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

leica m lenses work well ;-) if u haven't got the budget for that hellios ones are ok 55mm is a reasonable performer
 
Just realised (such a donut sometimes) that I can get used to the camera using the Missus's Canon glass. She has a mix of EF and EF-S but I don't mind using the crop mode a bit. I'll have the kit lens and maybe the 55 as native lenses straight away. I'm sure this will keep me going for a month or so until it seems the Batis lenses will be more widely available.

So what I need is an adapter. Not spending a fortune as this is just a stop gap. The two that seem to get mentioned a lot are the Commlite and the Fotodiox. Both are cheap, are both about as good as each other?
 
Wissel said:
I had to be in Southampton this morning, so I figured I'd take a little detour on the way back to Clifton Cameras. Taking my bank cards into camera shops can be a bad thing with me, so annoyingly I left most cards at home and just took one which I don't keep much in. It was annoying as they had a Sony day on in store, with 10% off the A7 series doh.

I could have bought the A7ii body for £1060. Oh well, was good to try it out again and I'll order it this week now anyway (but not at that price unfortunately).

The main reason I went was to have a look at tripods. It was 3 legged thing I really wanted to try. Sadly this was disappointing. I tried the Brian, this was just not stable enough for what I want. Then they bought the bigger Steve out. This is the one I had earmarked in the back of my head. Again disappointing. The built quality wasn't great IMO for £479 and it wasn't that stable.

Then I tried the Gitzo's. Unsurprisingly, these were in a different league. The one I liked was the GT1542 Mountaineer kit, which comes with a pretty good ball head for £700. A lot more than I wanted to spend, but seemed very well built, very stable and the right height. When I got home I thought I'd do a little ore research on this model and found that it can't take spiked feet. The next model up does, but this is £900. This is too much for me to spend on a tripod.

So I thought I'd ask hear for recommendations. I want something fairly tall (need to be able to video myself face on for work, I'm 6ft), as sturdy as possible as I like long exposures and I'm often on the edge of a cliff in high wind and as light as it can be. When in high wind I generally widen the stance and shoot low. This is where the Gitzo leaves the 3LT for dust as the 3LT doesn't hold the legs tight in one place very well. They flex really badly from the top join. The video height is fine with centre column up as this is usually indoors.

Ideally I'd like to spend say £300 - £400 with a ball head. Any suggestions?
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Probably too heavy, but I bought a Vanguard Auctus 323AT from Wex and it's fantastic tripod. I'm 6" foot and I can use the tripod without using the centre column when using a Sunwayfoto DB44 ballhead. The tripod comes with three different types of feet, spiked, normal and disc feet. I use the tripod at home using my D750 and 300mm f4 prime and the disc feet are excellent for grip and it's as steady as a rock IMO. As it's geared it can make minute adjustments which I find very useful and would be ideal for landscapes. It also comes with a nice carry bag which may help with carrying distances for more abled bodied people.

I was looking around for mid priced tripod and after reading reviews, mostly in the USA this one come out on top against the Manfrotto 055 types and I'm well impressed so far with the tripod and ballhead. The Ballhead is often recommended on here by Hoppy and others and again for me it's an excellent bit of kit.

The Tripod had a RRP of £399 when released and they are being sold off now for next to nothing.

Tripod > http://www.wexphotographic.com/buy-...=uzy1wxcr_dc&gclid=cmmm_vjb5cocfarpwgodtzidng

Ballhead > http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SUNWAYFOT...atible-30kg-Max-Load-Sunway-NEW-/330833792091

Some pics of tripod > https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=V...erNoWoa8jEjsgM#q=Vanguard+Auctus+323AT+photos

http://www.amazon.com/VANGUARD-Auctus-Plus-323AT-Tripod/dp/B005DD6W2O
 
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i have fotodiox one for Nikon seems fine. Thing BrianSmith used a Fotodiox and liked it too... Commlites cool also...
 
Hi Wissel, I'm new to this forum and would like to give my 2 cents on the Commlite Adapter I got from Amazon.

With reasonable light on A7Rii percentage of auto focus I would rate at:

Canon 300mm F4 IS: Just about manual focus only.
Canon 85mm 1.8: I would think 70%
Canon 50mm 1.4 50%
Canon 35mm 1.4: 80%
Canon 24mm MKii 95%
Canon 100mm 2.8L Macro 80%

I'm not put off by this and apart from a little bit of flare if you aim to close to a light source its great.

I think manual focus with the A7Rii and peaking is just fantastic with any of these lenses and the Commlite.

I fancied the Metabones, but after watching youtube videos on the subject decided to go with this.

I think its worth a shot for the money.
 
Welcome kohakoo :D Good stuff on adapter and lens performance there :D
 
Ill let you know how i get on tomorrow with the sigma 50-500 on Metabones, I did go out with the 24-70 today and it was tracking birds fine, amazing swizzle...
 
Decided to keep the Tamron 150-600 for a little while.

Took to the park after my portrait shoot this morning and had some decent results with it on the a7rii and fotodiox. Auto focused quite well across the zoom range. Did seem to lose connection a few times and I'd need to manual focus. Not bad at all for a £75 adapter.

Just sold my 70-200f4 so have a little spending money in my pocket
 
owenb said:
Be crap on metabones for birds trust me ...
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Gotta give it a crack Owen, it says its tested by community on Metabones site in the lens list, Tamron 150 isn't.... i would much prefer the focal 50-500 that 150-600 just more dooable

Next test will be Canon 100-400 @owenb you got one of these, if so is it the cheap one or expansive V2, think you told me but forgot...

If this combo doesn't work i,ll buy LE3 and Tamron, seen the Tamron lens Sony Mount.

