The Amazing Sony A1/A7/A9/APS-C & Anything else welcome Mega Thread!

Anyone have any experience with, or recommendations for an "ultra" wide angle lens (18mm or less, well 20mm at a minimum :) ) with the A7?

Reason I ask is I am a RX10 user. Just love the EVF, and the Sony controls etc, and considering upgrading to the A7. I am really a landscape photographer and could do with something a bit wider than the 24,, of the RX10. However I see Sony dont make a lens thats especially wide angle, and I am extremely confused about what E Mount lenses and A mounts will work on it without issues of vignetting. Also read that using E Mount lenses reduces the image size so that its only 10 megapixels, which rather seems to defeat the point. IF I'm coughing up a couple of grand for body and lens I dont want cropping and vignetting.

Frankly, I want to get an A7, but unless I solve my requirement of a very wide angle lens it wouldnt be sensible.
 
Maybe you could look at full frame DSLR lenses which could be used via an adapter? There are several zooms in the range you're looking for or do you want a prime? Is AF essential?
 
robj20 said:
One from my weekend visit to Braithwaite in the Lake District.
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That's a great picture, and you should be able to get rid of your green spot without too much trouble but there's always the option of leaving it in.

TBH if I'd taken that shot I'd be very happy with it and I'd probably keep two versions of it, one with the spot and one without :D
 
Rizvan said:
The Zeiss FE 16-35mm f4 OSS will be announced soon :)
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Ooooh, nice :D

I wonder when/if there'll be a 28 and a 85mm? I'd prefer they were f1.8's but f2.8 for the 28mm would be perfectly ok. I think that 28mm f2.8 and 55 and 85mm f1.8 lenses + the kit lens and a macro of about 100-150mm are all I'd want if I was going for AF lenses.
 
Creo said:
Anyone have any experience with, or recommendations for an "ultra" wide angle lens (18mm or less, well 20mm at a minimum :) ) with the A7?

Reason I ask is I am a RX10 user. Just love the EVF, and the Sony controls etc, and considering upgrading to the A7. I am really a landscape photographer and could do with something a bit wider than the 24,, of the RX10. However I see Sony dont make a lens thats especially wide angle, and I am extremely confused about what E Mount lenses and A mounts will work on it without issues of vignetting. Also read that using E Mount lenses reduces the image size so that its only 10 megapixels, which rather seems to defeat the point. IF I'm coughing up a couple of grand for body and lens I dont want cropping and vignetting.

Frankly, I want to get an A7, but unless I solve my requirement of a very wide angle lens it wouldnt be sensible.
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trey radcliff uses the e mount one, it has a large image circle at something to 17mm i think
a cheaper but slower option is sigma dp3 + stiching, but you wouldnt get that perspective distortion which you probably want
 
Had a play with the A7 in Wex the other day. Really liked the feel of it in the hand. Focus peaking and the EVF were brilliant.

Just took the plunge on one and bought a E to PK mount adapter to have a play with an old Pentax 50mm I've got lying around.

Eventually I'm going to want a fast 35mm, 50mm, 75-85mm and then something wide angled.
 
Rizvan said:
This is the full Sony FE lens road map, the 5 lenses are expected to be released at Photokina in September. ;)
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The 16-35mm will do for me! But I suspect it will be pricey. I'll start raiding the wife's piggy bank.
 
Creo said:
The 16-35mm will do for me! But I suspect it will be pricey. I'll start raiding the wife's piggy bank.
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It will probably cost around the same price as the Zeiss 24-70mm :)
 
I wish the 16-35 was a 14-24 instead.
 
A7 arrived today along with the 55mm 1.8 and 135mm 1.8, awaiting the LA-EA4 so just tried the 55mm this evening. After a bit of fun switching the menus from Chinese to English (and discovering my photos were taken at lowest res) I've got to grips with it.

Very early impressions:

+ Coming from a D600/35mm 1.4, it's very, very small and light, the 55mm size in particular really surprised me.
+ The EVF is lovely.
+ Tilting LCD, probably the single most useful thing to me over a high end DSLR.
+ AF is much better than 'the internet' suggests, no real surprise there but good to have it confirmed.
+ The menu layout is approx. 1 million times better than on the wife's NEX camera.

