You needs to finish your camera shopping

[Gramps]

I have been thinking about this one and I have worked out what I personally need or may more to the point want.
I will start of with the 70/200mm not the small one but the one that costs a little more.
I now this lens will cover so much for me.
Followed by the 14mm Atmospheric San yang one.
Then followed by a 2x teleconverter as I just think it will help with macro and the moon shots.
I know I need to get a Macro Light ring and following that I will need to get a fully automatic and functional shutter release.
So this is my list and I knows it is well over $3000 Australia.
But I can take my time to get them all but I do think the 70/200mm lens is 1st one to bet off my list.

[leuius]

It's a good thing to have an investment plan, even better to know "why" Good for you!!

I have seen many photographer friends just plunge and buy on impulse only to realize later that it was a misguided purchase. For some, they just blindly follow the "party line" of a given manufacturer. I see it more oriented towards the most expensive or exotic items, probably just for bragging rights or to feel they have "the best". Since "the best" doesn't stay "the best" that long, they are constantly throwing good money before they have time to recoup their investment. Never mind that "good enough" equipment is often available for a given purpose at much reduced cost. Too bad. I guess the fundamental thing to consider is how the equipment will be used, what the target audience and output media are for the resulting images.

I am fairly well covered with vintage lenses that I enjoy using for casual/experimental needs and what modern equipment I have suffices in most cases otherwise. At this time, I am on the sideline of a full-frame ecosystem but I keep my eye open to upgrade. I have long considered the A7.2 but I feel I would be going backwards with AF compared to my A6500 so probably not on the horizon unless a great deal comes along. I find it hard to justify the A7R series; the A7.3 is the next model I am awaiting. If the price is right, I may convince myself to try, knowing that full-frame Sony lenses are often overpriced. Hopefully, the rumored arrival of native Sigma FE mount lenses may help Sony realign its prices. So maybe the timing will be right.

If I where to do like you did and add a new body to my inventory, the lenses I would probably aim for would be:

1. Sony FE 12-24mm f/4
2. Sony FE 24-105mm f/4
3. Sony FE 100-400mm f/5.6 (that one would "hurt" and a Sigma or equivalent in this range would be welcomed instead)

I don't see myself making an essential use of the f/2.8 Sony "holy trinity" set. I tend to prefer compact and lightweight lenses.

In parallel, I would favor the following primes:

4. Laowa 15mm f/2 or Zeiss 18mm f/2.8
5. 35mm (don't know which one yet, not sure I would use it much), maybe the Sony FE 28mm f/2 instead
* I already have the Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 so that case is settled
6. Sony FE 85mm f/1.8 (a rare good price/performance lens from Sony)
7. I already have an excellent vintage Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro but maybe an equivalent modern item would tempt me, in time.

The cost of all these lenses is probably close to 10K$ so I would have to organize my priorities, probably along those lines:

2, 6, 4, 3 (outch!), 1, 7 or 5

On the lighting side, the Godox brand looks really nice, with excellent prices and performance. They use or are adaptable to Bowens mount, which is a standard that makes sense to me. I do not like proprietary fixtures as they tend to be overpriced for nothing more. The AD200 is the sweet spot for me, with a few speed lights and triggers. For traveling light, I have a Nissin i40 which is good but their trigger system is more restrictive and costly. I don't think I will expand in that direction. LED lighting shows promises also but still lack a bit of power for a given size. Maybe the future nonetheless...

Photography can be an expensive endeavor.

Regards,

[Gramps]

I had a friend who went out and bought a high end Canon camera and honestly the shots he was posting were not too good.
He needed to learn a lot more on how it was all put together, but before he know what to do he went out and got the top of the range Canon camera.
This was look at me I have got the best money can buy but it didn't show him how to compose a shot.

On this full framed thing which I will say I don't understand.
But what and how I look at it is if you don't have it you don't miss it.
Way too many make a big song and dance about it but I still say I look at what is in front of me and I am happy with that.
I don't sit there and look at the shot as think if it was a full framed sensor the shot would look like this.
It to me its just doesn't make any sense in that part of it..

You list Leuius is a good complete lens. Mine is at that size as I know I am not looking to make money from it.
But I like what you have listed.

[leuius]

I tend to agree with you that APS-C is typically plenty good (vs full frame). It depends on the photography you like.

Full frame has an advantage in low-light (high ISO) and can blur (bokeh) the background easier at a given focal length. I prefer APS-C for macro for the opposite reason (larger depth of field). Those are photography styles I like. You can compensate APS-C somewhat with a brighter optics but that means a larger/heavier lens and quite frankly there are not that many excellent and fast (say < f/2) E lenses in the Sony repertoire for APS-C. Some exist from Zeiss and a few from Sigma (with limitations) and Samyang (manual focus).

The better lenses are all FE, built for full frame. My reasoning is if I am going to spend good money on a full frame lens only to waste a large amount of its light beyond the size of an APS-C smaller sensor, might as well get the sensor fully illuminated by owning the full-frame body. The marginal cost increase is potentially worth it. Full frame is where I see Sony making the most advancement. They're higher profit items for them so it makes sense commercially.

In the meantime, Canon and Nikon are supposedly working on full-frame mirrorless for this year. By the time I am convinced and ready to invest upwards, if that time comes, maybe the playing field will have changed. Could be full-frame cost will have gone down.

I made my lens list in order to validate the business case logic. As it stands, I am still holding and quite happy with the A6x00 series. The upcoming introduction of the Sony A7.3 may tip the balance. We'll see...

Regards and happy shooting,

Stef