I was asked to take my Thai friend here, he loves this shrine and he always visit this place during the new years.
Personally, I hate religions and boycott them , but as a cultural or anthropological interest I think it is interesting to research these places.
The difficulty of choosing the right lenses at very first attempt in a growing mirrorless system especially in E mount 2(UPDATED 2):
When I was in Osaka in this October my old friends there asked me why every time they saw me there, I'd have a different camera or two, and why I brought so many lenses over there just for a few conference.
First of all, I was not so much into selling and buying near stuffs every few months before 2013 or so.
Why? Because before 2013, my main camera systems were the A mount and the F mount , which were at the time already very established and matured ones.
But as I got the A7R original in October 2013, I realized that I do not like D-SLR or SLT any more , I love EVF and I decided to gradually shift my main lenses from the A and the F to the E.
In order to do that and in the process of it, I've had to try almost every new lens and just needed to buy those almost every lens Sony , Zeiss and Voiglander released since then.
Initially, we barely had any choice in lens selection when the original A7R and A7 came out in 2013.
Remember we did not get anything really good at the launch but I definitely needed a few real native lenses for the system , so I did not really like it but I bought the FE35mm f2.8ZA, the FE24-70mm f4ZA, the FE70-200mm f4G OSS, and FE55mm f1.8ZA near at the very launch of the system.
In addition to that, we had to adapt many lenses we used on our previous camera systems(in my case F, EF, A and Leica R). I borrowed lenses form my Canon EF system and some times from my Alpha A mount system.
I wanted to use my Nikon lenses too on my A7R but I found it very difficult and complicated and gave up the idea, I could adapt my father's old AIS Nikkors , though.
So at least a couple of years or so, the native E mount lenses I owned at the time were all tiny optically just OK kind of lenses, namely the FE24-70mm f4ZA, the FE55mm f1.8ZA, the FE35mm f2.8ZA, the FE70-200mm f4G, the FE35mm f2.8ZA and the FE16-35mm f4ZA. In addition to those , I had to use my Canon EF70-200mm f2.8 L MK2 IS lens, EF100mm f2.8 L IS, EF35mm f2 IS, Zeiss 25mm f2 ZE, Zeiss 15mm f2.8 ZE, 135mm f2 APO Sonnar ,etc. I also used the Leica 180mm f2.8 lens and Leica R 60mm f2.8 Macro lens, which I still love and use from time to time.
In early 2015 , Sony released the FE35mm f1.4ZA, FE90mm f2.8G and Zeiss announced their first two Batis line primes.
So I bought them all and had to try them on my A7R myself and later on my A7R2 and A7MK2.
I really wanted to love the FE35mm f1.4ZA since at the time, I was still a 35mm kind of a person. But I had to go through 5 copies or so on that lens and still could not get a decently centered copy of it, so I just gave it up and decided to stick with the FE35mm f2.8ZA for a few more months(hopefully).
The FE35mm f2.8ZA was a lens I loved and hated , it was a great lens for just causal shooting especially street or inside of a big mall or like that as it was very tiny and inconspicuous.
But it is just too slow for a prime and it produces an extreme monstrous amount of vignetting and correcting it in PS reveals nasty compression related banding or really odd magenta circle noise in the corners. So it was useless for anything needed bight corners and edges.
My FE90mm f1.8G was a great copy , I kept it and my Batis 85mm f1.8 and 25mm f2 were both good and I kept them for at least 7 months or so..
But none of these were really amazing , I mean the FE90mm was extremely sharp wideopen at all focus distances including infinity, but it did not have any wow factor , just clinically sharp. So I did not really like that lens for most of things other than urban landscape or some copy stamp like images(shooting computer chips or inside of old speaker system ,etc).
It was too clinical for portrait work, too brutal to most of people, unless my shooting subjects were under 20 years old.
The Batis 85mm f1.8 was fine and I liked that lens despite of its heavy pincushion distortion issue and I kept it for 3 years or so until I finally sold it in last month(in fact, I will buy it back).
And I still think it is one of those lenses really underrated by so called reviewers since they only tests lenses in close to mid focus distances like ten feet -portrait focus distance.
But mid to near infinity range, the Batis 85mm f1.8 is quite much sharper than the Sony FE85mm f1.8 especially at f2.8 and smaller F stops.
Most of so called reviews( except Fred Miranda and LensRentals) are all too close minded to even test lenses at near infinity or middle focus distance like 20 feet and a bit farther focus distances, so they never see how these lenses actually perform in real life for astro, landscape, architecture , city-scape, etc. That is why many so called really good lenses that are really raved by likes of Lenstip and others never perform very well at infinity or near infinity mark.
