Re: Fun with the Sony A7 Series Cameras( all of them)
Congrats Barry, i am sure you will not regret this lens. The 35 end is still perfectly useable for me.
Looking forward to more posts and impressions from you and comparisons with the WATE.
Many thanks Werner
...Obviously not had the lens long and no serious testing carried out yet in decent lighting conditions that is.
So I will give you and anybody else who may be interested in just my initial impressions (you obviously know most of this already Werner so please excuse).
Well the Sony lens is a fair bit larger than the WATE 335g but in terms of the weight itself it's about a draw by the time you add a Voigtlander close-up adapter 125g (to be on par with the Sony lens for focusing close up) and if you like to carry around the Leica filter holder (+ lens cap) circa 35g as an accessory as I do (Total...WATE 495g vs 16-35mm 518g).
The Leica lens filter is a royal pain in the ar$e IMHO with it's slots and rear lighting internal reflections, it needs to be blacked out to be truly effective on ANY camera IMHO...I have been through all this before so I won't repeat it all over again.
Both lenses feel reassuringly solid in the hand...I have never been a big fan of the Leica focusing tab as many are. I find it sticks in your hands after prolonged carrying it around all day (I personally prefer the more comfortable smoother nub on Zeiss ZM lenses although probably not as precise in guesstimating pre-focussing).
I'll cut to the chase regards the IQ of the two lenses optically the WATE is still king between 16-21mm from what I have seen so far to date (I still need to do proper testing in decent lighting to be fair to the Sony). I am more than familiar with the WATE's IQ which is better in the center and the corners in terms of resolution from what I have seen so far to date, it also handles flare better and shows less distortion and CA...although the latter two can be corrected later as we all know....BTW, I haven't got around yet to adding the 16-35mm LR Sony profile.
Now for the good news with the Sony!...All FL's are perfectly useable as you say Werner, although the sweet spot looks to be around 18-24mm which you mentioned earlier (I'm quite happy to sensor crop and lose some of the soft corners with the 36mp's of the A7R)...I rarely use 16mm on the WATE so that is good news for me (I purchased the WATE as I didn't want to lug around both the 18mm and 21mm Distagons).
I like the Zeiss colours better than the Leica but that is a personal taste.
Manual focusing with the Sony is very nice, the ring has a nice feel about it with some decent resistance (not jerky at all).
I have noticed in the past some colour shift creeping in on the corners at 16mm on the WATE...The Sony looks to be colour shift free in my short time with it.
My eyes are not getting better with age, so I now find myself relying upon AF more often than I used to....In poor lighting conditions (Night time and churches) I normally still open the WATE up to F4 to focus then stop back down to F8 and then recompose my image...The Sony focuses pretty accurately in the dark going by last night with no messing about, I was pleasantly surprised looking at the pictures later, likewise the OSS is a real boom for me as you know I'm not a big fan of using tripod's when it gets dark.
I find AF and the tilt screen just great for getting down low and focusing rather than relying on the DoF scales which are not that precise IMHO on the WATE.
As a walk around lens the "extra" 21-35mm is just great for convenience if you are happy to sacrifice some IQ over the primes...My Contax 28mm Distagon and Voigtlander do a "much" better job in terms of IQ than the Sony but the downside is carrying around all that extra weight!
Value for money the Sony is an excellent lens compared to the WATE (1/4 of the price). If I was being robbed I would hand over the Sony but probably fight to the death hanging on to the WATE! (Buy a Sony it could save your life :ROTFL: )...My intention was to sell one of them but I now find myself wanting to keep both of them!
The Sony 16-35mm makes a great versatile travel lens and is more fun to use than the WATE ...Personally I wish it had been designed as a 16-28mm with better IQ as I'm going to carry around a fast 35mm lens with me anyway.
So there you have it...I won't ramble on any longer hope that gives some insight into my thoughts so far...Cheers Barry