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

springtide said:
Looks too small to be FF, and wonder on FF what the distortion would be like?
Can only assume it will look more like a fisheye rather than UWA for landscapes etc.

Out of interest, anyone found a decent but cheap UWA landscape lens solution for FE? (Decent and cheap in the same sentence I know!).
Can be MF, adapted and not particularly fast
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It’s manual focus which means it’s smaller than the AF options (and there’s a trend at the moment for huge lens=worth the money [emoji6]). As above, an alternative is the Samyang 14 (both AF and manual versions) or fisheye if you want wider.

I’m using a Nikon 20/3.5 as my wide option at the moment and it’s excellent and small. But I’ve also had a Samyang 14/2.8 (manual) that was sharp at 2.8 and just got better throughout...much bigger and heavier than the Nikon though and also needs a dedicated holder and larger filters.

IMG_0601.jpg

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twist said:
Got your replacement d850 Toby?
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No, couldnt guarantee it would get here by the weekend so allowing me to use current one then picking it up next week and will send new one straight out.
 
SAMYANG VS ZONY 35 1.4 TEST

Not entirely scientific and the framing isnt perfect but close, I went round with Samyang, then Zony so framed from memory, but a fairly good real world test if you shoot wide open.... otherwise..... go buy some slow kit lenses. HTH :D

Best way to do this is pop open Lightroom, import the files (they are untouched RAWs saved to JPG)

Screen Shot 2018-04-19 at 20.26.06.png

Load Samyangs first, then Zony, then use... XY to compare

Screen Shot 2018-04-19 at 20.27.12.png

Click on the same image from different lenses then click XY.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/87090421@N02/albums

The yellow flower was a misfocus (got to close) with the Samyang, but you can still check out the bokeh for comparison, I chose some very busy backgrounds. My take away is these are both great lenses with an excellent performance from the Samyang for the money, both pop nicely, nice colour, both smooth OOF (CZ better but not by much). CZ has better edge performance wide open, but then again...... its F1.4, I didn't do any stopped down stuff as didn't have time. Sony focuses a hair faster in AFS, both seem equally fast in AFC in good light, low light AF and Samyang tracking will be tested another day.

Enjoy! Forward any complaints to idontcare.com :)
 
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stevelmx5 said:
It’s manual focus which means it’s smaller than the AF options (and there’s a trend at the moment for huge lens=worth the money [emoji6]). As above, an alternative is the Samyang 14 (both AF and manual versions) or fisheye if you want wider.

I’m using a Nikon 20/3.5 as my wide option at the moment and it’s excellent and small. But I’ve also had a Samyang 14/2.8 (manual) that was sharp at 2.8 and just got better throughout...much bigger and heavier than the Nikon though and also needs a dedicated holder and larger filters.

View attachment 124718

View attachment 124719
Click to expand...
If I take any landscapes I'm a bit dull, it's usually stock f8 - f11 everything in focus, so as long as reasonable sharp corner to corner as optimum aperture I'm ok; my concerns are CAs (although can be easily corrected), but also lens distortion.

Something like a Nikon 20mm sounds ok, but would like something more like 16-17mm ideally zoom to 25 kind of thing
 
twist said:
SAMYANG VS ZONY 35 1.4 TEST

Not entirely scientific and the framing isnt perfect but close, I went round with Samyang, then Zony so framed from memory, but a fairly good real world test if you shoot wide open.... otherwise..... go buy some slow kit lenses. HTH :D

Best way to do this is pop open Lightroom, import the files (they are untouched RAWs saved to JPG)

View attachment 124720

Load Samyangs first, then Zony, then use... XY to compare

View attachment 124721

Click on the same image from different lenses then click XY.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/87090421@N02/albums

The yellow flower was a misfocus (got to close) with the Samyang, but you can still check out the bokeh for comparison, I chose some very busy backgrounds. My take away is these are both great lenses with an excellent performance from the Samyang for the money, both pop nicely, nice colour, both smooth OOF (CZ better but not by much). CZ has better edge performance wide open, but then again...... its F1.4, I didn't do any stopped down stuff as didn't have time. Sony focuses a hair faster in AFS, both seem equally fast in AFC in good light, low light AF and Samyang tracking will be tested another day.

Enjoy! Forward any complaints to idontcare.com :)
Click to expand...

The Rokinon is definitely more warm in the colours, apart from that though, everything else is much of muchness, if you adjust the white balance and then mix them up I don't think you will be able to tell them apart again.
 
springtide said:
If I take any landscapes I'm a bit dull, it's usually stock f8 - f11 everything in focus, so as long as reasonable sharp corner to corner as optimum aperture I'm ok; my concerns are CAs (although can be easily corrected), but also lens distortion.