If you do not test these at near infinity or at least 30 feet or longer focus distances, you may never see any of a few advantages of the Batis 85 over the Sony FE85mm f1.8.
This is why many so called review sites rate the Sony mediocre 85mm f1.8 so highly. But in real life , the Batis handles contra light much better due to much more sophisticated lens coating, also it is much sharper than the Sony at and near infinity range. I also prefer the SOOC produced by the Batis, yeah it is subjective but still I know most of people at many forums who've tried or owned both usually prefer the Zeiss color over the cyan biased Sony color.
The 25mm f2 Batis? How can I say this politely? I do not know, but I've always hated it, it has a monstrous amount of distortion that no software really fix its kind of distortion very well. The axial CA on the Batis 25 lens is terrible, it is really hard to fix since axial CA is kind of CA we can never remove completely with any type of lens profile or defringing tool.
The Lo-CA on the Batis 25 was really bad too(one of the very worst I have ever seen in its price range of easy to make f2 primes).
Initially, I thought it was the QC issue and I sent it back and bought another copy of that lens, but the second copy was really bad too. Also, I read the Lenstip review on that one and Roger's test also showed the same issues that I also found in my copies myself.
But I tried another one since there was nothing else to replace it in the native E mount system at the time, and that third copy of the Batis 25 was a bit better than my previous 2 and I kept it until Feb, 2018(I replaced the crappy Batis 25 with the Loxia 25mm).
Now, our E mount situation has changed , we have many more choices in this range, and I think any one's considering this lens should reconsider it and get the FE24mm f1.4GM or the Loxia 25mm f2.4 Distagon, both of which are much sharper and much better in every considerable aspect of lens quality. There is absolutely no reason to buy it new now unless you find it cheaper than 800 US or a bit less.
In the summer, 2015, Zeiss released their first two Loxia lenses and I bought these as soon as I saw them at our shop.
They were both old M mount designs and I was kind of disappointed and couple of months later I sold the 35mm f2.
I kept the 50mm f2 Loxia until the summer 2017.
At this point , I was quite disillusioned with the level of Loxia and Batis lenses Zeiss initially offered and there was no GM , so I decided the best solution might still be the Canon or the Leica mount lenses.
But I also knew that the fullframe mirrorless thing would grow even bigger and would eventually replace the D-SLRs.
So I sold my D810 as soon as the A7R2 was announced, I kept my trusty D750 for shooting some paid events that I sometimes do for a few local corporations.
After sold my D810, I decided to also sell most of my F mount lenses that I would not use for my paid event shootings.
So my F mount lens collection at this point was relatively small. I never liked how Nikon bodies feel in my hands or how needlessly heavy these were, any way.
So in the end of the year 2015, I had 5 systems:
Sony A mount with 8 lenses.
Sony E mount with 8 lenses.
Canon EF with 14 lenses.
Nikon F with 5 lenses.
m43 with 6 lenses.
But at this point, the E mount kit became the undoubted main system for me. I realized I seldom use the rest of my camera systems any more....so I some of my A mount and EF mount stuffs and got 7k US dollars or a bit more and I would later use that money for more E mount stuffs.
I must say the year 2016 was a huge year for us E mount users, both Zeiss and Sony released many great lenses and Voigtlander also joined the camp, which was the biggest news for me at the time.
In early 2016, we got the set of GM lenses ; the two 2.8 zooms and the legendary 85mm f1.4GM.
I ordered the GM 85mm f1.4 as soon as it was out and I also bought a copy of the FE24-70mm f2.8GM.
I got a great copy of the 85mm GM but I did not like the ergonomics of the lens, so I would sell it in the autumn, 2016 to go back to the Batis 85.
Many people told me it would be really stupid to sell the GM for the Batis 85, but for me the Batis was the right lens in this range since I used to it for low light events most of times and flowers. I rarely use it for portrait since I do shoot portrait only at a studio that my boss owns and there are many many lenses that I can borrow from time to time.
But sure if you are a serious portrait shooter, the GM would definitely be the lens to get, it has really magical look to it, with extremely smooth GM signature rendering.