- ISO on the control wheel, please tell me there is an option to switch this off?! Jumped from Auto to ISO50 twice already.
- The eye sensor is insanely sensitive, every time I hit the menu button it switches to the EVF.

Standard new camera test cat:


Charlie Cat by Harry_S, on Flickr
 
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Congratulations :)
If you scroll up in the thread you'll find a shot a Air Show with a A7, AF was good enough even for fast moving planes. ;)
 
ukaskew said:
- ISO on the control wheel, please tell me there is an option to switch this off?! Jumped from Auto to ISO50 twice already.
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You can reassign or disable it with MENU → (Custom Settings) → Custom Key Settings → Control Wheel

I also remapped the centre button to ISO, which is not so easy to knock by accident.
 
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I haven't once accidentally changed ISO with the rear dial. Do you all have big noses or something? :p
 
robj20 said:
I haven't once accidentally changed ISO with the rear dial. Do you all have big noses or something? :p
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Same here, I guess due to the small size of the A7 series, it comes down to users hand and how it fits with the body, I have small hands :)
 
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Earlier someone asked about UWA lenses for the FE mount.

I've seen the E mount 10-18mm used with good success. The vignetting is easily manageable from 12-16mm but is heavy at 10mm and oddly at 18mm. Though crops are perfectly usable.

I guess it's a lot to pay for just 4 mm of range though.
 
Right couple of things that I haven't figures out on my A7 yet.

1) How do i get it to display a light meter in the evf
2) How do I get it display the spirit level

Cheers.
 
Finally got my mittens on the LA-EA4 and Sony 135mm 1.8. AF seems very good and the images are just dreamy, but crikey the 135 is a noisy beast! Don't think I've owned a louder lens.

Balance is surprisingly ok on the A7, much better than I had expected.
 
c-m said:
Right couple of things that I haven't figures out on my A7 yet.

1) How do i get it to display a light meter in the evf
2) How do I get it display the spirit level

Cheers.
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Light meter? Dunno about that, do you mean the exposure meter or maybe the histogram?

The exposure meter, the little line of dots with the cursor above it, should be there all the time and if you keep pressing DISP it should cycle through the various options including histogram and level.
 
tethered_shoot_lr5_a7_windows.php
Has anyone bought and tried this tethering upgrade yet? Bloody tablet, its from DNA software. Can't put the link up.....

​
 
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  1. tethered_shoot_lr5_a7_windows.php
    Has anyone bought and tried this tethering firmware yet? Oh dear, can't seem to get the link up, it's by DNA software.

​


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How does it differ from what is already on the camera?
 
Me and the cat had a good play with the LA-EA4 and 135mm 1.8 this evening. I've owned a hell of a lot of kit in the past few years, but I feel like things have hit another level. AF is fast and scarily accurate straight out of the box.

Charlie Cat by Harry_S, on Flickr

Got a big event on Sunday, can't wait to get this kit out there and really see what it can do. I'm not really feeling the 55mm, just too long for me as my standard walkabout, I think the Sigma 35mm 1.4 ART may replace it shortly.
 
ukaskew said:
Me and the cat had a good play with the LA-EA4 and 135mm 1.8 this evening. I've owned a hell of a lot of kit in the past few years, but I feel like things have hit another level. AF is fast and scarily accurate straight out of the box.Charlie Cat by Harry_S, on Flickr

Got a big event on Sunday, can't wait to get this kit out there and really see what it can do. I'm not really feeling the 55mm, just too long for me as my standard walkabout, I think the Sigma 35mm 1.4 ART may replace it shortly.
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I've never thought about going down that route but it certainly solves the problem of not having many AF lenses to choose from. I'm still using manual lenses but I may go for some AF primes at some point especially if there is a set of three at or about 28, 50 and 85 to go for.

I saw a road map that seemed to be saying that there'll be 3 35mm lenses of various descriptions???? If that's the case I think someone needs a kick, a new pencil and a new piece of paper to design lenses on :D
 
A few from last month. The light wasn't great and it was raining but the old 50mm still produced some amazingly sharp results and the detail in the shot of my GF is amazing despite being only 24mp, you can read the time on her watch.





