Random Neural Firing: Tamron Competence=GAS Buzzkill.
This is a distraction from current proceedings and my election-day newsfeed. As such there is much nonsense ahead.
The “issue”.
Trade the Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 and 70-180mm f/2.8 for the Tamron 35-150mm f/2-2.8 I says.
Trade the Sony 40mm f/2.5 G and Tamron 17-28mm f/2.8 for the Tamron 20-40mm f/2.8 I says.
It will be great.
Technically accurate. It met the desired operational end result. Lens consolidation on my big boy system. Two lenses to do nearly everything. But there have been outcomes I did not see coming.
Bag of primes.
For starters, I rarely use primes anymore. Supposedly my favorite type of lens.
The 35-150mm pretty much single-handedly put my normal and tele prime precious twins on a trailer. I am going to keep them. Mainly because I have them. But I do not need them.
Further, the 20-40mm has dashed any delusions of my “needing” a wide prime.
Do I want that Viltrox AF 16mm f/1.8? Yes. Yes, I do.
Do I want that Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2.8 Zero-D FF Autofocus Lens? Yes. Yes, I do.
But having the 20-40mm f/2.8 has shown me that 20mm is wide enough and fast enough for my purposes.
I use it at 28mm or 24mm far more than 20mm. I am not into architecture photography or astrophotography. For me f/1.8 at such a wide focal length is unnecessary, and subject isolation is not a major consideration.
So I still want them but they have been added to a very long and unfulfilled wishlist requiring my elusive money tree be located first. I know good and well that they would just sit in my bag. As does a SIGMA SA mount 12-24mm that can be adapted to Sony that sits unused in a bag as I write this.
So what does this have to do with GAS? I am glad I imagined you asked.
It is the enemy of GAS. For years I would troll new and used camera websites looking for new and interesting lenses I could try. Trade here. Purchase there. Writing ramblings in this space throughout. Now? Nothing.
Boooooring.
Just recently I tried to talk myself into two 65mm lenses. The Voigtlander MACRO APO-LANTHAR 65mm f/2 Aspherical…
…and Sigma 65mm f/2 DG DN Contemporary. I have owned the former before (I sold it because Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 and have regretted it ever since… Seeing a pattern yet?) and Hamish Gill mentioned the latter in an email a few weeks ago. That is literally all it takes for these things to take hold.
So what stopped me?
The Tamron 35-150mm f/2-2.8. Do you know what aperture it is at 65mm? f/2.5…
Redundant.
And it kills it at every focal length. Same goes for the 20-40mm f/2.8.
I should be happy.
But lens shopping is fun.
But these lenses grant superpowers to my rational side that overwhelm my inner ‘gottacatchemall’ gadget acquisition demons… Demons may be harsh… Anyhoo. To overpower reason a lens needs to pull off some innovative tricks with real world benefits at a reasonable price. Samyang/Rokinon managed to do just that.
But I can tell you one thing.
My back is thrilled.
Four lenses to carry is a breeze compared to the myriad of lenses I used to drag everywhere with me. In all honesty I could carry just two… Wait a minute… I am working this out real time as I write this.
If I just put those two lenses in my bag mounted to cameras I could fit most or perhaps even all of my on and off camera lights also…
Woot.
Welp. Off to that bag repackaging rabbit hole.
Happy capturing.
-ELW
Eric L. Woods 