Initially, I loved the 24-70mm f2.8GM but quickly realized I never left my house with it, it was simply too big on my A7R and A7R2. So I sold it and decided to rent it from time to time when I'd really need it. It is really wasting my money to keep the 24-70mm f2.8GM and the 70-200mmf2.8GM in my camera room, I've simply never used these for my private casual shootings, I much prefer a MF prime or a f1.4 prime over those bulky f2.8 zooms. In fact, I use a set of F4 zooms much more often than the bulky f2.8 zooms........and most of my shootings are done at f5.6-11 range on a tripod and so there will be no IQ advantage of the f2.8 GM zooms.
If the FE24-70mm f2.8GM was as small as the Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 , then I would have kept it- even if it meant a bit of compromise on the wide end.
I have never liked the f2.8 so-called pro zooms on any of my previous cameras, they usually experience zoom creeps in a couple of years of heavy use. It is really annoying.
But at the time, I was kind of excited about the GM zooms and kept these.......until the autumn, 2017(I still own a couple of FE16-35mm f2.8GM zooms as it is a relatively small zoom).
In the late spring , 2016 Zeiss announced the Batis 18mm f2.8 and I was really excited about it, I immediately pre-ordered it.
Of course, it was a keeper at the time, at least till I got my FE16-35mm f2.8GM. The Batis 18mm f2.8 actually replaced my Loxia 21mm f2.8(I never liked that Loxia 21 although many in lens fanatic forums love it).
In the summer, 2016 we got the Sony FE50mm f1.4 Planar and FE50mm f2.8 Macro, I liked them and bought them in October 2016. But TBH, if I knew the Batis 40mm f2CF was coming soon at the time, I would not have bought these two.
In the late winter 2016, just having shot some Christmas stuffs for myself, I decided the FE50mm f1.4ZA would not be a very practical lens for my needs and I sold it(bought back a FE55mm f1.8ZA).
So in the end of 2016, my Sony FE lens kit was like below:
1 A7R
2 A7R2 (2)
3 A7MK2 (2)
4 A6300(never bought it if I knew the 6500 was coming soon)
5 FE16-35mm f4ZA (never bought it if I knew the FE16-35mm f2.8GM was under development)
6 Batis 18mm f2.8(never bought this one if I knew the FE16-35mm GM was coming very soon)
7 Batis 25mm f2(never bought it if the Loxia was coming at the time)
8 Sony FE24-70mm f2.8GM(never bought it if I knew Tamron was about to release the 28-75mm f2.8)
9 Sony FE24-70mm f4ZA(never liked it , hated it very much)
10 Sony FE55mm f1.8
11 Sony FE70-200mm f4G(hated this lens but there was nothing else to replace it , so I used it 3 years or so)
12 Sony FE90mm f2.8G
13 Zeiss Loxia 50mm f2
14 Batis 85mm f1.8
15 Voigtlander 12mm f5.6
And I really wished we would get some nice wide lenses in the next spring(2017) and we actually would get these from Sony......so for lenses , Sony may have been actually listening to us?
The year 2017 was not as dramatic as the 2016, we got many lenses from Laowa, Sony, Zeiss, Voigtlander and others.
In early 2017, we got the FE85mm f1.8E and it was a super hit for Sony although I hated the lens.
In March 2017, Sony released the FE100mmf2.8GM.
I rented both and tried both but I did not buy either of these.
In April 2017, Zeiss announced the Batis 135mm f2.8 APO and I ordered it immediately and got it in June, 2017.
The Batis 135mm f2.8 APO was the best Batis ever, no doubt about it and I initially liked it a lot. I used it for many events in the summer 2017. But after the summer event season over, I realized that I would almost never use that lens, so sold it in the autumn , 2017. I lost a lot of money on this lens and really pissed at the time.
But I can guarantee if you like the 135mm FL, I think it is the sharpest best balanced 135mm prime for the A7X camera.
It is insanely sharp wideopen, very clean without any axial and lateral CA, there is a bit of Lo CA but it is easy to remove.
Unlike the other Batis series, it is not software dependent , it is quite distortion free even without C1 or LR lens correction.
So at the current 1500 USD price, it is a bargain , but at the old 2k US price, I think it was a bit overpriced and hard sell.
I think Zeiss may have to readjust its price once more since there is the new Sony FE135mm f1.8 GM coming very soon.
I know it will be announced in Feb, 2019 or even in the end of this January, 2019. And there is the Sigma 135mm f1.8 Art now, which is optically just as good or even a bit better than the Zeiss.
In the summer 2017, I bought many lenses and I was quite busy seeking for a bargain deal each time.
I bought the FE16-35mm f2.8GM in July 2017.
