Roto Till Time ~ mid-Till ~ part Three

Roto-Tilling my old Nikon Nikkor lenses into new and shiny AF optics for the Full Frame Sony A7 cameras I own is fun.  There it is.  I have to admit it.  A friend rightly pointed out that it's in my nature to buy and sell.  The latest justification is that my eyes are getting flaky with age and that I can benefit from the automation.

One of the things that I feel when using Sony A7 Full Frame mirrorless cameras is that the image quality "feels" a whole lot like the image qualities of 4x5 and 8x10inch film cameras.  There is a lot of wonderful detail and subtle renditions possible with these A7 cameras.  I've thought a lot about how I used to shoot and to see if I could apply those approaches and lens selections to current digital imaging.

As with my experience of years ago working with a 210mm lens in 4x5 inch film, I remember the second most used focal length was 135mm/150mm.  Using a DOF calculator I found the equivalent Full Frame digital focal length is 35mm/40mm.

Since 40mm (150mm 4x5 film equivalent) lenses are a little steeply priced for this retired Way Way Behind the Curve kind of Cheapskate, I opted to look for as good a 35mm (135mm 4x5 film equivalent) as I could afford.

One of the Wild Out of Reach things I considered was finding a 482gram Sony RX1R to fill the 35mm focal length "need."  After reading a few reviews I learned the AF performance in low light might be a little dodgy and that the overall size/weight wasn't as small/low as perhaps I would've hoped.

On the other hand, a little 122gram 35mm f/2.8 FE ZA is as good as the camera body's AF can drive it at all light levels. Coupled to a 474gram Sony A7, the all up weight comes in at 596grams, or 110grams over the fixed mount lens with no dedicated EVF Sony RX1R.  And the 35mm lens would be a 1/4 the cheapest used price of an RX1R I could find.

So... I Hunted and Gathered a sweet little 35mm f/2.8 FE ZA Sony, brought it home, and took a look at how it compared with a known stellar optic.

 

Again, using le Canard as my subject, I took my by now mundane standard approach to comparing various lenses.

Setup ~ 

• Setup one - 
• Sony A7, ISO100, 2second delay, AWB
• Lens - Sony 35mm f/2.8 FE ZA
  
• Setup two - 
• Sony A6000, ISO100, 2second delay, AWB
• Lens - Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN
• Bogen tripod
  

• RawTherapee to snug up the curves, with _no_ Capture Sharpen, just the lens and the sensor
   

Comparison ~

I compare the 35mm Sony on 24 mpixel Full Frame against a 19mm Sigma f/2.8 EX DN on 24 mpixel APS-C.  The reason is that I've seen that this Sigma is one of the sharpest/crispest/cleanest rendering lenses in the Closet of Goodies.

As always, click on the image and enlarge to 100percent to see whatever there is to be seen.

 

Comments ~

The Sony 35mm f/2.8 FE ZA looks great across the field straight from wide open.  Of course people wrote about this 10 years ago when this model first hit the market.  Yes.  I'm 10 years Out of Date with the State of Things.

By comparison, the stellar little Sigma 19mm f/2.8 EX DN is just ever so slightly soft wide open in the center of the frame.  The edges never seem to catch up with the Sony, either.

As with all the new toys, er, sorry, new tools, I will need to give the Sony time to "settle in" and to become part of my workflow.  The resolution sure looks promising.  The size and weight make it a "no brainer" for carrying around.  This could be a lot of fun.