Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
Working with the Sony 7 series for over a year now we get some interesting choices in what type of lenses we can use and what brands as well as all you really need are some adapters. But having said that there has been a shortage of Native FE lenses so we are forced to look elsewhere until very recently. Now I have been one of those grandfathers to the alternative movement for many years when I had Canons than Leica, Nikon and now on to Sony. Sometimes its fun and sometimes its a hassle. Guess that depends on your way of working. One thing in almost every system I have been associated with the wide angle options are fairly few. So lets look at what you can do with Sonys. In the extreme wide area is the hardest hit by choices. There is the Zeiss 15mm 2.8 a very very nice super wide and maybe the big daddy of the super wides. Its big, its heavy and its damn expensive, BUT its dang good. If you went the cheapest route than Samyang/Rokinion 14mm is your choice BUT its big, cheap, hard to focus and worst of all a boat load of distortion. And no you can't let that slide by you need to fix it. Again though it is actually very good in IQ with regards to sharpness. Actually pretty amazing since it is so cheap compared to the Zeiss. Now if you turn to Nikon and Canon with adapters there is a bunch but even Canons 14mm and Nikons 14mm where never that great given the price. Truly one of the best super wides is the Canon 17MM TSE but again big , heavy but the quality is great and its a Tilt /shift lens which is dang nice to have but not hike 5 miles with. LOL
Not to mention its about a half a kidneys worth when it comes to body part value in dollars. LOL
Now there are others and most notably the Sony 16-35 F4 zoom which I just sold but have to say I liked that lens at the extremes of 16mm and its very nice to at least 24mm after that it gets soft. Some maybe okay with that but Im not. So in my quest to get the best 35mm focal length I bought the FE 35mm F 1.4 which not sure any 35mm lens can touch it even on a good day. Than I decided to sell the 16-35 for the Batis 25mm which is looking to be outstanding. Than I was caught with my pants down and have no extreme wide. Than I started thinking, very dangerous for me to actually think about lenses as one of the best gear sluts in the west I don't know a lens I have not slept with. LOL
And sure enough a old friend came to mind from my Leica M days and the Voigtlander 12mm and 15mm and they just upgraded the 15mm to version III made for digital and made to improve on the corner and vignetting issues of the past versions. Here to tell you they solved that and the scary part its better than what i thought it would be. BONUS TIME
I also bought the Metabones adapter used from Samy's. Now there are two Closeup adapters made one from Hawk and another from VC itself. They look interesting but closeup on a super wide is getting out there in the art world. LOL
Strange even without the closeup adapter you can get dang close. Somethings maybe to close, think a bad breath Lion in your face. Thanks but Ill pass, you get the idea but they are options if you want to get so close your readers actually don't work. ROTFLMAO
Anyway i went out and did my usual boring test of the same damn thing I always test a lens with first thing. I know boring as all hell but I shot so many lenses against this thing I can go back in my memory banks and can compare to others. I also get a feel for vignetting, corner sharpness, color and tone.
Not to mention its about a half a kidneys worth when it comes to body part value in dollars. LOL
Now there are others and most notably the Sony 16-35 F4 zoom which I just sold but have to say I liked that lens at the extremes of 16mm and its very nice to at least 24mm after that it gets soft. Some maybe okay with that but Im not. So in my quest to get the best 35mm focal length I bought the FE 35mm F 1.4 which not sure any 35mm lens can touch it even on a good day. Than I decided to sell the 16-35 for the Batis 25mm which is looking to be outstanding. Than I was caught with my pants down and have no extreme wide. Than I started thinking, very dangerous for me to actually think about lenses as one of the best gear sluts in the west I don't know a lens I have not slept with. LOL
And sure enough a old friend came to mind from my Leica M days and the Voigtlander 12mm and 15mm and they just upgraded the 15mm to version III made for digital and made to improve on the corner and vignetting issues of the past versions. Here to tell you they solved that and the scary part its better than what i thought it would be. BONUS TIME
I also bought the Metabones adapter used from Samy's. Now there are two Closeup adapters made one from Hawk and another from VC itself. They look interesting but closeup on a super wide is getting out there in the art world. LOL
Strange even without the closeup adapter you can get dang close. Somethings maybe to close, think a bad breath Lion in your face. Thanks but Ill pass, you get the idea but they are options if you want to get so close your readers actually don't work. ROTFLMAO
Anyway i went out and did my usual boring test of the same damn thing I always test a lens with first thing. I know boring as all hell but I shot so many lenses against this thing I can go back in my memory banks and can compare to others. I also get a feel for vignetting, corner sharpness, color and tone.
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