Camera Labs

My wife is new to DSLR cameras. She has always used a point and shoot and has taken thousands of pics. She has run into a problem of taking lower light pictures of fast moving objects and cannot do it with her camera. Enter a Sony A33. She is looking for a 200mm + or - lens to use indoors. As we are both new to this type of photography, we were wondering if more experienced folks can make some recommendations about what to buy. We understand Konica/Minolta af lenses will also work with this camera and there seem to be a lot of used ones out there. We are probably looking to shoot at a maximum of 200 feet range indoors. Any help would be appreciated.

Hi Roadmazzter,

May I wish you a warm welcome to the CameraLabs forum.

I'll leave specific advice to those more familiar with the system but if you check out this site's lenses page you can find links to listings for both Sony's and Sigma's lenses for the Alpha system. And then there's the A mount lens database which gives you information about all those legacy lenses you mentioned. Good luck.

Oh, and one thing that did occur to me as I read your post is whether you wanted a 200mm lens or a lens that offered the field of view that a 200mm lens would offer on a full-framer? The difference is, of course, down to the Alpha's crop factor.

Bob.

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Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

I will leave the expert advice from other experts.

My quick advice, which probably not exactly what you are after, get SAL50F14 for your low-light or fast moving objects; and get HVLF58AM (flash) for your low-light and fast moving objects.

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Thank you for the feedback! I found my problem. A bad quantaray 70-300 lens. Does anyone know of someone that repairs a quantaray lens? Sigma doesn't. Says no parts available.

Thanks for sharing such a nice information liked reading it.

you can' use a 70-300mm indoors,it's has variable aperture & not bright either. I would recommand either a fast prime,like a 100 or 150 F/2.8 or a 70-200 F/2.8 zoom.

why do you need a telephoto lens indoors? you won't have room for that,unless you're shooting sports.

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Gear: Nikon D80, 18-105mm, 35mm F/1.8, 85mm F/1.8, SB-600
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The original post did say up to 200 feet indoors so that's not your average house! Some kind of indoor event area then... flash will be useless so a big aperture tele would be a strong plus. If budget allows something like a 70-200 f/2.8 would be interesting. If not, look for used f/4 lenses of a similar range like the overhyped "beercan". I find a general 70-300 is still very usable if you're not afraid of jacking up the ISO a bit.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Since my original post, things on the lens front have changed. I took a mint Quantaray 70-300 lens with me to the National In-Line speed skating championships, only to find out it had a cloudy rear lens in it. What a bummer! Since then, I bought a new 70-210 and a 70-300. I am looking a buying a new Sigma 18-250mm f3.5-6.3 dc os hsm lens. The reviews are pretty good and I can get it at a great price. I think it will allow me to put one lens on the camera and cover almost all of my wife's needs since she is the one that uses the camera. I may sell of some of the other lenses if I like this one enough.

Has anyone had any personal experience or read any reviews for the Sigma 18-250mm DC OS HSM lens? What I have read indicates this lens could fulfill about 99% of my wife's needs. I just can't envision her changing lenses a lot.

I'm a big fan of that focal zoom range. You may also want to consider the Sal 18-250 if you can pick one up for less money.
Here are some reviews...
http://www.dyxum.com/reviews/lenses/Sig ... ew541.html

Ditto for me - I love the versatility of an 18-250mm lens and have used one for years. I'll use specific primes or shorter zooms for specific needs, but the 18-250mm is the default walkaround lens and I can use it for almost anything in a pinch. I don't know too much about the Sigma in particular - most reviews are favorable, but I don't see it being significantly different or better than the Sony SAL18-250mm or the Tamron 18-250mm or 18-270mm lenses - I tend to still lean towards the Sony version because of its tremendous size and weight advantage compared to the Sigma - it's well and truly a walkaround lens, nicely compact, yet very good image quality throughout the range. The Tamron version is optically the same, since Tamron makes this lens for Sony, but the gearing is a little different - still it's a bargain comparatively.

And yes (in response to Razvan), you can indeed use 200mm or 300mm indoors - indoor sports, concerts, stage shows, etc - there are plenty of opportunities to use a long focal length indoors. That the lenses are slow doesn't much matter if the camera's ISO capabilities can make up the difference - as most of the new Sony cameras of the past 2 years can. I've used both my 18-250mm and my 300mm F4 prime indoors, both to good effect!

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Justin Miller
Sony DSLR-A580 / Sony 18-250mm / Minolta 50mm F1.7 / Sigma 30mm F1.4 / Tamron 10-24mm / Tamron 200-500mm / Tamron 90mm F2.8 macro / Minolta 300mm F4 APO
Sony NEX5N / 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 / 55-210mm F4-6.3 / Pentax K adapter / Konica K/AR adapter / bunches o' Konica & Pentax lenses!

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