My wish! An A7r with the Fuji XT-1 body!!!!

[cosmonaut]

I am the opposite - I find even exposure compensation dial too much at the A7.
I wouldnt buy it if it would have an ISO and shutter speeds dial.

There is a front and rear dial for aperture and shutter speed. The exposure compensation dial isn't the only way to set exposure. It's sweet when shooting in AE.

 

[ELS]

There is a front and rear dial for aperture and shutter speed. The exposure compensation dial isn't the only way to set exposure. It's sweet when shooting in AE.

Nice setup - 🙂

 

[swoop]

This thread reminds me of when the M8 was released.

 

[Vobluda]

Exactly. That is the reason why I find the exposure compensation dial redundant.

There is a front and rear dial for aperture and shutter speed. The exposure compensation dial isn't the only way to set exposure. It's sweet when shooting in AE.

 

[Turtle]

The alternative is to pick the one you feel best suits you, find workarounds for its limitations, and just enjoy making that tool work for you. Most cameras now are just so darned good.... that many people go out and buy Holgas!!!

 

[GaryLH]

The VC 35mm 1.4 is not on the list of officialy supported M mount lens in Fujifilm X catalogues.
(Because of the focus shift I guess?)

If u are talking about the list of supported lenses from the Fuji website, it only pertains to their own Fuji m mount adapter. The inside is diameter toward the rear is more restricted due to Fuji special electronics being there. A third party m adapter does not have this problem and a lot more lenses can be mounted. Exceptions are lenses that collapse or w/ weird rear fins like the contax g wide angle ones.

Gary

 

[GaryLH]

Exactly. That is the reason why I find the exposure compensation dial redundant.

Not everyone out there shoots full manual. Fuji did not invent the exposure comp dial. Back in the day of early film automation slr, the expose comp was invented so that u did not have to go play games like change iso speed or go back to full manual.

Gary

 

[3dit0r]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I'm considering both these cameras and wondered if anyone can answer a couple of questions, as people on here seem to have used both? Both questions are about using with 3rd party (C/Y Zeiss) lenses with an adapter.

A7(R)
- Is it true you have to go through at least 2 button presses to have magnified focus assist on these bodies, even when setting a custom key to focus assist? That would drive me nuts and I'd end up missing moments.
- How bad is the alleged shutter induced camera shake in real use?

XT-1
- The focus/split screen option here look nothing short of a godsend for 3rd party glass, but do they work with non-native lenses? I.e., when you're using an adapted lens and put the camera in MF mode, do you actually get all these brilliant focus assist options without pressing extra buttons like you would with a native lens?

I'd be really grateful for any definitive answers, it's a tough choice anyway, and this might help narrow it down!

James

 

[Samouraï]

Not everyone out there shoots full manual. Fuji did not invent the exposure comp dial. Back in the day of early film automation slr, the expose comp was invented so that u did not have to go play games like change iso speed or go back to full manual.

Gary

I use the exposure compensation dial on my Mamiya 6 when I am using filters for BW (or anything really). Very useful in this case, as the 6 doesn't meter through the lens.

Otherwise, unless I'm shooting manual and using a handheld meter, I don't bother with compensation dials.

 

[jsrockit]

I'd also love to get the Zeiss 35mm 2.8 (a7 lens) for my Fujis. 🙂

 

[Spanik]

I use the exposure compensation dial on my Mamiya 6 when I am using filters for BW (or anything really). Very useful in this case, as the 6 doesn't meter through the lens.

Thanks for that! I have been wondering for some time about exposure compensation dials and could not see a single use for them. This makes sense.

 

[olakiril]

XT-1
- The focus/split screen option here look nothing short of a godsend for 3rd party glass, but do they work with non-native lenses? I.e., when you're using an adapted lens and put the camera in MF mode, do you actually get all these brilliant focus assist options without pressing extra buttons like you would with a native lens?

James

Yes all focus assist options work with non-native lenses

 

[willie_901]

And... You can create custom profiles to adjust, vignetting, barrel distortion and color shifts if you use the Fujifilm m lens adapter.

 

[3dit0r]

Thanks guys, most helpful.

What's concerning me most is the amount of button presses to get into focus assist modes with 3rd party glass on each of these-

I'm assuming on the Fuji it's 1 initial press, then a hold for split screen/peaking? Since it split screens, I would still be able to see the composition while focusing. That's a big deal for me.

On the Sony is it a 2x button press to get into focus assist mode, when set up on a custom button? But, if it's still like the NEX cameras, you can't then see the composition, is that correct? In which case, how many more presses to come OUT of focus assist (1 more to magnify further, 2 more to exit?) before you can recompose?

 

[Godfrey]

Thanks guys, most helpful.

What's concerning me most is the amount of button presses to get into focus assist modes with 3rd party glass on each of these-

I'm assuming on the Fuji it's 1 initial press, then a hold for split screen/peaking? Since it split screens, I would still be able to see the composition while focusing. That's a big deal for me.

