Any Sony A7s Shooters in the House?

[jankap]

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Yeah, the f4 test of the same setup is dangerous; it can kill you with its smeared corner mess just by looking at it.

 

You mean, there is a market coming for f/8 and f/11 lenses? At 10$ a piece?

Jan

[a.j.z]

You mean, there is a market coming for f/8 and f/11 lenses? At 10$ a piece?

Jan

 

No, because you would have to stop them down to f22

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[gyoung]

Its easy to loose track of the fact that no lens performs flawlesslyat its wider apertures, even on the media it was designed for. I have done some subjective 'tests' and am happy that my 21/2.8 and 35/2 asph leica lenses perform in respect of edge/corner sharpnesson the nex 6 about 1 stop or so behind their performance on film. The voigtlander 15 and 28/1.9 are about the same on nex 6 as on film.

I use these wideangles most on landscape work and am quite happy with excellent performance at f/8 for this stuff, especially with the good performance at higher iso than film.

Perhaps we are expecting too much that they do as well on digital as the media they were designed for, if you look at the Photozone.de tests of the 35/2 asph it doesn't look that impressive on the M9 even.

Pixel density also seems to play a part, Nikon I think has a fairly thin cover glass on its sensors, I have a 24/2.8 Nikkor which does pretty well on film, and in photozones test on a 24mp full frame camera, but on a 16mp D7000 aps-c camera it is poor, and I can confirm that, and its no better on the nex 6 either, so simply using slr lenses is not necessarily the answer. You might expect the lower pixel density of the A7s to help is this respect but perhaps it gets overcome by the thickness of the sensor cover glass.

Sorry I have not responded earlier, we are travelling in France and 3 attempts to respond have dissappeared into thin air due to flaky wifi!

 

Gerry

[viramati]

Got mine today and will experiment with some leica glass on it over the next few weeks

[Nick De Marco]

Got mine today and will experiment with some leica glass on it over the next few weeks

 

Aha, interested to see you succumbed - I expect you will enjoy it - I still really like using it having had it over a month now

[viramati]

Thanks Nick

So far have tried out the 28 summicron asph and unfortunately unlike you I am finding strong smearing when shot wide open and still at F4 (though better) in the corners. A shame as I had been hoping for better.

CV 35/1.2 renders beautifully in extreme low light this combo is a marvel!!

Edited August 29, 2014 by viramati

[viramati]

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50 summilux asph seems to perform very well even wide open. Lovely rendering but will probably stick to the FE 55/1.8 which will auto focus enter near darkness:)

[ynp]

Tested the A7s with the M-Rokkor 40/2.0 and Rollei Sonnar. 40/2.8 Very nice results.

 

I am not so happy with my Konica Dual 21-35 on the a7s. I see the color cast in the corners wide open.

[zlatkob]

When using an A7S with a Leica (or other brand) rangefinder lens, is it hard to focus when the lens is stopped down? For example, when using a 24mm, 35mm or 50mm lens stopped down to f/4 or so, is it much harder to focus than when the lens is set at its widest aperture?

 

One nice thing about focusing with an M or a conventional DSLR is that the ease or difficulty of focusing is not affected by the aperture setting. But with A7S, manual focusing is live view focusing off the sensor, which is easy with a lens wide open, but I imagine it may be harder when the lens is stopped down. Of course, when stopped down, the focus is more forgiving. I know one can focus and then stop down, but that's often not practical.

 

Thanks in advance for any input.

[TomB_tx]

When using an A7S with a Leica (or other brand) rangefinder lens, is it hard to focus when the lens is stopped down? For example, when using a 24mm, 35mm or 50mm lens stopped down to f/4 or so, is it much harder to focus than when the lens is set at its widest aperture?

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

Unlike an SLR where the finder darkens as you stop down, the EFV stays bright while the FOV increases. I use an A7 and find focus is very easy stopped down. When in doubt a button press give a magnified view. This is the first camera I've tried (over 50 years) that I can focus as fast and more accurately than a Leica M model. I bought the body only, and use it with all manual focus lenses.

