (depending on the lens).

Also, an old nex to new nex flash adapter and simple, inexpensive radio triggers for remote flash use.

I am not sure an Rx cam is responsive enough for your job. I see a lot of travel snaps made using this one. Perhaps some of those using one can chime in.
 

PenSon

New member
Why not go for the Sony 28-75/2.8 SAM zoom with a Sony adapter? Slow autofocus with LA-EA1 - much much faster with the LA-EA2 adapter.

Trygve
 

mazor

New member
hehe vivek, you are an excellent promoter of speedbooster. I am pretty close to getting one, but, am just enjoying the simple setup of 5n with 40mm 1.4 penf. It is an excellent walk about lens, and has just the right focal length 60mm effective

Rawfa, I too would recommend the 40mm 1.4 penf oly for wedding shot portraits, as it is makes your camera quite discrete, while able to capture lovely portraits with excellent bokeh. This lens too has excellent flare resistance, but has the tendency to be clinical sharp when focus is perfect. Not sure if that is a bad thing ;)

The other lens I would put in your kit would be the sony 16mm pancake. Makes for excellent group shots, but ensure you stop down to f5.6 -8.0 to get the best results especially in the corners. It is a pity about magenta cast issue on the nex 7, otherwise I would have recommended the use of a Voigtlander 15mm f4.5 instead of sony 16mm pancake. It too is another discrete small lens, that is super sharp throughout the frame wide open at 4.5!.
 

Rawfa

Active member
The NEXs´ sensor really keeps me from moving to micro 4/3 (I´ve tried several times and always ended up going back to the NEX and having to resell the micro 4/3 gear), but I look at the micro 4/3 lenses and I drool. I keep looking at the GH3 with the 12-30mm f2.8 but we´re talking about investing around us$2500 plus some heavy heavy import taxes just to find out if it meets my expectations or not. Sigh, maybe one day when they come up with a foveon like design for micro 4/3.
I always shot with manual glass but since I´ve moved to Brazil I´ve started shooting a lot of fast moving subjects under difficult conditions and I really wish Sony, Sigma and Tamron would man up and give us some good AF glass. I´m dying for a constant f2.8 zoom, a less expensive 23mm (or 24mm) f1.8 and a 80mm f1.8.
Also, for me having a bunch of expensive cameras is just technological lust. Even though I can afford it I just won´t do it.
 

mazor

New member
yes rawfa, even though micro 4/3 has the lens, you have to keep remembering, that f2.8 on 2.0x crop sensor equates to f4.0 on a nex sensor in terms of depth of field. This really only applies to bokeh fans :)

So in reality if micro 4/3 wants to compete against the likes of full frame big cams like Canon and Nikon, they need a 12-30mm constant aperture 1.4 to have similar bokeh and depth of field as a 24-70 f2.8 full frame lens.

For non bokeh fans, micro 4/3 is ideal, plus the 12-30mm 2.8 means it is a excellent zoom for low light.
 

mazor

New member
For moving subject rawfa, I would still recommend the likes of a nikon or Canon entry level DSLR, as it seems Phase base AF on sensor, is still not on par with the likes of dedicated phase based DSLRs, especially when it comes to tracking moving subjects.
 

Rawfa

Active member
Mazor, instead of getting an entry level DSLR wouldn´t it be more practical for me to get an LA-EA2?
 

mazor

New member
Yes la-e2 is good, but Sony traditionally have never been that good at tracking AF. Even the likes of a900 and a99 have been never been as good as Canon or Nikon for sports tracking.
 

Rawfa

Active member
Even though the new Sigma 60mm 2.8 is not a super fast lens I´m very curious about it. Sigma has surprised me with some very affordable quality glass for the NEX mount.
 
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