RE: The Galloping Commuter - Original Photograph
Hi. I've had this lens for about several months now. I enjoy using it because of the t* coating on Zeiss brand lenses. The benefit is extremely good flare resistance when shooting sun stars (f16 and smaller) for sunstar's where other zoom lenses fail. If you have the original a7 camera you will still get ghosting flares because of sensor stack deficiencies which is why I use the a7r. If you really care about corner performance at 24mm then yes it fails but I don't really care when shooting at that focal length. Lens deficiencies can always be fixed in post. Is it worth full retail price? I think so. But because it has a bad rap by people who think that the Zeiss brand carries a pedigree it's devalued and people sell it off. That being said I got it for half of retail price by someone who wanted to get rid of it.
If only I could also get one at half the price, I'd take it right away :)
I'm thinking of getting this since f4 is good enough for most of my uses, since I close down to f8~f22 most of the time.
My recently adopted philosophy is that if you don't NEED it right now you can always wait for it to show up at a decent second hand price. Just have to wait it out as someone out in the universe will show up in your path. Most of my gear is second hand and the bodies are not in perfect shape. I don't care about how to bodies look anymore so long as all the dials spin, the shutter works and the sensor is in good shape. I focus more on the art these days and the money I save over purchasing brand new is used for good food and travel! (๑♡⌓♡๑) the gear head in me is all but dead and the artist's soul flourishes.
Wise words, I'm getting by with a 18-55mm kit lens on a crop sensor camera to cover that range of 24-70 on full frame.
Nothing wrong with that decision since you know that you always stop down to at least F8 anyhow. With crop sensor you know you are getting enough depth of field and most lenses seem to behave the sharpest at that aperture. I'm guessing you have the SEL 18-55 lens? you can mount that lens on your Sony FF body and use it in crop mode.