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

Hi all. Joined this thread to find out about the A7 ii, and wondering if there's a particular guide for choosing old manual lenses and advice on adapters?
 
nandbytes said:
unless you particularly want IBIS skip the A7II and get the original A7
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Is that purely on cost saving (helps with lens budget) or is there a quality/usability benefit from the original A7, too?
 
OK - thanks. Looks like I have to revisit a few reviews and get a feel for the A7 -> A7 ii update.
 
f/2.8 said:
Ebay has 10% of on again site wide this time on items over £100 using this discount code PROSPER10 it is only on until midnight tonight.

It is a maximum discount of only £50 though. You could though for example get the 24GM from the e-infin eBay store https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/60roadebut for £1009 which is a great price.
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Trying hard not the buy the 24GM. Shame the discount isn't £100 max like usual.
 
A7 or A7 ii: any 'gotchas' when recording audio?

I don't expect too much from the built-in mics, and would connect line level audio devices that I would pad down, so as not to overload the camera's ADC.
 
snerkler said:
If you care about sound quality you wouldn't use AirPods ;)
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It would be 1 pair out of a dozen including wireless over-ear Sony, open back Sennheiser, closed-back Sennheisers, closed back Sony, in ear Chinese knock off for the gym, regular Apple Airpods ;)
 
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goldtop said:
A7 or A7 ii: any 'gotchas' when recording audio?

I don't expect too much from the built-in mics, and would connect line level audio devices that I would pad down, so as not to overload the camera's ADC.
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With A7iii the inbuilt default level is about 25, for externals you generally want to be more like 12-15
I didn't realise initially that audio level is stored in your presets so if switching between photo and video don't forget to resave with the setting you want or make another temporary one on the SD card (this might not all apply or make sense with earlier models but worth mentioning)
If level peaks too high it seems to cut out and is all but unusable not just bad.
 
You can get a Sony 35/1.8 for about £460 with this code.

I want one but I also want the Sigma 35/1.2....should stick with my philosophy of saving my money for something I ultimately will get anyway....
 
Raymond Lin said:
You can get a Sony 35/1.8 for about £460 with this code.

I want one but I also want the Sigma 35/1.2....should stick with my philosophy of saving my money for something I ultimately will get anyway....
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you’ll lose money on the 1.8 after you sell it 2 weeks later. Get the 1.2.
 
goldtop said:
Hi all. Joined this thread to find out about the A7 ii, and wondering if there's a particular guide for choosing old manual lenses and advice on adapters?
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Ey up.

I have Minolta Rokkor, Olympus Zuiko, Canon FD and early Nikon Nippon Kogaku mount film era prime lenses and some third party lenses in those mounts, all in all from 17 to 135mm. If you're looking for lenses to give you a more neutral and modern look rather than a more characterful or funky one then of the ones I've tried I'd go for Minolta MD, Canon FD or Olympus Zuiko possibly in that order as the earlier Rokkor MC and Nippon Kogaku lenses tend to the more characterful end of the scale, IMO. Of course there are other camera manufacturer lenses such as Pentax out there and there are third party lenses in the various mounts too.

Concentrating on the lenses I have that give a more neutral look I've been impressed with the Monolta Rokkor MD's such as the 24mm, 28mm and 35mm f2.8's, I also have the MD 35mm f1.8 and it's a bit funky with the wrong scene or background at f1.8 but nice across the frame stopped down, 45mm f2, 50mm f1.8 and f1.4, 85mm f2 and the 135mm f2.8. Unbelievably Canon FD's occasionally crop up unused and they may be worth watching out for but you may prefer a used lens at a lower cost.

If you do want characterful the Minolta Rokkor 35mm f2.8 MC, 55mm f1.7 MC and 50mm f1.2 MD are nice and the latter although best described as characterful at f1.2 IMO gives a lovely look stopped down to f2 and beyond. The Nippon Kogako 50mm f2 is also nice and built to outlast our civilisation. The Canon FD breech lock lenses have a following but personally I prefer the newer often lighter and more conventionally mounting lenses.

I have 3 Novoflex adapters which are in the region of £100 of so each but I also have some cheap adapters (£10-20) bought off evil bay and they seem perfectly fine too which does question the logic of paying £100 for a Novoflex.