 
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I keep looking at the LA-EA4 would open up a lot more lenses. Can you put a couple of photos up of the camera with the adapter on, im curious to see how much bulk it adds.
 
robj20 said:
I keep looking at the LA-EA4 would open up a lot more lenses. Can you put a couple of photos up of the camera with the adapter on, im curious to see how much bulk it adds.
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I was worried when I saw the shape of the thing online, but it feels nowhere near as unwieldy or bulky as it looks. Obviously the 135mm 1.8 is a big, big lens, so this is pretty much worst case scenario short of the big telephotos...

Sony a7, LA-EA4 & Zeiss 135mm 1.8 by Harry_S, on Flickr

Sony a7, LA-EA4 & Zeiss 135mm 1.8 by Harry_S, on Flickr

The lump at the bottom has a tripod screw and is also a nice support point for a hand, which I found particularly useful when using the LCD in a tilted position to take a few low level photos. As I understand it the 135 is not a quick lens to focus anyway, but it feels at least as rapid and snappy as the FE 55, I would guess an SSM lens attached to this set up would be quicker than a native FE lens.

Clearly it stops it being a genuinely compact system, but that was never the reason I bought into the a7 anyway, and either way it's still a fair bit smaller/lighter overall than having a D600 and the equivalent lenses in my bag.
 
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Thanks, doesn't look too bad.
 
woof woof said:
Light meter? Dunno about that, do you mean the exposure meter or maybe the histogram?

The exposure meter, the little line of dots with the cursor above it, should be there all the time and if you keep pressing DISP it should cycle through the various options including histogram and level.
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Yeah it's the exposure meter I meant. sorted now. I found out how you customise the display. Cheers.

Unlike Nikon's its the wrong way around, and if your current settings are off the meter it doesn't tell you which way they are off e.g. too light or too dark. though I guess it's easy enough to tell.
 
Just use the histogram as well.
 
I've been reading up on Sony's OEM adapters, and I'm curious.

The LA-EA4 incorporates it's own phase detection 15 point auto focus. It costs a bomb, but focuses fast so useful for those who want to use A mount glass for sports and the like.

The LA-EA3 uses the A7's own focusing system. If that's the case why is focusing supposedly slow with the LA-EA3? Is it just that all the guys online have only tested it with the A7r and not the A7? After all the A7 has phase detection already.
 
It's all oh so complicated...

I'm sticking to nice and simple manual lenses :D
(For now.)
 
The LE-EA4 uses the full phase detect AF system from Sony's SLT 'SLRs' like the A99, which is why it's quicker. It has a dedicated AF sensor onboard, to which about a third of the light is diverted off by a semi-transparent pellicle mirror in the adapter itself.

The A7 relies on a number of dedicated AF pixels embedded on the imaging sensor, which provide phase detect AF, but it's not as efficient as a separate AF subsystem.
 
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As above the AF is handled by the LA-EA4 itself, you get a new set of AF points appear on the EVF/LCD when it's attached, they cover about 10% of the screen so what you gain in AF speed you lose in flexibility of sticking the AF point wherever you like.
 
The Lae4 will give similar af performance to a mid range sony crop camera. More than enough for most applications but obviously no D4.

The Lae3 will control the lenses own SMS motor or Sam motor. It will not work with a screw drive lens. It is painfully slow taking 2-3 seconds to lock focus.

I have every af minolta prime lens worth owning between 20-200mm. Presently I would still prefer to use them on a dslr as you do lose something when using lenses via an adaptor.
 
Liking the first shot Harry, you have the best 135 of any system there! Enjoy!
 
Musicman said:
The LE-EA4 uses the full phase detect AF system from Sony's SLT 'SLRs' like the A99, which is why it's quicker. It has a dedicated AF sensor onboard, to which about a third of the light is diverted off by a semi-transparent pellicle mirror in the adapter itself.

The A7 relies on a number of dedicated AF pixels embedded on the imaging sensor, which provide phase detect AF, but it's not as efficient as a separate AF subsystem.
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Ok so the embedded 117 point system with 25 cross points just isn't as good as a deditacted system. I can understand that. Kind of like how wash and go isn't as good as using separate shampoo and conditioner.

Couple of questions on AF settings.

1) How to I get the phase detect AF overlay to show up in the viewfinder
2) How do I move the focus point. Intuition would you use the D-pad built into the wheel, but that doesn't work.
 
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