Looks weird, but image quality is the main point here.
Built quality was good. Metal body and weighted nicely even when mounted on my camera. I did not have any problems handling the camera with one hand. However, I did feel the zoom ring a bit stiff, maybe because it's still a new lens. The manual focusing ring was smooth though. Some test shots using the lens, at f5.6
18mm, or 27mm on Nex.
200mm. The sharpness was good in my own opinion.
18mm.
200mm.
Crop tryout.
Original size.
Cropped!
Then, I tried the Sony LA-EA1 adapter. It enables Sony's A-mount lenses to be mounted on Nex, but no AF. This month however, Sony will be releasing new firmwares for it's Nex and also for the adapter. The best thing is, the firmware for the adapter will finally enables auto-focusing. Yay! Only Sony's SSM and SAM lenses will have AF support when the firmware is out.
Retails for RM599. Street price is much cheaper.
Phil from Mega Avit asked me what lens that I want to mount, and with a big smile I asked for the Zeiss 24-70 f2.8. This beast was heavy and pricey but image quality was exceptional. Nex's MF assist helped manual focusing very easy on the big LCD.
24mm at f2.8.
70mm at f2.8.
As much as I like the image quality and the range of the SEL18-200, the price made me think more than twice to get it. It is retailed at RM2399. How I wish Sony released the lens earlier with the camera + lens combo. Having said that, I did some thinking and finally I think I have made quite a sensible choice for my kit setup. I just purchased a used LA-EA1 adapter and SAL 55-200 SAM for less than RM1k and both will arrive at the end of this week. I will then have a decent kit in the bag with the 16mm, 18-55mm, the 35mm 1.7 and the 55-200 SAM, just nice for general photography.
I had the LA-EA1 plus the SAL 55-200 SAM for a couple of weeks and decided to returned them as they did not satisfied my requirements. The combination of a NEX camera with the SAL lens does not provide an Image Stabilizer. Pretty usless in mind unless you want go around with a tripod all the time.
ReplyDeleteHi. Then is the adaptor compatible with any Minolta lens with AF?
ReplyDelete