I hope that helps. Have fun!
 
goldtop said:
Hi all. Joined this thread to find out about the A7 ii, and wondering if there's a particular guide for choosing old manual lenses and advice on adapters?
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I've used Yashica ML (still have those) Canon FD, Helios, Jupiter and probably some others..... The ML and FD lenses (primes) were all good performers really (the ML50/1.9 has some nice swirly bokeh in certain situations) and I would recommend them both for a good price. For adapters, K&F or cheapo ones. Best is to see what's in your budget and research images from them.
 
nandbytes said:
I thought you were swapping to Nikon
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I was considering it but not ready to dump the Sony gear even though I hardly use it.
I will do some number crunching towards the end of the year and see.
 
Riz_Guru said:
I was considering it but not ready to dump the Sony gear even though I hardly use it.
I will do some number crunching towards the end of the year and see.
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Just think, your cabinet could be filled with Nikon gear (not many lenses though).
 
twist said:
Just think, your cabinet could be filled with Nikon gear (not many lenses though).
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That's the thing, if I did move to a different system, it would be to reduce my actual investment in camera gear, so less lenses etc. The money released would just go towards paying a chunk of mortgage off or into savings.
I am going to wait it out for now.......... :D
 
Just a short and sweet thank you again everyone :), got the A7iii on wednesday with 24-105 kit lens and its absolutely awesome, traded all my canon gear in today and picked up the 70-200 so now I'm pretty much complete I kept my 85 & 50mm canon lenses and bought the MC-11 adapter and they work great, can't wait to try it out on a shoot this weekend :).
 
kiteninja said:
Just a short and sweet thank you again everyone :), got the A7iii on wednesday with 24-105 kit lens and its absolutely awesome, traded all my canon gear in today and picked up the 70-200 so now I'm pretty much complete I kept my 85 & 50mm canon lenses and bought the MC-11 adapter and they work great, can't wait to try it out on a shoot this weekend :).
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The 24-105 is hardly a kit lens, I hate zooms but that thing looks pretty sweet for an all purpose although pricey. Congrats on your new gear.
 
kiteninja said:
Just a short and sweet thank you again everyone :), got the A7iii on wednesday with 24-105 kit lens and its absolutely awesome, traded all my canon gear in today and picked up the 70-200 so now I'm pretty much complete I kept my 85 & 50mm canon lenses and bought the MC-11 adapter and they work great, can't wait to try it out on a shoot this weekend :).
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That's a good combination - had a A7III and 24-105 since the spring, and they work really well together. The one thing I found was that they are a heavy combination with a small area to grip, and I either have a smallrig L bracket or one of those cheap faux-leather half cases (<£10 on ebay) on the camera to provide a bit more grip.
 
Riz_Guru said:
That's the thing, if I did move to a different system, it would be to reduce my actual investment in camera gear, so less lenses etc. The money released would just go towards paying a chunk of mortgage off or into savings.
I am going to wait it out for now.......... :D
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Am I missing something? I can't see any compelling reason to move from Sony to either Nikon or Canon. All the systems have some nice lenses but I can't see anything in the Sony line up that's so bad that I'd want to go to Nikon to gain something significantly better.
 
ancient_mariner said:
That's a good combination - had a A7III and 24-105 since the spring, and they work really well together. The one thing I found was that they are a heavy combination with a small area to grip, and I either have a smallrig L bracket or one of those cheap faux-leather half cases (<£10 on ebay) on the camera to provide a bit more grip.
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Totally agree, big lens on a very small camera body, i compared it to the old 5Dii I've got kicking around and its weeny, I did buy the sony grip as well yesterday and thats made quite a bit of difference I can grip with my whole hand now instead of trying to 3 finger pinch it sort of thing lol.
 
JJ! said:
My misses won some B&O e8 2.0 which she is giving to me and an B&O M5 speaker for the house!
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I’ve still got a pair of B&W P5 wired headphones.... cost me £212 at the time and they are worth every penny. :)
B&O are still good but not cutting edge like the once used to be.
Bose are very similar in that regard.
 
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