I have a Tamron 70-300. Sometimes slow to focus, but a great lens.
Currently I'm saving for the 90mm macro from Tamron. Great price, great optics.
Number 13 should be at number 1.
If you don't know how your camera works, the other 49 (48) are irrelevant.
And the best way to know your camera... use an old manual focus lens, and learn to take picture with it. Once you can do that, you know your camera well enough to put it in to AF mode.
70% aperture priority
15% shutter
15% manual (with my old m42 lenses)
I love the power that manual affords. It really teaches you understand your camera and how to take better photos.
HOT Texas wrote:
I shoot a lot of old manual focus lens and M42 mount lens, and they do not work well on the newer Sony's
So do I! I have a couple of Helios 58mm primes (one from 1973, the other 1976), and the quality from them is astonishingly beautiful.
Both the A230 and the A580 work perfectly with these lenses.
Even some modern AF lenses have problems with some recent Sony DSLTs.
I've just started using the A580, having upgraded from an A230. There is a startling difference between them, with the A580 producing much crisper, punchier images in low light. Aside from the slight colour cast from the fluorescent lights, you would not be able to tell that the photos were snapped under low light conditions.
Recently I read this review/comparison of the A55 in which the reviewer compared photos taken with the mirror in place, and with it removed: http://thesybersite.com/sony/a55/index.htm.
To my eyes, the SLT with mirror does seem to lose detail. Of course, this may not be the case with the A77, as the author states.
But should you chose an A580 or A77. If I were buying today, I would probably opt for the A77, but only because I have a background in video, and would welcome the AF in movie mode.
Based on photographs alone, I would pick up an A580 and a better lens or two.
To be honest, I remain slightly wary of the SLT technology, and of Sony's commitment at the moment. Its releasing too many cameras in too short a space of time, and not releasing firmware updates for it's last generation of DSLRs. Coupled with it's financial woes at the moment... well, who knows.