I'm incredibly fortunate to live less than an hour away from Longwood Gardens, a beautiful estate here in Pennsylvania that has lots of great spots for photographers. Last Friday afternoon was hot and sunny, so I took my new 16-35 f/2.8 out for a spin.
It goes without saying that a 16-35 is going to be great for landscapes, and the GM is no exception. Lots of detail and lovely colour rendition. And it's sharp! I've had some issues with a couple of soft-ish 35mm primes lately, but it seems my problems are over.
I didn't know before getting this lens how much I would love the 16mm focal length. This thing is WIDE! The widest I'd had before this was 24mm, and I'm surprised how much of a difference 8mm makes at the wide end. (insert innuendo here)
Did I mention that it's sharp?
You could cut yourself on my eyebrows.
The 16-35 2.8 is a reasonably heavy lens. If I wear it with a neck strap (a sexy A7 neck strap, naturally, shiver me timbers, ooh la la) the lens/camera combo tips significantly toward the front end. If I'm carrying it on my A7III for a while, I tend to hold the lens instead of the camera body.
With that said: I think a lot of photographers are weak.
There, I said it. I see a fair amount of mentions online about back pain and injuries directly caused by (not aggravated by - that's different - but actually *caused* by) using a relatively heavy kit.
NEWSFLASH: IT'S NOT THAT HEAVY.
Seriously though, if your camera kit is causing you physical problems, find a reputable coach and get on with some basic strength training. Anyway...
Look at that detail. This is a close to 100% crop from a much larger image. It's AMAZING. I was a bit fearful that the 16-35 GM would let me down, after my recent sharpness woes with some now departed lenses, but it hasn't failed me in the least. I hope it will stand alongside my trusty 85 f/1.8 as a piece of kit I can rely on no matter what.
The above image is also a crop. The detail is fantastic. It's tough to call, but at 16mm the 16-35 may be on par with the amazing 24mm 1.4 GM prime lens. That's very high praise.
A wide angle zoom is never going to be a monster when it comes to defocusing your background, but the 16-35 GM does pretty well! This bird was so impressed that he almost fell off the sign.
Argh, the image quality is so good! This lens makes me want to go out ALL THE TIME. It's kicked my love of landscapes back up into high gear after a momentary lull thanks to the aforementioned less than awesome gear experiences. Hot damn.
I mean come on. What more do you want. Crap, I hope it's a clear night tonight for some astrophotography.
*checks weather*
'Partly Cloudy'
Okay, fuck you to the weather report :D That means possibly going out for nothing, possibly getting an awesome image... but that's just the nature of the beast.
See you out there.