The Sony A7 thread [Merged]

[AlanG]

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An interesting thing about the A7r is that it is not only achieving the goal of being a small fast working camera but also a high res camera that in some ways really can compete against the large format cameras that may have been too heavy and too much hassle for Barnack to want to use.

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The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[dwbell]

If one takes the miniaturisation, weight reduction, innovation, without loosing IQ view as being Barnacks. Then it could be argued that the smallest, lightest, most innovative camera with the highest IQ at present is the one that carries the torch. Apparently the M has been getting bigger and heavier every step since it's inception. Which may be seen to be the opposite of it's original purpose. They have opened some celebrity boutiques though, so there's that.

[thighslapper]

With full frame you are condemned to a irreducible minimum with lens sizes ..... which are never going to make this format 'compact', even if the camera ends up the size of a mobile phone ...... Lenses on the A7 look out of proportion...... but handle well despite this.

 

Sony has the benefit of an enormous company that can produce custom electronics that shrink things down to almost nothing .... and with essentially only one mechanical part they can stuff this into a small body.... but I can't see how ... or why the actual form factor needs to be any smaller than this....

 

If Leica could put the M on a very modest diet it would be perfect

[Joe S]

This article, to be nice, is pure fantasy made up by the author. What a totally BS piece of crap article by an author that seems to display no in depth knowledge of the history of Leica and especially the evolution. Erwin Puts where are you?

 

ps I absolutely love to take my M hiking. What else would I bring? Canon 5DIII? Only thing I can think of that would be close is my Olympus XA4 (film).

 

 

Must be raining again in Seattle!

[Dannybuoy]

There will be no FF NEX. Sony's Interchangable cameras will take the Alpha name and anything else will be a cyber shot.

[Mr_Jones]

I know the simple answer to this is in the thread somewhere, but its a huge thread to trawl, so please forgive me for asking again:

 

What adapter would you most recommend for using M lenses with the A7R?

 

And for R lenses?

 

Thank you.

 

Metabones (ducks and covers)

[helged]

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I have never seen anyone ski with a Leica.

 

I'm sure it's been done, but I've skied thousands of days and never seen it.

 

Well, this is the reason that I use Leica: The high quality, small size/low weight package is actually what I can bring with me on daily to weekly+ hiking and skiing adventures. Sure, A7® with Zeiss lenses can also be used (and could be even smaller/lighter than MM/M9/M240+a few M-lenses), but I stick to Leica due to the beautiful rendering of lots of M-lenses between 21 and 90 mm.

 

M9+21SEM (stich of 4 images), f5.6, 1/250s, handheld in -20 C (or thereabout).

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[Peter H]

Nikon, Canon, Sony, Fuji, Olympus, Leica…

 

In slightly varying ways, they're all playing the same game, shoving the latest sensor technology into a camera body that's as expensive as they think their customers are likely to pay, and then, after two or three years, doing the same thing all over again.

 

There is no genuine innovation involved in this, and nothing particularly exciting either even though many of the products are highly desirable, at least while they are still novel.

 

I would like to choose which sensor to pop into my camera. Monochrom today, ultra-hi-res tomorrow, or lower res higher speed maybe, and then when the next gen 50MP sensors are available, i'd like to consider one of those too, and anything else that might be commercially possible if you don't have to build a whole camera around it every time. Or maybe carry a few sensors with me without having to carry several cameras.

 

There are some obvious difficulties involved. That's why some real innovation as is required to solve them. But the economic rewards for such innovation could be dramatic. Ricoh have tried it but didn't quite pull it off because, in my opinion, the format and the implementation were all wrong. But get it right and then you have something that may actually offer photographers something truly exciting, that overall they would part with good money to ride on for many years to come.

 

Come on Leica, you are the perfect company to do this, for a host of reasons.

[MarkP]

 

I would like to choose which sensor to pop into my camera. Monochrom today, ultra-hi-res tomorrow, or lower res higher speed maybe, and then when the next gen 50MP sensors are available, i'd like to consider one of those too, and anything else that might be commercially possible if you don't have to build a whole camera around it every time. Or maybe carry a few sensors with me without having to carry several cameras.

 

 

I think it's called Phase One .

[MarkP]

I have never seen anyone ski with a Leica.

 

I'm sure it's been done, but I've skied thousands of days and never seen it.

 

Lets get real here:

 

I have almost never seen anyone with a Leica.

 

I'm sure it's been done, but I've been out on thousands of days and almost never seen it.

 

 

In fact, I travelled though Europe for two months in December 2010/Jan 2011 and in that entire time I only saw two Leicas other than my M9 - another M9 and an S2, both in Paris.

[Peter H]

Talking about innovation and Sony, there's this to consider. I think it's compatible with M lenses:

 

BBC News - Sony files patent for 'SmartWig'

[wattsy]

With full frame you are condemned to a irreducible minimum with lens sizes ..... which are never going to make this format 'compact', even if the camera ends up the size of a mobile phone ...... Lenses on the A7 look out of proportion...... but handle well despite this.

 

Up to a point this is true but I guess it comes down to what you would call compact and how much you are into the "fast lens" mindset. Lenses around the F2.8 mark can be made plenty small enough. The 35 and 50 Summarits are obvious examples of fine lenses in this category (if they were any more compact you'd lose them in the bag:D). If you are after hiking friendly kit, it's the M body that's the heavy bloater.

