A really subjective, but sincere question... how's the bokeh with the kit lens? I'm looking at the A7 for portrait work and want a nice shallow DOF.
1421742
if you are asking about bokeh, then you will not be satisfied with the kit lens. the kit lens is extremely sharp with fast focusing but lacks in bokeh. i use a zeiss 50 1.5 with a leica adapter as my regular point and shoot setup and shooting it at 1.5 gives me great bokeh but it's a manual focus setup. if you have to have auto focus then i would look at the other lenses but the kite lens is not for you.
1421743
I went from shooting with a bridge camera with a pretty small sensor to the A7's full size sensor, and the change was significant. I was back to my old days with a 35mm camera. You won't have trouble getting nice bokeh, even with the kit lens. You'll actually have to make sure you have enough depth of field with certain shots, especially if you've been shooting with anything smaller than a micro four thirds camera.
1421744
I used the kit lens for an actor friend's headshots. At 70mm f5.6 the DOF is very shallow and works for portraits. The headshots were excellent.
220608
The extra stop is amazing... 70mm frames a head and shoulders from 10 feet or so... Works great with my lighting set up and excels in low light... If you want tighter shots from longer distances, the 105 would be the pick! Most portrait photographers prefer 85mm to 105mm- the f/4 just may not give you the background blur you may want... the 70mm-200M f/2.8 L IS II is another awesome choice...
1431406
I too am only into photography as a rather serious hobby. When I bought the a7 my principal motivation was upgrading to a full frame camera. It has lots of great features and, overall, is a very fine piece of equipment. My only complaint is that Sony seems reluctant to furnish its camera with lenses made for the camera. There is a whole menagerie of lenses that sort of work with it, many requiring an adapter. I bought the rather pricy 200mm lens that is made for the a7, it is a very good lens, but really over priced. I admit that I am prejudiced in favor of Nikon products. In fact, some months after getting the a7 I could not resist Nikon's new D750. I attached my 28-300 zoom lens to it and use it as very versatile "walk around" camera, and the a7 now mostly rests in a drawer along with my old Nikon 7000. One undeniable advantage of the a7 is how small and light it is. Getting rid of the mirror for focusing was really a neat trick.
1078010
Low light with the kit lens is pretty bad. At f3.5 even with image stabilization you have to crank the ISO up. I'm talking on the beach by torchlight low light mind you. I mostly use the Sigma 19mm and 30mm f2.8 and the extra stop makes it a lot better. I'm sure with the Panasonic 25mm f1.4 this camera shines in low light. I recently took my G5 with 19mm to a gaming convention and the pics turned out really well.
8519
I am a proud owner of a 7D and I have spent many hours taking pictures with it. I made the plung and bought a nice "EF 24-105mm f4.0 IS L" lense and it is awesome... just wonderful. The new lense really improved the quality of the pictures that I have taken... My advise... keep the 7D's and get some quality glass..
555744
I would suggest reading the reviews on BHPHOTO website, they are usually very objective and helpful. Sony makes a 35mm for the a7 that is not a Carl Zeiss and is cheaper.
1787338
Any thoughts for general / home photography? I have a Digital Rebel XSI and recently bought the 70-200 mm F2.8 IS version mainly to photograph school events without the annoying flash, and take closeups of my rapidly-growing kids. I have been going back and forth between the two lenses (24-70 F2.8 vs. 24-105 F4.0 IS) but my instinct is that F2.8 is much better than F 4 even with IS. Any guidance appreciated from a professional.
40106
In short. How much bokeh effecf there is. How much is in focus.. The 1.4 will blur your background more than the 1.8. I have the 1.8 and it works great for me.
1853584
The '6' has a maximum aperture of f1.4 vs f2.0 for the '5'. To me, this is a huge advantage. Much greater control over Bokeh. I have an M9 and a Digilux 3. I use the 6 the most.
1463261
Did you ever get a lens? I'm making the same decision now. If so, what did you buy? Are you happy with your decision? Is there anything else you would add that would help me make a decision. Thanks!
1474695
Not that this will be of much help, but I'm with you. Ordered a 24mm 1.4 (later returned) expecting the same jaw-dropping results I get from the 85mm 1.4 and it's just not there that I can see. As far as your suggestion of getting closer to your subject for pop - sure, a wide angle lens will really exaggerate the perceived depth of a shot. That's how I'd roll with it for the most part; 2' from the subject (more for DX frame), avoiding top and bottom when shooting vertical (unless you want that edge distortion; maybe not so bad on DX). The sharpness you're looking for also won't exist until you get close enough to your subject to give eyelashes and things of that nature some pixels to work with. At 85mm, it pulls these details in and paints them across, say, 5% of the frame or more. With the 24mm you may be talking about less than 1% of the pixels dedicated to what you're looking for details in. I've seen some REALLY spectacular night landscape images that were made with this lens. Also, the bokeh that lens produces is right on par with the 85mm. The issues I had with the 24mm (and the reasons I returned it) were failure to find focus at 1.4 no matter how much I helped it along and a general lack of spectacular sharpness at 1.4. At this end of the price spectrum, this has to be gold. It's real close, and quite nice at 2.8, but so are lots of lenses at 2.8. That said, I've still got this lens on my mind. If it were a 20mm 1.4 I'd just suck it up and do it. At 24 there are some other close options out there.
1298993
Quite happy. I had a K10D previously (still have it as backup) and have a pretty good complement of lenses because of that. I feel like I am getting more out of the other lenses because of the K-3. I was out shooting with the long lens (300-500mm zoom) last weekend, and saw the benefits. Still feel like I am on learning curve, but have no regrets.
2064282
if you want bokeh, then a wide angle- lens such as this is not the lens to choose. This is a good lens if you want something wider than a 35mm but that will not distort. I chose it because i needed to shoot interiors and buildings. For excellent bokeh, you could use a Leica 25mm.
1372847
Its is a bit bulky but you can handle it. It has a very good built and the focus ring is very very smooth. Take in consideration that it does´t have Image Stabilization so you will not be able to shake it too much. It´s very sharp and the bokeh is beautiful. Totally recommended.
1784428
I use my 24-70 for just about everthing, it is a great lens. I have done portraits, events, weddings and my own stuff while on vacations. Your only other real alternatives are primes. (85mm, 50mm and the 70-200mm) The pics come out of the 24-70 really sharp, the bokeh is great and the contrast is really eye opening if you have metered your shots correctly... Hope this helps..Phil
364835
Basically just more distance. In my opinion, i never ever use the kit lens, so get the cheaper one and get a couple primes with much much better quality. Thats just my opinion. Honestly, just watch some reviews and based off what kind of photography you're doing its your call!
1966946
I ended up going for the Sigma. So far I'm pretty happy with it; focus seems OK on my T1i, and the lens seems quite well put together. Not getting dinged extra for a bag and a lens hood is nice too.