On the Sony is it a 2x button press to get into focus assist mode, when set up on a custom button? But, if it's still like the NEX cameras, you can't then see the composition, is that correct? In which case, how many more presses to come OUT of focus assist (1 more to magnify further, 2 more to exit?) before you can recompose?

I have the A7 AF/MF button set to initiate focus magnification. Two taps* and I'm there with 5.7x magnification, another tap and it's at 11.3x magnification. Touch the shutter release and the magnification is disabled. It's pretty fluid in use.

* If I'm working on a tripod, one tap and I pilot the magnification zone to where I need it in the scene without disturbing the framing setup. The the second tap effects the magnification.

I have focus peaking config set to the down position on the four way controller. I usually leave it off, but that gives one tap to the chooser so I can set the strength, and than press OK to enable. Similar to shut it off. I only use peaking when I need to get into the focusing ballpark quickly, so I don't mind if it takes a couple of taps to enable/disable it.

G

 

[3dit0r]

Thanks Godfrey, that helps me. I think I am leaning towards the fujifilm cameras because of better AF and MF and also because of better lens selection currently and a clear lens road map. It's a shame the video is apparently not very good, but I think I want to see how the Sony system matures in the next couple of years and how responsive they are with lenses and firmware updates.

 

[Godfrey]

Thanks Godfrey, that helps me. I think I am leaning towards the fujifilm cameras because of better AF and MF and also because of better lens selection currently and a clear lens road map. It's a shame the video is apparently not very good, but I think I want to see how the Sony system matures in the next couple of years and how responsive they are with lenses and firmware updates.

I bought the A7 specifically and only to work with my Leica R and Nikkor SLR lenses, so the native lens selection, AF, etc are irrelevant to my purposes. Adapting these wonderful lenses to small format cameras had become tiresome, the Leica lenses in particular are so carefully tuned for a 35mm format frame that much is lost when you cut the format size down. I was looking for a good FF sensor in a not-overly-bulky body with a great viewfinder—and that's a perfect description of the A7. It works brilliantly as my "one-size-fits-all" body for prized, manual focus SLR lenses.

I'm not crazy about Fuji bodies due to their sensor, amongst other reasons. I find the Xtrans sensor's output to raw format is somewhat problematic with regards to raw conversion. Yes, Adobe and others have finally come up with decent algorithms for it, but the same amount of energy expended towards more traditional Bayer mosaic sensors nets even more gains. I just don't see the point of the tetchy processing issues in any of the photos I've seen from them, I get the same or better results out of Sony APS-C and Olympus/Panasonic Micro-FourThirds sensors, never mind FF sensors.

For the best lens availability, body performance, overall sophistication, and image quality in a compact, full-system camera, my pick is the Olympus E-M1. This is a great performing camera with great lenses that is supremely adaptable and responsive. Fast AF, fast operation, excellent ergonomics, incredibly configurable, etc. I have a full kit with all mFT and FT lenses for it and, IMO, nothing else comes close at the present time for a fully expressed modern system in this size class.

A Nikon D800 and hand-picked kit of Nikon' and Zeiss' very best lenses would be the same thing at an up-market, larger format scale, but scale up your expenditure and the size/weight of what you need to carry by a factor of two to three if you want to go that route...

G

 

[willie_901]

3ditOr

There are several different ways to focus manually on the XT-1.

On the XT-1 it's one press, one time to select dual-screen mode. There is no hold required. It remains in dual-screen mode until you change the Display mode. If the Display mode is set for dual screen when you turn the camera off, it will be in dual screen mode when you turn the camera back on. Dual-screen mode is available for bracketing, high-speed bursts, slow speed bursts and single shot Drive modes.

I never compose with the rear LCD screen, so I don't know how dual-screen mode works with the rear LCD.

The only addition button presses would be to cycle between views in the dual screen – zoomed, split, or focus peaking. There is only one zoom magnification. At first this concerned me, but after an hour or so I realized the EVF is huge and the default zoom magnification works well.

The utility of dual-screen mode can depend on the exposure (shutter speed and aperture) and brightness (a.k.a. ISO) when you use the Menu option where the EVF brightness reflects the meter reading. If you intentionally underexpose, as the exposure decreases the dual screen becomes harder to use. If you use very high brightness and intentionally underexpose more than two stops, the split screen display become severely compromised. Why one would use ISO 6400 and then intentionally focus with the exposure two stops down eludes me. But certainly someone, some place will want to do this.

 

[3dit0r]

Guys, thanks so much for that info and thoughts, helped me make the choice and today I ordered a Fuji X-T1 and 23mm f/1.4, which I will initially also use with my C/Y Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 using the cameras MF options 🙂

Later I'll add more lenses but this should be enough for me to get going and enjoy. Don't know how much use my 85mm f/1.4 Zeiss MF will be though, maybe a bit long on this system...