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

I looked at the 7-14mm a couple of times and read reviews etc... It doesn't seem to be without issues and it's quite expensive. I ended up getting the Oly 9-18mm.

Hopefully you'll see the difference when you get your A7. You may have to look for the differences but they should be there should you look close enough and the A7 should give you better image quality than you'd get from any MFT camera. The MFT kit is however quite a bit faster in use.

TBH I did wonder why you were so keen on the GX8, I'd go for the GX80/G80 every time and in fact I did :D
 
woof woof said:
I looked at the 7-14mm a couple of times and read reviews etc... It doesn't seem to be without issues and it's quite expensive. I ended up getting the Oly 9-18mm.

Hopefully you'll see the difference when you get your A7. You may have to look for the differences but they should be there should you look close enough and the A7 should give you better image quality than you'd get from any MFT camera. The MFT kit is however quite a bit faster in use.

TBH I did wonder why you were so keen on the GX8, I'd go for the GX80/G80 every time and in fact I did :D
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Yeah true. Fingers crossed, I should do as I have only had APS-C previously. Faster in what sense (please don't just say 'every sense' haha).

GX8 just because it comes with a better lens that I could sell for more, just seemed to have superior specs etc. Like the viewfinder tilt as well. 20mp over 16 (thought whether this makes any difference real world could be argued. Most of my prints are to canvas and around A3, max A2 size.
 
Faster because the later MFT cameras are very fast to meter and focus, they're pretty much instant whereas the A7 is much slower. The A7 is about as fast as the Canon 20D and 5D I had or maybe just a touch faster but the newer MFT cameras are very fast indeed.
 
My A7/28-70 arrived today so I've had a quick play with it this afternoon to see how it handles. I've matched the settings I use on the A6000 and that was easy enough because they share the same menu system. I'm not 100% convinced about the position of the Menu and C2 buttons on the back as they're above the shoulder which makes it slightly awkward to press them but other than that, it feels very similar in size but slightly heavier than the A6000. The 28-70 lens seems to focus faster than I expected it to but I need to try it in lower light to find out exactly what it's like.

I'm shooting a local drama group performance tonight in a low light theatre so I'll be shooting with the A6000/50mm 1.8 and the A7/28-70 so it will be interesting to compare results and handling.
 
stevelmx5 said:
My A7/28-70 arrived today so I've had a quick play with it this afternoon to see how it handles. I've matched the settings I use on the A6000 and that was easy enough because they share the same menu system. I'm not 100% convinced about the position of the Menu and C2 buttons on the back as they're above the shoulder which makes it slightly awkward to press them but other than that, it feels very similar in size but slightly heavier than the A6000. The 28-70 lens seems to focus faster than I expected it to but I need to try it in lower light to find out exactly what it's like.

I'm shooting a local drama group performance tonight in a low light theatre so I'll be shooting with the A6000/50mm 1.8 and the A7/28-70 so it will be interesting to compare results and handling.
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Interested to hear what you think
 
Tom Green said:
Walked into John Lewis and they had an absolutely mint 28 f2 ex display with 2 yr warranty (basically brand new) for £299 so I snapped it up. 28 days to make up my mind [emoji23] good move?
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One of the first lenes I got when I first got my a6000 and still one of my favourites
 
Tom Green said:
Walked into John Lewis and they had an absolutely mint 28 f2 ex display with 2 yr warranty (basically brand new) for £299 so I snapped it up. 28 days to make up my mind [emoji23] good move?
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I can second that - that price for a mint 28mm F/2 is a very good price.
Enjoy it.
 
While A7 AF system is not anything to write home about it's not actually as bad as people make it out to be. It's perfectly usable in a lot of situations. In fact it's better than a lot of previous gen Fuji bodies :p
 
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nandbytes said:
While A7 AF system is not anything to write home about it's not actually as bad as people make it out to be. It's perfectly usable in a lot of situations.
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Agreed, Id say for a lot of applications its great, my style is very demanding of an AF system so I cant get away with it and find it frustrating, even my D750 (D4 AF system) isnt perfect in demanding situations.

F1.4 @ FF and erratic moving subjects like kids/people is not easy for any camera. Sometimes I wish I took photos of something else so AF wasnt that important.
 
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twist said:
Agreed, Id say for a lot of applications its great, my style is very demanding of an AF system so I cant get away with it and find it frustrating, even my D750 (D4 AF system) isnt perfect in demanding situations.

F1.4 @ FF and erratic moving subjects like kids/people is not easy for any camera. Sometimes I wish I took photos of something else so AF wasnt that important.
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When is the day we will all get to see some of your pics?
 