After that, I bought the FE12-24mm f4G(the Fred Miranda forum sold it to me).
Then, I bought the Voigtlander 40mm f1.2SL(I sold it in the November 2017 and I am trying to get it back but it has always been back-ordered since then).
I think selling the Voigtlander 40/1.2 was a huge mistake, if I knew it would be this difficult to get it back, then I would have kept it. I did not sell it because I did not like it, far from it, I loved the lens but I had some other priority at the time and had to sell it. But I never thought it would be back-ordered this long, since about November 2017, it has been long back-ordered here.......I am still waiting to get it back.
Cosina has tried to produce it as fast as they can, but still it is not available most of times.
So I think the Voigtalnder 40mm f1.2 SL is a huge hit for Cosina, maybe as huge as the Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 for Tamron. Those are always back-ordered in many many markets.
The Batis 40mm f2 CF seems to be becoming like the Voigtlander 40mm f1.2, it is now long back-ordered.
I had it too but I sold it for the Sony FE50mm f1.4ZA and I really regretted that decision since my FE50mm f1.4ZA cannot shoot close up like the Zeiss Batis 40mm CF.
The Batis 40mm f2 got a bad name since many criticize it for the poor Eye AF performance of that lens, but other than that, it was almost ideal lens for MY PERSONAL needs for this Christmas. It is a great high contrast lens, its rendering seems very similar to that of the Zeiss Batis 135mm f2.8 APO lens. It is super sharp at any focus distance from 20 cm to infinity. There is no such a lens available from any one else.
Many people trash it as a Tamron design, but so what?
Maybe it is a Tamron or a real Zeiss(I think this one is a real Zeiss as with the 135), in either case, it is a very unique lens.
So if you do not need the speed of the FE50mmf1.4 ZA, then the Batis 40mm f2 CF may be a bit more logical choice unless your work requires the Eye Focus AF.
I may trade my FE50mm f1.4 ZA for the Batis 40mm.....as soon as it available again. Hope I can get it back before the CP plus show in Yokohama in March 2019.
Anyway, in the Autumn 2017, I pre-ordered the FE24-105mm f4G and tested 5 copies total , I think this lens or most of Sony lenses announced after July 2016 have a good QC record.
All my 5 copies of the FE24-105mm f4G OSS I have tested were bad optically although one of these 5 had the AF issue and recalled.
Almost none of these new generation Sony lenses were bad in this regard.
I think the turning point for the Sony QC issue was the FE85mm f1.4 GM as Roger Cicala rightly pointed it out in his FE85mm f1.4GM review.
After that we have never experienced any serious QC issue on any of new Sony G or GM lenses.
So in that sense, the FE85mm f1.4GM lens was a historic lens in the short but very profound FE lens history.
Anyway, in the end of 2017, my E mount kit became like below:
1 A7(bought the original A7 again)
2 A7R
3 A7R2(2)
4 FE16-35mm f2.8GM
5 FE24-105mm f4G
6 FE55mm f1.8
7 FE50mm f2.8 macro
8 Batis 18mm f2.8
9 Batis 25mm f2
10 Batis 85mm f1.8
11 Loxia 85mm f2.4
12 FE16-35mm f4ZA(still had it at this point)
13 Laowa 15mm f2D
In December ,2017 , I sold my FE24-70mm f4ZA, FE70-200mm f4G, FE 12-24mm f4G( selling it was a huge mistake), Voigtlander 40mm f1.2(selling this lens was a huge mistake).
The last year 2018 was not as big as the year 2017 a year before it, but still a reasonably good year for many of us.
In the spring after came back from the north island here, I realized that why many of major lens makers use plastic not silly metal barrel even for their high end lenses.
I think it is because plastics are more durable and more practical lens material than metals.
The metal lenses got really cold in the mountain side of Hokkaido, and at some point, I could not hold it any longer even with thick suede gloves on. So I decided to sell my Loxia 85mm f2.4 and Laowa 15mm f2(which I never really liked any way). I also sold my Batis 18mm f2.8 after the 2 weeks long trip.
In March or April 2018, I bought another A7R3 and I thought I may need to retest the Batis 135mm f2.8 APO since it was reported to AF better on the R3 than the R2 at FM and other forums. If the AF got better on the R3 body, I would use it for the summer events here.
But at this point I wasn't really sure I should buy it or just rent it from time to time.
Oh almost forgot, in Feb 2018, I bought my first copy of the Loxia 25mm f2.4 and tested it against my Batis 25mm f2 , which I really hated but kept very long(almost 3 years).
