New Sony A7II with 5 Axis Stabilization Announced

[Godfrey]

Is this the end of the acceptance of Leica digital M bodies?

LOL!

I have the A7 and I like it, but it's a clunky thing. The A7II is slightly more refined but is still clunky. My M9 is shockingly more limited in terms of its capabilities, but is far more refined, and at least as good a performer when used within its capabilities, which are broad enough for my needs. I expect that I'll eventually buy an M-P or its successor.

G

 

[CameraQuest]

That makes sense.
So that's why we have adapters with optical elements.

not true at all on both counts.

1) over time newer digital sensors are being engineered to be more wide angle lens friendly. Witness the M240 vs the M9 and the Sony 7s vs the 7r. Such sensor improvements are likely to continue.

2) optical elements in lens adapters are to be avoided and have nothing whatsoever to do with wide angle lenses.

The basic idea of lens adapters is to adapt the lens from a thicker bodied camera to a thinner bodied camera, and to make up the difference with an adapter inbetween.

Adapters with optical elements attempt to correct back focus on lenses that can not be focused to the camera's optical plane without the optical elements. A good example is Canon FD adapted to a Canon EOS bodies. Such added optical elements in adapters ALWAYS decrease optical performance - and so should be avoided if you want the sharpest images.

Stephen

 

[dfatty]

Hmmm. The article defines "focal distance" as:

"But in that case, the camera can still only have the focal length input, and not the focal distance–which has to do with how far away from the sensor the lens is."

Which is always the same per (storable -measured from where?) lens, no?

I think to you and me, the "focal distance" would be from the film/sensor plane to the subject of focus (and my guess -what is really meant in the article).

I don't think the camera(s) do anything with a lens -with *any* manually entered data. It seems that is solely for EXIF population?

So yes, a BIG ???

An interesting, but poor article.

yeah, i found that portion confusing as well, i'm not sure how the IS can operate while missing a piece of data (focal distance), even if you enter the focal length..

 

[GaryLH]

This is very different than the Olympus 5 axis ibis implementation. It just needs the focal length.

Gary

 

[GaryLH]

Just FYI. Thread started at getdpi about some weird ibis issue a member has encountered over there.

http://www.getdpi.com/forum/sony/52880-ibis-issue-a7ii.html

Gary

 

[GaryLH]

Forgot to cut and paste the summary of the weird issei from above at getdpi.

"David has defined this very well. It's not to do with electonics or the lack of it. IBIS works perfectly well in the viewfinder for non electronic 3rd party lenses EXCEPT when you have previously been using an OSS lens."

Gary

 

[Huss]

Forgot to cut and paste the summary of the weird issei from above at getdpi.

"David has defined this very well. It's not to do with electonics or the lack of it. IBIS works perfectly well in the viewfinder for non electronic 3rd party lenses EXCEPT when you have previously been using an OSS lens."

Gary

Cool, as I do not have any OSS (whatever that means!) lenses. I'll just be using Leica M mount glass. But... often even if you think you are buying a new camera, it may have been demoed/returned by someone else. So what if they put on an OSS lens?

Never mind, just read the thread. But still, it will definitely let you know if you have bought a new, unused camera or not!

 

[GaryLH]

I would hope this is really nothing more than a fw bug..

Gary

 

[kuuan]

inbody stabilization of Pentax dSLRs and Olympus cameras are working very well. These two, after mounting a non native lens, ask for focal lengths only, information of 'focal distance' is not given. This is exactly the same with the A7II, therefore I expect the IBIS on the A7II, with adapted lenses, to work just as well as those from Pentax and Olympus.

Knowing the focal distance might be required to do correct, what Sony calls, Yaw and Pitch" stabilization. 'X/Y' and 'roll' stabilization will work fine. The biggest draw back of missing 'Yaw and pitch' stabilization, I suppose, might be, as compared to the IBIS with native Sony lenses, a less stable picture in the viewfinder when using very long lenses.

 

[Huss]

I would hope this is really nothing more than a fw bug..

Gary

Yeah, but Sony still hasn't updated the (arguably) firmware bug that 'locks' the AUTO ISO shutter speed to 1/60 sec. It's been like that on the first gen A7 cameras, and now is on the A7II.

 

[Lss]

At least there is an easy fix for newcomers: do not buy any OSS lenses until there is a firmware update to address the problem. The beauty of this solution is that Sony, for once, has incentive to update the firmware... Or perhaps they will just accelerate the A7III project instead. 😀

I will very likely buy the A7II in 2015 and will probably also buy some Sony lenses down the road.