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

2. My current G1 seems to have very limited DR and in low light fails to display detail clearly visible by eye.

With Sonys you can adjust the jpeg settings (Creative Styles), so you can set it to -3 for saturation, contrast and sharpness. You can then see those effects through the EVF - giving you a great dynamic range. If you have the camera set to jpeg + Raw, you can use the Raw file to avoid the jpeg adjustments. It's not the best answer at the moment but it works. Shadows definitely become clearer and are lifted, more than my eye can see.
 
With Sonys you can adjust the jpeg settings (Creative Styles), so you can set it to -3 for saturation, contrast and sharpness. You can then see those effects through the EVF - giving you a great dynamic range. If you have the camera set to jpeg + Raw, you can use the Raw file to avoid the jpeg adjustments. It's not the best answer at the moment but it works. Shadows definitely become clearer and are lifted, more than my eye can see.

Thanks and that sounds great but it's not a fix for me.

My best course is to try a camera that catches my eye but as that'll mean getting on a train to Newcastle or York to get to a dealer I'm holding off as I'm just not into wasting my own time unless I'm serious about buying the kit. The Sony intersts me so when it's in the shops I'll take a trip to try one.
 
When I first saw those pictures I thought OMG that's a detailed and sharp image but I spotted that the picture I was looking at was taken at f8. Now, my cameras and lenses aren't of the very highest quality and may not match the new A7+AF lenses but when looking at the quality of my own kit I doubt I'd be too surprised to find that they're near their best at f8... that's what I'd expect and therefore I'd rather be stunned by the quality of the new Sony kit at more challenging wider apertures.

Based on my experience of using them on m4/3, I can be reasonably confident that the centre of my FD lenses would hold up to scrutiny with the A7, even at fairly wide apertures; certainly the better quality primes like the 50mm f/1.4, 35mm f/2.0 SSC and 135 f/2.0 bear close inspection at 100%.

The pixel pitch of the A7's full frame sensor is 5.96 µm, while the G2 has a pixel pitch of 4.3 µm. Even the A7r has larger pixels than the G2, at 4.87 µm, so if my old lenses can resolve happily on the G2, then they shouldn't really be stressed by the A7 or the A7r.

At the edges I've only got scanned 35mm film shots to go on and they seem pretty good. Where they'll probably fall down compared with modern lenses is on things like lateral CA, which is easily fixed in PP with Lightroom.
 
At the edges I've only got scanned 35mm film shots to go on and they seem pretty good. Where they'll probably fall down compared with modern lenses is on things like lateral CA, which is easily fixed in PP with Lightroom.

Yup.

If I was to pick a lens or two to worry about it'd probably be my 24 and 28mm lenses away from the centre but I do think that whole images will probably look a lot better than images on screen at 100% + :D I think we do a bit too much of that. Or maybe it's just me.

My point was that although those A7 images look very detailed indeed we perhaps shouldn't run around raving too much about images shot at f8 by a competent photographer in a controlled shoot.
 
pretty sure my a77 has a light sensor, I just tried it in very dark, and the evf was fine to use, not overbright at all, oled or whatever probably helps too
 
They lens you use massively helps an Evf in dark conditions, one stop will double the amount if light the Evf gets and help with viewing conditions, at night f2.8 is minimum on my sony a77 which would equate to f4.5 on full frame so Evf will be much less of a problem on full frame and zero problem with fast glass.
 
Thanks guys.

I think my G1 has a backlight as it kicks out a lot of light even in darkness so much so that it'll actually project a square of light onto a wall and the information in the EVF will be visible. This means that as soon as I raise it to my eye it's like a torch and I just can't use it.

The other problem is clearly visible in that thread I linked to at DPR. Even with a fast lens (f0.95) you just can't see as much as you can with an OVF and can't even frame a night time shot. Looking through my G1's EVE at f0.95 all I see is blackness even though it still kicks out that fantastic amount of light.
 
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This is what someone posted on DPR for me...





