Hey Y'all! How's it going this week? Me ? Pretty well! This week I want to talk about my full frame set up. This is something that you haven't heard me talk much about for a while. If you've been following me you know I'm primarily a crop sensor shooter. I use an older Sony A6500 and three great lenses that I use to produce a great kit. I have been shooting this for quite a few years and love the set up. It's powerful and I've got a great set of lenses to go with it. I recently (within the last year or so) got an older full frame Sony A7III. I have a set of primes that I've been using with it and use it for street photography and portraits. But I have recently decided to change things up. Now I shoot just about all used bodies and lenses. I am a stills shooter and updating every year just doesn't make sense. Now I use my crop sensor camera for Landscape, travel and anything needing a long lens. So just about everything I shoot. During my last Fall Colors workshop I was noticing that my old crop sensor body is getting long in the tooth and some of the photos I took then looked at the back of other folks camera's I saw a big difference. Color science and quality and low light performance is where my old camera was struggling just a little. Nothing I can't fix in post but that's a lot of work sometimes. I do plan on updating the body in the near future but I also have a computer I need to upgrade more. Being retired makes it difficult to do them both at the same time. So I got to thinking a full frame sensor would fix most of the challenges that I was having at the workshop. But with my full frame camera I really only have mostly prime lenses that I use with it. ( lenses that are not zooms) I have a good wide angel zoom that I can use with it, a 16-35mm F4 lens that is very sharp and works great. All the other lenses I have are primes except for a Kit lens that isn't a great lens. So what to do?  What I need is a good mid-range Zoom.

Zoom lenses are expensive. Compared to Prime lenses they are expensive even used. I will have to do some wheeling and dealings to get one now that I'm retired and then which one to get? In the Sony line up there are many to choose from. Not to mention 3rd party lenses like Sigma and Tamron Lenses. Just within Sony there is a 20-70mm 2.8 a 24-70mm in both F4 and F2.8 and a 24-105mm F4. So there are a lot of choices. With different prices too. While I was on my Fall Colors Workshop I notice that one of the best photographers in the club was using a 24-105mm F4 lens on his Sony Alpha 1 camera.  I had that lens on my radar and seeing him use it made me want that lens. I did research and I still wanted that lens. For a new lens it was 1200 dollars from any of the camera stores new. But in like new condition from MPB was only 844 dollars. Only! LOL Now there was just the paying for it. I have lots of primes and this lenses focal length would make a few of the primes obsolete. Whats good about MPB is that you can trade in lenses to lower the price of the "new to you" lens you want. But which ones? Well I decided on 3 lenses .  Two Primes and a Kit Zoom lens. The first prime to go is the 35mm F1.8 lens. This is a fantastic lens but I haven't used it much and if your not using it you need to let it go to something you will use. The next prime to get rid of is a 55mm Zeiss F1.8 lens . One of the first lenses that Sony had made for the full frame Sonys and a great lens. I have only used this lens a few times since I got the lens it was in a bad focal length for street or portraits for me. So it's gone. Next is the Kit lens a 28-60mm which is not wide enough or long enough to be very useful. So it's gone. So that the tree lenses that I've traded for the 24-105 zoom. After trading in the lenses I only owed 41 dollars. So in my mind I was trading in lenses that I wasn't using for a lens that will be in my wheelhouse for 41 dollars. So that's what I've done. I have made many purchases with MPB and have been nothing but impressed with the lenses and bodies I've got from them.

So the Sony FE 24-105mm F4 OSS lens is fantastic! It's an optically stabilized lens so with its stabilization and the Camera in body sensor stabilized sensor this should be able to shoot at low shutter handheld and get sharp photo's. Nothing but good reviews on this lens. But how will this change my photography? Probably 95% of everything I shoot is below 105mm if not more. This will make this camera my main camera used for everything except for travel when I have to take a plane or when space is very important or when I need a long lens (which I don't have or want for the full frame). This will make my upgrading of the Crop Sensor not as important as it was when it was the main camera. I did keep some primes. I kept a 85mm F1.8 for portraits and a 50mm F2.8 macro lens that I can use as a macro for both of my camera bodies. So except for a couple of shooting situations I have become a full frame sensor shooter again. Not since my Nikon days and the D800 have I been a full frame shooter. I have some upcoming projects and I'm excited on how this camera and the two zoom lenses (16-35 and the 24-105) will perform. I'm sure they will do fantastically! The one thing that is sure is that change is always happening and embracing it will make me and you a better photographer. I'll let you know how the transition back to full frame goes.  Until Next week Get out and Shoot!