Updating my Lens collection (A700)

[wildman]

Currently my bag of glass is very meagre and of budget(ish) quality. The collection comprises of:

Sony SAM 50/f1.8
Sigma 70-300 APO f4/5.6
Tamron 17-50 f2.8 Di non stabilised (best lens I have)

The Sigma served me well when I had my A200 but now I can see it limitations more and more and the fact the IQ is aceeptable but not where I want it to be (especially wide open and at long focal ranges)

I feel I am lacking the following - Decent Macro lens, Godd Quality telephoto of 200mm +, wide lens for landscapes. The 50 is a great little lens and I want to keep that as its the lens I use when out on the street trying to do candid shooting

I am going to keep the Tamron as the IQ on it is great. To get me to an intermediate set I am planing on trading up the Sigma and getting the following additions:

Macro - Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Macro 1:1 (£256)
Wide - Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC (£323)
Telephoto - Tamron 70-200mm F2.8 SP AF (£630) will couple this with Sigma 2x APO EX DG Tele-converter Mk II (230) to get 140-400 F5.6 in the cases where I need extra reach.

Budget wise I am trying to keep it to around 1500 (woohoo bonuses were made for new camera gear !!!) as if I am being honest thats all I have got to spend on this.

Possibly I could go used, but I don't really want to crawl e-bay (had a few bad experiences in general on there with other things), and if I go new at least I knwo if I get a bad copy I can send it back for exchange.

Based on my budget of 1500 does the above collection represent decent value and quality for money or should I be looking at alternatives. The wide and the macro lens will be grey imports hence why the price is lower than UK retail prices.

 

[Faldrax]

Certainly agree with the Tamron 90 macro - great lens.

The only question is if you actually need a 10-20 for landscapes?
You have the 17-50 f/2.8, which is reasonably wide (FOV equivalent to ~26mm), and moving wider will tend to introduce noticeable distortion in your images - which is not always what you want in landscapes.

As an alternative, you might want to consider a set of Lee filters - easy to spend £300 that way, or a good tripod, or a flash - all things you might use more than the UWA.

Of course, an UWA is always nice to have - I recently switched to an A900 and the s/h bundle included a Sigma 12-24 which I am really looking forward to playing with as the weather improves and I get a change to get out and take some photos!