The GX1 image is I think what I'd see with my G1's EVF although that guy says it's an image from the back screen and the EVF looks the same that's not my experience as I find that my back screen is very slightly bettrer than the EVF, not a great amount better but just a bit. Using a f1.4 or even f0.95 lens at its widest aperture doesn't help with some scenes and I have to dial in a lot of compensation to see anything and frame the shot and then dial it out again to shoot but of course I'm still stuck with having that torch shining into my eye and it isn't fun.

I'd be happy if I could get a view like the GX7 image if the torch effect was fixed too.

If I could get a usable image in the EVF without a light shining into my eye I'd probably buy the camera and sell my 5D and remaining three lenses.
 
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They lens you use massively helps an Evf in dark conditions, one stop will double the amount if light the Evf gets and help with viewing conditions, at night f2.8 is minimum on my sony a77 which would equate to f4.5 on full frame so Evf will be much less of a problem on full frame and zero problem with fast glass.

It does depend how the system controls the lens aperture before the shutter is opened, though.

Being a (traditional) Alpha camera, your A77 is essentially an adapted SLR with an EVF in place of the pentaprism. It operates by keeping the lens wide open until a the shutter button is pressed, when it stops down to the selected aperture an instant before exposure. When framing you will see wide open DoF unless you press the DoF preview button, which stops the lens down.

As discussed earlier in the thread, since the have no SLR heritage, Sony's e-mount NEX cameras operate with full time DoF Preview, because when you select f/8, the lens is stopped down to f/8 there and then; it doesn't wait until the shutter is opened. It also avoids any latency and vibration associated with an automatic diaphragm. This is why the A7/r bodies have no DoF Preview button.

What this does mean is that a bright lens will make little difference to the EVF image except when you are shooting wide open. An f1.2 lens and an f/4 lens will both deliver the same amount of light to the EVF when stopped down to f/8.

I see the same thing when using adapted manual lenses with my G2, as the DoF preview is permanently engaged with them: the EVF refresh rate slows as I stop down.
 
I also shoot with a 5n though and take last night I was using a 2.8 lens which yes as you say stops down to the required aperture. However if I dial in an appropriate shutter speed, say 10 seconds to get what the camera thinks is 0.0 ev exposure (I.e perfectly exposed) the brightness returned to my screen.

when I had an rx100 it really used to struggle in night time viewing and made it very difficult to compose, particularly when zoomed in with the aperture stopping down to 4.9!

I suppose what I'm saying is that the bigger the sensor and the faster the glass the more light reaches the LCD/evf and can give you a brighter image to compose with. This has been my experience so much so I have preordered the sigma 18-35 1.8 as this should give me a very bright less noisy view at night.
 
Hmm. That suggests that when you're adjusting the shutter speed in manual mode on your NEX, it's either actually amplifying the signal to the display, adjusting the aperture opening on the lens to simulate the EV changes, or working like a conventional SLR with automatic diaphragm. Presumably, it should do similar in Shutter speed priority exposure.

It should be possible to tell which, as the live view will display different amounts of DoF depending on whether you're in Aperture Priority, shutter, manual, etc.
 
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Later Alphas with an EVF have a setting for the EVF "picture effect" which "on" lets you see what the camera thinks that the exposure will look like`given the settings (wysiwyg) or "off" which is effectively an auto-brightness.
This was added because with off-camera flash etc. the cameras didn't know that there would be additional light & therefore was showing a very dim image (what it calculated you would get from what it knew about) in the EVFmaking it hard to view composition.
 
Well I gave in to temptation and have handed over to Wex an arm, a leg and a Kidney. In a few weeks I expect an A7R to be dumped on my doorstep as reward. Can't decide what AF lenses I'm likely to want, if any, so waiting till the 24-70 Zeiss comes out next year and will use legacy glass till then. On film I'd got used to my Trio of 24mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4 and 135mm f2.8 primes, but I've come to like 35mm F2 and 70-200 zooms a lot recently. We shall see.
 
I'm very tempted but I need to try one first.

In recent years I've bought kit on line unseen but there are so may potential problems with todays kit that I've lost all confidence and from now on I will only be buying after trying.
 
