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mbwecht
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Registered: Nov 4, 2020
Location: United States
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Jul 17, 2022
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $899.00
| Rating: 8
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Pros:
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Incredibly durable, lightweight, tack sharp, silent and fast autofocus
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Cons:
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Chromatic aberrations wide open can be distracting, video autofocus is not reliable in super low light conditions.
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This was the first "premium" lens I picked up for my a7III after owning the 50mm 1.8, as well as the Tamron 28-75 G1. This is a lens that I will never let go of. There's something magical about the way that it renders images. I work as a portrait photographer, and this is my primary lens for in-studio flash photography and outdoor dance portraits.
I just recently picked up the a74 and I'm super excited to play with the extra resolution with this lens.
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 Jul 17, 2022
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thesmithbrian
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Registered: Sep 9, 2020
Location: United States
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Sep 9, 2020
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $650.00
| Rating: 5
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Pros:
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Lightweight, sharp, fast af, pleasing bokeh
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Cons:
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Horrible flaring and an innefective lens hood
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This is a lens that I just could not figure out the hype for. I've seen so many pleasing images come from this lens, that is true. The bokeh is pleasing and it has a bit of that warm contax/zeiss magic. I purchased it, primarily, because it is very lightweight and would save my hands some bruisiing caused by the sony a7iii poor ergonomics coupled with my heavy, adapted Canon 50mm F1.2L. It was also a significant AF improvement in backlighting and when using AF points outside the center.
I sold the lens after about 6 months of use, however. It flares, HORRIBLY. The concave outer element makes it extrememly prone to reflecting light up toward the top of the element when shooting with the sun high and behind the subject. This combined with a completely innefective petal hood made any images shot in portrait orientation have a completely washed out, and even red, bottom 1/3 of the image. I'm not sure how more people don't complain of this oversight. The petal hood works fine when shooting landscape, because the longer petal adequately covers high light from striking the lens surface, but as soon as you rotate the camera into portrait orientation, the small petals no longer block the light. You are left with a very unflattering flare and cast across most of the bottom half of your images.
It seems to me that a simple, barrell lens hood could have fixed the problem.
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Sep 9, 2020
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nandadevieast
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Registered: Aug 12, 2012
Location: India
Posts: 3459
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Review Date: Oct 7, 2019
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Small, Sharp wide open (my sharpest lens), Great background rendering.
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Cons:
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MF experience takes getting used to, but this is not a negative
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This was the very first lens I bought for my Sony system and despite continuous churning in my kit thanks to a growing FE system, this is one lens I haven’t sold.
Its great for everything but it shines with portraiture. Backgrounds are smooth and low contrast, which is great. Unlike many 50s, this is sharp wide open, and that’s what you’re paying for. Its small and light and built very well. Considering all this, i find the price to be fair. There is a FE50 1.8 for less price, with a typical 50mm design, that every manufacturer has. This one is special. Also you don’t pay the price in size and weight for better optics which is remarkable.
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Oct 7, 2019
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MRomine
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Registered: Jul 19, 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 4611
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Review Date: Dec 24, 2018
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $900.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Sharpest 50/55mm I've ever used including those made by Nikon and Canon. Light weight, inedibly fast to lock focus.
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Cons:
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There are none.
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I love this lens so much that I will probably go back to shooting Sony again.
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Dec 24, 2018
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rjenson
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Registered: Apr 4, 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 490
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Review Date: Mar 30, 2018
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Light weight, slim profile, fast and silent focus, nice build quality.
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Cons:
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Not critically sharp until f/2.0. Average color and bokeh.
Price is a little high.
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Very good overall lens!
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Mar 30, 2018
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Tony Ross
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Registered: Jul 9, 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 741
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Review Date: Dec 11, 2017
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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It's light, sharp, and a pleasure to use.
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Cons:
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This lens is limited to f/1.8 - but that's what allows it to be a lightweight wonder.
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This is the lens that convinced me to buy the A7R II. It's sharp enough for the 42Mpixel resolution of the A7R II.
I've tried various 50mm lenses for the Sony, but this is the one I chose.
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Dec 11, 2017
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lifeofdavid
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Registered: Jan 26, 2015
Location: N/A
Posts: 0
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Review Date: Feb 8, 2017
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Size
Sharpness
Rendering
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Cons:
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None
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Imo there are two perfect lenses for the A7 series and this is one of them. (Batis 85mm is the other) It's Incredibly sharp, renders beautifully, especially shooting into the sun and balances excellently on my A7rii.
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Feb 8, 2017
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40Driggs
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Registered: Sep 16, 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 2831
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Review Date: Jan 27, 2017
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $515.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Sharp wide open, small and lightweight, nice build quality
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Cons:
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CA in certain situations.
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I really like this lens on my a7. It's "only" f/1.8, but the fact that it is completely useable wide open makes up for that in my opinion. I think that this is a perfect balance of size, weight and aperture for mirrorless ad it pairs nicely with FE 28mm for a relatively small kit.
The lens does exhibit CA in certain situations and has a somewhat clinical look, but I'm ok with this personally. The new f/1.4 lens looks amazing and would be the go to if you want technical perfection, but I think this lens is a much better compromise for the average shooter. I would buy it again, especially since there are enough around to pick up a used copy for a reasonable price.
