Viewfinder vignetting...

[peterb]

I checked out the new 850 at a camera shop with the Zeiss 16-40mm f4 attached.

When I looked through the finder, it was like looking through a peephole. The corners were blocked off entirely and the view had a rounded look of color TV's from the 60's (admittedly I'm showing my age here!). Hardly the bright rectangular finder I'd been hearing about. The images on the LCD that appeared after each shot, however, were fine. In fact superb!

When I attached a regular "G" lens to it, all was bright and normal.

So the question is...is this an anomaly with this Zeiss lens? Seems odd considering the lens maker's reputation. Or was there a setting that was overlooked. The salesman couldn't figure it out either.

Thanks.

Peter

 

[ecsh]

I am not familiar with the 16-40. Are you sure its not the CZ 16-80? If so, you are using a APC sensor lens on a full frame camera, which will show that in the viewfinder i believe. If i am wrong, someone will correct me i am sure.<G>j
Joe

 

[BackToSlr]

I checked out the new 850 at a camera shop with the Zeiss 16-40mm f4 attached.

When I looked through the finder, it was like looking through a peephole. The corners were blocked off entirely and the view had a rounded look of color TV's from the 60's (admittedly I'm showing my age here!). Hardly the bright rectangular finder I'd been hearing about. The images on the LCD that appeared after each shot, however, were fine. In fact superb!

When I attached a regular "G" lens to it, all was bright and normal.

So the question is...is this an anomaly with this Zeiss lens? Seems odd considering the lens maker's reputation. Or was there a setting that was overlooked. The salesman couldn't figure it out either.

Thanks.

Peter

The previous poster is right, some of these idiot sales persons put on a APS-C only lens (likely 16-80 CZ) and then wonder about it. In general all lenses with DT in their name are APS-C lenses.

Cheers,

N

 

[douglasf13]

Yep, and the A900 automatically crops aps-c lens images, so that's why you didn't see vignetting in the images. As Ive found with most camera stores, take their advice with a grai n of salt.

 

[peterb]

Ha! I just checked at the Zeiss website and yes the 16-80 I handled yesterday IS indeed an APS-C designed lens. That explains the weird viewfinder anomaly. And yes the ENTIRE store (Ritz headquarters in Beltsville, MD, no less) WERE filled with total morons who were totally clueless about the camera gear they were selling (which helps me understand why Ritz is in bankruptcy if even the folks at their corporate store have no idea what they're selling). I was merely trying to find a camera dealer between Baltimore and Washington D.C. who might carry both the Canon 5D MkII and the new Sony 850 so I could have a physical comparison between the two. (Of course the corporate store only carried the previous Canon 5D, which was probably okay since weight wise I didn't think there was THAT much of a difference). <sigh>

That said....I really LOVE the A850. VERY nice camera.

 

[gsking]

If it makes you feel any better, I sold my friends a Minolta 5D from another friend who upgraded. After a few months, they mentioned the camera had problems autofocusing. When I went over and looked through the lens...it was worse than what you experienced. She said it had always been that way, and she'd gotten used to manually focusing. Oh, and the exposure was off.

What happened? They'd lost their focusing screen somehow! Don't ask me how it escaped out of the mirror box, or (worse) how they didn't instantly notice something was catastrophically wrong.

If you're curious, take out your focusing screen and see what it does to your camera's useability