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Manual Aperture lenses, focusing and EVF

jfzander

New member
If you use manual Aperture lenses with the Sony EVF, do you focus open, or stopped down? If you stopped down, will the EVF compensate for the light loss?

Reason I ask is, that I am getting an A7r, and I will use a manual Zeiss lens with it. Now there is 2 version. Nikon or Canon. And the Nikon has an aperture ring, which might be need sometimes.

TIA

Jan
 

Ron Pfister

Member
Focusing with open aperture is easier because DOF is shallower. However, if your working aperture is far from wide open (i.e. more than two stops away), I would recommend stopping down one to two stops for focusing. This largely avoids problems due to focus shift.

I assume the EVF will compensate (it does so on the NEX-6 and 7). I like giving the sensor as much light as is feasible during focusing. This results in a clearer EVF image with less lag.

Also, I use peaking and a B&W picture style with maximum sharpening. Picture style and sharpening will not affect your RAW capture, but make peaking more accurate and discernible (I use red peaking color).
 

Ron Pfister

Member
NB: If you use a Metabones Smart Adapter MkIII with the ZE lens, you gain electronic control of the aperture. The adapter can function in two modes:

In the default 'Green' mode, the aperture works DSLR-style (i.e. closing down to working aperture when you're releasing the shutter). In this mode, you also have support for AF with supported Canon EF-lenses.

In the 'Advanced' mode, the lens is always at working aperture, but you can open the aperture by pressing the button on the left side of the adapter (opposite behavior to DOF preview on an SLR camera). In this mode, you don't have AF available. Instead, the MF assist magnification is triggered when you turn the focusing ring (identical to native E-mount lenses). I believe this also works with ZE lenses, but I'm not sure.

See here for details: http://www.metabones.com/smart-adapter-operation-manual/147-green-power-save-mode
 

Ron Pfister

Member
And lastly, here's what I would do: I would get the ZF.2 version of the lens. This way, you have a manual aperture control ring. With the longer registration of the F-mount, you can then adapt this lens for just about any camera system, including Canon EF. Lenses are long-term investments. A manual aperture ring protects your investment.

My reason for using the Metabones Smart Adapter is that I have Canon EF lenses with IS, and the adapter lets me use these with almost full functionality on NEX and A7/A7R.
 
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jfzander

New member
Ron,

thank you very much for your helpful comment and the link to Metabones. That really cleared things up.

Thanks as well for the tips. B&W and focus peaking will do the job. I always disliked the fact that with fast lenses, handheld with AF, only the center can usually be focused.

I am sure the Otus and the A7r are a perfect much.

I will go for the Nikon mount, with a Novoflex adapter.
 
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