List Price: $399.99
Sale Price: $313.00
Today's Bonus: 22% Off
I'm using this lens on a Sony a99 to shoot both stills and video. The lens is manual focus. This means you have to focus it with your hand and watch in the finder until you get it sharp. Really. Tha Sony cameras offer focus peaking which shows you in the finders of the SLT cameras what is in focus by outlining the focused areas in a color. Once you master this technique it's as fast as AF in most situations. This lens has totally manual aperture settings. You turn the aperture ring to change apertures. On the Sony, in auto modes, the camera changes the shutter speed to compensate for changes in aperture so the on screen brightness stays the same. But if you hit the stop down button you see exactly what will be in focus and what won't. I knew about the "restrictions" of this lens going into the purchase. The lens is made for use in video as the aperture ring is clickless so you can change exposures during filming without making noise or excess vibration. Today I shot products with the lens. Here's the good part: The lens is very sharp and images are very well defined. the out of focus areas are just beautiful. The product works exactly as it is supposed to. It feels very solid and seems well built.
The not so good: Trying to find the point of sharp focus while stopped down can be a bit problematic with an electronic viewfinder and a fully manual lens. When I wanted to be certain at f16 I opened the lens up to f4 and fine focused and then stopped down again.
If you must have auto focus and you must have program automation then this lens is so definitely not for you. If you understand the benefits of manually focusing, zone focusing, fine focusing and depth of field control it might be made for you. If you understand the benefit of a de-clicked aperture ring and the above caveats about manual focus and you want a very fast, sharp lens then this is a worthy contender. I like mine on the Sony a99 and I'm using it a lot.
If you are lazy, moving up from a point and shoot, unwilling to learn new stuff. Do not buy this lens. I don't want to read a review from yet another idiot who marks down a perfectly good lens because he doesn't understand the meaning of manual focus......really.
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