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!

Brief reports on lenses with the A7r

cunim

Well-known member
We are beginning to see a lot of user reports showing glass on this camera. With so much out there I would find it useful if brief subjective summaries of user's experiences were collated. Here are mine so far.

Some of my own impressions differ from those of knowledgeable reviewers so take this with appropriate caution.

1. Zeiss Biogon 35 F2 is very sharp at center and unusable even a short distance out from there. Images are badly smeared.
2. Sony/Zeiss FE 35 is a lovely and compact lens, very sharp but with a bit too much smearing in the corners for me. I am pathologically sensitive to corners so this is probably is not an issue that matters to most people.
3. Summicron R 50 works very well above f3.5. Corners are crud at f2, but it has been suggested that it is the same on film. I will dig out the old Leicaflex and see. Looking forward to the native 55mm, which is starting to look good in reviews.
4. Apo-Summicron M 90 F2 asph. Gasp. What a lens and wonderful on the A7r! Love it from wide open on up.
5. Elmar 135 f4 is lovely, even wide open.
 

Ron Pfister

Member
Here my impressions after testing all my Zeiss ZM lenses this weekend:

Zeiss Biogon T* 2,8/21 ZM: strong vignetting and purple cast at all apertures, light to moderate smearing along edges and in corners. Can be cleaned-up in post, but IMO not worth it.

Zeiss C Biogon T* 2,8/35 ZM: moderate vignetting and purple cast at all apertures, very strong smearing along edges and in corners. Not usable. A real shame! I like this lens a lot on NEX-bodies.

Zeiss Planar T* 2/50 ZM: some peripheral artifacts at large apertures that I have not previously seen (but this is the first time I'm using this lens on an FF camera). Very good and fully usable from f/4-8 (11 in a pinch, thereafter diffraction dulls the image severely).

Zeiss Tele-Tessar T* 4/85 ZM: excellent image quality throughout aperture range
 
3. Summicron R 50 works very well above f3.5. Corners are crud at f2, but it has been suggested that it is the same on film.
My experience with the summicron r 50 is very good. It is better full open particularly on corners than my other two summicrons m, the old rigid and the last iv of current production. As can be seen from images, it out resolves the sensor in the center (moiré) and is on par in the corners, where the contrast is lower due to unavoidable vignetting (around 1,5 stops, as stated on published specifications)

Test setup


_DSC0244small by sergio lovisolo, on Flickr

Center crop


_DSC0244center by sergio lovisolo, on Flickr

corner crop


_DSC0244corner by sergio lovisolo, on Flickr

(type I tested is the current model, with sliding hood)
It is very rare to find lenses which produce better results, as apo models in the leica r range.
 

cunim

Well-known member
Sergio, that is encouraging and better than I get from a gen 1 R 50 -assuming these are at f2. I will try to find a later one to to look at.

So are you comfortable stating gen 2 cron R 50 as good as on an R Leica? That would define a great match for the Sony.
 
Top