Something like a Nikon 20mm sounds ok, but would like something more like 16-17mm ideally zoom to 25 kind of thing
Click to expand...

The only native lens that covers that range is the Sony FE 16-35 (not a cheap lens!). Alternatively, you could adapt a Canon 16-35 but that's not going to be massively cheaper. In manual glass you could try a Cosina/Tamron 19-35 but corner performance would probably be pushing it with the A7 sensor.
 
twist said:
SAMYANG VS ZONY 35 1.4 TEST

Not entirely scientific and the framing isnt perfect but close, I went round with Samyang, then Zony so framed from memory, but a fairly good real world test if you shoot wide open.... otherwise..... go buy some slow kit lenses. HTH :D

Best way to do this is pop open Lightroom, import the files (they are untouched RAWs saved to JPG)

View attachment 124720

Load Samyangs first, then Zony, then use... XY to compare

View attachment 124721

Click on the same image from different lenses then click XY.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/87090421@N02/albums

The yellow flower was a misfocus (got to close) with the Samyang, but you can still check out the bokeh for comparison, I chose some very busy backgrounds. My take away is these are both great lenses with an excellent performance from the Samyang for the money, both pop nicely, nice colour, both smooth OOF (CZ better but not by much). CZ has better edge performance wide open, but then again...... its F1.4, I didn't do any stopped down stuff as didn't have time. Sony focuses a hair faster in AFS, both seem equally fast in AFC in good light, low light AF and Samyang tracking will be tested another day.

Enjoy! Forward any complaints to idontcare.com :)
Click to expand...

Edit - Brain fade. I shouldn't post on here while ordering components to build 150 Chromas at the same time!
 
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stevelmx5 said:
It's good to see my thoughts about the Samyang performance holding true with your testing. While it's never going to be 1.4, it's also considerably smaller, lighter and cheaper without massively compromising AF-S/AF-C performance so definitely punching above its' weight.
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I think he has both 35/1.4 in both.
 
springtide said:
If I take any landscapes I'm a bit dull, it's usually stock f8 - f11 everything in focus, so as long as reasonable sharp corner to corner as optimum aperture I'm ok; my concerns are CAs (although can be easily corrected), but also lens distortion.

Something like a Nikon 20mm sounds ok, but would like something more like 16-17mm ideally zoom to 25 kind of thing
Click to expand...

I had a Olympus om 21mm f3.5 which was tiny and wonderfully sharp.
You could try the tokina 17mm f3.5 which is decent but very flare prone. The tamron adaptall 17mm f3.5 had a cult following. It's pretty decent to stopped down.

Edit:
You could also wait and see if this rumour hold true and what it brings - https://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sr5-first-image-of-the-new-laowa-10-18mm-fe-zoom-lens/
 
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simonbarker said:
it's fate telling you to stick with Sony! ;)
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As SsSsSsSsSsnake says I don’t/didn’t have a Sony anyway ;)
SsSsSsSsSnake said:
He cant Simon because he hasnt got a Sony to stick with but i get your point :D
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I’ve had a lemon of a Sony in the past too. In fact I’ve had a lemon of an Olympus too, maybe someone’s trying to tell me something ;)
 
I received my Sony A7 iii on wednesday and managed to get out a walk yesterday to try it out.
I only have the standard 50mm f1.8 lens at the moment for it but i must confess i am completely Underwhelmed by it, so much so i switched to my D500 after and hour.
I have never came across a camera and lens that hunted so much in great light. The final straw was when i attempted to use the rear screen to take a picture of a flower at ground level only for it to spend around 2 minutes trying to focus on it and fail. (green grass, yellow flower)
There was even one occasion it focused on everything in the background and the subject in the green square was perfectly blurry. (and no it wasnt down to minimum focus distance as that was my first port of call.)
The EVF is very poor in my opinion to the only other mirrorless camera i have tried. (Fuji XT2)
10fps???? More like 7fps. Maybe it will achieve 10 in electronic shutter but its not even close in Mechanical. I only base that on having used a Nikon D4 and D500 for a while so there is no actual scientific proof, just my gut feeling that it seems a fair bit slower than either the D4 or D500.
I will spend more time over the weekend with it as there is always that courting period but at this moment in time i am not very impressed by it.
 
