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APS-C lens on A7RII ??

D

dmward

Member
I've been thinking about getting an APS-C lens to put on my A7RII to shoot weddings.
The large raw files are overkill.
Just turning on APS-C framing means using existing lenses, 16-35, 24-70 and 70-200 in a different mix.

There are a couple of Zony APS-C lenses that look attractive as alternatives.

The 16-70 F4 would be very similar to the Canon 24-105 I loved. That focal range also covers about 90% of what I use for wedding coverage.

The added benefit, as I understand it, is that when mounting an APS-C lens the camera automatically switches to the smaller area. Then when putting a full frame lens on it automatically switches back. That would mean I could use the APS-C lens for most of the shooting and switch to an FE lens when needed for larger files.

Is it worth the effort?
 
B

bipbip

Member
Vivek said:
http://www.photozone.de/sony_nex/901-sony1670f4oss?start=2

Of all the blue labelled duds churned out by sony, this appears to be the worst. Avoid.
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Unfortunate write up. If the comments are anything to go by, half are happy with it. So am I. I can't comment on the OP's use of it but on an a6000 it's a versatile companion. Can it match fixed focal equivalents? Of course not but this 24-105 f/4 (35mm eq.) is just as good as say, the Canon offering.
To the OP, borrow or hire one and get the feel for it; you might just find it's what you need.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
If one has the time, patience and access to a vendor with 30day return for full refund possibility, it sure might be worth a shot. May be one would get lucky within 4-5 samples. If it is OK with the first sample itself, that is a lottery. :LOL:

That is assuming sample variations at play.

Photozone' s reply in their Q&A section would indicate that SOny considers the sub standard performance "within specs". That is scary.
 
D

dmward

Member
Vivek said:
Why not an adapter + that EOS zoom?
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The 24-105 with a metabones IV is still a bit slow focusing.
Also, the objective is to get smaller file sizes. The APS-C frame accomplishes that but then the angle of view is too narrow.

That's the reason for looking at the APS-C lenses.
 
Annna T

Annna T

Active member
dmward said:
The 24-105 with a metabones IV is still a bit slow focusing.
Also, the objective is to get smaller file sizes. The APS-C frame accomplishes that but then the angle of view is too narrow.

That's the reason for looking at the APS-C lenses.
Click to expand...
I'm not quite sure, but I think that one can program a button to change the A7r2 from APSC to FF and back.
 
D

dmward

Member
Annna T said:
I'm not quite sure, but I think that one can program a button to change the A7r2 from APSC to FF and back.
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I just went through the menu options and there is not way I could find to assign the ability to change APS-C / FF via a button or function menu.
Right now its more the idea of having a smallish lens with the field of view range that I use most often when covering weddings.

The 16-35 when recomputed is not quite right and the 24-70 is too narrow FoV at the 24mm end.
 
Last edited:
4season

4season

Well-known member
On my Mk I, the feature in question can't be mapped to a button but I'm not sure I'd want to.

Gear tab > 5 > APS-C Size Capture [On]

Will do what you want. But for now I have the feature switched off because sometimes I like to go a bit wider than my SEL20F28 officially supports, even though it gets pretty soft.
 
B

bipbip

Member
dmward said:
Is it worth the effort?
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Personally I think paying about £800 for the 16-70 together with an a6000 to have on one shoulder and the A7 with, say a 55 on the other for weddings is certainly worth the effort and would save faffing about with menus in the middle of a ceremony.
 
D

dmward

Member
bipbip said:
Personally I think paying about £800 for the 16-70 together with an a6000 to have on one shoulder and the A7 with, say a 55 on the other for weddings is certainly worth the effort and would save faffing about with menus in the middle of a ceremony.
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With the A6300 just announced the idea of a crop camera has been rattling around in my head.

If I like the APS-C lens on the A7RII the A6300 is something to look at as well.

Part of that will depend on how the A6300 handles raw files and their size.

With the Canon 5DIII is could store large raw on the CF card and small raw on the SD card.

With the A7RII the uncompressed raw files are quite large compared to the APS-C. More than twice the size.

Considering that the overwhelming majority of wedding images are either viewed either electronically or at relatively small prints sizes the A7RII file resolution is overkill.
 
M

mazor

New member
Good Sony listened and released uncompressed RAW, next request is for Sony to bring out an sRAW option ;)
 
F

fotografz

Well-known member
dmward said:
With the A6300 just announced the idea of a crop camera has been rattling around in my head.

If I like the APS-C lens on the A7RII the A6300 is something to look at as well.

Part of that will depend on how the A6300 handles raw files and their size.

With the Canon 5DIII is could store large raw on the CF card and small raw on the SD card.

With the A7RII the uncompressed raw files are quite large compared to the APS-C. More than twice the size.

Considering that the overwhelming majority of wedding images are either viewed either electronically or at relatively small prints sizes the A7RII file resolution is overkill.
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Since I can't seem to fully retire from weddings and events (To quote Micheal from God Father III, "I get out, and they drag me back in":ROTFL: ... after I had sold my A99 system ... I have committed to the Sony A7 system using the A7R and A7R-II.

I like your thinking, and have considered using APSc with a versatile zoom like you mentioned.

Question: doesn't the camera sense when an APSc lens is mounted and automatically shoot crop frame?

If not, (and you can't set a custom button to toggle between FF and APSc), I'd say that we could set the camera menu to display last selection so when you press the menu button it displays the FF or APSc choice first. I currently use this technique to first display "Setting Effect On ... Setting Effect Off" when I am using a radio sender with studio strobes at a wedding so I can toggle back and forth between shooting with off-camera lighting or just working with available light.

I'd like to know how this lens performs on a FF sensor. I wonder whether use of the center portion of the FF sensor would make any difference given the angle of micro lenses due to the close flange distance?

Let us know if you discover anything.

Thanks,

-Marc
 
Slingers

Slingers

Active member
When you set the APSC size to [auto] in the menu item mentioned above it will be as you want with FF for the FF lenses then go to crop mode when an apsc lens is attached or when there is too much vignetting on a FF lens.
 
Annna T

Annna T

Active member
I switched from Auto to FF, since each time I was mounting a legacy lens it would switch to APSC (aka Contax G lenses with smart adapter, or M lenses with Novoflex adapter).
 
D

dmward

Member
Annna T said:
I switched from Auto to FF, since each time I was mounting a legacy lens it would switch to APSC (aka Contax G lenses with smart adapter, or M lenses with Novoflex adapter).
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Anna,
I expect that there is some communication between the lens and the body to implement the Auto switching and that the communication is lost with the adapters so the camera thinks APS-C is required.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
Annna T said:
I switched from Auto to FF, since each time I was mounting a legacy lens it would switch to APSC (aka Contax G lenses with smart adapter, or M lenses with Novoflex adapter).
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Does not happen to me with Leica (LTM, M), Nikon, Olympus etc lenses in the "auto" mode. There has to be severe vignetting from the lens (or the adapter) for the camera to switch to APS-C automatically.
 
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