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My Photography Gear

TODO: Double-check the product codes

Actively-Used Gear

Bodies:

  • Sony α7C II

Lenses:

  • Compact primes:
    • Sony FE 24mm F2.8 G (SEL24F28G)
    • Sony FE 40mm F2.5 G (SEL40F25G)
    • Sony FE 50mm F2.5 G (SEL50F25G)
  • Large Primes:
    • Sony FE 50mm F1.4 GM (SEL50F14GM)
    • Sony FE 85mm F1.8 (SEL85F18)
  • Large Zooms:
    • Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II (SEL1635GM2)
    • Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II (SEL2470GM2)
  • Macro:
    • Sigma 105mm f/2.8 DG DN Macro Art Lens for Sony-E Mount (4260965)
      • (I don’t see any product identifiers on the lens itself. I’ll probably need to look in the box.)

I also have various other items but I won’t list them out here.

Unused Gear

Bodies:

  • Nikon D5200 + Kit Lens

Lenses:

  • Sony FE 28-60mm F4-5.6 (SEL2860)
  • Sony FE 50mm F1.8 (SEL50F18F)
    • (I’ve put this lens away in cold storage so I’ll need to bring it out to confirm the model.)

Nikon D5200 + Kit Lens

My first nice camera! It was released around December 2012, and my parents probably got me this camera in early-mid 2013, which allowed me to use it during the middle of 2013 for some special events, and later in the year for an overseas trip.

The vast majority of its use was 2013 where between me and my parents, we shot thousands (maybe tens of thousands?) of photos, and again in 2022 where I used it for photographing my hobbies (the photos look so much better than a smartphone!) and I briefly used it for various day-to-day photography. The camera also saw occasional use in the years in-between.

My D5200 taught me about the exposure triangle back in 2013. I experimented with tweaking each parameter, intentionally setting the shutter speed higher if I need to freeze the action, stopping up to increase depth of field, or using the tripod and slowing the shutter speed to get cleaner pictures of things in dim indoor lighting.

I wish I got a nicer lens with this. I actually never realized how soft this lens looks until I got my second camera, the Sony α7C II with the Sony FE 28-60mm F4-5.6 kit lens. Even the Sony kit lens is leagues better than the D5200’s kit lens. It’s terribly soft!

I’m not too sure what I want to do with this camera now. I don’t want to use it with the kit lens. I’m thinking of finding a 23mm (35mm ff equivalent) compact prime for it, but practically speaking, there isn’t much of a point since I already have a significantly better camera, and I’m not too interested in using it for artistic or nostalgic purposes.

I think I’ll keep this camera in my collection. It seems like I could sell it for some $200-400, but to me, that’s not a high enough price to be worth selling.

Sony FE 28-60mm F4-5.6 (SEL2860)

My first lens on the Sony! Looking at it even when I own some spectacular lenses like my GM lenses, I still think this is an amazing lens! It’s incredibly compact, 28-60mm gets you a lot of shots, and I find this lens super-sharp!

I would’ve wanted it to go to at least 24mm, even if the lens becomes 24-50mm. 24mm is one of my favourite focal lengths for wide photos that show off my environment. A super-compact 24-50mm would be perfect for me! The FE 24-50mm F2.8 G is the closest to what I want, but it’s too big a lens for me.

But honestly, 28-60mm is a great range anyway if it’s what’s available. As much as I love 24mm, I’d still be shooting a lot in 28mm and 35mm anyway. Focal length isn’t really the reason I don’t use this lens anymore.

My reasons for not using it are:

  • slow aperture, and
  • no lens hood.

The lens hood problem might be solved by finding a screw-on lens hood or something like that. I want a lens hood for everyday carry since it physically protects the lens from accidentally being touched and putting fingerprint dirt on the glass, or accidentally knocking the glass on something whenever I try to maneuver the camera through obstacles.

But even if it had a lens hood, the slow aperture still kills the lens for me. Granted, it’s “only” one stop of light at the wide end (I probably wouldn’t mind only shooting wide at night anyway), but I’m a bit of an image quality snob. I want cleaner images!

This lens has been replaced by:

  • all my compact primes (such as the Sony FE 24mm F2.8 G (SEL24F28G)) for situations where I want something compact such as everyday carry or for street or casual food photography, and
  • my Sony FE 24-70mm F2.8 GM II (SEL2470GM2) replaces it for situations where I don’t mind carrying a clunkier lens.

