kxl
Social Documentary
I have that lens and I agree it is a gem of a lens, using it on my NEX6
kxl
Social Documentary
traveler_101
American abroad
Useful discussion. I was thinking of possibly moving this direction in order to make use of my LTM lenses (well I also have one M mount lens, a 35/1.4 Nokton). But according to what i am reading here my lenses are probably not "high performing" enough to take advantage of the sensor. I also googled M mount lenses and SONY A7 for images. I don't mean to be rude, but frankly I think the camera is too large for the lenses: dean't look right to me.
whited3
Well-known
I thought the same, but was surprised when I had it in hand. Here's a quick and dirty comparison; you be the judge. Stylistically, I do imagine larger lenses on the A7 though. I'm so excited to have a compact FF digital for so cheap
While I'm at it - here's another reason why I am personally so damn excited.
Jamie Pillers
Skeptic
Check with any friend that owns a Holga... they usually have a roll of gaffer's tape just for this purpose.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
Personally, I love the EVF and prefer it to an optical reflex finder for 99% of my photography.
The only time when an SLR's optical reflex finder is superior for me is when I need absolutely the fastest ability to track a fast moving subject and am shooting sequences. Likely birds darting about in mid-air or a hawk on the approach to a kill are about the only example situations I can think of. I do those sorts of things extremely infrequently.
I don't compare an EVF to a tunnel optical finder as in a rangefinder camera ... that's not the same kind of viewfinder experience at all. If I want that experience, I buy a rangefinder camera.
I've completed acquiring my lens kit for the A7, the last lens should arrive early next week. That's it, I'm done. Now to sell off all the other equipment I will no longer be using and get the money back into the bank.
BTW, a clever dodge around all the M-mount lens corner smearing occurred to me this morning. I love to shoot square format (old Rolleiflex/Hasselblad user). So just crop what the A7 nets to a central square ... that's still a 16Mpixel image or 24Mpixel with the A7r. Aside from broad-based color shifting, all the corner problems will be gone. That opens up using a larger range of M-mount lenses for me.
G
whited3
Well-known
Ok, the adapter is here and I've had round 1 with the A7. My biggest gripe by far is the EVF/screen lag after a shot. It's like the camera pauses while writing to the CF card. It's probably only a second or so but while trying to shoot my 2 year old it might as well be an eternity. Basically I'm shooting blind if I want any sort of burst.
That said, the EVF is a joy to behold in low light. That was a surprise since I expected lag to be overbearing. On the contrary, what sticks in my mind is how nice it was to have the display ramp up the gain to display intended exposure.
Finally I am really digging the focus peaking. I took about 100 shots of my son (a.k.a Mr. predictive autofocus) with the Canon FD 50 @1.2 in dim indoor lighting that would even make my 1DS a little confused with the quick focusing Canon EF 50 L. I've gotta say I have a lot of keepers. Maybe enough to compete with predictive af and the EF 50L. I will only get better with practice... Actually I will keep going; the live view and tilting screen let me get shots from all sorts of weird perspectives & proximities to walls & furniture that just won't work with my dslr (remember, I'm shooting a 2 year old). It's like my Hasselblad waist level finder on steroids.
So, the A7 is settling in nicely. I'm taking it out tomorrow for round 2.
That said, the EVF is a joy to behold in low light. That was a surprise since I expected lag to be overbearing. On the contrary, what sticks in my mind is how nice it was to have the display ramp up the gain to display intended exposure.
Finally I am really digging the focus peaking. I took about 100 shots of my son (a.k.a Mr. predictive autofocus) with the Canon FD 50 @1.2 in dim indoor lighting that would even make my 1DS a little confused with the quick focusing Canon EF 50 L. I've gotta say I have a lot of keepers. Maybe enough to compete with predictive af and the EF 50L. I will only get better with practice... Actually I will keep going; the live view and tilting screen let me get shots from all sorts of weird perspectives & proximities to walls & furniture that just won't work with my dslr (remember, I'm shooting a 2 year old). It's like my Hasselblad waist level finder on steroids.
So, the A7 is settling in nicely. I'm taking it out tomorrow for round 2.
whited3
Well-known
Hey Godfrey, I guess your kit is mostly m mount lenses? I was thinking of getting a VC 15mm for the A7, corners be damned. Worst case I go monochrome. But I'm sure I could cook up (i.e. google) a better solution... in the meantime I'll be snapping up a bunch of cheap canon FD glass since the A7 seems to be begging for cheap manual focus slr lenses.
