What is your favorite lens?

[DonSchap]

Obviously, most us us are limited in what we shoot with ... and for the SONY, a lot of it may just be "inherited glass" from Minolta cameras, which is a great return on that investment. You might even have several new SONY or SONY-mount lenses, to choose from.

So, bearing that in mind: What is your favorite lens to use on your SONY (the lens is probably on it most of the time)?

Also ... why do you like it?

[Djzleite]

Bought a second hand Sigma 70-300mm with the 1,4 x ring, itīs making 420mm wich is very good so i removed the DT 18-70mm for a while.
Lovely results for the tests i made this weekend.
150 euros for the 70-300 and 20 euros for the 1,4 x conversor.

[shanks]

i only have the 18-200mm currently and i enjoy it pretty well, however in the next few weeks i'm picking up the sony 50mm 2.8 macro and i am endlessly excited about it and it will quickly become my favourite i'm sure.

[orbitcorbett]

This is my favorite lens, primarily for shooting architectural elements and people from unusual angles, dancing, etc. It doesn't distort the straight lines, unlike a fisheye. People at the edges can get a bit distorted, but it's an awesome lens and gives my wedding coverage a unique look.

The Sony and Tamron equivalents have 7 blades instead of 6, so the aperture is more circular. This will give a better defocused background, but in these lenses, they have a very broad depth of field, so not a lot of defocusing going on there.

The Sigma 30mm f1.4 is great for portraits and small groups too, as a prime lens. I use it a lot, because it works out to around 50mm on the Sony.

The new Tamron 18-250 zoom is a great "vacation lens", with great quality and covering a huge zoom range. Very lightweight and plasticky, and does exhibit some purple fringing in high contrast areas such as trees against sky.

[SONYNUT]

good ol 58 1.4

[DonSchap]

I have to say, for my money ... the best all-around lens I've had the pleasure of using on the SONY APS-C has been the TAMRON SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di-II LD Aspherical (IF). It was also one of my favorites for the Canon EOS 20D, when I was using it.

I've shot a few ... but for just having the dynamic range to do most shooting (that's both aperture and useful focal length), this is my pick. YMMV