glenwells's reviews
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Sony FE 24-70mm f/4 ZA OSS Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* SEL2470Z
9 out of 10 points and recommended24mm wide angle excellent 50mmsoft in corners at 24mm f4 to f5.6Almost bought this lens twice before but put off by mixed reviews, especially early ones when the lens was £1200!!
reviewed January 15th, 2016 (purchased for $539)
Just bought one as of Jan 2016. Prices have come right down - new £539 after shopping around. Better value/per performance balance at that price.
I have the 28-70mm kit lens that came as a kit which was £775 all in so not too fussed about upping to the Zeiss.
The Zeiss 24-70mm lens then - build quality is very good it is a little bit larger than the 28-70mm but I guess you got to squeeze in the extra 4mm at the wide end and accommodate the F4 at the tele end.
I believe that my 'copy' of the lens is as good as can be expected with no issues that could be blamed on poor QC.
I have to disagree with the poor sharpness test results here, mine is more as the one scored on DXO when viewing the 'field map' view but with a much better 70mm end - was their copy duff?.
Ditortion is there in RAW which brings its own issues but I have Adobe RAW set to auto correct for me a not a problem. Others will debate loss of detail due to the corrections needed on jpg but many lenses do that in camera now.
The lens is great from wide open at 35mm and 50mm impressive IMO.
At the 24mm end the corners are soft until f5.6 where they are fine and they keep improving up to about F11ish. The 24mm corner softness has been raised loudly in the reviews that I have read, I can appreciate that especially when the lens was selling at £1200.
For me the soft corner at 24mm F4 is less of an issue as when I am using that combination I am usually focusing on a subject and its surrounding will be blurred off by brokeh anyhow. I guess there are pelnty of brick walls that will look terrible at 24mm F4 in the corners (joke).
I have had many camera systems and different lenses over the years and even some 'quality' primes I have owned have been soft in the corners at the widest aperture needing stopped down a bit to make them shine.
The lens is better than the kit lens at all focal lengths and at all apertures. I am glass that I shrugged off the negatives and bought it. It has not been off the camera since I got it. -
Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 XR Di VC LD Aspherical IF Macro AF
9 out of 10 points and recommendedSize, weight, VC, convenience,not 'tack' sharp at 300mm wide openI am a realist and read a lot about this lens prior to purchase. I have a 5DII and 6 lenses - 3 of which were expensive. It is all in a large now heavy camera bag. I stopped taking the 5DII out because of the weight and taking 2 or more lenses. I was taking a Sony NEX instead.
reviewed September 25th, 2013 (purchased for $400)
Love the 5DII had it 4 years now, after a lot of time pondering I took the plunge and bought a nearly new Tamron 28-300mm VC.
I am very pleased with it. Pictures up to 200mm a very nice especially stopped down a little which I do anyway as I usually shoot in Aperture mode.
At the 300mm end it is not sharp at 6.3 but improves after that and my lense is fine at F8 and beyond. When taking in distance there are more issues such at haze etc to be concerned about at that focal length.
Using the lens on the 5DII also means that when I review my shots viewed at about 40% image size equates to an A2 print on my computer screen. Also showing pics on my TV which is big screen the pics look good.
I have done a couple of A2 prints now and to me they look great plenty of detail and sharpness.
As stated the size of the lens, wight great VC all as I had hoped.
What it has done for me has got me out using the 5DII again rather than other cameras.
As a bonus the 5DII recognises the lens and does in camera peripheral illumination so in jpg it sorts out any vignetting!
What I did read is that due to manufacturing tolerances there are differing degrees of lens quality I guess I am fortunate and mine is fine. I did try an old non VC version about 5 or 6 years ago on my old 5D but it was a lemon and was returned.
The VC is very good but not silent and you actually see the image stop moving about in your viewfinder.
Focus is quick enough but slows down a little as light drops off.
For me personally I love the lens, it does what it says on the tin and I have no issues with the images viewed on computer, TV or printed up to A2.
I am a cured 200% pixel peeper though! -
Sony E 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 PZ OSS SELP1650
9 out of 10 points and recommendedsize, price,distortion in RAWI have become increasingly fond of this lens.
reviewed August 14th, 2013 (purchased for $180)
Ok it has distortion and vignetting in RAW but one click adjustments are available in Lightroom and Photoshop.
The lens I have is giving good performance across the zoom range and I am satisfied with the performance across the frame into the corners. I feel it does better than the SLRgear report gadget states.
The lens I have does have the querk of being softest in the exteme corners wide open and at F8 as per the review but it is quite tolerable and f5.6 gives good performance.
Sixe is very good and on my NEX-6 it allows me to have the camera in a small belt pouch when out on my bike or walking which is great for an APSC camera with a zoom lens!
For the price it is definitely worth it and does not deserve the negative press. In the past I have had two NEX kit lenses and it is better in my opinion, RAW aside, and has a really useful 24mm wide end.
However, this is the second one I owned as the first one had quality issues but the one I have now is great. Maybe factory quality issues have contributed to its early cool reception.
Spend 90% of the time on the camera.