I realized the Loxia 25mm is the best Loxia ever and it'd immediately replace my Batis 25mm(actually 23mm lens uncorrected).
The Loxia 25mm f2.4 has been the most often used lens of mine since I first acquired it in Feb 2018.
But optically , it is not much better than my FE16-35mm f2.8GM at 25mm, in fact, in terms of distortion, vignetting and Lo CA, it may be a bit worse than the zoom. The zoom is quite good at 25mm and it is excellent in 16-21mm range.
My second copy of the GM zoom is great even at the 35mm.
In summer 2018, Tamron announced the 28-75mm f2.8 and I immediately sold my FE24-70mm f2.8 GM and FE16-35mm f4ZA I still had at the time.
I got my first copy of the Tamron in July 2018, I tested it against my FE24-105mm f4G and I actually preferred my Tamron but I kept my FE24-105mm f4G and sold the Tamron cause I needed the range at the time(but it was a huge mistake).
A couple of weeks later or so, I realized selling the Tamron was a huge mistake as my FE24-105mm f4GOSS was not fast enough for a few of the local summer events I needed to shoot. So as soon as I realized that I tried to get the Tamron back but it's been really long back-ordered since August, 2018. So I am now renting it from time to time.
I think in this coming summer in Nagasakai, I will use the Tamron or the Batis 40mm f2CF plus 85mm f1.8 set up.
Last year, I used the FE24-105mm f4G and Batis 135mm APO but these were very wrong lenses there.
Oh I almost forgot just a week before heading to Nagasaki in the August, 2018, I bought a copy of the Batis 135mm again and it worked great there, but I found it a bit too long and too slow for the event.
But as I got a Marumi close up lens fort that lens, I now use it for flowers and shooting my mom's cats indoor when I visit her house..
And this time I think I would keep it, with a closeup filter, it is a very versatile lens. It was a bit overpriced lens when I got it first time in 2017, but it became a bit cheaper in 2018, so I think it is a good buy now.
After Nagasaki in the summer 2018, I started hearing the noise about the FE24mm f1.4GM and I knew I'd need it, the 24mm FL is one of my very favorite focal lengths.
So in October 2018, I ordered it and got it in the end of October , 2018 and tested it against my Loxia 25 , 16-35mm GM and rented Batis 25mm many times and I loved it.
But in November 21st, a guy living close to my shop asked me if I could sell my copy of the FE24GM for 230000yen.
I asked why? He told me he really needed it but could not get and now it's been long back-ordered. So I sold it to him and got a few hundreds extra on top of the lens price.
At the time , I was thinking I'd be able to get it back very soon since it is a niche lens......but now I realize that it was a huge mistake, I might not get it back before this coming Feb winter trip to the North island and it is a kind of lens I need for that trip. I do not need the Loxia for that kind of a long trip, but the Sony 24mm GM, the Batis 40mm f2CF(for shooting indoor, cakes, foods ,etc).
Now we have too many wide lenses and these are all good and so choosing the right lens at the very first attempt is getting more and more difficult.
And as new better options come in many ranges in every few months, we would often end up replacing our old lenses with the newer options every few months and lose some amount of resale value in many lenses, that's really annoying.
Also, it is very difficult to find out what actually really works for us at our very first try, we need to actually use it in real life to see if it actually works well for us....
Even those lenses we actually like we'd sometimes sell or return for some silly reasons. In my case the 40mm Batis , the 40mm Voigtlander and the 24mm f1.4GM are the those lenses and I really regretted selling them. Many people trashed the Batis 40mm f2CF for its very poor Eye AF and I was too concerned about its resell value in 3 or 4 months, and I sold it.
But the truth be told, I never use Eye AF outside of our studio or family meetings. So the Eye AF issue was NOT a big issue for me at all.
Some lenses become a real instant hit like those 3 primes and the Tamron 28-75mm f2.8, once you sell any of these for any reason, it would be quite difficult to get these back while these are still very hot. So I must have kept the Tamron and the Zeiss 40mm f2CF as I knew these were really needed practical lenses for me.
Sure it is really silly replacing lenses so often at a big loss , but as the system is still in the rapidly growing stage, we cannot avoid that. A best lens in 2018 , might not be even an acceptable lens in 2019 or 2010, and I think the Batis 135 and 18 are the two big name brand lenses of that kind.
In early 2017, the Batis 135mm APO was undoubtedly the best sharpest lens in the E mount world, now it is surpassed by a few lenses that are all cheaper than it.
