Videography and photography are 2 very distinct areas. Videographers do not shoot like us photographers. And how in the world would you provide lighting to the video? It's not like the flash can be turned on indefinitely...

Dunno lar bro... It seems to me that most of your pic is just a tad underexposed.. or is it my monitor?

The STF is a MANUAL FOCUS only lens. Although the aperture is listed as F2.8, it gives an exposure akin to F4.5 due to its STF mechanism of something... forgot what they call it ady... The F1.8 is a Zeiss lens and is autofocus.

Bokeh wise the STF has no peers.....

achew : Get the SAL20mm prime plus the 70-200mm and the A850. You will be set for weddings.

The 20mm prime will cover large groups nicely. You have a 50mm for small groups and the 70-200 will cover the rest. Done deal!

Heard that the SAL20mm has Minolta colours. It's f2.8 so low light should not be too much of a problem and distortion also minimum and you get a UWA too!

That's what I will be considering if I get the A850. One prime lens and I'm good to go.

I wonder why a 20mm plus a 50mm prime would be weird focal ranges while a 24-70mm is totally acceptable?

You get a 24-70mm because you want the wide 24mm end right? The 70mm canbe used for portraits right? F2.8 is useful for low light right?

Well, the 20mm is wider than the 24mm and you could probably move a few steps either way so the 24mm end is covered.

The 50mm prime on an APS-C is about 75mm so can use for portrait right? And the aperture can go wider than f2.8.

Why is that weird? If you already carry 2 bodies than it is do-able right?

If you look closely, you use the ends of your zoom lenses way more than the middle focal ranges.

albnok : Someone who understands...finally... hahaha... If you guys think about it, zoom lenses are quite new to the game of photography. Film shooters of old had only prime lenses once upon a time and if you can't use those focal ranges, how in the world did they shoot back then??

That's why some 'pros' discourage too much use of zoom lenses. It gives you some kind of skewed mentality that the zoom is the be all end all solutions.

To be honest if one have a prime line up like:

1. 20mm
2. 35mm
3. 50mm
4. 85mm
5. 135mm

One would find that one seldom needs other focal ranges. Especially on a FF. Unless one is into birding or macro where long telephoto or macro lenses would come into play.

This post has been edited by shootkk: Aug 10 2009, 04:53 PM

Ksano : If you shoot weddings, you know that you will NEED at least 2 bodies. Either that of you go in pairs of photogs.

So 2 bodies is not too far fetched in the least. Hopefully I can add another body to my collection and hopefullly it will be the A850 at a very affordable price ler......

vikingw2k : If you have read a bit more carefully, I have always said to get the 20mm on a FF cam.

If I bought a FF cam, I would buy a 20mm prime and I would keep my current APS-C body thus I would have a FF plus 1 APS-C body.

I mount the 20mm on the FF and I have all the wide I can ever want for a wedding.

I mount the 50mm on my APS-C and I have a mid tele portraits lens that goes above f2.8 aperture.

During a dinner reception on a Chinese wedding I could easily carry the 2 bodies plus the 2 primes and do a fast swap between the two. It would be easier and much lighter than lugging around a 16-35 f2.8 plus a 70-200 f2.8 for the same function on an APS-C.

If you have done a few weddings before, you could probably anticipate what's about to happen and use the primes effectively. 20mm on FF for really wide shots. 50mm on FF or 20mm on APS-C for smaller groups and candids. 50mm on the APS-C for mid tele portraits. What else you want covered?

yuenzhi : If you want bokeh then try the 18-250 and shoot anywhere between 120mm and 200mm and you'll get bokeh for the background.

Of course you might wanna stand quite a distance away.

That said, you could probably use any lens to shoot portraits. If you know what you're doing, the focal length is a small issue really. For landscape, the 16mm will give you a nice wide view.

Newcell : Definitely the 18-70! You will NEED the 18mm for a wider shot. The 28mm will bound to frustrate.

This post has been edited by shootkk: Aug 14 2009, 03:54 PM

When taking landscapes, it's advisable to use the 'sweet spot' of whatever lens you are using. Typically the 'sweet spot' is around F8 to F11 after which the details in the pic will suffer from what is called 'diffraction' of the lens, smudging the details in the pic.

I usually use F8 and I find that it's DOF is enough for APS-C sensors.


My A100 batteries can usually last about 900 shots.