Lens advice for the Sony A200

foobar

Thinking of getting a Sony A200 to take photos of my fast moving two year old son. Will the kit lens be up for the job or do I need a separate wide aperture len ? If I need to get a lens could some recommend a cheapish one (around 100 euros) so that I don’t need to use a flash?
thanks.

nilhg

If you want a new lens then €100 wont be enough, I use a sigma 30mm F1.4 for the situations you refer to, costs about €350 though,

You might be able to pick up an older minolta lens second hand off ebay inside your budget, but I dont konw enough about the range to advise you, I'm sure somebody will be along soon that can though, or check out the sony forum on DPreview

jaqian

I don't know a lot about lens but would a 50mm lens not do the job? There are a few 50mm Minolta lens' on ebay that will fit both your camera and budget. Make sure you only buy Minolta Dynax/Maxxum lens as only these are designed for digital.

JanneG

jaqian wrote: »

I don't know a lot about lens but would a 50mm lens not do the job? There are a few 50mm Minolta lens' on ebay that will fit both your camera and budget. Make sure you only buy Minolta Dynax/Maxxum lens as only these are designed for digital.

You don't really have to worry about that part too much to be honest as the none dynax/maxxum lenses will work just fine as well but you will however get a different focal length(?) on the lens due to the fact that your camera does not have a full frame sensor.

This would mean that a 50mm lens would end up technically being a 70mm (or there abouts) lens.

countryjimbo

I think the kit lens will be fine. I had an alpha100 for a while and its quite similar to A200 and I got great use out of the kit lens. I'd recommend going with the kit lens.

jaqian

JanneG wrote: »

This would mean that a 50mm lens would end up technically being a 70mm (or there abouts) lens.

What lens would you need then to get that would be similar to 50mm on the APS-C sensor (A100)?

Cheers,
Rob

Mycroft H

The minolta 50 f1.7 is the one you want. Good cheap lens with excellent optical quailties for its price. Only bout 80 euro second hand less if your lucky!

sNarah

I use the SonyA200 myself. You can either get the camera with the standard lens, or with an extra telephoto lens.

Since u mainly want to use it for clicking away ur kiddie, I don't think u need the extra lens, as the camera has several features that will let you make decent enough photo's.

With the "S" function on the camera, it just snaps away @ 3 shots a second whilst it detects the settings automatticaly. Not all of them will be good quality but I'd say out of every 4 or 5 there is a good one.

And if you want to put in the shutter speed & aperture yourself, you can do so, and I find that I takes very good portrait photo's on the aperture priority setting...

So, no extra lens needed is my advice, just test out the camera first and, if neccessary, you can always get the lens later!

foobar

Thanks for all your advice, much appreciated.