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

woof woof said:
There's a Tokina 20mm thread with example pictures here...

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1480006/0
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I only looked at the first few pages but all the images shown were traditional landscape/architecture which is where an ultrawide is beneficial. Strangely, I saw a few shots in that thread from an A7Rii with the Sony E 20/2. I’m guessing it’s a cropped image as there would be a black circle around the edge but they looked pretty good.
 
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The thread was useful as most of the review and blog sites I looked at were next to useless for me as they didn't talk about performance across the frame and into the corners. A shallow DoF shot taken with a lens like this or a small picture with no ability to pixel peep tell me next to nothing. I'd expect a lens made by someone I've heard of to be sharp in the centre so the question for me is how the lens performs at the extremities of the picture. Even the cheapo Vivitar 19mm is sharp in the centre and sharp enough across the frame left right and top and bottom and it's only in the extreme corners that it's soft. The old Sigma 20mm f1.8 I had was sharp in the centre at f1.8 and IMO excellent at f8 even into the extremities, it's comments and evidence like that I'm interested in but it's hard to find.

Anyway... the Siggy 20mm isn't available in E mount so I have to pick something new. People seem to be saying that it's mostly swings and roundabouts between the Tokina and the Loxia with the Loxia maybe shading it overall but I think I'd pick the Tokina for the f2 and the price. I put one in my basket at Digitalrev at £664 there and about £800 here, the Loxia is £1,257 there and £1,170 in the UK. I haven't bought one yet though, I'm still thinking :D

Just looking at the Vivitar 19mm corner performance, I posted 100% crops earlier and cropping like this removes the extreme corners where it's weak (the borders of the picture are sharp left, right, top and bottom and it's only the corners that are weak) and improves things to the point that I'd say that it's good :D

PS.jpg

I might convince myself that this cheap and humble little lens is good enough for everything but low light use.
 
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woof woof said:
The thread was useful as most of the review and blog sites I looked at were next to useless for me as they didn't talk about performance across the frame and into the corners. A shallow DoF shot taken with a lens like this or a small picture with no ability to pixel peep tell me next to nothing. I'd expect a lens made by someone I've heard of to be sharp in the centre so the question for me is how the lens performs at the extremities of the picture. Even the cheapo Vivitar 19mm is sharp in the centre and sharp enough across the frame left right and top and bottom and it's only in the extreme corners that it's soft. The old Sigma 20mm f1.8 I had was sharp in the centre at f1.8 and IMO excellent at f8 even into the extremities, it's comments and evidence like that I'm interested in but it's hard to find.

Anyway... the Siggy 20mm isn't available in E mount so I have to pick something new. People seem to be saying that it's mostly swings and roundabouts between the Tokina and the Loxia with the Loxia maybe shading it overall but I think I'd pick the Tokina for the f2 and the price. I put one in my basket at Digitalrev at £664 there and about £800 here, the Loxia is £1,257 there and £1,170 in the UK. I haven't bought one yet though, I'm still thinking :D

Just looking at the Vivitar 19mm corner performance, I posted 100% crops earlier and cropping like this removes the extreme corners where it's weak (the borders of the picture are sharp left, right, top and bottom and it's only the corners that are weak) and improves things to the point that I'd say that it's good :D

View attachment 114875

I might convince myself that this cheap and humble little lens is good enough for everything but low light use.
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What about the sigma art 20mm adapted?
 
I am thinking about that but against it is that it's big and more so with the adapter. I may come back and ask about adapted lens performance :D
 
addicknchips said:
Nice. What did you think of the samyang 35mm f2.8?
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Excellent lens. I used it only a bit in philippines. I mainly used the 24-70 G master and the 12-24 as I did not want to keep changing lenses.

Also on a separate note. My order for the a7r3 is ready for me to collect. That's fast! I wanted to sell my a7r2 before and also check if the afc is borked when shooting at large dof
 
Ok I’m just about to press the button on the 100-400 GM, however I have a niggling urge to look at the Canon 100-400 L IS ii and also the Sigma 100-400 C. I gues it is down to the price differences. Just wondered if anyone had compared any of these already?
 
As it's a bit quiet. A7, Vivitar 19mm, Nik filters and shopping.

DSC08615.jpg

DSC08619-N.jpg
 
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ChrisHeathcote said:
Ok I’m just about to press the button on the 100-400 GM, however I have a niggling urge to look at the Canon 100-400 L IS ii and also the Sigma 100-400 C. I gues it is down to the price differences. Just wondered if anyone had compared any of these already?
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I had both the Canon and Sony. Sold the canon as the Sony 100-400 performed night and day better on the A9. Check my YouTube video for demonstration. Name is jonneymendoza
 
jonneymendoza said:
geeze so the A7r3 has the stop down appature nonsense in AF-C issue



Canceling pre order
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Please can you expand a bit on what this Is? Reading your quote above it sounds like the a7r3 doesn't focus in aperture priority mode (Av on my canon). Is this correct or have I got the wrong idea?

