Since picking up my beloved Sony A7III, I've been alternating between the two full frame lenses that I presently own: the Sony 85mm f/1.8, and the A7 series kit lens, a 28-70 zoom. I'm familiar with the 85mm already, having used it on my crop sensor cameras, and while it's certainly not quite the same on a full frame body - the focal length and depth of field are different - it's still something of a known quantity for me.
The 85mm f/1.8 is pretty nice to look at, too. Really an excellent portrait lens at $600.
The kit lens is a little different. It's a standard zoom range, going from moderately wide angle to not-quite-telephoto, but I need to get under its skin a little more; get a feel for how sharp different apertures and focal lengths are, how little lighting I can get away with using the relatively slow f/3.5-5.6 aperture range, etc.
That in mind, I headed out into town on this rather grey and damp afternoon to do a little photo-stroll, taking whatever caught my eye and playing with the settings a little. I also wanted to try out the A7III's silent shutter for street photography, so the following out-of-camera JPEGs are all taken in silent shooting mode.
1/500, f/4.5, ISO 250
I love the contrast of this bright white fence and the murkier yard behind. I was surprised at how little depth of field I got at f/4.5 (see how defocused the house is) but that's a frequent occurrence with full frame. I like it.
1/500, f/5.6, ISO 800
Now this is tasty. There is a little banding going on at the top there, which is likely due to me working on this image using the JPEG only, but I love the tones and it's nice and crisp. Also the noise is super low given the ISO, which is something I'm coming to expect with this camera.
1/500, f/5.6, ISO 1600
This shot is at ISO 1600, which would be pushing into uncomfortable levels of graininess with a crop sensor, but the A7III is fine (it's pretty much fine significantly higher than this too). This means I can keep the aperture a little more closed down for sharpness and depth of field without losing the picture to digital noise.
1/400, f/4.5, ISO 100
Just delish. Everything from the clouds to the vacuum station is beautifully rendered. I could have pulled up the shadows in the car wash too, but I'm not a fan of that HDR-esque approach. In either case, the dynamic range gives you lots to play with. Zoom in for a few birds darting around in the stormy weather.
1/500, f/5.6, ISO 4000
ISO 4000! That was asking for an unthinkable amount of grain before moving to full frame, but you can barely tell there's any at all here. Crisp and clear.
I'm harping on about the high ISO performance of the A7III because I'm finding it to be such a game changer. You just don't have to worry about it anymore, and you have so much more freedom in low light to pick the appropriate shutter speed and aperture for what you want, confident that you'll still have a solid image at the end.
Which brings us back to the 28-70 kit lens. It might not be the sharpest, or have the fastest aperture, but the A7III's ability to handle high ISO settings means that you can alleviate a good amount of the problems those things might cause by stopping down to f/5.6 or even f/8. I do have my eye on a Sony G Master wide angle lens in the future, but for the time being this is definitely good enough.