I live about an hour outside of Atlanta. There is a photography rental house - Aperturent in Atlanta that I have been wanting to use for months. Aperturent notified the social media universe a few weeks ago that they would be closed from December 23rd - January 1st and that any rental made with a return window in that timeframe would get the keep the lens until January 2nd at no additional cost. Plus they offered 10% off! I jumped at that opportunity and did the minimum 3-night rental of the quite expensive, brand new Sony 16-35 GM II lens. Figured I’d get the best bang for my buck with renting this type of lens for 2 weeks and only paying for 3 nights.
First up, Aperturent was absolutely wonderful and so incredibly easy to use. The online rental process was super easy and the pick-up and drop-off took less than 2 minutes! The parking lot was even easy and that is saying a lot in Atlanta. I will definitely use them again! It’s located right by my son’s cancer clinic so I have to go right by there on a weekly basis.
I really only use prime lenses (set focal length), which is one of the reasons I opted to rent a zoom lens - I needed to get myself out of my prime comfort zone. You pay big bucks for a zoom lens - especially a brand new Sony G Master lens. It’s about $2,300 brand new 🥴. I have nothing against zoom lenses at all - I would love to own a few but primes are just where I started and what I’m used to.
So, I’ll go ahead and say that I LOVED this lens - it was beautifully sharp and it felt so sturdy and well put together. The pictures were seriously unreal and I hated giving the lens back. The autofocus was also amazing - something that third party lenses have a hard time with for sure. The main issue I had using this lens was that I barely used the zoom function on this zoom lens. I basically kept it at 35mm besides a few real estate photos that I took at 16mm for fun and maybe a couple of my child at 24mm just to say I did it. Not a single complaint about the lens though - the pictures were the sharpest I’ve probably ever seen.
I mainly use my Sigma 85mm lens although I do have a Samyang 45mm and a Samyang 135mm as well. Samyang might be a budget lens but they have some great products. The 135mm might actually take the sharpest pictures out of my lot but I have to stand about a mile back, which is fine with easier to direct subjects, but for young kids - it’s nearly impossible. The 45mm is an adorable tiny little lens and it has some unique character that I love in the photos it produces but the autofocus is a bit lacking! I do feel like a 35mm, a 50mm, an 85mm, and a 135mm lens would probably cover all my bases unless I ever do real estate or sports photography - both of which I think I would actually enjoy but would require wide angle or a super telephoto lenses. I think a 50mm will probably be the last lens I purchase - it just seems like a boring focal length and I already have the 45mm. So, I think I’ll get a 35mm prime next - looking at you Sony GM 👀. I’d settle for a Sigma 35mm if the price is right. Im also a big fan of buying used lenses - you can really save a ton of money.
So to wrap this all up - if you need the capability of a 16-35mm zoom lens - save up your money and get the Sony 16-35 GM II. And if you live in Atlanta - rent your next lens or whatever photo gear you need from Aperturent.
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