Scattered Thoughts . . .

T here are certain brands that I refuse to buy, support, speak kindly of, or even use.  Sometimes, however, a reason related to practicality arises and I am stuck having to give in and purchase one of these brands simply because no other options exist.  As such, I'm stuck with three old Canon EF-mount lenses yet Canon is one of those brands you will not find me supporting in any way.  Don't get me wrong, they were great in the Canon AE-1 Programmable days but I'm not liking their options in the digital world.  Actually, I find their digital cameras very uncomfortable to use, even painful.  I also find their color rendering and tonal qualities to be quite bland but, admittedly, that is more of a personal preference. I had purchased these three lenses on the used market back when I first purchased my Sony cameras.  The Sony E-mount system was very young at the time so very few lenses were available in their new E-mount.  One of the great things about this Sony E-mount is that

As I've written previously on this blog, as much as I truly love my Sony camera, I've been quite frustrated by Sony's slow lens development. A few years ago, Sony released a few new cameras in a new mount... the Sony e-mount. At that time, I didn't give Sony much of a thought... that is... until I held one of these cameras in my hands at a local Best Buy store. The moment I held this new Sony camera body in my hands, I said, "WOW!" It was small... it was relatively lightweight... it had a HUGE sensor... and it really felt like a solid, high quality product. I went home and started researching (I never buy anything costing more than a few bucks until I research... and research more... and then research again).  I was liking what I was reading about this camera system but it was completely new with a new lens mount so lenses were few and far between at that point. I thought, "So... how long could it take to fill out a fairly complete lens lineup?... Two

The second of two used Canon lenses I had purchased arrived the other night and I had a chance to wander outside this morning to see how well it works on my Sony camera body.  Unfortunately, this second Canon lens is not nearly as fast at autofocusing as the first Canon lens I had purchased a few days ago so I'm a bit disappointed. I was hoping this lens would help resolve some of my longer telephoto woes but now I'm not so sure.  I'm definitely keeping that first lens that I played with the other day to use for landscapes, architecture, cityscapes, and maybe even some indoor wide angle photography. This telephoto lens... I don't know... I'm still undecided. The photos are contrasty and sharp which is quite impressive for such an inexpensive lens but the autofocus is so slow on my Sony camera body that I know it would be too slow for its intended purpose... wildlife photos. I don't need blazingly fast autofocus but I do need reasonably fast... acceptable..