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

I know some of you must own the Batis 85mm so what are you thoughts on it? To be used as a short telephoto for general use and landscapes. Even better how does it compare to the Sony 90mm? Sample photos especially landscapes please.
 
Tbh mate the Batis is a completely different lens to the 90mm Sony... The Sony is classed and used more of a macro lens.... You use 85mm for landscapes?????
 
I know the differences between the Batis and Sony but the Sony gets great reviews for edge to edge sharpness and I wondered if the Batis does so well in the edges/corners. Sure 85mm can be used for landscapes.....landscapes aren't just taken with wide angles.
 
Fair enough never thought as the Batis 85mm as a landscape lens is all I'm saying... Many examples of people photos etc and that lovely bokeh
 
cuillinade said:
I know the differences between the Batis and Sony but the Sony gets great reviews for edge to edge sharpness and I wondered if the Batis does so well in the edges/corners. Sure 85mm can be used for landscapes.....landscapes aren't just taken with wide angles.
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Again on the a6000
Wissel said:
Like that Jonathan.

Although the last thing I need is reasons to buy the Batis 85mm :)

Absolutely love the way images look from this lens (just difficult to justify when I don't shoot portraits).
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Thanks. Strangely I haven't been able to use it for a portrait shoot yet. But it does a decent job of shooting clouds through my bedroom window.

When the weather improves it should get a decent run out. The OSS is massive benefit imo.
 
Thanks for the pictures, Jonathan.
Rizvan, as a self professed Sony Alpha Guru can you elaborate at all on the 85mm and it's edge performance at F11 ?
 
cuillinade said:
Thanks for the pictures, Jonathan.
Rizvan, as a self professed Sony Alpha Guru can you elaborate at all on the 85mm and it's edge performance at F11 ?
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330-zeiss-batis-85mm-f1-8-MTF_1447081633.jpg


Pretty impressive actually
 
cuillinade said:
I know some of you must own the Batis 85mm so what are you thoughts on it? To be used as a short telephoto for general use and landscapes. Even better how does it compare to the Sony 90mm? Sample photos especially landscapes please.
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It's brilliant.
And it can be used for landscape. But I prefer if I had a 200mm for landscape.

Question for you all. I'm going Peru soon. I can't decide what lens/gear to bring as i may need my 70-200 f2.8 but it's heavy..
 
jonneymendoza said:
It's brilliant.
And it can be used for landscape. But I prefer if I had a 200mm for landscape.

Question for you all. I'm going Peru soon. I can't decide what lens/gear to bring as i may need my 70-200 f2.8 but it's heavy..
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I prefer 600mm for landscape.

Havent you done this before?
 
twist said:
I somehow doubt that will survive the rainforest. If it kills A7rii with more advanced sealing then the A7s would be in for a real test. The A7S stills ISO isnt that great/better anyway.
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Jonney should buy a 1dx2 in that case ;-) pmsl
 
yep in all seriousness I would go with that as well if you still have your 5d3
 
jonneymendoza said:
It's brilliant.
And it can be used for landscape. But I prefer if I had a 200mm for landscape.

Question for you all. I'm going Peru soon. I can't decide what lens/gear to bring as i may need my 70-200 f2.8 but it's heavy..
Click to expand...

take both Batis lenses for sure.

Edit - sorry didn't realise you were actually going into the jungle. In which case I'd go with a dslr and a 50mm. I know the temptation of taking a load of gear, but if you are going off the beaten track you might not want a load of additional gear on your back.
 
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Summary of 2 weeks of A7R2 ownership. Had one wedding (Uncle Bob'ing), our daughters' first birthday party and not much else so haven't really got out with it any where near as much as I wanted.

Think I've set it up as it will stay - BBF, Eye AF on C3, [Standard] on Centre button (though might move this back to Eye AF if I can find a different place for [Standard]?
Currently got minimum SS set to 1/250, but might drop this to 1/125 as good though high ISO is, I think I've been over cautious.
Silent shutter is great for ceremonies.

Generally loving it; the EVF is great, the articulated screen is really useful for low-down baby shots and over-head group shots and it fits easily in my bag so actually comes out with me.
I'll need to get use to the battery life, but it's not awful... Surprised the batteries didn't come with any kind of cap for storing when not in use (Unless I missed them?), but can see myself taking 4 when travelling.

Minor irritant was when pressing play to review a shot, the message saying it wasn't ready, then returning you to shooting mode, rather than just waiting for it to be ready and showing the shot. I've turned off quick review too.

The Sony-Zeiss 35mm 2.8 is a corker. Hella sharp, really like the focal range for what I'm using it for. Yes, I'd prefer 1.4, but the trade off for size is fine.

Long-term, I'm looking at at wide-angle (maybe the 15mm Voigtlander currently on offer in Classifieds) and either the Batis 85mm, or Sony 90mm.
 