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a couple with the new FE35 from yesterday. I was mainly trying to see how it handles shooting into the sun which I quite like doing :D

@f/11
27705658738_a3e071ab8f_b.jpg


@F 1.4
41534423002_69be512227_b.jpg
 
Bigfungun said:
I received my Sony A7 iii on wednesday and managed to get out a walk yesterday to try it out.
I only have the standard 50mm f1.8 lens at the moment for it but i must confess i am completely Underwhelmed by it, so much so i switched to my D500 after and hour.
I have never came across a camera and lens that hunted so much in great light. The final straw was when i attempted to use the rear screen to take a picture of a flower at ground level only for it to spend around 2 minutes trying to focus on it and fail. (green grass, yellow flower)
There was even one occasion it focused on everything in the background and the subject in the green square was perfectly blurry. (and no it wasnt down to minimum focus distance as that was my first port of call.)
The EVF is very poor in my opinion to the only other mirrorless camera i have tried. (Fuji XT2)
10fps???? More like 7fps. Maybe it will achieve 10 in electronic shutter but its not even close in Mechanical. I only base that on having used a Nikon D4 and D500 for a while so there is no actual scientific proof, just my gut feeling that it seems a fair bit slower than either the D4 or D500.
I will spend more time over the weekend with it as there is always that courting period but at this moment in time i am not very impressed by it.
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Your experience regarding hunting in low light suggests two things..

1) a defect with the camera and/or lens

more likely....
2) you have Pre-AF turned on in the menu which makes the camera continuously pre-focus on everything.

I think it will feel slower than the D4 and D500 as there are geared more towards action / sports etc...... the comparable Sony would be the Sony A9 and not the Sony A7 III. :)

Give it time but I have a suspicious feeling your probably not going to stick with the A7 III.
 
snerkler said:
As SsSsSsSsSsnake says I don’t/didn’t have a Sony anyway ;)
I’ve had a lemon of a Sony in the past too. In fact I’ve had a lemon of an Olympus too, maybe someone’s trying to tell me something ;)
Click to expand...

And a lemon d750..... so thats every camera you've owned.... theres a common denominator there.
 
Bigfungun said:
I received my Sony A7 iii on wednesday and managed to get out a walk yesterday to try it out.
I only have the standard 50mm f1.8 lens at the moment for it but i must confess i am completely Underwhelmed by it, so much so i switched to my D500 after and hour.
I have never came across a camera and lens that hunted so much in great light. The final straw was when i attempted to use the rear screen to take a picture of a flower at ground level only for it to spend around 2 minutes trying to focus on it and fail. (green grass, yellow flower)
There was even one occasion it focused on everything in the background and the subject in the green square was perfectly blurry. (and no it wasnt down to minimum focus distance as that was my first port of call.)
The EVF is very poor in my opinion to the only other mirrorless camera i have tried. (Fuji XT2)
10fps???? More like 7fps. Maybe it will achieve 10 in electronic shutter but its not even close in Mechanical. I only base that on having used a Nikon D4 and D500 for a while so there is no actual scientific proof, just my gut feeling that it seems a fair bit slower than either the D4 or D500.
I will spend more time over the weekend with it as there is always that courting period but at this moment in time i am not very impressed by it.
Click to expand...

The FE 50 is known for its relaxed approach to AF, I believe its a fair bit quicker when its updated. So I think thats the first thing to get done...
https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/lenses-e-mount-lenses/sel50f18f

As said earlier in the thread, I used the Sony 35 1.4 and fired at 8 or 10 FPS, 15 shots @ F1.4 of a target moving toward me and every single shot was in focus. I was impressed and tbh Im not so sure my D750 and Sigma 35 ART would've gotten that hit rate. Again, the flower shots on my tests on this page, instant lock.

With regards 10FPS, its definitely 10FPS, are you using a UHSII card in slot 1 (bottom slot). Otherwise, compressed RAW, continuous AF, continuous shooting: High+ otherwise you'll get 8FPS.
 
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More A7 and Voigtlander 35mm f1.4...

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DSC09947.JPG

DSC09950.JPG

DSC09951.JPG

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I like this lens, I wish it was sharp into the extreme corners but for a whole image no one is going to notice the 100 or so pixels in the very corners.
 
woof woof said:
More A7 and Voigtlander 35mm f1.4...

I like this lens, I wish it was sharp into the extreme corners but for a whole image no one is going to notice the 100 or so pixels in the very corners.
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You mean to say you don't compose your subject in the extreme corners, take 100% crops of it and print them A1 size? :eek::eek:

You need a lesson in couch photography me thinks...
 
haha :D

When I first got this lens I compared it to my Rokkor 35mm f1.8 and Sony 35mm f2.8 to see how it performed as some of the reviews had been less than flattering and I'm sure I did indeed post 100% crops here :D but for non forum geek stuff this lens's only issue is the bokeh at f1.4-2 or so where it has a distinctly old lens look with messy backgrounds.
 
The Laowa 10-18 is certainly looking like an interesting landscape option. Some comments suggesting a $600 target price (so £600 probably) but certainly a reasonable price for the ultrawide range. Being manual focus and 4.5-5.6 isn't an issue either for what I'd use it for as mountains generally don't move very quickly :0)
 
I've read a couple of reviews of some of their other manual lenses and people seem to be saying that they're very well made. I hope this one is too.
 
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