Help me find a budget telephoto lens for my Sony a58 please

ceemuk

ceemuk

ceemuk

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30 Jul 2009
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Evening, I'm a beginner and have a Sony a58.

I'm trying to find a budget telephoto lens; either 55-200mm or 55-300mm.

The a58 takes 55mm lenses and filters.

I'm aware of Sony's own SAL55200-2 (55-200mm) and that is my fallback option but I wonder if there's anything a bit cheaper out there from the likes of Tamron and Sigma. I've looked at their respective (many) sites but cannot seem to find any A-Mount 55mm lenses.

Another one from Sony - albeit older - is the SAL-75300 (75-300mm (55mm)). I also cannot find out for sure if this is compatible (have emailed Sony still waiting for a response). From the pictures I cannot see a AF/MF switch on it. There is an AF/MF switch on the a58 body and I understand therefore that the body does all the work anyway, so if this lens is compatible in all other ways does that mean it wouldn't matter if it doesn't have its own AF/MF switch?

Cheers.
 
The A mount is standard so it doesn't matter what size it is. The 55mm you refer to is the diameter at other end of the lens and this varies from lens to lens. So any A mount lens will fit your camera, including many of the older Minolta AF lenses.

A good site that lists all Minolta/Sony A mount lenses, with user feedback, is http://www.dyxum.com/lenses/index.asp

I got a Tamron di II 55-200 telephoto which is not a bad little budget lens, and can be picked up for around £90 from the remaining national electronics retailer that begins with a C (and also from their national computer subsidiary). If you register your purchase within a couple of months, they also give you a 5 year guarantee. The lens is designed for APS-C cameras so you should be fine with your a58.

Sigma also made a lens with the same focal range but that's been discontinued - you might be able to find one on that auction site. They do have the 70-300mm F4-5.6 DG MACRO which you can get for around £100. Two caveats with that - the reviews have been pretty poor, and Sigma did have a problem getting autofocus to work correctly on SLT cameras.

The Sony options. The 55-200mm is rated around the same as the Tamron but almost twice the price. There is a new 55-300mm which is similarly rated, but there's a price premium for that too. I wouldn't bother with the 75-300mm. It's an okay lens but people seem to find it's very slow focusing.

Don't worry about having an AF switch on the lens. Sometimes it's useful but, most of the time, you will have to switch from AF to MF on both the lens and the Sony body so you're usually better off just having the one switch to think about. There can also be a risk of stripping the gearing in the lens if you switch between AF/MF on the body but not the lens.

All the lenses I've mentioned are cheap because, like the kit lens, they have quite slow apertures. You can get faster lenses but then you're talking about a significant price premium for those. For example, the Tamron 70-200mm f2.8 will set you back around £500.

In the second hand market there are plenty of lenses that are suitable. The Cosina 60-300mm f4-5.6 gets pretty good reviews and there's always the legendary Minolta 70-210 f4. The former can be obtained for around £50 and the latter for around £100. There are more than 70 lenses listed on the link I provided, and they'll all fit the A mount.

Most of these telephoto lenses will have filter sizes between 52 and 62mm. Again, that shouldn't be a problem as new filters will be cheaper to purchase than the lens. At a push, you also have the option of purchasing step-up/down rings so that you can still use existing lens attachments if you want. They're only a few pounds. Filters for larger diameter lenses, e.g. 70mm upwards will cost a lot more.

Personally, I quite like the Tamron di II. It's small and light, so I can just slip it into a convenient pocket, and the colour reproduction is pretty good. It's very sharp and, in good light, focuses pretty quickly too. Yes, it's plastic but then so is the kit lens. However it is a MUCH better performer and conveniently overlaps the end of the kit lens' focal length. For £90 or less, it's an absolute bargain.
 
Tamron 70-300 VC is ok on a budget, make sure it is the VC version since te older ones are much softer.
 
D.P. said:
Tamron 70-300 VC is ok on a budget, make sure it is the VC version since te older ones are much softer.
Click to expand...

Tamron don't actually make a VC version for Sony, its essentially the same lens with the USD motor but without the VC. Not really a problem because the sensor shift in body and I found Tamrons VC to be really slow to kick in on my D7000 anyway and swapped it for a 70-300 VR.

On a budget I'd be looking at the Sony 55-300mm SAM lens. The Sony outlet had them for £185 a few days ago, the new SAM motor is actually pretty good and image quality is not far off the Tamron at all.
 
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