I still keep this lens in reserve anyway for times where I need a compact zoom, just that such situations are probably very unlikely. Maybe I’ll use it for travel? Maybe I could use this kit lens when there’s good light, then I break out the compact primes when it’s dark. I don’t know yet.

As a bonus, the aperture goes up to f/32, which (as far as I recall) is the smallest aperture of all my lenses, so I actually still use this lens for checking how much dust is on my camera sensor.

I don’t mind keeping this in my collection. I got it for about $200 AUD, so I doubt it’ll sell for much anyway.

I really love the concept of this lens though and I hope Sony continues to design and manufacture things like this. Is a hooded f/2.8 ultra-compact zoom even possible? Because I’d love to see one come out, and if it doesn’t come with image quality compromises, I’d totally buy one and use it as my new everyday carry lens!

Sony FE 50mm F1.8 (SEL50F18F)

Your first lens is usually a kit zoom lens, which is basically always small-aperture, and the image quality is often quite poor. Or if you’re lucky, your first lens might’ve been an f/2.8 normal zoom with great image quality.

The Sony FE 50mm F1.8 is the nifty fifty for Sony full-frame. Nifty fifty refers to cheap and compact 50mm f/1.8 lenses and are a great “second lens” that newcomers into the hobby often buy after that first lens. They’re highly recommended to beginners on the internet, and I believe it’s justified because it’s a low-cost way to experience something entirely different to what a newcomer is used to. (I bought mine brand new for a little more than $200 AUD.)

Compared to a kit zoom lens,

  • A nifty fifty has a large, desirable aperture size. This is probably the main reason for nifty fifties being a great second lens. It’s hard to appreciate what a wide aperture can do if your entire photography experience is smartphones and small-aperture kit zoom lenses. With a nifty fifty, a beginner photographer can now experiment with large apertures to get real optical bokeh (rather than the awkward fake bokeh generated by smartphone computational photography) or for low-light photography.
  • A nifty fifty is quite a tight prime lens, which challenges a beginner photographer if they’re used to always shooting wide. Smartphones are usually 24mm ff equivalent, and kit zoom lenses tempt beginners to just shoot wide rather than thinking about how to utilize compression. Prime lenses also promote familiarity with the particular focal length, giving you practice in seeing the world with that particular field of view and being more deliberate about your compositions. And if you choose to bring the lens out for photography walks, primes are an exercise in limiting your options, allowing you to focus more on getting great shots with the focal length you have right now.
  • If your kit zoom is quite bulky, experiencing a more compact lens like a nifty fifty can be great in general. I find that I use my cheap compact lenses loads more than my large expensive lenses because they’re a lot easier to carry and handle, and I don’t feel like I stand out as much.
    • Kit zooms can also be quite compact though. My Sony FE 28-60mm F4-5.6 is quite a lot more compact than my Sony FE 50mm F1.8!
  • The nifty fifty might sometimes have better image quality than a kit zoom, but that isn’t always true. I feel like my kit zoom Sony FE 28-60mm F4-5.6 is actually really good, and I can’t really tell it apart from the Sony FE 50mm F1.8 in terms of image quality.

These advantages of a nifty fifty might be a little diminished if you got something like a great-quality f/2.8 zoom lens, but you can probably still get value out of the wider f/1.8 aperture anyway.

Anyways, all that to say, the Sony FE 50mm F1.8 is the second lens I bought (after the Sony FE 28-60mm F4-5.6 kit zoom), but I’ve since outgrown it. It was a great starter lens for the reasons I stated above. When I first got it, I got pretty obsessed with taking photos of everything around the house to experiment with bokeh, I took it out a lot, did a bunch of portraits for friends, and I especially got a lot of use out of it in low-light. But I primarily stopped using it because the autofocus is slow and loud, which made the lens not-fun.

I’ve since replaced it with these two lenses:

  • Sony FE 50mm F2.5 G (SEL50F25G): I use this as an everyday carry lens for food, street, etc. It’s smaller, sharper, and the lens barrel is much sexier-looking.
  • Sony FE 50mm F1.4 GM (SEL50F14GM): A much more expensive and “bulky” prime for when I want the best possible image quality, or for the bigger f/1.4 aperture.

