The weather here changes really incessantly every few minutes. It finally became sunny at this point, but in ten minutes or so it became really stormy again.
Why I decided to lighten my lens kit(sold and replaced many lenses):
First of all, those so called reviewers do not seem to walk or run much, they just drive lazy people. So to them it does not matter how heavy or heavy or obnoxious their lenses are, but to me it is a huge issue. I reminded that because of the COVID-19 crisis and subsequent long break from my work.
COVID-19 has changed everything even the way I shoot and my lens kit.
About after 2 months of the first news of the pandemic I realized that those dying from the disease were mostly health compromised people with weak cardiovascular system, or those drink a lot or smoke a lot of cigarettes.
So I decided to change my life style a bit. I started running(I always did but this time more seriously), I decided to build a home gym that replaced my gym membership.
It is really risky to go to amy gym as many people there are almost half naked(wearing vulgar tanktops and very short shorts,etc) and often accidentally touch or contact with other person or persons. And there is a dirty wet shower room.
So even without the COVID attack we better avoid going there, IMHO.
So I revoke my gym membership. I just decided workout at home , fortunately my house and backyard seemed to be big enough to place all machines and weights I needed. Also, I decided to deploy the new tech like resistant bands into my new workout program.
And luckily it seems to have been working very well for me.
I am much healthier and my shingles and herpes seem to be less aggressive now.
It sometimes attacks me and gives me extreme pains on my left shoulder, but I can predict it now when it comes.
So most of times I can control it better than before with proper resting tech and new Swedish herbs I bought online.
A few weeks ago I started walking more and more and quit driving completely. Now I do not drive myself , I just take buses , subways and trains......but most of times just walk.
So my lens kit had to be small and light, also had to be very inconspicuous. In the city area I would not be able to use a huge obnoxious lens any more even if it was the best or sharpest lens in my bag, people would stare and the police would follow me for a kilo or more if I did. I realized that a few weeks ago and started my lens reorganizing project in this June.
So I first decided to sell all those obnoxiously huge or attention-grabbing lenses in my bag. I have sold 6 lenses: 1 the FE70-200mm f2.8GM. 2 FE135mm f1.8GM. 3 Sigma 24-70mm f2.8Dn.
4 Sony FE85mm f1.4GM. 5 Zeiss Batis 85mm f1.8.
6 FE24mm f1.4GM.
Then , I replaced these with the tiniest possible lens works similar to these.
I replaced the Sony 85mm f1.4GM with the Samyang 75mm f1.8.......and now replacing it with Sony FE85mm f1.8E.
I replaced my Sony FE70-200mm f2.8GM with the Tamron 70-180mm f2.8VC.
I replaced my Sigma 24-70mm f2.8Dn with my old FE24-105mm f4G....I prefer the latter any way.
I replaced my Batis 85mm f1.8 with the much smaller Sony version. As I use a 85mm prime as a street or walk around prime the Sony with a bit better AF works better for me.
After selling my FE135mm f1.8GM , I bought the Zeiss Batis 135mm f2.8 APO again. I prefer the Zeiss in regards to rendering and flare performance. The Sony is faster both in AF and speed, but the Batis AF is not too shabby for my personal shootings either. And I never like super thin super shallow DoF look especially at 135mm AOV. For me f1.8 DoF at 135mm FL seems to be just too thin shallow.....almost nothing in focus at that f stop at that focal length.
After that, I decided to sell a few more lenses that I thought I would not use any more(some of these I would have to buy back again, though).
I sold the Zeiss Loxia 25 , 85 , the Voigtlander 110mm f2.5 and the Voigtlander 65mm f2 APO.....
Now it's been a several weeks or so since I sold my Loxia 25, 85 and 50, I am missing my Loxia 25 and 50(surprised , I never expected I would miss about it). I do not miss the 85mm Loxia although it is the best Loxia (optically) as it is just too long and very clunky awkward lens. As I used it in the city area many people around me would go crazy paranoid about it and some might sue me.
But the 25 and the 50, I really miss them and I am sure I will get them back soon. I thought I would never need the 50mm Loxia any more as I also had the Voigtlander 50mm f2APO, but now I know I actually prefer the Loxia look although the Voigtlander is a sharper , technically better corrected lens.
The Loxia is just lovely and I think renders nicer especially people and flowers. Maybe a bit of extra axial CA that lens produces makes it more pleasing to my eye, I do not know, but now I realize what technically the best does not always mean the most pleasing in rendering.
But, in pure technical sense, the Voigtlander 50mm f2 APO is a much superior lens to the Loxia 50mm in terms of edge resolution and CA suppression.
As for the Voigtlander 110 f2.5 Macro, I think it is almost flawless optically, but it is also a very heavy and big lens for some thing I rarely use but have to be always kept in my bag just in case I might need it......so replaced this lens with the cheap Laowa 100mm f2.8 2X macro lens.
