Very Impressed with Summicron-SL Performance

[Dr. G]

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This past weekend I had to help a friend with a project for his business.  We had to do a product shoot and I took a simple setup of a portable light box, SL2-S, Summicron-SL 25, 50 and 75.  I ended up using the 75 for the whole shoot.  The challenge was that without a tilt function I had to use apertures of 18-22 to keep everything in focus in a single shot.  Last time I helped him with something like this I was using my a7r iv and G Master lenses.  As I was using similar apertures I found that diffraction became a bit of an issue with the Sony system and had to do a lot in post to try to correct as many of the flaws as possible.  

My images taken with the SL2-S and SL 75 have been incredibly easy to edit.  I didn't need to edit the colors much (it always took a long time with my Sony setup) and the sharpness and lack of diffraction at higher apertures is really impressive.

If I have one complaint, it's that a depth of field preview would have helped a lot and I could have worked more efficiently without having had to take test shots at different apertures.  Once I'm done editing and have permission I'll post a few images.  

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[Chuck Albertson]

That's an interesting take on the SL line - most people focus on their performance wide open. The SL (Type 601) has a DoF preview, but for some reason it has been left out of the SL2 and SL2-S firmware.

[lehner]

Just press the trigger half and move the distance barrel

[Stuart Richardson]

Diffraction is a property of the aperture, not the camera...are you sure you are just not noticing it? The SL2S is 24mp rather than 61mp, so it would show a lot less diffraction at 100% than the A7RIV....

[Dr. G]

Perhaps that's why I'm not seeing it.  I can say that sharpness doesn't suffer too heavily at higher apertures.