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

woof woof said:
Well, the first of these new manual lenses does look rather nice and will possibly be a lot more compact on the camera than an adapter and legacy lens. Oh 'eck! :D

http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sr5-...ss-loxia-50mm-f2-0-planar-lens/#disqus_thread
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It will be very interesting to see how they pitch the price point for this range. Presumably for this one they need to come in quite a bit lower than the 55mm 1.8 which has AF, is faster and is still pretty tiny, and not to mention it's about as good as it gets optically.
 
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Has anyone seen results from the Samyang 35mm f1.4 E-mount fit full frame?
 
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AndyWest said:
Has anyone seen results from the Samyang 35mm f1.4 E-mount fit full frame?
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I've only heard and seen very, very good things from it on D600s/5D2s etc, so I would assume it would be no different on an a7 given that they are essentially just sticking a mount adaptor on it (at one stage they were literally supplying an adaptor, but I believe it's now 'built in' to the lens body itself...?)
 
I've never seen a Samyang but in pictures they look a little large.

Sigma 50mm.


 
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ukaskew said:
I've only heard and seen very, very good things from it on D600s/5D2s etc, so I would assume it would be no different on an a7 given that they are essentially just sticking a mount adaptor on it (at one stage they were literally supplying an adaptor, but I believe it's now 'built in' to the lens body itself...?)
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Yeah the size is a little large. Perhaps I will stick to the 35mm F2.8 FE lens. The smaller the better for me really!
 
I've now fully moved to Alpha mount lenses via the LA-EA4, an odd choice maybe but it works for me.

My Sigma 35mm 1.4 ART arrived a few days ago, works perfectly out of the box with no adjustment required. It's big with the adaptor, balance is fine though. Instantly felt more at home with it over the FE55 so very pleased. This and the Zeiss 135 1.8 should be a formidable set up.

Just the 70-300mm G SSM to come (I gave up trying to source a Sigma 100-300mm f4) and I'm done...for now at least until I can afford the Samyang 24mm 1.4.
 
That Sigma 35 f/1.4 is certainly impressive!!
 
its not so sweet on my bank balance :(, and i only have a a77, so would have the whole crop factor thing :x
 
The new Zeiss lenses are officially announced...

http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/zeis...-costs-949-and-35mm-costs-1299/#disqus_thread

The prices look a bit steep to me even though I didn't really expect budget prices.

I do wonder if these lenses can offer any significant optical advantage over the Sony AF lenses and if there is none I assume that the appeal will be in the manual experience or, God forbid... the badge.
 
I didn't understand this sentence. Can anyone explain it to me?

The Loxia lenses are optimized for digital full-frame sensors, and incorporate the approx. 2.5 mm thick low-pass and infrared filters in front of the sensor in the corresponding Sony cameras.

It's the second part I don't get.
 
There was an article out recently about the thickness of the glass over digital sensors and the implications for and effect this may have on lens performance. I assume this is what they're talking about.

I'll see if I can find the article.

This is part III so presumably part I and II are there somewhere...

http://petapixel.com/2014/07/08/sensor-stack-thickness-part-iii-summary/
 
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The lens is just designed taking into account the filter over the sensor. These will have to be a fair bit better optically to be worth getting. Even then the Sony 35 f2.8 is af so thats a massive advantage for me. To go MF the lenses have to be cheap for me.
 
For what I use my A7 and lenses for manual lenses are usually ok and I am sort of tempted but... the legacy 24, 28, 35 and 50mm lenses I have give what looks to me to be very good image quality and the only real issue for me is vignetting which CS5 seems to be able to deal with. My 85mm f1.8 and f2 lenses are however less impressive at their widest apertures, poor I'd say when compared to a good lens of today such as the Sigma 85mm f1.4.

These new lenses will no doubt be optically better than a 35mm film era SLR manual lens on the test bench but other than at f1.4 (50mm) I couldn't ask for my legacy lenses (other than the 85mm lenses) to be sharper and even f1.4 looks good once it's run through post capture sharpening. The Zeiss lenses do offer an obvious advantage or two, they'll be more compact than a legacy lens + adapter and the instant call up of magnified view could be an advantage too.

I'm sort of tempted but would be more so by lenses of the same bulk with f1.8 and a lower price tag :D
 
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For me they are pointless lenses.

Compared to the current Sony FE lenses they will be a smidge higher IQ, thats it, but they trade AF and price for that. I would have been interested if they were faster or cheaper.
 
robj20 said:
For me they are pointless lenses.

