The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

Questions on A7R Best Glass Regardless of Price

markymarkrb

New member
I am looking to purchase an Sony A7R. I would like to use it to do landscape photography and stitch panoramas so I would prefer the lenses to have a focus scale. Some of the lenses I am considering are the

Leica WATE
Canon 17 or 24 TSE
Zeiss 15MM
Zeiss OTUS
or anything else someone could come up with.

Regardless of price, what are the best lenses that can be used for the A7R?

Thanks,
Mark
 

Thomas Fallon

New member
I stitch with a Zeiss 100 Macro Planar. The Zeiss 15 is great, but I've never stitched with it. The Canon 17 is problematical with flare and can't use conventional filters.
 

markymarkrb

New member
Ultrawide is obviously not ideal for stitching but I need to find the happy medium between depth of field and stitching, which is not easy to do without tilting. I try to have the final output at a 1:3 ratio. The size of the WATE is tempting but I am more interested in maximizing image quality.

The list of lenses on top was just a thought. I am really up for any ideas.

Thanks everyone,
Mark
 

jagsiva

Active member
If you are stitching, best lens I can think of is the 55FE. It is sharper on the A7R than my Coastal Optics 60mm, which is a pretty sharp lens cost 6x as much.

Reality is that everybody cooks their RAW files and I'm sure Sony does this with the FE lenses. Different context, but same reason why I think my IQ files always look better out of C1 than any other RAW converter.

On DoF, I think at F8-F11 you'll get a decent amount. Trade off with wider lenses for pano stitching is distortion against DoF, YMMV.

Cheers...
 

chrisd

New member
The 24mm TS-E is the sharpest lens I've mounted on any camera. Easy to filter and stitch too.

That said, I just picked up the new Canon 16-35mm f4 IS. Wow! IMO it's the sharpest (corner to corner) and most versatile UWA walk-around solution for full frame Canon or Sony when not bringing a tripod.
 

Ben Rubinstein

Active member
The 24mm TS-E is the sharpest lens I've mounted on any camera. Easy to filter and stitch too.

That said, I just picked up the new Canon 16-35mm f4 IS. Wow! IMO it's the sharpest (corner to corner) and most versatile UWA walk-around solution for full frame Canon or Sony when not bringing a tripod.
Do share some corners please! :)
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
The Otus would probably be sharper than the 55FE but I don't know if the extra $3K is money well spent for marginal increases in resolution.
 

dwood

Well-known member
The Otus would probably be sharper than the 55FE but I don't know if the extra $3K is money well spent for marginal increases in resolution.
This could very well be true and like you said, the IQ differences are likely subtle. I don't have the Otus, but the FE 55/1.8 that I DO have is a ridiculously good match with the sensor of the A7R. Hard to imagine anything much better for stitching.
 

f8orbust

Active member
Good to see the Otus on your list - I'm not really familiar with the A7r, but I was shown some shots taken with it using the Zeiss 55mm (Otus) and I was ... astounded. If lens/sensor combos like that are a portent of things to come, then we might all be shooting with mirrorless compacts before too long.
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
This could very well be true and like you said, the IQ differences are likely subtle. I don't have the Otus, but the FE 55/1.8 that I DO have is a ridiculously good match with the sensor of the A7R. Hard to imagine anything much better for stitching.
Agree that the 55 is a great lens. The Zeiss 135/2 seems to be really sharp as well and if you're stitching then it's possible it would have less distortion than the 55FE.
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
Is infinity hard to nail with the 55FE without a focus scale on the lens? What about for hyper focal DOF?

Thanks,
Mark
It's a focus by wire lens so it doesn't have the tactile and natural focusing of say an older model manual focus lens. You buy the 55FE for autofocus and the sheer image quality that it exhibits.

I know it got some bad feedback based the specs and aperture speed when it was announced by people used to Canon and Nikon prices but it really is a premium lens. I own some very good glass between my M-mount glass, Sony FE glass, and my Zeiss Contax/Yashica glass and I can't say any of them really outperform the 55FE by a large margin if at all.
 
Top