Sony FE 35mm F1.8 Large-Aperture Wide-Angle Prime Lens Expired

$399 sold by Amazon UK

You may not have same warranty as an US copy but what is the chance for claiming warranty for a prime lenes

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07V8X4KGG

So we are pretty much buying gray market stuff from UK(?)
So beside no warranty, is there any differences between UK and US version of the lens?

And what's the return policy? If the package is damage, how the return is handled?

How is this lens compared with the ultra compact Sony 40mm f2.5? I'm torn between the 2. This is a great price for this 35mm. It's normally around $750. I thought it was a different model at $400.

Yah that's a big gamble for me at least in my experience Amazon Packages from the UK have not been packaged very well, if you think Amazon US does a shotty job UK is worse.
They use like the thinnest possible cardboard smallest box and no padding.

Half of is is probably the long distance in transit and exchanges hands through multiple carriers is to blame as well. No clue how gingerly the Royal Postmen handles packages there in the UK, if they can get away with such poorly packaged items like that.

I tried returning a damaged packaged from Amazon Japan once, it was too much hassle so just kept it, I suspect from the UK will be similar.

Great price but not having warranty and basically have to go through a ton of hassles not to mention expensive shipping not a deal I'd consider myself.

Yah that's a big gamble for me at least in my experience Amazon Packages from the UK have not been packaged very well, if you think Amazon US does a shotty job UK is worse.
They use like the thinnest possible cardboard smallest box and no padding.

Half of is is probably the long distance in transit and exchanges hands through multiple carriers is to blame as well. No clue how gingerly the Royal Postmen handles packages there in the UK, if they can get away with such poorly packaged items like that.

I tried returning a damaged packaged from Amazon Japan once, it was too much hassle so just kept it, I suspect from the UK will be similar.

Great price but not having warranty and basically have to go through a ton of hassles not to mention expensive shipping not a deal I'd consider myself.

So I have both lenses and each serves a different purpose. I'll start off by saying that I purchased my 35mm f/1.8 back in 8/2020 for around $600+ tax, totaling somewhere around $674. I needed it to take photographs for an event, so wasn't lucky enough to catch it on sale.

The shipping for this 35mm from the Uk is too long for me to get it before my trip

If you're going to be photographing in low light situations or just want to blur out the background with the bokeh blur, the 35mm f/1.8 is probably your best bet. On top of that it also has a minimum focusing distance of 0.22m vs the 40mm f/2.5 at 0.25m. So you can get even closer and focus on your subject(s) than the 40mm. For weddings, I sometimes use the 35mm as a macro lens to get detailed ring shots lol.

Now here's where things get interesting. I'd consider the 40mm f/2.5G lens as an environmental portrait lens because the f/2.5 aperture doesn't necessarily "blur the background" compared to the 35 f/1.8. It does a decent job, but if you're taking portraits, you're still going to see the background a bit more. Also, since it's f/2.5, it doesn't work well in very dimly lit situations (I'm talking about things like wedding receptions here, but for most people it wouldn't matter). For most people, f/2.5 is fine for most situations especially if you're photographing in well lit situations.

The cool thing about the 40mm lens is that it's smaller, thus giving it ultra portability as it weighs only 173grams versus the 35mm at 280grams. Moreover, if you plan on doing anything like taking video, you might really benefit from the manual aperture ring dial as well as the Autofocus/Manual focus override switch that's built into the lens. The 40mm is a pretty versatile lens to keep in your camera bag if you're doing video & photo. You coullllldddd try to use the 40mm as a vlogging lens and pointing it at yourself, but the 40mm focal range isn't really meant for that and your head/body might take up much of the frame when recording selfie/vlog stuff.

Both lenses are sharp and create awesome photo/video content. Personally, I already thought that the 35mm f/1.8 was a compact lens when I purchased it, so the size/weight different between the two don't really matter to me. Sure, the 40mm is actually smaller and lighter, but it isn't a significant difference.

As far as speed/aperture goes, I really think the the f/1.8 aperture makes a big difference if you're trying to create separation between your subject and the background. & then the f/1.8 aperture really does help in dimly lit situations (I'm an event and portrait photographer so there isn't always the best of light available and the f/1.8 aperture helps a lot).

As far as focal range goes, I've photographed enough content to know that I like photographing content wider at 35mm than 40mm. However, that's just personal preference. I know others that like photographing at 24mm, 40mm, 50mm, etc.

But here's the kicker with the price of this 35mm in the listing: It's sold from a UK Seller, meaning that the lens is considered "Grey Market." As a grey market lens, if anything ever happens to it and you need to get it repaired, Sony USA will deny any service to your lens.

Seeing how this is quite an investment, I'd recommend just waiting to see if there are any deals on US lenses in the days to come especially since it's the holiday season. Besides Amazon, some other great photo retailers are Adorama.com, B&H.com, Samy's Camera (Samys.com), & urlhasbeenblocked.com

Hope this helps!

Thank you, super useful comment. I thought so too the 1.8 will have better bokeh. I can get a used 40mm at $400 locally. I plan to use the lens with my A7C for a compact and light weight for the upcoming Japan trip where l I'll be walking around a lot so want a very light weight kit. Do you think the 40mm is still a good lens for my use case?