[3D-Kraft.com]

These look impressive but, as a side-note, that background blur of the 21mm is odd. It seems sharper to the edges but blurred behind the subject. What's going on there? (I realise it's probably nothing to do with the Sony).

Pete

 

Field curvature.

[lupico]

The 21 SE is my favorite Leica lens. On M9 and M240 it was stellar. But it doesn't work too well on a Sony A7. Tried it at a local shop with a Novoflex adapter and I wasn't very impressed. IMO the A7 can only be used effectively with native lenses or maybe 50mm and higher M's. Most UWA lenses will probably show heavy vignetting and other things I do not like. You can probably fix some problems e.g. with Cornerfix - but why bother. I do not want to go to the trouble when using expensive Leica lenses. Some may be in praise of a romantic retro look..for me it is just inacceptable loss of quality. I don't like the results.

 

I only had 5 Minutes to test the A7 with my 21 SE and maybe some frames could have passed as "o.k." and maybe shooting raw and investing some more time on my Mac would have made things acceptable. But I am not convinced. I think the A7/A7r is a great camera but it needs more native lenses to make it a good system. For my part - I won't try adapting WA Leica lenses again. They are best kept on an M-camera.

 

Here are some pics - nothing great - as I said, I did not have enough time. I would be interested if anyone else has had better results using the SE 21.

 

Quick Snap: Leica Super-Elmar 21mm on Sony Alpha A7 | Lupico

[Jaybob]

zm18 28cron 28 elmarit v3 CV 35/1.2&1.4 m-rokkor 40/2 50cron CV 50/1.1 Canon LTM 50s 1.2&1.4 Red scale elmar nikkor RF 50/1.4 Canon LTM 85/1.5&1.8 CV 75/2.5 tele elmarit 90 Canon LTM 100 etc. I've been shooting them all on the Nex5s for years, just waiting for the A7

a few of them here:

lenses - a set on Flickr

 

Nexy set of photos!

[jim sink]

I switched , M9 to A7r , no regrets , its a better mousetrap and I will not look back.

[mben]

Another reason to "calibrate" the adapter is to achieve parfocal zooming (otherwise focus shift may be observed while zooming).

 

I don't think it is correct that "Only the adapters with screws on the camera side can be properly "calibrated", since shims can be added on the lens side of the adapter. For example, Novoflex adapters often have the camera flange and adapter body machined from a single piece of aluminum, and the lens mount screwed in. They can be shimmed easily.

 

To "calibrate" adapters I would suggest avoiding materials such as the tape you mention, and instead use brass or stainless shim stock, since it will be dimensionally stable under load and as temperature and humidity vary.

 

When I tried to calibrate the Voigt adapter from the lens mount side, lenses could not be mounted anymore. Himming the back side of the adapter pushes the whole lens mount forward.

 

Inside the Voigt there were some extra washers, probably left there for further shimming. Too bad I did not expect loose washers inside, so they fell off when I opened the adater an could only recover three.

 

I understand your suggestion not to use tape and thank you for that. For me it is a nightmare to procure small washers of different height, so I settled with 1 layer of gaffer and 1 of standard clear tape (thinnest). Adding a second clear tape layer moved infinity beyond the tab stop, so I backtracked to 1 gaffer + 1clear.

 

I think I will try a Metabonesor a Hawk. Will be a heads or tails decision.

 

Best regards,

 

Mauro

[thighslapper]

 

Here are some pics - nothing great - as I said, I did not have enough time. I would be interested if anyone else has had better results using the SE 21.

 

 

No.

 

This is a random piece of sky.... and I've actually lightened it a bit so the vignetting and magenta is less than the original.

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Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[dwbell]

Well, this is the reason that I use Leica: The high quality, small size/low weight package is actually what I can bring with me on daily to weekly+ hiking and skiing adventures. Sure, A7® with Zeiss lenses can also be used (and could be even smaller/lighter than MM/M9/M240+a few M-lenses), but I stick to Leica due to the beautiful rendering of lots of M-lenses between 21 and 90 mm.

 

M9+21SEM (stich of 4 images), f5.6, 1/250s, handheld in -20 C (or thereabout).

 

It's a nice shot. And not to go off on one, but is the 'character' completely uniform across the lens / image? Normally not right? So when you stitch 4 characterful images together, you get ununiform character, or new repeating character perhaps? Then convert to black and white, loosing colour character? Shot at f/5.6 - would it have more or less character wide open? Which aperture is the 'character limit'? And reduce to 800 pixel jpeg...

 

I'm really not having a go at you, and your art is your art, I'll always defend that. But the whole character thing with Leica lenses is still confusing to me, after 4+ years of shooting with them.

 

For example. If lens A gave character X, how much raw development, photoshop, custom profile, printing methods, viewing methods etc that happen retain the 'character' and how much removes it - and at what point? In my experience, my limited development of my image negates anything that could be double blind distinguished as one particular character from another. And I do the simple saturation adjustments, dodging and burning, etc.

 

Mallands images with his M9 have a character he holds onto dearly. They look nothing like my images would if you gave me his camera and lens, nothing like. So where IS the character?

 

Again, not an argument topic, and not a criticism, just illustrating my continuing confusion with this character discussion.

[wattsy]

No.

 

This is a random piece of sky.... and I've actually lightened it a bit so the vignetting and magenta is less than the original.

 

It's interesting that the 21 SEM is so 'bad' in this case. What is it like on the M/M9 with lens corrections turned off?