Now what?
Ah, but the weight.. the chart at right is sorted by weight of lens plus appropriate Z adapter.
It's time to select
groupings!
Part of the benefit of this is to check whether any lens might be expendable. The lack of small telezoom has caused to be creative in the 50-300mm zone, none of which is my favorite or final answer.
Here are a few kits:
- Max range: 20 + 24-85 + 100-400
- 24-85 + 70-300: two fx AF zooms
- 24-85 + 55-200dx* is lighter, but..
- Primes (20/40/70) plus telezoom of choice
- All manual focus: 28+50+70 + either 85+135 or Vivi 70-150/3.8
- The fastest kit: 20/28/40/70 + 80-200/3.5
- Lightest: 20/40/70 + 55-200*
- Clearly the 100-400 adds plenty of range, but will not be carried often (1250g) when the Vivitar (510g) or Sigma (630g) will do. The 80-200 is pretty bulky too - but the 55-200* is even lighter!
- Also clear is that the 300mm mirror lens is a decent alternative when grams and cubic inches matter. Weird bokeh and all!
- At the bottom are two wide-zoom alternatives that have some merit. The 24-50 is a very lightweight option for the wide end but far slower than the 28+40 primes and the 24-85. The 24-70/4 is better, but I feel what I have is my best answer. All Z-native lenses have 5-axis stabilizer, but the 24-85G dual VR is as good - and the 24-85 is also (minimally) wx sealed!
One conflict that I see immediately is the 55-200dx vs 70-300. Both do good work but with strong compromises: much lower resolution* with the former, focus noise + no stabilizer² + slow AF with the latter, and no wx seals with either. The Vivitar and Tamron are sufficient, I expect. I shall not rush into anything though.
* 80-300mm eq - but @11Mpx resolution
² see 24-85 shootout to see how much lens IS helps!