Although I don’t use it anymore, my Sony FE 50mm F1.8 will remain in my collection as a reminder of where I came from in this hobby, and to use as a tool to introduce other people (or my own kids) to the world of photography. I highly recommend this lens for other newcomers into the hobby, though I wish Sony could release a new version with better autofocus, and to bring in the recent advances in optics to make it a bit sharper and more compact.

Wishlist

Bodies:

  • A second Sony full-frame body, most likely α7CR.
    • I want a super-high resolution body to complement my current α7C II. My α7C II will likely continue to be my normal every-day carry that I bring out of the house though.
    • I want to use my macro lens at home more, but without constantly swapping lenses.
    • Whenever I do some interesting photography at home like for product photography, having crazy overkill resolution seems really fun!
    • Lots more good reasons to own a second body.

Lenses:

  • Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM OSS II (SEL70200GM2)
    • I don’t have a need for a telephoto lens yet, so I haven’t bought it. Maybe I’ll get it if I have specific sports photography, wildlife, or portrait photography needs? Or something like that.
  • Compact 35mm and/or 28mm lenses like my current compact 24mm, 40mm, and 50mm lenses.
    • I want to try dailying these focal lengths, but I’m not interested enough in the currently available products for them. My current compacts are enough for me right now. I’ll wait for new releases.

Lights:

  • Compact on-camera flash.

Aspirational Wishlist

Everything in my wishlist above are items that I see myself ordering right now if I find myself needing to fill in a gap in my collection.

On the other hand, the items below are unlikely to be items I will buy in the near future.

Lenses:

  • More GM prime lenses, likely something like 24mm, 35mm, or 85mm because I already love my existing lenses at these focal lengths.
    • I’ll consider them as I gain more experience.
    • I’ll also at least wait until updated versions of these lenses come out.
  • Sony FE 14mm F1.8 GM (SEL14F18GM)
    • The best use-case for me is for whenever I decide to take astrophotography seriously.
    • In theory, this might solve the softness that I observe in my current 16-35mm zoom at the wide-end, and this should have a low-light advantage, but I’m not sure it’s worth the money, bulk, and inconvenience of a highly specialized prime. I don’t shoot wide for commercial work or for incredible astrophotography. I shoot wide for the vibes.
  • I want one good lens to use with my old Nikon D5200.
    • Ideally, I want a 23mm prime (35mm ff equivalent), but I don’t see anything available for this.
    • The AF-S DX NIKKOR 35mm f/1.8G is the best first-party option. It’s slightly tighter than 50mm ff equivalent. I’d still much prefer 35mm ff equivalent if I were to get only one lens, but oh well.
    • The Sigma Art 30mm F1.4 DC HSM seems like the best APS-C prime. It’s about a 46mm ff equivalent. I’d prefer it over 35mm since I want to shoot a bit wider, it’s a faster aperture, and this Sigma lens is probably sharper (unconfirmed!) than the first-party 35mm.
    • The Sigma Art 18-35mm F1.8 DC HSM seems like the best APS-C zoom, covering about 28-54mm ff equivalent. At f/1.8, it’s fast enough for me, but it’s also a physically huge lens.
    • The Sigma Art 20mm F1.4 DG HSM seems like the best full-frame prime. At roughly a 31mm ff equivalent, it seems like a great focal length for me, but is it worth the price and the size?
    • I’m going to need to think through whether I really want to use my old D5200, otherwise this wouldn’t be worth the money. I’m not sure I want to buy just to collect.
  • Laowa 24mm f/14 2X Macro Probe
    • Such a unique perspective, but I’m not sure I’m ready to buy one yet, especially because it’s very expensive.
    • It also happens to be an ultra-macro (2:1).
  • Ultra-macro lenses (e.g. Laowa 25mm f/2.8 2.5-5X Ultra Macro)
    • I don’t even know what I’d use one of these for. 1:1 macro is enough for me right now.
    • But it could be really fun to try to use an ultra-macro.
  • Super ultra-wide (e.g. Laowa 9mm f/5.6 full-frame rectlinear)
    • I already love shooting ultra-wide, so this seems like it would be fun to own, but I’m not sure it’s gonna get enough use to be worth it right now.

Wishlist for future product development

TODO

  • computational photography
  • better file transfer experience
  • 28mm and 35mm compact primes