And I bought it. Goodbye 28mm F2, we hardly knew ye.
That sure looks AWFUL dandy.
I’m really not sure why I didn’t enjoy the 28mm F2 so much. My favorite lens on Sony’s APS-C platform was easily the 20mm F2.8, even though most people had complaints about it. The 28mm F2 was better built, faster, and had a slightly wider focal length.
This is an 800 dollar 35mm f1.8 lens. That’s not cheap. That’s more expensive than the 28mm f2, and more expensive than the 85mm f1.8. Why did I buy it? Well I had a two month love affair with the Fuji X-Pro2 and it’s wonderful 23mm F2 lens, and I’ll be honest, I had a TON of fun shooting in Toronto with it. It’s a great camera. I was very tempted to keep it - It hit all the check boxes. Decent frame rate, reasonably fast focus, dual card slots, weather sealing, and it was discreet. It looked like an old rangefinder. Nobody cared.
I took a trip back home late summer. I was asked to take photos of my sister and her boyfriend again. And I took the Sony. And I’ll be honest, doing a “professional” shoot with that again made me remember why I liked this camera so much. I don’t really need to think. Files are clean. The AF is flawless. It hits shot after shot. There’s SO much data in the files. Look at below!
So. Much. Detail.
So, after shooting this, I quickly realized that I didn’t want a new camera. I wanted the 35mm focal length. Thankfully, Sony came to my rescue, because the Zeiss 35mm f2.8 wasn’t cutting it, neither was the Rokinon 35mm f2.8. Let’s not even get started about the baby’s arm sized Sigma 35mm f1.4, or the extremely pricey Zeiss 35mm f1.4.
I haven’t shot a lot with it yet, but my initial impressions are below:
Excellent build quality - Matches my 55mm Zeiss and 85mm Sony.
Love the addition of the focus hold button and the AF/MF switch.
Out of focus elements seem well rendered - Great, smooth bokeh.
AF speed seems to exceed the already very fast Zeiss 55.
Excellent close-focus capabilities.
About the same size as the 55mm Zeiss - Not a pancake, but still discreet vs a DSLR.
I feel my kit is pretty rounded now. 35, 55, 85, all f1.8, and for landscape work I have the 16-35 F4. I’m still looking to add a 70-200 equivalent, but I’m unsure if I want to drop money on the first party options, or wait for Tamron to help me out here. All roads are currently pointing to them releasing an affordable telephoto zoom. There’s always adapting too… Decisions.