Which lens to use?

[ACDer]

Hi. I purchased a Sony a230 with the standard package 18-55 mm lens. My old camera is a Minolta 400si Maxxum with a 35-70mm lens that came with it. For day to day use-which lens will work best? Should I swap in the Minolta or stay with the Sony? Thanks!

[DonSchap]

It depends on how sharp the 35-70mm f/4 is. They vary. You need to conduct some focus tests at 10 feet with both lens set to similar lengths ... 35mm & 50mm, same aperture = f/4

The Minolta AF 35-70mm f/4 will not allow for focusing closer than 3-feet. The SONY AF 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 DT will allow as close as 1.5-feet.

You can decide from there. It pays to know the limitations of your gear.

You might just want to pop for a $159 TAMRON AF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 Di LD zoom lens. It will give you some range and deliver a reasonable looking center focus. Again, the minimum focus distance on this lens is 5-feet.

[Anbesol]

Tough call, the 35-70 has excellent color, is an excellent portrait lens and better range than 18-55 for portraiture. Like Don said, sharpness test, the 35-70 is certainly better than the 18-70 kit I got, bu the new SAM 18-55 is a lot better than that one.

At least, the 35-70 is a constant f/4, which is marginally faster and marginally more convenient to meter off of. Alas, 35mm is a terrible starting wide for a lot of general purpose. My guess would be - 18-55 for general use, 35-70 for portrait and more specialty.

Get yourself a 50mm f/1.7 too, best starters lens in my opinion.

[jimkerosh]

I love this camera. Tested other cameras in the same price range, but prefer this one. A great image. I used to shoot on 35mm SLR, so do not bother me that the LCD screen does not display what you are shooting. The only con for me is that there is still usually need themes and images come out blurry when your subject is moving very quickly, what were not well lit. However, it helps that you can adjust the shutter and aperture manually.

[DonSchap]

Jim,

your last statement, is, by definition ... sports/action shooting ... the bane of photography, especially indoors or in the evening. While shortening the shutter speed will tend to freeze the action, it whacks down the light pretty good, too. Just speeding the camera from 1/60th sec to 1/125 cleaves the light in half. Going to 1/250 sec cleaves it in half, again.

Wider Aperture, if the lens has it available, will help in this, but carries a penalty of cutting down what is in focus and what is not, due to the depth of field (DoF). The longer the lens, the tighter this plane of focus becomes. You will have to understand this relationship, if you go wider than f/4 towards f/1.4, as it will rear its head.

Try not to forget that you can also up the ISO setting to compensate for a lack of light, to a certain extent. Try not to exceed ISO-1600, as the digital noise from the sensor will tend to creep in and populate expanses of shadows and background. It can also reduce the sharpness of edges and make everything look a little ... dirty.


Good luck with your efforts ... and pay close attention to all three of these related adjustments. It usually is more than one setting attribute that becomes the real "solution" for your best image.