Getting myself confused with the Sony A7 and lenses

[Austerby]

Hi

I've been reading a lot about the Sony A7 series cameras and have got myself somewhat confused about the differences between them as well as the lens choices available.

Does anyone know of a handy summary of the options and suggested routes, for example:

- what the A7 / A7ii / A7r / A7rii /A7s general purpose - eg is the A7R more for video, which is best for legacy lenses, which for action photos etc.

- the different lens options - I see Sony has the E and FE ranges, there's also Sony/Zeiss lenses and Zeiss lenses.

- what's the difference between the Loxia, Touit, and Batis lenses from Zeiss

- use of legacy lenses with lens adaptors

Maybe there's a book I can buy which helps me with getting my head around these options, or perhaps a website that explains it all?

 

[Vobluda]

You can find some information here:

http://www.verybiglobo.com/sony-alp...-ii-ilce-7m-ii-vs-a7r-ilce-7r-vs-a7s-ilce-7s/

There are many posts about manual lens on various Sony E mount cameras.

Please notice that author of the blog is also from Prague and friend of mine. I have no interest in his blog activities. His manual lens collection is well over 400 lens those days I think.

 

[wafflecakee]

A7 is the original.

A7R is without anti aliasing - landscape camera.

A7S is the video version

A7II has in body stabilization and a few changes

A7RII is still the landscape but adds the 4k like in the A7s. Claims of better AF.

All AF is bad in these cameras.

FE is a7 sony/zeiss pertnership series full frame glass.

Loxia is MF, full frame, Zeiss glass for A7 series, no sony involvement in lens design.

Touit is apsc zeiss.

Batis is AF zeiss, FullFrame, for A7 series.

Adapters are available for most mounts to use on the a7 series. I use leica M, pentax screw mount and canon EF. You can pretty much adapt anything to it.

 

[GaryLH]

- A7ii is second generation of a7, both are 24mp but the a7ii has ibis (camera body image stabilization)
- A7rii is second generation of a7r (a7r is 36mp and a7rii is 42mp)
- A7s was designed as a extreme high ISO camera w/ good video capability by using a sensor w/ big pixels and reducing mp count to 12

There are a lot of other differences. Maybe easier to go over to preview.com. Look for cameras pull down menu. Select side by side camera comparison.

E mount lenses are for their apsc size sensor line like a6000 or nex 7. The fe mount lenses actually use the same mount design. The f in the fe is for symbolizing that this is a full frame e mount lens. Same difference as fx and dx on Nikon lenses. E and fe mount lenses can be use interchangeable. On a Sony a7, it is apsc cropped by default. Menu item to disable crop. Most apsc lenses will show a portion of their image circle vignetting when crop is disabled on the a7 family.

Toit are zeiss lenses design for apsc sensor. Loxia and Batis are also zeiss lenses design for full frame sensors. Loxia is manual focus only and Batis is af.

Gary

 

[GaryLH]

Wafflecakee..yah beat me..I type too slow 😛

Gary

 

[craygc]

- use of legacy lenses with lens adaptors

I'll just chime in on this one. As already mentioned, adaptors are available for almost any mount. Most SLR lenses work well; however, if you want to go the path of smaller rangefinder lenses (like myself) you need to be careful about which ones will work - especially wides.

 

[JP Owens]

As pointed out above, the A7s is only 12 mp, which is not a factor with video, but may be a big factor, depending on what kind of photography you do, when shooting still photos.

 

[Austerby]

This is fantastically helpful - just the clarity I was looking for. Thanks.

 

[craygc]

As pointed out above, the A7s is only 12 mp, which is not a factor with video, but may be a big factor, depending on what kind of photography you do, when shooting still photos.

As much as pixel count obviously is an issue at some point, I was surprised to see an 18" x 27" print from the A7s recently that was absolutely superb.

 

[wafflecakee]

The image quality out of the a7s is astounding.

 

[jsrockit]

All AF is bad in these cameras.

Complete BS! 🙄

 

[GaryLH]

Complete BS! 🙄

Missed that comment about bad af. Af on original a7r was slower than expected, but I have been told has been fixed in a7rii. The a7 and a7s are fine. The mk2 versions have the update af algo from the a6000, which should be very good. If u expect pro dslr af speed, ain't gonna happen w/ current set of cameras though.

For me, the nex family, the a6000 and a7 are mainly my universal back for my legacy slr and rf lenses.

Gary

 

[wafflecakee]

I have the a7, it's unusable for event work. I've got my fingers crossed that they've nailed it in the a7r2 but I'm not holding my breath.

I shoot M lenses most of the time because it's faster.

 

[Vics]

I find this helpful. http://www.dyxum.com/dforum/topic102992.html

 

[GaryLH]

I have the a7, it's unusable for event work. I've got my fingers crossed that they've nailed it in the a7r2 but I'm not holding my breath.

I shoot M lenses most of the time because it's faster.

Is it due to low light related focusing issues. I find my a7 is good enough in good light, but as light gets dimmer..not so good. The mk2 versions of both the a7 and a7r are supposed to have the af focus improvements of the a6000 which in general is much better than the a7 and a heck of a lot faster than the a7r. I only have the 35f2.8 as my only fe mount lens though, so I really don't have a lot of data points..I mainly use it w/ legacy lenses.

Gary

 

[wafflecakee]

Good light but the 55mm. I'm hoping for improvements. Then again I'm looking to sell the 55 and get the loxia anyway.

 

[YYV_146]

I have the a7, it's unusable for event work. I've got my fingers crossed that they've nailed it in the a7r2 but I'm not holding my breath.

I shoot M lenses most of the time because it's faster.

Unusable compared to what? Any mirrorless is going to look pretty bad compared to a 1D...

I agree with the M lenses being faster, though. manual focus in general is more reliable in difficult light conditions - even on SLRs.

 

[YYV_146]

The A7 (and A7ii) are the general purpose cameras. The A7S performs best with legacy WA lenses, although cyan corners show up on some of them.

For legacy lens use I highly recommend the Kolari Vision thin filter stack modification. It puts the A7/r/s (not available on A7ii) roughly on par in terms of legacy lens performance with the M9. But if you work mostly with 35mm or longer, the regular bodies are good enough regarding Rangefinder lens use. For SLR lenses, compatibility is generally very good.

 

[wafflecakee]

Unusable compared to what? Any mirrorless is going to look pretty bad compared to a 1D...

I agree with the M lenses being faster, though. manual focus in general is more reliable in difficult light conditions - even on SLRs.

5d2. I know mirrorless hasn't caught up yet but that came out in 2008. It's just not a great system. It does the job if you've got time but for event work I'm usually not using my A7.

 

[GaryLH]

Yeah.. If u need pro dslr performance.. Right now nothing in mirrorless is close. Expectations on af speed is always relative to your use. So a lot depends on how fast u really need, whether the new af algo and better hw will make a difference.

Gary