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Also, glad I didn't go for the 35mm Loxia. Although it sounds fantastic, it seems a shame not to take advantage of the auto-focussing... Though equally I'm not a huge fan of trying to manual focus for the S-Z 35mm, but vague as it's by wire.
 
jonneymendoza said:
It's brilliant.
And it can be used for landscape. But I prefer if I had a 200mm for landscape.

Question for you all. I'm going Peru soon. I can't decide what lens/gear to bring as i may need my 70-200 f2.8 but it's heavy..
Click to expand...
I'm mostly a prime user but recently bought a Panny G7 and 12-35mm f2.8. I went with the Panny combo to keep the bulk down as I thought that an A7 plus f2.8 zoom may be a bit bulky as I do like a more compact camera and lens set up and a big plus is that the lens will focus quite close and gives me the option of going from wide to passed mormal with the ability to shoot landscape and scene, people and close up / flower / interesting thing shots :D I took this combo to the Eden project recently and it worked well. Had to keep cleaning the lens in the tropical dome though :D

If going on a more photography biased trip I think I'd think about taking a camera with a 35 or 50mm prime and one with a f2.8 zoom if they were pretty compact and carrying the two wasn't too much of a problem.
 
Durbs said:
Summary of 2 weeks of A7R2 ownership. Had one wedding (Uncle Bob'ing), our daughters' first birthday party and not much else so haven't really got out with it any where near as much as I wanted.

Think I've set it up as it will stay - BBF, Eye AF on C3, [Standard] on Centre button (though might move this back to Eye AF if I can find a different place for [Standard]?
Currently got minimum SS set to 1/250, but might drop this to 1/125 as good though high ISO is, I think I've been over cautious.
Silent shutter is great for ceremonies.

Generally loving it; the EVF is great, the articulated screen is really useful for low-down baby shots and over-head group shots and it fits easily in my bag so actually comes out with me.
I'll need to get use to the battery life, but it's not awful... Surprised the batteries didn't come with any kind of cap for storing when not in use (Unless I missed them?), but can see myself taking 4 when travelling.

Minor irritant was when pressing play to review a shot, the message saying it wasn't ready, then returning you to shooting mode, rather than just waiting for it to be ready and showing the shot. I've turned off quick review too.

The Sony-Zeiss 35mm 2.8 is a corker. Hella sharp, really like the focal range for what I'm using it for. Yes, I'd prefer 1.4, but the trade off for size is fine.

Long-term, I'm looking at at wide-angle (maybe the 15mm Voigtlander currently on offer in Classifieds) and either the Batis 85mm, or Sony 90mm.
Click to expand...

Glad you are enjoying it. How many batteries did you go through during the wedding? I've got 7 batteries at the moment. None came with cases.

You should be able to drop the shutter speed way lower than 1/250. Ibis helps a lot.

Look forward to seeing some shots.
 
Durbs said:
Think I've set it up as it will stay - BBF, Eye AF on C3, [Standard] on Centre button (though might move this back to Eye AF if I can find a different place for [Standard]?
Currently got minimum SS set to 1/250, but might drop this to 1/125 as good though high ISO is, I think I've been over cautious.
Silent shutter is great for ceremonies.
Click to expand...
The button setup that I settled on eventually was to put all autofocus on the AF/MF/AEL toggle button. Toggle up, button does EyeAF. Toggle down does BBF. That way you're always doing your AF with the one button and you can switch between the two with your thumb without even taking it off the button. Really efficient when you get used to it.
While the silent shutter is indeed great, be careful using it with fast moving subjects or under artificial light prone to flicker. It took me a while to get used to it, it doesn't really feel like you're actually taking a photo without hearing the shutter!
 
Crossroads said:
The button setup that I settled on eventually was to put all autofocus on the AF/MF/AEL toggle button. Toggle up, button does EyeAF. Toggle down does BBF. That way you're always doing your AF with the one button and you can switch between the two with your thumb without even taking it off the button. Really efficient when you get used to it.
While the silent shutter is indeed great, be careful using it with fast moving subjects or under artificial light prone to flicker. It took me a while to get used to it, it doesn't really feel like you're actually taking a photo without hearing the shutter!
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I have mine set up like that - just the other way round.
 
Ah - my toggle goes between MF hold / BBF... but wondering how much I'll actually use MF.
Only 1 battery for the wedding, but wasn't the official tog, just a guest with a new toy. They're close friends so was actually watching the ceremony and enjoying the day :D
 
Wissel said:
Does anyone here use an a6000 for video?

Thinking about doing a few videos where I'd want my A7 in the shot and looking for something good but not much cash that can use the same lenses.
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Ive done loads with the A5100 and the A6000. Its very good, tracking AF is excellent in comparison to others, destroys the A7 for video.
 
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