Anyone tried a canon Sigma ? Contemporary
 
imho the metabones isn't fast enough for birding mate the higher the mm the worse it will be.... the metabones is perfect for portraiture etc
 
Highly tempted by a gitzo Monopod...... 3 series seems best fit 5 series a little big.....
Got Manfrotto cheapo but its ok, just fancy some quality in my Life......

Any others worth considering, carbon super light ?

Ive also got the 190 Manfrotto tripod, but want a smaller form factor one to fasten to my Bag, is the BE FREE the only real smallish one.... ?
 
SO the Lens has come and so far everything seems as it should be. Can some of you explain the issues your seeing when a lens is pretty poor with the Metabones.
What am i actually waiting for it to do.

What ive done is ive taken a few shots at max 500mm and it focused very fast and shot the image, I even tracked a bird and it seemed to keep the green squares on subject.
If the lens was duff with the metabone combo what does it do, Just not focus at all or hunt a lot?

@addicknchips Could you test your tamron again with firmware .47 and report back, or have you done this already and found it ok now ? whats it like at 600mm etc.
The guy in DPreview said his was fine and sent me a picture last night at 600mm, all be it a static woodpecker

thanks
 
Surely the most important thing is what you think about the performance, not what anyone else does? If the lens tracked and focussed quickly enough to get the results you want then I'd assume it's a good combination.
 
littleted said:
SO the Lens has come and so far everything seems as it should be. Can some of you explain the issues your seeing when a lens is pretty poor with the Metabones.
What am i actually waiting for it to do.

What ive done is ive taken a few shots at max 500mm and it focused very fast and shot the image, I even tracked a bird and it seemed to keep the green squares on subject.
If the lens was duff with the metabone combo what does it do, Just not focus at all or hunt a lot?

@addicknchips Could you test your tamron again with firmware .47 and report back, or have you done this already and found it ok now ? whats it like at 600mm etc.
The guy in DPreview said his was fine and sent me a picture last night at 600mm, all be it a static woodpecker

thanks
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My issue is failing to connect to the camera properly. Eg not even trying to auto focus. This was on latest firmware.

I used the fotodiox yesterday and had much better results. Tracked a bird in flight. Was fun to use.
 
stevelmx5 said:
Surely the most important thing is what you think about the performance, not what anyone else does? If the lens tracked and focussed quickly enough to get the results you want then I'd assume it's a good combination.
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Correct Steve as I'm new to it all i was just trying to make sure i had not missed anything, i have my 83 year old dad coming later on with his A7II just to see if it works ok on that same Metabones etc.
SUppose the question would be do i buy a 50-500 Canon and what i see is what i get, or do i buy LAE3 and SOny mount is it going to give me anything better...
 
littleted said:
Correct Steve as I'm new to it all i was just trying to make sure i had not missed anything, i have my 83 year old dad coming later on with his A7II just to see if it works ok on that same Metabones etc.
SUppose the question would be do i buy a 50-500 Canon and what i see is what i get, or do i buy LAE3 and SOny mount is it going to give me anything better...
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Sounds like you are into a winner already and don't need to change.
 
its Crap Indoors though :) needs Light, but that was the same even on my Olympus 75-300 anything with this range of F Numbers struggles under low light anyway.
 
lol when are you going to need a 500mm indoors??? you live in a mansion? lol
 
its p***ing it down AGAIN!!!!! so i was trying to get Dogs eyes, but i know what you mean inside its pretty dire, outside its not failed... been popping my head out of velux on 4th floor and shooting random crap...Nice lens but I'm still undecided which was to go

Metabones and Sigma 50-500 or Tamron 150-600 Canon mount
Metabones and canon glass

Favoured to me is LA=EA3 and Sony Amount Tamron like Brian Smiths advice....
nice to have a play though, weighs a ton mind....
 
haven't tried the a mount option but from my experience from trying to bird with the sigma sport 150-600 I wouldn't use it with metabones banged it on a 1d iv and was perfect so defo the adapter
 
wouldn't it focus at all ?

I see they have the contempt down as tested wonder how it differs, i thought it was just image stabs on the sport for left and right panning...
 
yeah focuses but the bird has flown off by the time it has lmao
 
littleted said:
its p***ing it down AGAIN!!!!! so i was trying to get Dogs eyes, but i know what you mean inside its pretty dire, outside its not failed... been popping my head out of velux on 4th floor and shooting random crap...Nice lens but I'm still undecided which was to go

Metabones and Sigma 50-500 or Tamron 150-600 Canon mount
Metabones and canon glass

Favoured to me is LA=EA3 and Sony Amount Tamron like Brian Smiths advice....
nice to have a play though, weighs a ton mind....
Click to expand...

Winter is the worst time to test new gear.
 
owenb said:
yeah focuses but the bird has flown off by the time it has lmao
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Yeah while its some fun to use on the Sony, probably best to just buy a canon crop body and be done with it. Much better chance of nailing the shots
 
yep agrrred budy its ok for genereal use birding etc is too quick for it... metabones I fantastic and I won't knock it for portraiture etc birding etc is a diff story though... my technique isn't the best however so that may play apart I'm still learning with the longer stuff
 
owenb said:
yep agrrred budy its ok for genereal use birding etc is too quick for it... metabones I fantastic and I won't knock it for portraiture etc birding etc is a diff story though... my technique isn't the best however so that may play apart I'm still learning with the longer stuff
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If I get time tonight I'll try and post a few shots I got with the Tamron on the a7rii
 
nice one I'm sure some of it was me tbh I'm not that great at being quick lol
 
Does anyone know what the 90mm Sony G Macro lens is like?
 
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