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

I would welcome suggestions as to which lens system to go for on my new A7. In the long term I will get dedicated E mount FF but for now it will have to be adaptor fit lenses. I understand that Sony/Milnolta are OK but I have also read suggestions that you can use AF lenses from Nikon Pentax and Canon. I'm not too bothered about AF itself but a lot of AF lenses have electronically operated diaphragm so if I can use an AF lens it widens the market considerably.
All I have now that work well is an OM 50mm macro and a Leica 50mm Summicron.
 
A lot of people rave about Konica lenses. Most marques have decent examples in various focal lengths.
 
Some great cost saving engineering choices in its build.
 
Good A7r review with Canon lenses and interesting results for boosting shadows A7r v 5DIII...

http://www.fredmiranda.com/A7R-review/

Cons...

"Unable to toggle the LCD On/Off with a custom button. You can assign a custom function to turn off the LCD but it only blacks out the screen without actually turning it off."

Yup, I'd love a button to toggle screen On/Off.
 
robj20 said:
Some great cost saving engineering choices in its build.
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Yup.

Should help with build accuracy and reliability too, and as mentioned in the write up it should make repair easier.
 
Looks very easy to strip down, when i'm building cameras we have to line up the sensor and lenses manually because there are so many shims and what not. This definitely looks easy to repair at home. The comment about removing the glass screen was interesting although not something i would do on a system where you open the sensor up to the elements all the time.
 
I've got a Konica M-Hexanon 90 2.8 which is very nice indeed. The other M-Hexanons are supposedly very good, but hard to come by so good luck! The Olympus 21 f/3.5 is very nice as well if you want w-i-d-e.

Here's a pic from today with my recently acquired Canon FD 50 f/1.2 which I like a lot. Nice & sharp even at f/1.2 which is what this pic was shot at.

 
To contradict what I have said to date I am so close to buying an a7 I have a lot of a mount glass I could use via adaptor and I am hoping the lae4 adapter with much longer registration distance should negate this sensor flare issue!
 
The way my eyes are going there will be a bunch of Konica and other lenses for sale to A7 users. Sigh.
 
Mine is here and I just cannot put it down. Was skeptical but im glad I was wrong. The LA-EA4 is mighty impressive!

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I'm getting very fond of my A7. It seems so straightforward to use unlike the OM-D EM-5 which it replaced. Picture quality is excellent. All I need now are some lenses.

Is it worth getting the LA-EA3 and going for Minolta/Sony lenses with lens motor or do I really need the LA-EA4 which can operate the old 'screwdriver' style lenses? I thought the A7 had phase detection focusing on the sensor?

I'm floundering a bit because I have cleared out nearly all my old DSLR/SLR lenses so have no brand to follow on from. The only old SLR lens I have is an Oly 50mm f3.5 macro which is performing magnificently.
 
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Cap'n Bill said:
I'm getting very fond of my A7. It seems so straightforward to use unlike the OM-D EM-5 which it replaced. Picture quality is excellent. All I need now are some lenses.

Is it worth getting the LA-EA3 and going for Minolta/Sony lenses with or do I really need the LA-EA4? I thought the A7 had phase detection focusing on the sensor?

I'm floundering a bit because I have cleared out nearly all my old DSLR/SLR lenses so have no brand to follow on from. The only old SLR lens I have is an Oly 50mm f3.5 macro which is performing magnificently.
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If anyone is close to London with the LA-EA3, I would be more than happy to meet up and put the EA4 up for a side by side test. Ive found using the EA4, the focus is just bang on with the Sony 85 2.8 and 16-50 2.8. With no comparison I wouldn't be able to tell you how much faster it is.
 
That grip makes the camera far too large IMO.
Im considering the samyang 500 f6.3 for a cheap once in a blue moon long lens.
 
robj20 said:
That grip makes the camera far too large IMO.
Im considering the samyang 500 f6.3 for a cheap once in a blue moon long lens.
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See the thing is I like the grip because ive always been used to having a camera with it BUT the biggest bug bear at the moment is in order to charge the battery via USB, it has to be in the body so having to remove the grip everytime. The more I have to do that, the more I think the grip is not needed.
 
Some of you might remember me asking about a slow start up once in a while. Well i have got to the bottom of it. It takes longer to start if you change the battery or straight after unplugging it from charging. It must be checking the battery.

Edit: Look what i have treated myself to.





The OSS system works brilliantly can really see it work when you half press the shutter. Build quality is as with the 35mm nice solid feel rings are smooth only a very minimal amount of barrel movement when extended. Im looking forward to using it.
 
