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Most "Conflicted" Camera Ever?

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Geez you took the exact words out of my mouth. I bought both bodies and for very good reason the A7 will be my PR cam with vertical grip. The grip is nice for handholding not great for tripod it wobbles a little but the A7 will be my speed camera with AF on board for that crap work I hate but puts food on the table. I have for AF the 28-70 which will be replaced when the 24-70 comes out a perfect setup for wedding , pr folks and the like. I have the 35FE which I can use on either body, the ZA 85 1.4 can also. Than for the A7r mostly tripod bound for the real work I do than I have the Leica 19r and Zeiss 135 and any longer I rent. 2 bodies intended for different subjects . Eventually I'll get my tech cam back and still have these on board. Now why did I switch its really simple manual focus on Nikons suck and live view is just okay. The Sony hands down beats anything I seen in this mode and I prefer to manual focus and forced like twisting my arm to shoot AF. size is another factor but not the major one. I would not touch a EVF cam before this one. It is so good it looks optical and after 40 years you are so trained on optical it's very hard to go EVF. This cam I can. Than the bottom line I have the D610 and D800e in a less expensive package with the same or better results. Plus I was able to keep my best glass without buying and selling to get the same thing back. Than the added I can bolt anything to it almost that is is exciting. This is a freaking home run , sure it has a few niggles tell me a cam that don't . Trust me I bought , used everything almost on the planet looking for the holy grail and there is none but I can get closer and this one helps. Seriously I bailed on Nikon so fast after just a few shots with this. I maybe the biggest gear head slut around but it needs to make sense or I'm just being stupid and I ain't stupid in this field at all. To me that quick decision to bail even impressed me. LOL
 

MikalWGrass

New member
Guy, did you test the A7 on faster moving subjects yet? I really wish that some of the Nikon sports shooters (cars, baseball, water polo) in the Nikon forum would test this thing out and report back to us. Although I will see Marc, his lovely wife, his A7R and his dogs whose expressions change every 1/2 nanosecond, I really want to see how the A7 performs in sports activities.

I also want to see how usable the higher isos are (3200, 4000, 6400, etc.) because a lot of the sporting activity and my kids' activities are in less than prime / optimal light.

And, I hate using a flash.

Thanks.:clap:
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
No I have not recieved the A7 yet and won't have the 7-200G until December 30th as i am renting that for my gig in LA. Im taking a educated risk here that it will be fine on follow focus. Also buffer but I can turn a lot off for buffer, turn review off and turn LCD off to shoot which is fine for what i am doing. I also figure it this way model walking runway about 75 ft which is a long way I can squeeze 5 images off with follow focus if I can't than I can do single focus. I'm not too concerned. Later on down the road i will probably buy the Minolta 200m 2.8 High speed but don't spread that around they are hard to get. LOL
 

MikalWGrass

New member
Guy, I can wait. I guess you will test the A7 and A7R side by side with the 70-200/2.8G. All I know is that I am looking for a camera that has good to excellent follow focus for when the subject is heading towards me. I shot a kids hip hop production at the halftime of the U of Florida - Fresno St. basketball game with the a900 and Minolta 35/2. The dancers were moving towards me pretty quickly and the camera hunted like it had rarely hunted before. I could have switched to manual focus but it would have been too late by then.

Thanks again.
 

fmueller

Active member
I jumped pretty quickly at the A7r. My DSLR is a Canon 5d3 and my travel cam (my job, non photographic) has been an OMD-EM5. The OMD has been really good but I craved the higher resolution possible from the A7r with the added bonus that I could use my TS/E lenses on the A7r as well. I also have some Leica gear and was hoping to use most of those lenses.

What I've learned so far...

I thought my 50 Summilux ASPH was going to work great on the A7r, being of a longer focal length. Not so. This was a real letdown. The edges turn to crap with smearing. It seems just about all other 50's work well with this one being a curious exception.