Tom Green said:
Walked into John Lewis and they had an absolutely mint 28 f2 ex display with 2 yr warranty (basically brand new) for £299 so I snapped it up. 28 days to make up my mind [emoji23] good move?
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I had a look at one of these today, but on testing I prefer my 35mm Art, however I did snap up the new Sony FE 85mm f/1.8 for £495 along with the Sigma MC-11 converter
 
Well, I'm in the intermission now and am happy with the responsiveness and AF so far. I've got my A6000 with the 50/1.8 on my belt with a capture clip and the A7 with 28-70 on a sling strap and am switching between the two. I've been using a combination of AF-S and AF-C to track 4-12 year olds around the stage and it's delivered well so far. I'll probably get the FE 50/1.8 to go with the 28-70 along the road but for now I'm happy.

Depending on what time I finish here I might try and shoot some long exposures on my way back to test that out too.
 
BiF with A7 :D

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Tom Green said:
Can't see myself lying £200 for that lens adapter.


Any other options for ultra wide angle between (14mm-21mm)?


How bad is the Samyang 14mm?
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Buy one, test it. My Nikon version was flawless. The original a7 and uwa don't always play nice.
 
The problem was with mainly UWA rangefinder lenses. DSLR UWA are fine on all A7 bodies.

I used to own the Samyang 14mm f/2.8 and its huge. If you get a good copy its pretty good. There is also a native AF version of the samyang 14mm f/2.8.

There are plenty of options between 14-21mm. What's your budget? your size preference? lens speed preference? Are you happy to adapt? AF or MF? prime or zoom?
 
nandbytes said:
The problem was with mainly UWA rangefinder lenses. DSLR UWA are fine on all A7 bodies.

I used to own the Samyang 14mm f/2.8 and its huge. If you get a good copy its pretty good. There is also a native AF version of the samyang 14mm f/2.8.

There are plenty of options between 14-21mm. What's your budget? your size preference? lens speed preference? Are you happy to adapt? AF or MF? prime or zoom?
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Smaller the better for me - want to keep it compact. Less than £500 - small as possible - F3.5 min - would adapt but prefer not to - Preferably AF but MF would be ok - prime if possible!
 
nandbytes said:
The problem was with mainly UWA rangefinder lenses. DSLR UWA are fine on all A7 bodies.

I used to own the Samyang 14mm f/2.8 and its huge. If you get a good copy its pretty good. There is also a native AF version of the samyang 14mm f/2.8.

There are plenty of options between 14-21mm. What's your budget? your size preference? lens speed preference? Are you happy to adapt? AF or MF? prime or zoom?
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Are you sure? From what I remember uwa adapted lenses on the original a7/r body were an issue, softness, vignetting, all sorts, it was pretty well documented. Leica lenses were a major issue improved with the a7ii and a7rii.
 
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I stopped off on my way home from the job to test out the 28-70 shooting landscapes. The light tonight is pretty flat so I found a nice restaurant and did some architecture instead :0)

I'll share the photo from Flickr when I'm back at my laptop but I shot it at F16, 5 seconds ISO 50 on my small Manfrotto Pixi tripod on the road and the result looks good. I've only edited the jpg on my phone quickly then uploaded to Flickr so will have a look at the raw file on my laptop too.
 
twist said:
Are you sure? From what I remember uwa adapted lenses on the original a7/r body were an issue, softness, vignetting, all sorts, it was pretty well documented. Leica lenses were a major issue improved with the a7ii and a7rii.
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Yep, I have adapted Sony Zeiss 16-35mm f/2.8, samyang 14mm f/2.8 (a-mount version), canon 17-40mm f/4, nikon 14-24mm all with no issues on A7. I also personally know someone who used canon 17mm and 24mm TS-E on A7R just fine. I am pretty sure DSLR lenses with a good adapter works just fine (some adapters like cheap commlite are not good with UWA lenses)

Tom Green said:
Smaller the better for me - want to keep it compact. Less than £500 - small as possible - F3.5 min - would adapt but prefer not to - Preferably AF but MF would be ok - prime if possible!
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These come to mind...
Samyang 14mm f/2.8 - DSLR version within budget, but massive
Samyang FE 14mm f/2.8 AF - native e-mount version with AF, but massive. Buy used or grey import to fit within your budget
Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 - not your preferred speed but compact and if you buy used the m-mount version would be within your budget
Canon 17-40mm - if you bought used and with some patience could just fit within your budget (inc. mc-11 adapter). But once again huge.
Canon 20-35mm - old zoom lens with average performance but a budget option.
Voigtlander 20mm f3.5 color skopar - available in canon EF and nikon F mount. Doesn't have good reviews for sharpness. You could afford used one within your budget.
Sony/Minolta 20mm f/2.8 - a good sharp lens. Not overly big. Will AF with LA-EA4 adapter.
Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 - again you could buy used to fit within your budget. But bigger than the minolta/sony version.
Olympus OM 21mm f/3.5 - tiny lens, mostly nice and sharp. You could try and convince me to sell you mine ;)
 