[Guest]

The EFV may stay bright, but the DOF of your stoped-down lens makes it hard to focus.

Whereas with an M the RF gives you a good chance to focus, regardless of the aperture you've set.

Let people buy a SONY and find out the hard way what's best for M lenses (except for the Noctilux).

[zlatkob]

The EFV may stay bright, but the DOF of your stoped-down lens makes it hard to focus.

Whereas with an M the RF gives you a good chance to focus, regardless of the aperture you've set.

Let people buy a SONY and find out the hard way what's best for M lenses (except for the Noctilux).

 

There's no question about what's best for M lenses. Sometimes it's a question of what one can afford, not necessarily what is best. So I asked whether it is hard to focus when stopped down. TomB_tx says it is "very easy". You say it's "hard". So it's one or the other. Maybe it depends on the situation, or the user. I don't have the camera, so I'm looking for guidance from people who have it.

[TomB_tx]

Even with a broad DOF at medium apertures there is one point of sharpest focus, and after 50 years of preferring to focus on plain ground glass, I'm used to looking for the sharpest point. If you are not used to judging sharpest, or are used to just aligning focus aids, it may not be the right camera for you.

[viramati]

The EFV may stay bright, but the DOF of your stoped-down lens makes it hard to focus.

Whereas with an M the RF gives you a good chance to focus, regardless of the aperture you've set.

Let people buy a SONY and find out the hard way what's best for M lenses (except for the Noctilux).

I don't agree I have the A7 and the A7s and have no problem focusing accurately with a lens stopped down. It is though harder to focus on lenses wider that 28mm

[viramati]

Hi all

Bought my A7s on friday and have just noticed any issue when using continuous auto focus (AF-C) when I do half press of the shutter to lock and track focus the lens judders in and out for a few seconds and then will settle. Whenever I move the lens judders in and out again. Happens in all the 'focus area' modes (centre, zone, wide etc). Happens with all my sony/zeiss lenses (55, 35 and to a lesser degree with the 24-70)

I have the A7 which doesn't do this but will lock (when it wants too) and doesn't judder in and out. I am wondering anyone with S can try this out to see what happens. Unfortunately my dealer has none available at the moment to test against

[rpierce]

My A7s with 24-70 snaps to focus in dim light; might be a problem with your unit.

 

At f/8 and f/11 with focus magnification, my 28 Elmarit-M requires care but works reasonably (Corners not great, however.) 50 Summilux focuses similarly well (better corners).

[alan.y]

Thanks Nick

So far have tried out the 28 summicron asph and unfortunately unlike you I am finding strong smearing when shot wide open and still at F4 (though better) in the corners.

 

This is interesting, if not surprising. I have the impression of widely divergent reports of Lux 50 Asph on the A7 series as well. I don't think the difference between strong and no smearing can be due only to subjective perception.

 

Maybe slight sample variations can lead to drastically different results?

[cpc]

This is interesting, if not surprising. I have the impression of widely divergent reports of Lux 50 Asph on the A7 series as well. I don't think the difference between strong and no smearing can be due only to subjective perception.

 

Maybe slight sample variations can lead to drastically different results?

 

Maybe, but it is certainly related to subjective perception of what is "acceptable". And also prossibly connected to different shooting distances. If you shoot infinity you will readily notice smearing problems which people shooting on the street aren't facing. For one, lenses are at their closest to the image plane at infinity, hence most smearing at this focus distance. And second, subject matter shot at infinity usually calls for sharp pictures across all the image field, unlike closer focus distances.

[viramati]

My A7s with 24-70 snaps to focus in dim light; might be a problem with your unit.

 

At f/8 and f/11 with focus magnification, my 28 Elmarit-M requires care but works reasonably (Corners not great, however.) 50 Summilux focuses similarly well (better corners).

 

For some strange reason the issue isn't really noticeable with the 24-70 but you really can see it with the FE35 and 55. You have to set it to AF-C (continuous auto focus) to see what I am talking about

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[rpierce]

David,

For my A7s and 24-70 and under either AF-S or AF-C, the combo snaps to focus with occasional hunt through focus range. I don't have the other FE lenses.