The Voigtlander 110mm f2.5 is visibly sharper than the Batis 135mm f2.8 APO.
The 65mm f2 APO also is sharper(but not for me since I hate the FOV of it).
The Sigma Art 105mm f1.4 is sharper and better corrected with two full stops advantage.
Even the cheaper Sigma 135mm f1.8 Art is arguably a better lens than the Batis, I am not hundred percent sure about this since I never tried more than one copy of the Sigma 135mm Art, but still I think the Sigma is a lot more practical lens for low light and portrait work since it is a couple of stops faster lens.
And now Sony is coming up with their own FE135mm f1.8GM and I am sure it will be announced very very soon , just a matter of a couple of weeks or so.
So I am also very sure the Batis will lose a lot of sells and thus will be much depreciated.......
Still the Batis 135mm APO is a great lens, no doubt about it.
The Batis is probably slightly sharper than the Sigma near infinity and in medium focus distances like 10-30 feet distances. Also, the Batis 135mm has no CA, just like the Voigtlander 65mm f2.
But then, the Sigma seems to be a bit sharper in ten feet range and its bokeh seems more pleasant than the terrible cats eye bokeh of the Batis.
So I am sure at the current 1500 US price, the Batis 135mm APO will be a hard sell lens. Both the Sigma and the new Sony GM are more versatile and a lot faster. I do not think the Sony GM will be cheaper than the Batis but may not be much more expensive than that considering how reasonably priced the 24mm GM is.
Many Canon Nikon and L mount fans criticize Sony and the E mount system for this unceasingly changing mount situations with a super fast lens body replacing pace, but I think it is an unavoidable process for any new camera system especially in this mirrorless era.
I am sure those Nikon Canon Panasonic fanboys will have to experience the same things in the near future, they will have to or forced to replace most of their first bought CNPL lenses as these makers will replace these very fast too.
They seem to think they can just keep using their old mount lenses forever on their new system, but it is just a temporal solution , they will sell the F or EF lenses as more and more great native Z or R mount lenses come out , since the native mirrorless lenses are optically much better than the old D-SLR lenses adapted, especially in the Nikon world the difference will be dramatically glaring as the F mount restriction was such a huge burden on Nikon.
So those like Hogan who seem to really love the current Nikon offerings from the F mount era, will also want to replace their lenses quite soon.
The old idea of lenses last much longer than bodies and they are an investment , is dated.
My FE70-20mm f2.8GM lasted much shorter than my A7R2 body for example. Your lenses are not an investment, if you want to use lenses for a really long time-like a decade or two, then you must use legacy lenses or Canon EF lenses with an adapter even if that means you are missing many new features that only work with the native lenses.
Anyway, what have I leaned from my stupid half decade long of E mount lens buying and selling transaction history?
Well maybe just 3 simple things:
1 We should buy FL's that we actually use. For my case I bought the Batis 135mm f2.8 APO because it was the sharpest lens in the system at the time but I dislike the FOV and I found that lens seldom left my house in the last 2 years or so. So this was definitely the biggest lens mistake I have made recently. Now I cannot sell it without a huge loss.
The Voigtlander 65 was also the same I never used that lens although I've had it for a quite long time, maybe a couple of years?
2 Buying and selling many lenses is unavoidable waste in any of these rapidly growing mirrorelss systems cause the lens line grow and change very fast. If you want to avoid that, then you must stick with legacy lenses.....that is the only way to avoid that silly lens swapping upgrading game.
3 Better stick with popular lenses rather than buying super niche products when we can. I think this one is very important because I have bought many Loxia lenses and many Laowa, Samyang MF lenses and lost a lot of money, they never retain good resell value.
Yeah Loxia are Zeiss, but still they are low-resale value lenses since these are manual focus only lenses.
I personally love MF lenses , but I am realistic enough to know most just reject these.
I may sell my Loxia 25mm f2.4 for the Voigtlander 21mm f3.5 or Voigtlander 12mm f5.6, but I know the resell value of my Loxia 25mm is now very bad , so I am not very happy about it.
TBH, if I knew the 24mm f1.4GM was coming in the last December , I would not get the Loxia 25mm f2.4.
As much as I love my Loxia 25mm f2.4 , I know it is not a very popular lens and many people do not even consider it especially after the FE24mm f1.4 GM launch in the last Sept.
Also, the ergonomics of the Loxia line primes are terrible although these are optically superb.