YYV_146
Well-known
Get the 12mm. Cropping down to about 16mm fov removes all corner blur wide open. At f8 the lens is sharp corner to corner on the A7, with almost no visible fringing. As long as you meter manually (the falloff can fool the meter a bit) the lens is quite useful on an A7...I use it for landscapes at f11
Fuchs
Well-known
I have found the native (albeit APS-C) Sony 10-18 zoom a far better performer on the A7 that almost any other super wide angle out there. On full frame, it covers nicely the full sensor from 12-13mm to 16mm, and you can always resort to the APS crop mode if that serves you. I have taped mine at 14mm. It also has the extra benefit of being able to use both in camera lens corrections and lightroom correction preset. And it is even AF AND OSS optically stabilized.
For almost all the rest, I am glad with the AIS 28/2.8 and Contax Vario-Sonnar 35-70/3.4 exceptional zoom.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
No, my A7 is almost all Leica R lenses: 19, 24, 35, 50, 90, 135, and 180 mm. I also have Nikkor SLR lenses: 18, 50, 55 macro, 85, 105 macro. And right now I'm testing the M-Rokkor 40mm f/2 ... it has some issues wide open and down to f/4 in the corners (mostly darkening, correctable in LR easily) but is otherwise a very nice performer.
The CV 15mm works but you have to correct the color shifting, etc, for color work. I'd recommend the Nikkor 18mm f/3.5 AI-S ... it's a bulkier lens than the CV15 (but nowhere near as bulky as the Elmarit-R 19mm), but the quality is absolutely fantastic: virtually no color shifting, no smearing, sharp corners even at f/3.5, perfect at f/5.6, and very little rectilinear distortion. See my page with full rez samples: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/25268645/sonyA7-nikkor18mm/index.html.
Sony A7 + Nikkor 18mm :: ISO 100 @ f/8
(Look at the full rez, 140301-00406.jpg, to see the detailing this lens produces.)
M-Mount lenses I have marked as unsatisfactory performers for the A7 in my kit:
Color Skopar 21/4*
Color Skopar 28/3.5*
Color Skopar 35/2.5**
Ultron 28/2**
Nokton 40/1.4*
Nokton 50/1.5 (LTM)* **
* These lenses work great on film and on Ricoh GXR.
** These lenses work great on film and on M9.
The M-Rokkor 40/2 is a qualified yes, the M-Rokkor 90/4 and Hektor 135/4.5 do very well. I haven't tested my Color Skopar 50/2.5 yet. All of these four work great on film, GXR, and M9.
So, as I said before, M-mount lenses are tricky on the Sony A7, and on every other digital camera I've tried them on. Not all work well on all sensors. They work best on cameras for which the sensors were specifically tuned for them, which are the Ricoh GXR and Leica M series digitals. The Sony NEX models with the 16Mpixel sensor (5n and 6) work almost as well as the GXR with these lenses, I believe a happy accident since Sony is not tuning their sensors for these lenses.
I stick with the Leica R lenses most of the time on the A7, but most SLR lenses are equally successful.
G
Godfrey
somewhat colored
It must be a configuration thing or a slow card, or something like that. The inter-frame blackout I see is no more intrusive than the flipping mirror in an SLR ...
Sony A7 on Continuous drive mode
That's with a Sandisk Extreme SDHC 32G Class 10 card, rated 45MB/s.
G
whited3
Well-known
Hmm, I will need to investigate. I was also on continuous and I've a sony UHS-1 32G card. One thing that surprised me is I cannot take less than 2 photos in continuous drive. Thanks for the video.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
If that's the card that came with the body, it's pretty slow. I have that on in my bag as a backup.
cpc
Established
I am curious how's handling and balance with the heaviest amongst these lenses?
bwcolor
Veteran
Godfrey
somewhat colored
whited3
Well-known
Turns out I had to disable auto image review in the settings. The A7 doesn't prioritize shutter presses well or at all while auto review is active.
kxl
Social Documentary
Yeah, not quite the same comfort level as B&H or Adorama, and I'm usually risk-averse, but I decided to take the risk. So far it's been a vanilla transaction. I got the UPS shipping notice, and should get my trade in credit in the next couple of days.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
Yes, that'll do it. I think disabling auto review was the second setting change I made, right after turning off all boops and bleeps...
G