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nandbytes said:
Yep, I have adapted Sony Zeiss 16-35mm f/2.8, samyang 14mm f/2.8 (a-mount version), canon 17-40mm f/4, nikon 14-24mm all with no issues on A7. I also personally know someone who used canon 17mm and 24mm TS-E on A7R just fine. I am pretty sure DSLR lenses with a good adapter works just fine (some adapters like cheap commlite are not good with UWA lenses)



These come to mind...
Samyang 14mm f/2.8 - DSLR version within budget, but massive
Samyang FE 14mm f/2.8 AF - native e-mount version with AF, but massive. Buy used or grey import to fit within your budget
Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 - not your preferred speed but compact and if you buy used the m-mount version would be within your budget
Canon 17-40mm - if you bought used and with some patience could just fit within your budget (inc. mc-11 adapter). But once again huge.
Canon 20-35mm - old zoom lens with average performance but a budget option.
Voigtlander 20mm f3.5 color skopar - available in canon EF and nikon F mount. Doesn't have good reviews for sharpness. You could afford used one within your budget.
Sony/Minolta 20mm f/2.8 - a good sharp lens. Not overly big. Will AF with LA-EA4 adapter.
Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 - again you could buy used to fit within your budget. But bigger than the minolta/sony version.
Olympus OM 21mm f/3.5 - tiny lens, mostly nice and sharp. You could try and convince me to sell you mine ;)
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Thanks for taking the time and effort to do that! Most interested by the Olympus 21mm I think to be honest! What would you want for it? (Can PM me if you want) cheers
 
I know there's a difference between 21 and 24mm :D but third party 24mm lenses crop up at reasonable prices from time to time. Wider than 24mm tends to cost more.
 
Tom Green said:
Thanks for taking the time and effort to do that! Most interested by the Olympus 21mm I think to be honest! What would you want for it? (Can PM me if you want) cheers
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I think its against forum rules to deal in PMs?

But I did offer it to someone on classifieds recently - https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/vintage-zuiko-om-lenses.657412/
Mine is the 4th post. if you are really interested I'll make a sales thread with first refusal for you to keep within forum rules :)
 
stevelmx5 said:
I don't think I'm going to dislike it Alan ;0)
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I've always said it's a great FF portable camera the A7, almost nearly bought one off Amazon PrimeDay too but opted for something even smaller lolIMG_2347.JPG
Sony should really revisit the Zeiss 24-70mm f4 as at present it's not that great vs price.
I do want another FE body at some point as a backup body though.
 
nandbytes said:
Yep, I have adapted Sony Zeiss 16-35mm f/2.8, samyang 14mm f/2.8 (a-mount version), canon 17-40mm f/4, nikon 14-24mm all with no issues on A7. I also personally know someone who used canon 17mm and 24mm TS-E on A7R just fine. I am pretty sure DSLR lenses with a good adapter works just fine (some adapters like cheap commlite are not good with UWA lenses)



These come to mind...
Samyang 14mm f/2.8 - DSLR version within budget, but massive
Samyang FE 14mm f/2.8 AF - native e-mount version with AF, but massive. Buy used or grey import to fit within your budget
Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5 - not your preferred speed but compact and if you buy used the m-mount version would be within your budget
Canon 17-40mm - if you bought used and with some patience could just fit within your budget (inc. mc-11 adapter). But once again huge.
Canon 20-35mm - old zoom lens with average performance but a budget option.
Voigtlander 20mm f3.5 color skopar - available in canon EF and nikon F mount. Doesn't have good reviews for sharpness. You could afford used one within your budget.
Sony/Minolta 20mm f/2.8 - a good sharp lens. Not overly big. Will AF with LA-EA4 adapter.
Canon EF 20mm f/2.8 - again you could buy used to fit within your budget. But bigger than the minolta/sony version.
Olympus OM 21mm f/3.5 - tiny lens, mostly nice and sharp. You could try and convince me to sell you mine ;)
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Yes, you're right, it was rangefinder lenses that were the problem.
 
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