I might wait a bit for a price drop and get one of these for my old CZJ Prakticar lenses (Flek 20/2.8, Flek 35/2.4, Pancolar 50/1.8 etc.). I haven't been able to use them on full frame digital up to now. Then there's the compact Konica 40/1.8 and all the others than hit the mirror on my 6D e.g. Meyer Primoplan 58/1.9. Not sure what wifey would think though :D
 
Having seen the a7r vs d800 iq comparison on imaging resource I almost bought a 7r then and there! And I still might! That said I will wait until the rumoured a mount cameras are announced next year before I decide which way to cut my cloth! I love the lightweight e mount but I have a good selection of a mount lenses so decisions decisions...
 
I'm leaning toward the A7 + 24-70 kit lens for family outings and then to use it with my reasonably substantial collection of MF lenses for the rest of the time - I have most focal lengths between 17mm and 500mm covered with fairly decent Canon FD, OM and Zeiss C/Y primes.

I think that, for me, is one the beauties of this camera - I can pick the best [value] lenses at any given focal length from just about any 35mm camera system ever made.

Much as the A7r appeals, I think 24Mpx will be quite sufficient. It's a big enough step up from 12.8 Mpx on my 5D and I suspect 36 Mpx is likely to demand too much of both me and my computer hardware. :)

The A7 kit is a reasonably affordable package if I divest myself of my EF L zooms and the lack of phase detect AF on the A7r is a small extra consideration - I figure if I have to use AF, then it might as well work properly.

Slightly concerned by the reports of a 3 second start-up time I've seen today, but everything else looks very positive.
 
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I'm leaning toward the A7 + 24-70 kit lens for family outings and then to use it with my reasonably substantial collection of MF lenses for the rest of the time - I have most focal lengths between 17mm and 500mm covered with fairly decent Canon FD, OM and Zeiss C/Y primes.

This is the route I may take.

I don't use zooms much but a kit lens is a handy thing to have and mostly I'll be using my manual 24, 28, 35, 50, 85, 135mm and 50mm macro. I'm concerned about the EVF in low light and even though I seem to be the only person with "issues" my concerns aren't covered in any reviews so I will be trying before buying no matter how tempted I am to dive straight in.

I would go for the 35 and 50mm lenses but yet again they're no marking FBW jobbies and I hate the things standard though they now are.
 
Then there's the compact Konica 40/1.8 and all the others than hit the mirror on my 6D e.g. Meyer Primoplan 58/1.9.

Likewise - I've a C/Y Zeiss 50mm that suffers mirror strike on my 5D and my FDs are compromised by the register distance being slightly longer than EF mount. I'm longing to try out my FD 20/2.8, 28/2.0, 35/2.0 SSC and 135/2.5 SC on one of these.
 
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One other small consideration is that I'd be able properly to use the slide copier attachment for a set of FD bellows I own with a 50mm macro lens to do instant 24 Mpx slide scans, instead of messing about with an Epson scanner. :D
 
If I could get a usable image in the EVF without a light shining into my eye I'd probably buy the camera and sell my 5D and remaining three lenses.

The thing that's making me think I may hang on to my 5D is that I have an 15mm Fisheye that I'm rather attached to which would cost almost as much to replace with an FD version, and I have other EF 35, 50 and 85mm primes that I like to use with my EOS film bodies.

Then again I could just sell them and go full-time MF on film too... :-?
 
The thing that's making me think I may hang on to my 5D is that I have an 15mm Fisheye that I'm rather attached to which would cost almost as much to replace with an FD version, and I have other EF 35, 50 and 85mm primes that I like to use with my EOS film bodies.

Then again I could just sell them and go full-time MF on film too... :-?

I've recently sold off some very nice FF lenses and now just have my 5D, 50mm f1.4 and two ho-hum zooms. I'd love to move fully to a CSC, digital of course, and going back to film just isn't an option for me as the reason I switched in the first place was to have control over quality when the quality of 35mm prints I was getting back fell through the floor. If processing quality had been maintained I may still be shooting film but it didn't and so I don't.

I have very nice Rokkor 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f2 lenses and although they may not match my Siggy 50 and 85mm f1.4's they're tiny in comparison and that matters more to me than ultimate quality.
 
