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The Sony A7 thread [Merged]


dmclalla

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Digilloyd's web site posted some additional information and images that has been taken down but can be found in google cache:

 

Screenshot%202013-10-15%2005.59.42.png

 

Screenshot%202013-10-15%2006.00.13.png

 

Frankly, unless you are stuck on the need for RF focusing (which most of us over 40 have given up on due to inadequate eye sight), this camera with Leica lenses (assuming the wide angles work well) may be all you need for 1/3 the price.

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assuming the wide angles work well

 

Indeed, this is the acid test for the A7R. If ok, A7R looks like a very compelling backup and - for some - substitute for the digital Ms. Likely lots of new Leica lens users in the near future...

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...It'll sell like hotcakes, and a huge number of the buyers will be people who own Leica glass (sorry, that's the wrong way round - a huge number of Leica glass owners will buy them), and a significant number of the people who buy the camera will go looking for good glass - second hand Leica, Zeiss and CV.

 

 

Leica may be able to sell new glass to some of these buyers. Zeiss is doing that without making a body and they just announced a $4000 55mm f1.4.

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No DoF markings on the lenses?

 

Considering those markings are typically based on the COC of viewing an 8x10 print from about a foot away, they are just an approximate guide today. Anyway Leica users who have made their own 6 bit coding strips should have no problem taping a guide to the barrel. How you'll set the lens to a particular distance is another matter...

 

Since there doesn't seem to even be a distance indication on the lenses, manually setting hyperfocal distance will require some thought but has the advantage of making depth of field scales unnecessary. Maybe there is a distance scale that can be displayed on the live view. See this camera just gives you what is essential and doesn't have all of those unnecessary bells and whistles that are on Leicas. ;)

 

I would not be surprised if a DOF app gets developed for it.

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An approximate guide for you perhaps but not for me and taping is not my cup of tea. Painful enough to have to stick those things on the bling red dot already. I'll wait and see how those little cams behave with Leica lenses but they are interesting certainly.

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An approximate guide for you perhaps but not for me and taping is not my cup of tea. Painful enough to have to stick those things on the bling red dot already. I'll wait and see how those little cams behave with Leica lenses but they are interesting certainly.

 

You can make your own Play Memory DOF app then and have selectable COC and other settings. Canons had an electronic DOF feature on the PSAM dial up through the 1Ds I recall. I guess few used it so they dropped it.

 

I was joking about the tape but back in the 70s when I used a manual flash gun, I had the guide number's F stops taped over the quick focus handle's ring of my Hassy lenses. I could focus, look down at the distance and quickly set the appropriate F stop.

 

The first Nikon lens I bought was the 35mm f2.8. I was in high school and ordered it from Japan for $47.50. I made some of my best photos with that thing. I bet you could find one of these pretty cheap today.

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Frankly, unless you are stuck on the need for RF focusing (which most of us over 40 have given up on due to inadequate eye sight), this camera with Leica lenses (assuming the wide angles work well) may be all you need for 1/3 the price.

 

Rangefinder focusing is a skill John - I've got 60 year old eyes, but I can focus it perfectly well without glasses or contacts (can't read though :) ) - it requires practice and plenty of use. I'm not sure that anyone 'needs' a rangefinder, but lots of us like to see around what we are shooting at, and most people have agreed with the M that the rangefinder focusing is more accurate than focusing zoomed in X10. This isn't a dying art - rather the opposite, but it's certainly a minority taste.

 

I really like Sony cameras and I should say that this looks like a fantastic camera ..... if you want to shoot with AF prime lenses - decent full frame zooms seem big enough to rather remove the size advantage, and one may as well use a Nikon D800 or a Sony A99.

 

With respect to medium and telephoto Leica lenses I'm sure it will also be absolutely fantastic, but I think one should keep one's reality hat on with respect to wide angle lenses - especially if the news about angled microlenses is true.

 

As I understand it, Leica moved away from angled micro lenses because it was too difficult to control the 'Italian flag' colour shift across the frame, and that was even when applying software fixes which were specific to both lenses and apertures. With a Bayer filter there is a tendency to a lopsided colour balance with angled micro lenses, one which will vary with the angle of light and thus the aperture.

 

Perhaps Sony has developed some kind of magic soup to work out these problems, or even better, perhaps they have developed some kind of tool where you can name and profile specific lenses for use with the camera (it would certainly be possible).

 

I'm only pointing this out, because it seems to me that everyone is assuming that this will be the final solution for their Leica M lenses, and although it may be, I think I'd be treading with some caution.

 

But Hell - I'm seeming like a naysayer - this looks like a fantastic pair of cameras to me, and if I needed AF with prime lenses I'd be on them like a dose of salts.

 

I also think it'll be good for Leica - Sony are expanding the market for small, full frame, cameras, and this will benefit everyone. Let's face it, 20% of an annual market of 100,000 cameras is better than 100% of a 10,000 camera market! If you want a full frame camera with a rangefinder and manual focus (and you don't have to be an old fool like me to want one), then an M is still the answer.

 

Just don't assume that M mount wide angle lenses (35mm and below) will workstraight away - it's a complicated issue, and it would be delightful (but surprising) if Sony could have got this one right out of the box.

 

Just a final note - I'm sure that this is where the mainstream future of photography is (high speed EVF with phase detect). If I were Nikon or Canon I'd be very worried.

 

 

 

all the best

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Just a final note - I'm sure that this is where the mainstream future of photography is (high speed EVF with phase detect). If I were Nikon or Canon I'd be very worried.

The new Sony A7 looks exciting and may well show the future of photo gear. It is a big price breakthrough for photographers wanting a full-frame mirrorless, especially one that can use M lenses. But I think Sony still has the greater reason to worry. Sony makes money on insurance, music and movies, but loses a lot of money on electronics.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/business/global/sonys-bread-and-butter-its-not-electronics.html

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Rather than projecting my bias into these new FF NEX cameras I prefer to wait for the announcements and first serious reviews. It's clear the viral marketing through SAR has generated a lot of buzz!

 

Yeah, I'm wondering if the Sony Alpha Rumor site is actually owned and run by Sony. At minimum, it is used by them.

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x.

 

Just a final note - I'm sure that this is where the mainstream future of photography is (high speed EVF with phase detect). If I were Nikon or Canon I'd be very worried.

 

 

 

all the best

 

I agree, the large DSRLs were always to bulky for me. When the first digital cameras were anounced I was hoping that Leica or Zeiss would come up with FF digital cameras similar to the M7 or the Zeiss Ikon (built by Cosina). Now we have more or less both, the Leica M and the Sony A7 and we can use Leica M and Zeiss lenes. This is something I was dreaming about 10 years ago:)

 

best regards

 

Thomas

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