The only one Zeiss E mount lens that has actually retained about 70 percent of its original resell value is the Batis 135mm APO. All the other E mount Zeiss primes have lost more than 40 percent of their original resell value. It is sad but it seems to be the reality. Out side of the forum fanatics' world, no one really care about its a Sony, a Sigma or a Zeiss.
So at this point I decide that I will never get any Loxia unless I am 100 percent sure I would not sell it in a year or two.
When I really need a niche MF lens , I would get a cheap Voigtlander or a super popular lens like their 40mm f1.2 that has retained about 80 percent of its original resell value.
I think the Batis 40mm f2CF will become a big hit for Zeiss and I must buy it again but I am not very sure it will be available very soon again, maybe I will not be able to get it until this coming summer. It was a huge mistake to sell it.
But in any case, the first party lenses (especially the GM lenses) are much safer to buy. I sold my FE12-24mm f4G three times but I lost almost nothing on that. I also sold my FE85mm f1.4GM two times but I did not lose much money on it either.
The Sony Zeiss is a bit different than the GM , in case of the FE50mm f1.4ZA, I lost about 550 USD when I sold it in this weekend. But it is a very rare case, most of Sony lenses retain good resell value now. When I sold my last copy of the FE55mm f1.8Za, I actually got a bit more than what I paid for when I bought it in 2013.
Many Nikon Canon and L mount fanboys criticize Sony and E mount for their poor resale value.
But the fact is all mirrorless cameras do not retain good resale value, since they are superseded more often than their D-SLR rivals. So Nikon Z series cameras will be depreciated very fast, just like the one generation older Sony A7X bodies.
And their first generation Z lenses are going to be much depreciated soon, if not that means Nikon is too slow to come up with new lenses. And it is even a bit more serious problem than the lens depreciation issue.
To be fair to Sony, now Sony lenses hold their resale value much longer than their Nikon equivalents.
It has changed since about October 2017, so now we do not need to worry about the resale value of the Sony system too much, it is just as good as the rival brands D-SLR systems and much better than the Z and R systems whose future success seems to be very unclear, if not very bleak.
Now BCN here has just published their sells results here and according to that , the R seems to be selling two times or more than the Z7 and Z6 sells combined, it is about identical as what our German and Thai friend reported to us and we have been experiencing at our shops.
But, the A7MK3 seems to be still the indisputable mirrorless champion here. And to our surprise, the Fuji X-T3 seems to be the no2 best selling camera now.
UPDATE; Now I found another reason to go against the Loxias. The resell value of these Loxia primes are very bad , much worse than that of the GM line or the Batis line primes.
But in case of the Loxia 85 and 25, I really love these lenses, so it may be OK to keep these two, but I am not buying any more new Loxia since I may sell it in a year or two and when I sell it I will lose a lot of money on it. So before buying any lens , we should research on its resell value.....if it too shabby , then maybe safer to ignore these?
Many many people worried about the resell value of the 40mm Batis now but I bet that it will not be depreciated very soon. We ordered many of it , but Zeiss said we need to wait about 2 months to finally get it. So the forum consensus on this lens is very wrong , it is not rejected , but the truth is Zeiss cannot produce it as fast as they need to, they simply can't keep up with the high demand for this one.
And I think most of people lucky enough to actually owned or tried this lens knows why. It is a superb lens even with the Eye AF issue.
So my final conclusion on this lens is that it is a very good lens and safe to buy...Zeiss will support it and they promised to update the lens FW very soon.
UPDATE2: Now I just rechecked the resell value of FE mount lenses that I may consider buying or selling.
1 Laowa 10-18mm : the new price is 98900 yen here and 23000 yen is the price most of shops buy it.
2 Voigtlander 21mm f3.5 : the new price is 68000yen and most of shops here buy it for 47800 yen.
3 Loxia 21mm f2.8 : the new price is 158000yen and most of shops here buy it for 88000 yen.
4 Batis 18mm f2.8(I had this one but glad I sold it before the resell value plummeted down): the new price here is 168000yen and most of shops buy it for 94800yen.
5 Sony FE12-24mm f4G(I do not sell it but just checked the current price) : 168000yen and most of shops here buy it for 143000yen, so I do not lose much even if I sell it today.
6 Sony FE16-35mm f2.8GM: its current new price is about 223000yen and most of shops buy it for about 192000yen.
So I might sell it now to get the 85mm GM again.
7 Laowa 15mm f2 Zero D: its new price is 105480 yen and most shops buy it for 36000yen, so I sold it to my local friend but still I lost a lot on this crap. I will never buy Laowa lenses any more, too bad resell value.