Compared to the current Sony FE lenses they will be a smidge higher IQ, thats it, but they trade AF and price for that. I would have been interested if they were faster or cheaper.
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I think these would appeal to those who like a slower, more focused (excuse the pun!) method of picture making.

Lets face it you would have fun wandering round London/Paris with an A7 and 'modern' manual focus lens. Ultimatly these will give very high IQ and should be a match for the A7R. That said you can do all the above with an adapter and an old SLR lens, and theres plenty out there that would happily feed the 36mp A7R sensor.

The difference being the Zeiss looks a smaller, tighter package with exif data.
 
i guess the wider angle ones might be interesting ? as theres not so many small wide angle lenses without colour fringing
 
Brazo said:
Lets face it you would have fun wandering round London/Paris with an A7 and 'modern' manual focus lens. Ultimatly these will give very high IQ and should be a match for the A7R. That said you can do all the above with an adapter and an old SLR lens, and theres plenty out there that would happily feed the 36mp A7R sensor.

The difference being the Zeiss looks a smaller, tighter package with exif data.
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What I'm struggling to wrap my head around is that there are already two very, very high quality FE options around the same focal lengths, they are both very compact, the prices aren't even that different. If they had released 24mm and 85mm lenses I could see the logic.
 
ukaskew said:
What I'm struggling to wrap my head around is that there are already two very, very high quality FE options around the same focal lengths, they are both very compact, the prices aren't even that different. If they had released 24mm and 85mm lenses I could see the logic.
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Dumbest thing is that they are made by the same company for the same mount! Why Sony doesn't release some cheaper G lenses is beyond me but i remember the early nex days well. So much wasted potential.
 
ukaskew said:
What I'm struggling to wrap my head around is that there are already two very, very high quality FE options around the same focal lengths, they are both very compact, the prices aren't even that different. If they had released 24mm and 85mm lenses I could see the logic.
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The thing that's peeved me the most about CSC since I first bought into them with the Panasonic GF1 is fly by wire lenses. They're the joyless spawn of the devil, IMVHO. For that reason alone some people who are a bit odd, like me, will love these manual lenses with end stops and markings and I'm sure they'll sell.

I do use FBW lenses on my Panasonic cameras but to be honest I don't like them.
 
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I hope Sony build a Teleconverter in either 1.5x or 2.0x for the 70-200mm FE. The lens more than enough sharp and should be acceptable with a TC.
Also excited to see the FE Sony G Macro and how much it will cost. :)
 
Rizvan said:
I hope Sony build a Teleconverter in either 1.5x or 2.0x for the 70-200mm FE. The lens more than enough sharp and should be acceptable with a TC.
Also excited to see the FE Sony G Macro and how much it will cost. :)
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AF will probably suck, F6 for a 1.5x and F8 for a 2x. Ill guess the A7 AF system works properly at F5.6.
 
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Well I do think from a sharpness perspective the IQ difference would be acceptable. But as you rightly said, the AF would need to work.
1.4x is better than no TC at all. ;)
 
the beercan is ok with a 1.4 on my a77. i did read that the pdaf sensors should be ok with 6.3 ish, as theres a minolta 300 or 400 f4.5 which works with a 1.4x tc, and theres the mirror lens too
 
Mike.P said:
LCE London have one LINK
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Thanks Mike, great service from LCE, ordered over the phone at lunchtime yesterday, arrived today.

EXIF registers a different lens (I think I remember reading about older A-Mount Sigmas circumventing the Sony mount) and LR doesn't pick up the profile so need to do that manually, but otherwise all good.

My usual day one new lens test, it was getting dark so ISO3200...

Borrrrred by Harry_S, on Flickr
 
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Rizvan said:
Well I do think from a sharpness perspective the IQ difference would be acceptable. But as you rightly said, the AF would need to work.
1.4x is better than no TC at all. ;)
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However, unlike a DSLR the A7 has contrast-based AF to work with still, which will work at any f stop as long as it has sufficient light. In fact A7r users do this all the time, since they have no PDAF anyway.

Actually, I'll take that one step further and point out that if you have live view effect on in the settings, you will AF at whatever the aperture is set at in-camera anyway - the lens doesn't open up to AF. So, the camera is already fully capable of auto-focussing at f8 and beyond. I can't tell if it's using the PDAF sensors when doing so or not, but the camera can clearly manage it however it does so.

TL;DR - 1.4x and 2x teleconverters are entirely practical from an autofocus point of view.
 
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