You know it's time for upgrade when you go out shooting and you always come back wishing you had some gear or other. E.g. you go out and shoot and you come back and feel that you wanted to go wider and that's always the case. Then you know it's time to get a wider lens.

Or you go out, come back and wish that you had more shallow DOF. Then you know it's time to get a large aperture lens.

You will know it's time to upgrade when you know exactly what it is you want next. If you're asking questions like should I buy A lens or B lens or should I get A lens or a flash, then you're not ready to upgrade.

If you're trying to show the ring in the shot, then you need to get closer. Much closer. As it is the shot is very cluttered and I do not know where to look at first glance. The ring is just a tiny speck in the whole frame. The handbag on the top right is very distracting. Just my 2 cents...

Uzumaki : The ring is small and it's hard to get it in it's surrounding without having it appear too small. Maybe if you could move the whole cage to somewhere with a more neutral background?

Uzumaki : For me the second shot is better than the first. I would have used greater DOF to get the rose in focus too and moved the foreground bokeh out of the way. That's how I would play it.

ianho : Uncle Ian, nic no have the STF lar... he got the Zeiss 135mm. My first taste of Zeiss poison. The instant I looked through the lens, I know why people rave about Zeiss ady!

Now nic is no longer so active in photography. I saw him selling off his whitey 70-200mm in alphanatics not so long ago.

zstan & 8tvt : The STF is BUILT SPECIFICALLY to get SMOOTH BOKEH! There's no other lens in the world that can render bokeh like the STF. Only drawback is that it's manual focus and the light transmitivity is f4.5

If you're still not sure what to get first then DON'T GET ANYTHING yet! Why? Because you're not ready for the upgrade yet. Trust me on this.

Shoot more with your existing gear UNTIL you know what you want to get.

I was also using the F42 before upgrading to F58. I upgraded because I know that I need the extra power when I faced a situation where my F42 is firing full power but still unable to match the output of an F58 shooting in the same situation.

I shot with the 18-250mm lens until I ditched it for wide angle. I was always almost using the 18mm end when shooting and I always wanted to go wider thus I knew that I wanted a wider view than 18mm on an APS-C. Ended up with a 20mm on the A850 plus my 50mm.

Now I have both the F42 and F58 because I knew that I can use them to do multi-strobes when shooting portraits even outdoors.

Thus all the gears that I have now is there for a reason. Do I want the 70-200mm f2.8G or the 135mm f1.8 Zeiss or the 16-35mm f2.8 Zeiss? Of course! But I don't use tele all that much and those lenses cost a bomb! As for the 16-35mm, it's out of my budget and I can make do for now with my 20mm prime. I want them but I don't really need them and I am not a fisherman so limited budget lor.

So, don't just buy gears for buying sake. Know what you want before you make the purchase. Just my 'uncle-ly' advise.


Ask your friend to buy the NEX series lor... it's currently the 'best' in the mirrorless category. Nikon and Canon does not have any mirrorless cameras yet and the NEX beats the crap out of the Olympus PEN and the Panasonic G series just by the sensor size alone and it does HD video too!

shockk : Welcome! And so the confusion starts.... LOL


To everyone else : I am in no way family related to shockk...

I don't understand all this NEX poisoning. I mean what do you want the NEX for?

The NEX series of camera is great if you want it for a small sized cam that you can bring around easily but that applies only with the pancake lens. Any other lens makes it bulky. If it's bulky, then I rather take my DSLR.

If you're talking about video, then the NEX video cam offers a more practical solution.

mastering : That's exactly the point. If I HAD ZEISS lenses, would put them on my proper alpha DSLR to take still pics. Not on the NEX but that's just me.

lwliam : But you're limited by the fact that the NEX 3/5 is a digital still camera at heart. If one is serious about videography, the NEX vid cam is the one to get. Then again, people don't think logically most of the time. I guess this NEX fad is here to stay for the time being. LOL. No offense to anyone.

This is specifically for UV filters which most of us put in front of our lenses most of the time. Other filters have specific usage and are self explanatory...


If you are ULTRA RICH then filters are not important. If lens glass got scratch just buy new one lor.

If you want to protect your lens, then filters are important. They keep things like seawater, saliva, snot, bird droppings, acid rain etc from reaching the front elements of your lens thus keeping them and the coating on them in pristine condition for the best IQ the lens can deliver.

Also expensive filters can withstand more shock so they will be able to take impacts to your lens and stay intact to protect your lens.

That's why expensive filters are important.

FF cameras do have a little bit of vignette when shooting wide open. You should see the light fall off when I'm using my 20mm wide open indoors!! It's normal so nothing to worry about.

Oftentimes during dance performances, flash is strictly NOT allowed. Wouldn't do to blind the performers now, would it?

Also do note that f2.8 is REALLY not as low light as most people think it is. For low light at least f2 is usually required thus that's why f1.8 and f1.4 lenses are the low light champs.

Wonder no more. The answer is NO! Don't get the A230. Get the A290 instead! It's out now in Sony Style stores. you can thank me later....

noprob : Repair filter? What filter is it? Most times it is better off buying a new one.

You have one FF lens = 75-300mm. All others APS-C lens.

*edit*
Ooopss! Didn't see your 50mm f1.4 there so that makes it 2 FF lens.
*end edit*

You may need to sell off all your other DT lenses and bodies and get the A850 plus a KM17-35 f2.8-4 plus the 50mm for a start. Or you may consider a 24-105mm as a general walkabout lens.

If you're not in a hurry, maybe can wait for the A7xx and keep all your lenses.

This post has been edited by shootkk: Jul 22 2010, 02:35 PM

fansoption : Hopefully, the A7xx will make its debut at Photokina in August/Sept. *fingers crossed*

This post has been edited by shootkk: Jul 22 2010, 02:49 PM

Depending on how you use your 16-105mm, you should know if you are a wide or telephoto person. If you are mostly using the 16mm end then you are a wide person and the 28mm may not be wide enough for you and cause you frustration. Especially since you're using it on APS-C.

If you use the 105mm mostly then a 135mm can work for you.

50mm is a love it or hate it thing on APS-C so again depending on what your tastes are.

Like I always say, shoot with your existing lens until you KNOW what you want before buying.