21 Super Elmar, another stellar performer on the M9 was also a no go on the A7r, I could correct the color shading in LR or C1 but I've got edge smearing pretty bad. This was not a surprise.

CV 35 1.2 vII works great! This has been an exceptional lens on my M9 and it is on the A7r, an unqualified success. This leads me to the next lens, the Sony 35 2.8FE

For the first time in over 30 years, I'm sending a lens back for de-centering (or a tilted element). At first I just though I was dealing with the randomness of my selected subjects and maybe a little field curvature but the results from my CV 35 were just so much better that I started doing a little more testing with the Sony lens----brick wall, resolution charts, specially selected scenes, etc... and I kept coming up with a loss of resolution on the left side... I'm returning it and have another one on the way already. I hate the lens testing stuff and just want a good copy.

I have a Metabones adaptor for my Canon EF lenses and I haven't given it a full shakeout yet but while I was testing the 35 I grabbed the 5d3 and the 17 TS/e and thought I'd do a couple quick checks. Shot an identical scene using the A7r and the 5D3 with the 17 TS/E. As expected, greater detai from the A7r but sad to observe that with a little bit of rise, the A7r was getting soft in the upper right hand corner while the 5D3 was keeping it sharp. I've got to go try this combo again side by side in a controlled situation, hopefully I was observing operator error.

Lastly, my lowly Canon 5d3 continues to impress me with its usability and near silent shutter and its excellent live view.
 

jonoslack

Active member
Over on LensRental.com blog, a VERY informative and honest evaluation of the A7R, it's lenses, ands shooting with adapters....VERY much recommended.
Excellent
I think Roger's stuff is always special.
. . . and enjoyable too.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
My only comment is he underestimates what Pros go though to get images. I shot sports with Medium format backs that make this Sony look like a jet engine. I shot sheet film hanging out of helicopters. Pros will shoot and do almost anything regardless of gear to get images. I do like Roger though and actually renting from him for 2 weeks coming up. This little Sony i will find a way to get work done. I get the A7 tomorrow and it should be faster. Or i can make it fast just turn all the stuff off. LOL
 

Tony

New member
- Marc

My holiday card to you all ... an exercise in light balance using strobes and old time incandescent Christmas tree lights. A7R, 135/1.8, Profoto strobes with gridded softbox.
you forgot the resolution chart and color checker!
 

vjbelle

Well-known member
I thought my 50 Summilux ASPH was going to work great on the A7r, being of a longer focal length. Not so. This was a real letdown. The edges turn to crap with smearing. It seems just about all other 50's work well with this one being a curious exception.

21 Super Elmar, another stellar performer on the M9 was also a no go on the A7r, I could correct the color shading in LR or C1 but I've got edge smearing pretty bad. This was not a surprise.

CV 35 1.2 vII works great! This has been an exceptional lens on my M9 and it is on the A7r, an unqualified success. This leads me to the next lens, the Sony 35 2.8FE

For the first time in over 30 years, I'm sending a lens back for de-centering (or a tilted element). At first I just though I was dealing with the randomness of my selected subjects and maybe a little field curvature but the results from my CV 35 were just so much better that I started doing a little more testing with the Sony lens----brick wall, resolution charts, specially selected scenes, etc... and I kept coming up with a loss of resolution on the left side... I'm returning it and have another one on the way already. I hate the lens testing stuff and just want a good copy.
WOW..... I'm surprised with your results from the 50mm Summilux. What a shame!! I also would have thought that lens to be stellar..... my 50mm Summicron M is fantastic.... more than I could ask for.

Every complaint, so far, for the 55mm 1.8 has been softness on the left side. This is easily confirmed by shooting a lens target and comparing left side to right side. If one is soft then the lens is decentered..... and it appears that there are a lot of decentered Sony 55mm lenses. Too bad as the lens has such potential. I also think its better to have a down and dirty quick test that has been reliable in the past to put a lens through. Passes - great!..... Fails...maybe goes back.

Good to hear about the CV 35mm..... you should be happy with the Sony 35. I sure am......

