I wanted to write a post about all my camera gear; past, present and future.
My current set up is pretty ramshackle. I have a selection of lenses which cover a decent amount of the ranges I need them for and a body which can do high quality photography and decent video.
The Sony a7 is my main and only camera body at the moment. It’s 8 years old and showing heavy signs of use from years of being chucked in my bag and flung around restaurants. I’d definitely recommend this camera to anyone looking to buy into something more professional. It has a few drawbacks which get addressed in the later versions such as, image stabilisation and low-light performance. All around a pretty decent camera for your money.
My first and most used Sony lens. The Zeiss 24-70 f4. I’ve pretty much exclusively used this lens for the last four years. It’s beat to hell and back, has a scuff on the front element, a dent on the threading, a gritty zoom barrel and I still love it.
It gives me the image stabilisation the a7 body doesn’t. It gives me 70mm for portraits, close ups and a telephoto-lite effect. It gives me 24mm for those wide interiors and exteriors. It’s perfect. The only issue is that it’s only and f4. Sometimes you need that extra bit of light which you’re not getting from the body because you honestly can’t shoot it past ISO 1000. I’d only replace this with the Tamron 28-75 f2.8.
They say this is the sharpest lens ever made. I don’t use it very often. It’s great for portraits but isn’t very versatile as it has a massive minimal focus range.
I should probably use it more than I do, for that extra tele-compression and the blurry backgrounds but sometimes it just doesn’t seem worth switching out the 24-70.
My 35mm f1.4. This lens represents the start of my journey to replace my variable zooms with fast primes. Love it for video, only really have issue with it with photography and that’s probably most likely user error.
Oh, and I used it to take all these lens pictures. Minus the one of itself and the body. Obviously.
New gear is not high on my list of things I can justify spending money on but, if money was no option... 😏
I said above that the 35mm was the starting point of my journey to getting a full set of primes. I still want to do this. 12, 24, 35, 50, 85. This would be everything I’ll ever need. On the other hand. I could grab a 17-40, the Tamron 24-70 and a 70-200. Oh the possibilities.
In terms of bodies. I’ve been very tempted to go back to the Fuji systems. I had one before I grabbed the Sony, and since I’m doing less professional work it’s a viable option. If I’m sticking with Sony I’d keep on down the a7 route - the backlit sensor is all I want!