£300 to spend on lenses... Help

pumaz · 23 May 2010 at 21:01

I have had my Sony A200 with kit lense for almost a year now and I'm wanting to replace the Kit lense with a single or combination of lenses. I have about £300 to spend and I like to shoot landscapes, portraits as well as mess about with macro.

Does anyone have any recomendations?

Thanks

peterattheboro · 23 May 2010 at 21:04

No idea what lenses are available for the Sony but a nice wide range is always good.

So you could have your kit lens, 50mm f/1.8, and a telephoto (70-200/300).

Pug · 23 May 2010 at 21:09

Just last month i traded my kit and my 75-300 for Sonys own (upgraded the Tamron model) 18-250.

VERY happy with it. Better than the two lenses it replaced, and the ONLY negative thing i have found is that at 18mm it produces a bit of barrel distortion, beyond that very pleased. Only issue is its ~£390.

I also bought (only because it was cheap) a Sigma 24mm f2.8 lens, and wow what a buy! Perfect for portra****, and okish for macro (maybe the 50mm would be better for macro, but i felt it was to "close" for portraits, so sold it on).

dalex · 23 May 2010 at 21:27

I got a quantaray (usa sigma) 24mm f2.8,minolta 50mm f1.7 , the classic minolta 35-105 f3.5-4.5 for a walkabout and a tokina 70 -210 f4-5.6 all cheap as chips with some excellent results and most avenues covered ,have a look on http://www.dyxum.com/dforum/forums.html for lenses and they have an excellent lense review section for more ideas like the old 70-210 minolta "beercan "

Dave

ChazHurst · 23 May 2010 at 23:04

With £300 you are about £150 under budget for some really cool Sony glass. Namely the 16-80mm Zeiss and the 16-105mm Sony. Both great, but also both £400+...

If you can stretch your budget £50, and 28mm is wide enough for you, then check out the Tamron 28-75 f2.8. Glowing review here

When I bought some stuff to replace that really rather poor kit lens, I bought:

1. Minolta 50mm f1.7
2. Minolta 28mm f2.8
3. Minolta "Beercan" 70-210mm f4

Each for about the £100 mark. Any can be gotten for around that figure. The beercan, in my opinion, isn't as "amazing" as people say it is. The 50mm is basically my go-to lens for almost any situation. The 28mm is pretty cool too, but just not quite wide enough on the cropped sensor for massive landscapes, unless you do a multishot panoramic.

As dalex said above, dyxum.com has an immense, user generated, review database of every single Minolta AF/alpha mount lens ever made. Well worth having a browse through a few things. That site that I linked to above also has reviews for every single Sony branded lens made for their DSLRs.

Pug · 23 May 2010 at 23:12

Everything I read about the 105 suggested it was a good but flawed lens. Never used it though.

sparkey196 · 27 May 2010 at 13:32

I would suggest as a priority getting the sony 50mm f1.8 which is around £100. Try to avoid the Minolta f1.7 because despite good build quality, after 25 years the grease on the focus ring deteriorates and gets onto the apperture causing it to become slow. The Sony/Minotla 50mm f1.4 is quite a step up performance wise but also in price at £200+ so consider it only if you are going to upgrade your body in the near future.

The Sony 18-250mm is also a good all rounder but consider carefully if you really need the range. You will get more wow factor (i.e low light performance/bokeh) with a fast 50mm prime.