8 Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 : the new price here is 84000yen and most of shops here buy it for 76000yen. So its resell value is really amazing.
9 Sony FE24-105mm f4G: new price now is 143000yen and most of shops buy it for 123000yen. Not very bad.
10 Sony FE24-70mm f2.8GM : new price for this one is 198800 yen and most shops here buy it for 152000yen. So it is the worst value GM lens now.
11 FE24mm f1.4GM: new price for it is now 167000yen and most of shops buy it for 148000yen. For a price it is not bad but not great.
12 FE85mm f1.4GM: 168000yen new and most of shops buy it for 158000yen or a bit less. So great resell value and safe to buy this lens now.
13 Zony FE50mm f1.4 : 167000yen new and most buy it for 112000yen. Not great for a real Sony lens.
14 Zony 35mm f1.4ZA : this lens is expensive in Japan at 178000yen and most of shops buy it for 110000yen. So I never buy this lens ever again. I think they know it will be replaced soon with a GM 35mm f1.4 or 40mm f1.4GM. I prefer a 40mm GM but 35mm is OK too.
15 Sigma 28mm f1.4 Art: this lens is now going for 123000 yen and most of shops here buy it for 98000yen. So not very bad but but still bad. I may buy it but I have to make sure I would keep it if I buy it.
16 Sigma 50mm f1.4 Art: now it is about 87000yen and most of shops here buy it for 57800yen.
17 Loxia 50mm f2 : now the new copy is going for around 78000yen and most shops buy it for 43000yen. Terrible.
18 FE55mm f1.4ZA: now the new copy is going for around 78000yen(the price went up recently for this one) and most of shops here buy it for now 72000yen used. So it is a safe buy.
19 Loxia 35mm f2: now new one is going for 118000yen and most buy it for 62000yen. Terrible.
20 Sigma 35mm f1.4 Art: new one is going for 76000yen and most buy it for 48000yen. Bad but not as bad as the Loxia.
21 Batis 25mm f2 : new one is going for 109800yen and most buy it for 56000yen now. It is a terrible value lens.
22 Loxia 25mm f2.4 : new one is now 143000yen(I paid 123000yen in last Feb) and most buying it for 69800yen.
Shockingly bad.
23 FE85mm f1.8: new one is around 54000yen(at this price it is a no brainer) most buying it for 49000yen.
24 Loxia 85mm f2.4: new one is now 134000yen and most buying it for 63000yen.....I must sell it locally.....or at Ebey.
25 Batis 85mm f1.8E: new one is now 108000yen and most buying it for 72000yen. a much safer lens than the Loxia 85.
26 Voigtlander 65mm f2 APO: new price now is 101000yen and most buying it for 89000yen. For a manual prime it is not bad.
27 Voigtlander 110mm f2.5 APO: new one is 128000yen and most buying it for 108000yen.
28 Voigtlander 15 : new one is 78000yen and most of shops here buying it for 49800yen.
29 Voigtlander 12mm : new one is 102000yen and most of shops buying this for 63000yen.
30 Batis 135mm f2.8 APO: new price for this one is now 189000yen and most of shops buying this used for 150000yen. Bad but not really bad like Loxias or the Batis 18 and 25.
31 Batis 40mm f2 CF: new price is 134000yen and most shops buying it used for 100000 yen.
32 Voigtlander 40mm f1.2 : new price is 112000yen and most of shops buying it for 73000yen.
33 FE16-35mm f4ZA: new price here is 112000yen(much cheaper than in the US or EU) and most of shops including ours buying it for 93000yen(good used one). So it is also a safe buy.
These just show us 5 things :
1 Sony lenses retain good resell value much longer than anything else.
2 Zooms are generally safer to buy.
3 Mid priced FE lenses such as the FE16-35mm f4ZA, the FE12-24mm f4G, the FE55mm f1.8ZA, etc. are the safest lenses to buy.
4 if we are not sure we keep it long or not, then safe not to buy the Loxia lenses or some Voigtlander.
5 Laowa lenses the worst with respect to resell price.
So I decided not to get any Laowa any more.
I will also avoid the Loxia lenses although I love these manual lenses. It is not for me since I know I cannot keep lenses very long , I like swapping lenses every few weeks or months.
Manual lenses seem to lose most of its original value very fast.
There are a few exceptions like the Voigt 110mm f2.5 APO and the 65mm f2 APO but most of these Loxia, Laowa and Voigtlander primes are bad value lenses.