Victor
 

dchew

Well-known member
I tried my Canon 70-200 f/4 IS, and the autofocus stinks. It spins out and back close, then ratchets into focus. Takes about 1 second. I was outside and switched to manual focus; I think I was faster.

However, this is the f/4 which is a lot darker. I also have a rented Metabones II, which may be faulty (it has one problem that I know of...).

Dave
 

Ron Pfister

Member
Dave, I have the 70-200 f/2.8 IS and the Mk III adapter, and the focus isn't any faster. It's quite accurate, but certainly not usable for fast action. The main benefit I see with this adapter is IS (besides aperture control and EXIF).
 
My personal solution to the conflicting emotions:

Yes, I am a gear slut. Love the finely crafted shiny bits. The siren call of 36 megapixels was driving me a bit wonky.

Then I started comparing photos, not at 100%, but at the largest sizes that I ever use. Oooops. Shouldn't have done that. My gear lust suddenly evaporated.

Then I started comparing at sizes twice as large as I would ever use, but still less than 100%. Hmmmmm. Still not feeling the pixel envy.

I ordered the A7. Pretty. Shiny. I started to use it and compare it to my little 5n.

As expected, just from the sheer math of it all, not a huge leap in resolution. However, the files are thicker, jucier - just nicer. The operation of the camera is leaps and bounds better (to my taste) than the 5n. It was almost as though Sony made the camera just for me. The controls, when set to aperture priority mode for all my manual lenses, are exactly what I want. I have not even looked at the manual.

The only thing missing is the 5 axis IBIS, but it does everything else so perfectly, that I won't wait for that. The auto-iso multishot noise reduction works astonishingly well, and is so easy to switch into.

Sony, you sultry minx, you have seduced me with your charms.

All that being said, I really do understand why others will need the extra power of the non AA 36mp. For my uses, I will never need it.

Oh, and special thanks to Jono Slack for posting the print size comparison. That reinforced my own logic, Mr. Spock.

All the best,
DGM
 

Annna T

Active member
Yeah, the IS seemed to work perfectly!

Dave
Can you set up your A7r so that the IS is activated not only during the shooting, but also while you are focusing manually ? One can do that on the Olympus MFT cameras and it is of great help with long lenses.
 

Ron Pfister

Member
Anna, with the Metabones Smart Adapter, IS is activated by half-pressing the shutter and then remains on for some seconds. Most of the time that's enough time for focusing, but sometimes not. If the latter, you have to half-press the shutter again, which causes the MF-assist to back out to FF view, and you have to zoom back in. Not the end of the world, but a bit inconvenient.

Edit: sorry, brain fart - wrote Novoflex Smart Adapter. There is no such thing. I meant Metabones, of course. Changed the text above accordingly.
 
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dchew

Well-known member
Can you set up your A7r so that the IS is activated not only during the shooting, but also while you are focusing manually ? One can do that on the Olympus MFT cameras and it is of great help with long lenses.
Yes, as Ron stated with the Metabones too. As far as I can tell it works just like it does on a Canon body.It is engaged as long as the shutter is half-pressed. Turning the manual focus ring does not engage the IS; only depressing the shutter half-way.

Dave
 

Annna T

Active member
Anna, with the Metabones Smart Adapter, IS is activated by half-pressing the shutter and then remains on for some seconds. Most of the time that's enough time for focusing, but sometimes not. If the latter, you have to half-press the shutter again, which causes the MF-assist to back out to FF view, and you have to zoom back in. Not the end of the world, but a bit inconvenient.

Edit: sorry, brain fart - wrote Novoflex Smart Adapter. There is no such thing. I meant Metabones, of course. Changed the text above accordingly.
Many thanks for your explanations. When I tested the A7/A7r in a shop, I found the behavior of the magnifier very annoying, since my eyesight isn't very good and I'm rather slow at MF. I assumed that how long the magnifier stays on would be configurable in the customization menus, but may be not ? May be that I have been spoiled by the Olympus interface ?
 
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