Also anyone know when the A7R iii uk release date Is?
 
benhben said:
Please can you expand a bit on what this Is? Reading your quote above it sounds like the a7r3 doesn't focus in aperture priority mode (Av on my canon). Is this correct or have I got the wrong idea?

Also anyone know when the A7R iii uk release date Is?
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In a studio enviornment you typicaly shoot at f8 or narrower where the lights i are dimmed/turned off.

A normal DSLR focuses at f2.8, not at f8 and then once it gets the focus, it stops down to the appature of f8 or whatever you set before taking the shot.

The A7r2 pre 3.0 fw worked like this and then after 3.0 it stopped working this way and instead would try to focus low light at f8 making it hunt like crazy.

The A7r2 was then fixed on 4.0 making it open the lens up to f2/f2.8 and then stopping it down.

It appears that the A7r3 is not doing this!?!

This is all on AF-C mode
 
Craig_85 said:
This, or if you can live with focus by wire the batis 18mm is superb too.

I've owned the sigma art 20mm and, for me it's just too heavy. Would be really unbalanced on an a7 with adapter. Good lens though, apart from the weight!
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The Batis is f2.8 though and I liked the flexibility that the Siggy 20mm f1.8 gave so I think I'll end up avoiding the f2.8 lenses.
 
jonneymendoza said:
I think it does.
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That'd be fine for me then but I can see how it'd be a problem for others and it does make me wonder why Sony don't have it as a menu option. Ditto the star eater thing which was reported as being fixed but is now claimed to be still present. Makes me wonder what Sony are thinking. They have the opportunity to really push the market and yet they appear to shot themselves in the foot time after time if only for a percentage of users who could be satisfied by the inclusion of these things in the menu.
 
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stevelmx5 said:
Apart from needing to use an adaptor, why don’t you just use a Sigma 20/1.8 as nothing else seems to fit your requirements?
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I guess there's a big hole in the market then if the long in the tooth Sigma is the best choice. I'm not too keen on that route because adapters add bulk and faff and I get the impression that the AF ones are less than ideal and sometimes do or don't work for no apparent reason. I'm happy enough with the dumb adapters and manual lenses but AF adapters seem to be a whole other thing and the first time it played up I'd end up taking it off the camera and throwing it into the sea.

I might get the Tokina or keep the Vivitar or I might just give up and wait until something more suitable comes along.
 
woof woof said:
I guess there's a big hole in the market then if the long in the tooth Sigma is the best choice. I'm not too keen on that route because adapters add bulk and faff and I get the impression that the AF ones are less than ideal and sometimes do or don't work for no apparent reason. I'm happy enough with the dumb adapters and manual lenses but AF adapters seem to be a whole other thing and the first time it played up I'd end up taking it off the camera and throwing it into the sea.

I might get the Tokina or keep the Vivitar or I might just give up and wait until something more suitable comes along.
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you can still use an af adapter and manual focus the lens.
 
You can use a semi-auto adaptor which lets you set the aperture on the lens but doesn’t control the AF. I used to have a Commlite adaptor that was about £50 and gave aperture control and passed EXIF data back.
 
addicknchips said:
you can still use an af adapter and manual focus the lens.
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stevelmx5 said:
You can use a semi-auto adaptor which lets you set the aperture on the lens but doesn’t control the AF. I used to have a Commlite adaptor that was about £50 and gave aperture control and passed EXIF data back.
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If I still had the lens I'd give it a go but starting from this point with no lens I don't like the idea of the size and the half working fudges. The best option seems to be the manual Tokina but it's yet another manual lens. I even had the idea of going back to a DSLR but then I remembered the size and weight issues that drove me from those cameras.

I used to take a lot of wider pictures and that's been missing from my little A7 line up but I can't settle on a lens so I think I'll drop the idea and take another look later. I do have a variable aperture 9-18mm zoom for MFT and although it's less than stellar and the aperture range is dull as ditch water it might keep me from buying something I might not be happy with.
 
woof woof said:
If I still had the lens I'd give it a go but starting from this point with no lens I don't like the idea of the size and the half working fudges. The best option seems to be the manual Tokina but it's yet another manual lens. I even had the idea of going back to a DSLR but then I remembered the size and weight issues that drove me from those cameras.