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Jan 27, 2017
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Matt Kerby
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Registered: Jun 9, 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 1720
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Review Date: Jan 25, 2017
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $625.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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small, sharp, fast AF
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Cons:
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No OSS
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Good things come in small packages...This lens is very well made, especially for a small lens everything just feels solid. MF and AF are easy and quick and accurate..It's sharp, like REAL sharp wide open. Bokeh is nice...I love this lens.
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Jan 25, 2017
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Ghost
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Registered: Feb 22, 2005
Location: Canada
Posts: 2118
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Review Date: Dec 23, 2015
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $900.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Sharp wide open, pleasing bokeh, perfect size for the A7 cameras, great value for what it can deliver, solid built, beautiful colour rendering
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Cons:
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Some might consider it expensive for a 50-ish FL with f1.8. The metal hood is a bit slippery.
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I had this long for a while now. It's used predominantly as a standard FL portraiture. You can check out the vast amount of photos shot with this lens at my website (www.veritas-images.com).
In my years of owning various lenses, few blew me away that this Sony Zeiss 55/1,8 did. Very solidly built. The focusing ring has just the right amount of smoothness.
Colour rendering is wonderful. They just pop beautifully. Shot wide open at f1.8 results in satisfactory sharpness. There's this cool 3D like separation of subject and background with certain compositions.
I cycle through lenses depending on quality they deliver. For me it's not always about absolutes. It's about character and ability to deliver the image I have in my mind the moment I press the shutter button.
I have a feeling this lens will be a mainstay together with the 135L and the Sigma 35 Art.
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Dec 23, 2015
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Chuck Eklund
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Registered: Mar 8, 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 1496
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Review Date: Oct 25, 2015
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $998.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Sharp edge to edge, fast focus, low light focus, small and light
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Cons:
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Fitting some filters
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The perfect leave it on the camera lens. Before other options came along I appreciated it slightly long FL for a normal lens and it's ability to capture portraits with blurred backgrounds and little facial distortion.
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Oct 25, 2015
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susi
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Registered: Sep 28, 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2622
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Review Date: Sep 11, 2015
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $875.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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quick focus, very sharp, light weight, well built
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Cons:
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none
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Great little lens. The bokah is not as 'dreamy' as my 50 f/1.2 on my 5DMKlll but this lens, of course is not a 1.2. It is much easier to get the face in focus with a little more aperture and get every single hair rendered in sharp detail.
Here is a gallery where I used this lens the first time :
http://susilawson.zenfolio.com/p468591406
Took these with my new Sony A7R ll and just a great combo ! I am loving the portraits I have taken thus far !
I read many reviews on FB in the sony forum before purchasing and I think all the praise has proven to be true about this lens !
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Sep 11, 2015
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Jmac88
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Registered: Oct 30, 2013
Location: Canada
Posts: 141
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Review Date: Jul 2, 2015
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $950.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Sharp corner to corner
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Cons:
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Price
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One of the sharpest primes I've used.
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Jul 2, 2015
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TheEmrys
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Registered: Jul 3, 2013
Location: United States
Posts: 4052
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Review Date: May 20, 2015
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: $998.00
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Incredibly sharp, excellent contrast, strong Sony colors
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Cons:
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Fly-By-Wire AF? really the only issue
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Love the rendering of this lens. Wonderful contrast and pop to images. Lovely micro-contrast. Great balance between bokeh, contrast, and sharpness, something hard to do. Unparalleled sharpness in such a small package. Love whatever hoodoo Sony is doing to get such bright lenses, but it is as bright as any f/1.4 lens thanks to a t/1.8.
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May 20, 2015
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Carles77
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Registered: Sep 19, 2012
Location: Spain
Posts: 5
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Review Date: Apr 28, 2015
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Recommend? no |
Price paid: $600.00
| Rating: 4
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Pros:
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weight, autofocus, well build
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Cons:
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flat in many aspects, CA at f/1.8-2, colours soft, it could be an standard zoom lens but without zoom!
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I wanted to buy the loxia but someone gives me a good offer for this lens. I've tried this lens for a few shots but I think it's a flat lens. It's sharp but not really amazing, colors are little soft and also has no specially good bokeh for this kind and expensive lens. So If you don't have good colours, no 3d effect (I have many zeiss lenses for canon including 21,25 and the 100) and no specially nice bokeh, it's like a zoom lens with more aperture, nothing special there. Who said "the little otus" has to buy a new monitor... For family shooters coming from sony nex or something like small sensors this lens will make it, but if you like lens with character like leica o zeiss I think this is not for you. I will sell it and try to find if loxia it's better or same "no soul" lens.
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Apr 28, 2015
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Sami Ruusunen
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Registered: Jul 29, 2010
Location: Finland
Posts: 720
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Review Date: Mar 18, 2015
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Recommend? yes |
Price paid: Not Indicated
| Rating: 10
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Pros:
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Sharp corner to corner even wide open. Light but good build quality.
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Cons:
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"only" f1.8.
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Best normal lens I've ever used.
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Mar 18, 2015
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Reviews
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Views
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Date of last review
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20
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42106
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Jul 17, 2022
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Recommended By
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Average Price
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95% of reviewers
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$805.00
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Build Quality Rating
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Price Rating
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Overall Rating
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9.21
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7.58
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8.7
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