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Mounted a Canon FD 50mm f/1.8 via Fotodiox adapter on my A7 tonight and pointing the lens towards desk lamp I can see a blue-ish reflection at certain angles appears. Assume the issue reported in DP review earlier?
 
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I think it's lens flare, tried a Canon FD 24mm f/2.8 under exact same conditions, and it's not there, only a very very slight yellow/white blob but much harder to see
 
ShrubMonkey said:
I think it's lens flare, tried a Canon FD 24mm f/2.8 under exact same conditions, and it's not there, only a very very slight yellow/white blob but much harder to see
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Any samples you care to post. Be interesting to see
 
Today the sun is shining. I have had the A7 for two weeks now but due to various factors including waiting for adaptors, today is the first day I have been able to field test.

I took it out with just a ZM Zeiss 35/2. Initial impressions. Nice size and feel but I was finding the grip a bit small. I found the controls easy and fairly instinctive. I tried aperture priority and manual. Since auto ISO works in manual I marginally preferred that but I couldn't see the selected ISO in the viewfinder. Is this just me missing something?

Focus peaking worked quite well though it didn't seem quite as snappy as I would like and overestimated the areas of what I regarded in focus. I was concerned that in some directions I could hardly see through the viewfinder because of the low sun. Magnified view was easy to use, as was AEL

Shutter action is great and I don't think it is loud. I'm comparing it with Leica M8 and Olympus OM-D.

I have just looked at the pictures. Only jpg today, I'll move onto RAW later. The exposures were generally good, even under challenging conditions. I was concerned by the number of shots showing camera shake. I have grown too used to the excellent in-body stabilisation of the Olympus OM-D but my M8 doesn't have any form of stabilisation and I wouldn't expect so many rejects on that. I will have to sharpen my technique. The strong and cold wind may have been a factor too.

The sharp photos are excellent, bitingly sharp.

So an interesting first trial. Generally very happy but I hate this slow in-camera charging. I went out with one half charged battery which was on its last legs as I came home. A third party charger is on order.
 
Cap'n Bill said:
The zoom lens looks very big on the A7R. Is it very heavy, how well does the camera balance?
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Overall weight is perfectly acceptable, its half the weight of a dslr similar spec lens. It is a little front heavy nut you will mostly be using it two handed so its not a problem. This and the 35 will be my main lenses one when i want it to be compact the zoom for general stuff. Im hoping they release a good wide angle next, if not im considering the 14mm Samyang. Also want a macro.
 
Just an update on charging. Postie brought my Hähnel (I had to look up that umlaut key combination!) Unipal universal charger today. Great piece of kit. Shows charge levels and handles most lithium camera battery types. Has recharged both my batteries for the Sony already.
 
Right, call me thick but I am experiencing very dark viewfinder issues at minimum apertures. I expect step down and non -auto aperture operation but was under the impression the camera could or would use inbuilt compensation to maintain a bright viewfinder regardless of aperture. I can see (lol) nothing in the manual about this so I'll punt the question out on here. I'm a bit new to this digital lark.
 
steveclem said:
Right, call me thick but I am experiencing very dark viewfinder issues at minimum apertures. I expect step down and non -auto aperture operation but was under the impression the camera could or would use inbuilt compensation to maintain a bright viewfinder regardless of aperture. I can see (lol) nothing in the manual about this so I'll punt the question out on here. I'm a bit new to this digital lark.
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It should indeed. Baffled...
 
Cap'n Bill said:
I was concerned by the number of shots showing camera shake.
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I went through the same thing and the first time I went out with the camera I too had a number of rejects but for me it was just down to shutter speed.

I think I was just excited by shooting with my new toy and forgot that I might not get perfect images at 1/60 sec shutter speed. The whole images looked good on screen but once I looked at them at 100% I spotted problems.

Once I started watching the shutter speed and switching from Aperture to Manual and dialing in something faster my keeper rate rose and when going back and shooting the same scene again I got much better results.
 
steveclem said:
Right, call me thick but I am experiencing very dark viewfinder issues at minimum apertures. I expect step down and non -auto aperture operation but was under the impression the camera could or would use inbuilt compensation to maintain a bright viewfinder regardless of aperture. I can see (lol) nothing in the manual about this so I'll punt the question out on here. I'm a bit new to this digital lark.
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You need to turn live view effect setting on and possibly set viewfinder brightness to auto if you have'nt already
 
Both already done. It's on auto iso 6400 too....

I'm using manual focus lenses, a zeiss 18mm and a nikon 50mm.
 
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I was but not anymore,
now the camera is bracketing on a delayed release.....I haven't the foggiest idea
 
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