Sure the Voigtlander is tiny bit sharper, but the Laowa is a true macro , actually 2X macro, and so it is much a more practical lens than the Voigtlander half macro.
I also replaced my Voigtlander 65mm f2 APO with the much maligned Sony FE50mm f2.8 macro.
Sure the Sony is not as sharp or well corrected as the Voigtlander, but it is much smaller , almost pocketable and reasonably sharp at f4 and on, plus it can do true macro work when needed.
So I think it is a fine lens for most of things and one of the most underrated FE primes ever.
I may also replace my FE16-35mm f2.8GM with the Tamron 17-28mm f2.8.........but I am not sure about this one yet, I am still debating about it as the FE16-35mm f2.8GM is super versatile and many times I can just go out and shoot with just that one lens.
The 16-35mm range is really versatile at least in my case, and I find I've used the 30-35mm range of this zoom quite often in the last 3 years or so. Many people complain about the quality of the 16-35mm GM at 35mm wideopen , but my current copy is really good almost best at that specific FL and seems to be weakest at 16mm. My older copy of that zoom was opposite the sharpest at the 16mm mark and the least sharp at the 35mm mark , so there are serious copy to copy quality variations with this lens for sure.
The Tamron 17-28mm f2.8 I tested myself was a bit weak at 28mm end of it, and thus I needed to add at least one or two extra primes to it to make it really work great for me.
With the FE16-35mm f2.8GM I do not need to do that as often as with the Tamron.
So in the long run it may be a bit more practical and lighter solution than the Tamron plus a couple of extra primes.
That said if any one makes a compact f4 16-35 or 14-30mm prime as small as the Nikon version, I would choose it over any of the current FE wide zooms.
In the wide end I do not really need f2.8, I prefer a compact but uncompromised kind of f4 zoom in that range.
The Nikon is always trashed by sites like FM, SAR and other Sony biased site by those who have never used that lens, but a good copy of the 14-30mm f4 is pretty sharp actually. Not as bad as the Sony fanboy sites like FM wants to make it out to be.....the problem of these review sites and the one brand biased sites like FM or PR is that they cannot be rational neutral on any issue..........In case of FM they must make Sony system win on everything over every other brand.
In case of PR(and NR), they make Nikon win on everything over every other competing brand out there. So their so called real life comparison is useless, as they already made their mind on their favorite brand system before they do the so-called comparison test.
So the Nikon Z14-30mm f4S was trashed by the guys at FM Sony forums and SAR guys, but it is not that bad, it is actually a great practical wide zoom, I mean at least as good or a bit better than the Sony FE12-24mm f4G, which these Sony fanboy sites rate as a great lens.
Anyway, I guess the real reason I've been dramatically changing my shooting kit(also habits) seems to be that my shooting priority changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic issue, thus my lens priority orders changed.
It used to be like this : 1 Sharpness(resolution), 2 flare resistance, 3 distortion control, 4 Lo-CA control, 5 size, 6 focus quality...or performance.
Now it is like this order: 1 compactness ,2 flare resistance, 3 resolution,4 durability, 5 distortion control, 6 Lo-CA control,etc.
Therefore my kit has been changing rapidly.
I think it will end up like this, though not very confirmed at this point:
1 super wide angle: Laowa 9mm f5.6 or Voigtlander 10mm f5.6 or Sony 12-24mm f2.8.
2 one lens or two lenses wide angle zoom solution: either FE16-35mm f2.8GM or Tamron 17-28mm f2.8 plus Sony FE35mm f1.8.
3 walk around prime(s): Batis 40mm f2CF or Voigtlander 50mm f2 APO or FE85mm f1.8E, plus Loxia 25 or Voigtlander 21mm f1.4.
4 casual macro lens for computer chips and food : Sony FE50mm f2.8..it is not the best obviously , but good enough for my casual macro needs.
5 a bit more serious macro needs: Laowa 100mm f2.8 APO 2x macro lens. Nothing is better than this one at any price point, IMHO.
6 long lens (for me , for most of people it is not long enough for sure) : Batis 135mm f2.8 and /or Tamron 70-180mm f2.8 VC.
7 my favorite lens for night walk : Loxia 25mm f2.4 or Sigma 28mm f1.4 Dn.
I used to have the FE100-400mm GM but sold it as I knew I would not use it much as I decided to quit driving altogether(I never liked driving any way).
But it is a good lens and I may rent it from time to time when I really need it for a local university event.......but keeping it unused for many months is just wasting of my money.
I also do not have much space for that as my new hobby is collecting and displaying sneakers in my office room. And these shoes are my main models now.
Oh and I decided to add a compact APS-C camera like the Ricoh GR3 street edition or the Fuji X100V.
I think I will get the Ricoh but I must test these side by side myself. I think the GR3 is the better camera for me as it has a bit sharper lens and it is smaller and most importantly I am a big fan of 28mm AOV.