Well I gave in to temptation and have handed over to Wex an arm, a leg and a Kidney. In a few weeks I expect an A7R to be dumped on my doorstep as reward. Can't decide what AF lenses I'm likely to want, if any, so waiting till the 24-70 Zeiss comes out next year and will use legacy glass till then. On film I'd got used to my Trio of 24mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4 and 135mm f2.8 primes, but I've come to like 35mm F2 and 70-200 zooms a lot recently. We shall see.
Ditto + the 35mm 2.8. Let's hope the other kidney keeps working just fine....
 
I need to wait for reviews I think. Which is best in low light? I would want the 24-70 for a general walk around lens, and im tempted by the 35mm although i would prefer a faster 35mm.
My main use would be holiday snaps and landscape.
 
I was waiting to see what Nikon was going to bring to the table, really dissapointed in the DF, just another DSLR in fancy clothing.
What is suprising me is it looks like the A7 is going to be better with rangefinder lenses, I was expecting the A7R to be better at it. Will be waiting for more reviews to see what the situation is. Right now I leaning towards the A7 and the 35mm, although if the kit lens is decent I might go for that instead.
 
I was waiting to see what Nikon was going to bring to the table, really dissapointed in the DF, just another DSLR in fancy clothing.
What is suprising me is it looks like the A7 is going to be better with rangefinder lenses, I was expecting the A7R to be better at it. Will be waiting for more reviews to see what the situation is. Right now I leaning towards the A7 and the 35mm, although if the kit lens is decent I might go for that instead.
I feel the same as you regarding the Nikon. It almost looks to be just a spoiling offering to try and bash Fuji and Sony in one go but missing on each (just my humble view). For me it has to be the A7R and 35mm whilst waiitng for the new Ziess 24-70 and seeing if I have another internal organ going spare.
 
I may be wrong but I think Nikon and Canon would rather the whole CSC issue just went away and I'll be surprised if they come up with anything competitive sooner rather than later.
 
The Zeiss 24-70 is now online at Sony but you can't preorder yet, and no mention of price. It appears to continue the weather sealing trend. I wonder if anyone makes weather sealed adapters for legacy glass?
 
The Zeiss 24-70 is now online at Sony but you can't preorder yet, and no mention of price. It appears to continue the weather sealing trend. I wonder if anyone makes weather sealed adapters for legacy glass?

US price is $1200: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1008126-REG/sony_sel2470z_vario_tessar_t_fe_24_70mm.html so that gives a rough idea except on some items US price = UK price in pounds and on others the US and UK price is roughly the same (given the exchange rate of around £1.60 and that UK prices include VAT). So it could be £1200 or £800!
 
My credit card, all by itself, just logged on to a well known seller and ordered me an A7+kit lens and I should be getting a fee bag with my order.

I had decided that I must try before I buy because I'm worried about low light EVF light output but I decided life's too short.

Looking forward to getting my new toy and trying my Rokkor's on it :D I may buy the 35 and 50mm's later but I don't know... they're decisions for another day.
 
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Got it from WEX then, its a decent offer, better than anywhere else at the mo. PM incoming.
 
I may be wrong but I think Nikon and Canon would rather the whole CSC issue just went away and I'll be surprised if they come up with anything competitive sooner rather than later.

I agree, Presently CSC's can compete on IQ but not on focusing so SLR's still rule.

I suspect however that give it 2-5(+?) years and on sensor PDAF will match the SLR performance. What then? Who would want a larger brick of a camera when you can have a smaller one with identical performance? Nobody carries around a 1980's mobile phone because they like the size! I can however see that alarger camera may 'balance' out a longer lens and I can see SLR's continuing as a specialist camera.

Neither Nikon or Canon are yet to release a mirrorless system* and I feel by the time they do the market will already be sewn up a bit like SOny and the DSLR market!!

* Really??!!!
 
I think i will be getting the A7 and 35mm from Amazon, about £150 cheaper than WEX.
 
I think i will be getting the A7 and 35mm from Amazon, about £150 cheaper than WEX.

The A7 comes with a free Billingham bag worth around £90 and costs the same at WEX? Only the lens is cheaper.
 
The 35mm is cheaper.
I dont like that bag either.
 
Suppose i could get the body at wex and the lens at amazon. Sell the case and get a decent 64GB card.
 
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