I used to take a lot of wider pictures and that's been missing from my little A7 line up but I can't settle on a lens so I think I'll drop the idea and take another look later. I do have a variable aperture 9-18mm zoom for MFT and although it's less than stellar and the aperture range is dull as ditch water it might keep me from buying something I might not be happy with.
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The options are there but the more affordable ones are manual.

Voigtlander 10:5.6
Samyang 14/2.8
Voigtlander 15/4.5
Loxia 21/2.8
Batis 18/2.8
Sony 16-35/2.8 G
Tokina 20/2
Samyang 24/1.4

There seems to be a wide selection of ultrawides but of course none of them are F1.8 but I’m still not sure what real benefit that gives you over a 2.8 and pushing the iso a bit if you need to?

I took this with the Samyang 14/2.8 at mfd (around 6” I think) and F2.8 in a low light museum.

36148988263_a3b5030af8_o.jpg
 
woof woof said:
If I still had the lens I'd give it a go but starting from this point with no lens I don't like the idea of the size and the half working fudges. The best option seems to be the manual Tokina but it's yet another manual lens. I even had the idea of going back to a DSLR but then I remembered the size and weight issues that drove me from those cameras.

I used to take a lot of wider pictures and that's been missing from my little A7 line up but I can't settle on a lens so I think I'll drop the idea and take another look later. I do have a variable aperture 9-18mm zoom for MFT and although it's less than stellar and the aperture range is dull as ditch water it might keep me from buying something I might not be happy with.
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wow. just wow. lol
 
The thought did briefly cross my mind but I'm recovering. I may still need to contact my GP.

A7 and Vivitar 19mm. ISO 1,000, 1/125. The light was pretty poor though. She hasn't commented on her feet looking a bit big, I thought she would of :D

1-DSC08630.jpg

100% from that.

1-DSC08630-1.jpg
 
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So I did something I haven't done in a very long while - I bought a zoom lens! I've been thinking I need a decent standard zoom and the 28-70 kit lens that came with my A7 wasn't really doing it for me.

It's a C/Y Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 28-85 f/3.3-4.0, boxed, very tidy and cost a little over 200 quid. It's a quite a late made MMJ example as the serial number is in the 8XXXXXXs.

I only had a few minutes to play with it at lunch time yesterday before the heavens opened, but I'm very pleased with it; it has that Zeiss look and compares very well with my C/Y primes.


Access by Rob Telford, on Flickr


Regent's Canal by Rob Telford, on Flickr
 
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stevelmx5 said:
The options are there but the more affordable ones are manual.

Voigtlander 10:5.6
Samyang 14/2.8
Voigtlander 15/4.5
Loxia 21/2.8
Batis 18/2.8
Sony 16-35/2.8 G
Tokina 20/2
Samyang 24/1.4

There seems to be a wide selection of ultrawides but of course none of them are F1.8 but I’m still not sure what real benefit that gives you over a 2.8 and pushing the iso a bit if you need to?

I took this with the Samyang 14/2.8 at mfd (around 6” I think) and F2.8 in a low light museum.
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I suppose I'm remembering how I used the Sigma which at 20mm and f1.8 was enough for wide angle and sort of general use outside and indoors. Go for one of the wider lenses and IMO more careful use is needed and smaller apertures reduce the DoF options and start to push low light use. IMO there's enough difference between f1.8/2 and f2.8 to start to matter and play on my mind (as with the Sony 35mm f2.8) and my OCD tendencies put me off everything on that list for one reason or another.

As I can't settle I'll forget it for a while and might come back to it in a few months and see if I feel differently.
 
woof woof said:
I suppose I'm remembering how I used the Sigma which at 20mm and f1.8 was enough for wide angle and sort of general use outside and indoors. Go for one of the wider lenses and IMO more careful use is needed and smaller apertures reduce the DoF options and start to push low light use. IMO there's enough difference between f1.8/2 and f2.8 to start to matter and play on my mind (as with the Sony 35mm f2.8) and my OCD tendencies put me off everything on that list for one reason or another.

As I can't settle I'll forget it for a while and might come back to it in a few months and see if I feel differently.
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Unless you're taking pictures of people with an ultrawide lens and concerned about subject movement at 1/20 sec, moving to an A7II body with IBIS would take care of the extra stop?
 
I'm not really bothered about IS. I do take people shots but of course it's not just people that move. I'm not sure that 20mm is ultrawide is it? Not when we have mass market 12mm lenses. I think 20mm or there abouts is probably the point at which you need to start being careful and thinking about what you're doing but not too much so :D Get to the wider focal length and maybe they need more thought.
 
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