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Sony A7RIV Impressions

vjbelle

Well-known member
I've had this camera for a couple of days and am convinced that this was a very good purchase. This is very unlike my experiences with the Fuji 50s which was more love/hate.

The EVF is a dream - crystal clear with the ability to focus extremely easy. Contrast this to the Fuji 50s where everything is a blur and not easy to focus. It's not that I couldn't focus with the 50s as I have had extensive experience focusing with a Phase IQ180. For those of you who have ever tried to focus with the IQ180 you know where I'm coming from..... If you can focus with that particular Phase you can focus with anything.

Wish the Sony had focus stacking.... it's the only thing missing FMPOV. Files are wonderful with almost spot on color. Lens selection is extensive with world class lenses available.

So far I have the Voigtlander 65 and 110. Both have jaw dropping performance. I receive the Sigma 35mm f1.2 tomorrow and the Sigma 85mm f1.4 on Thursday. I expect those two lenses to be exemplary. For me that range of lenses covers 99% of what I shoot.

I intend to use the Sony with my Actus and all of my LF lenses with the exception of the Schneider 35XL which I don't believe will reach infinity. From 60mm to 180mm I will have full movements available and the ability to easily create shifted 16X9 images with the Sony in Portrait position. Those files will have dimensions of 16896 X 9505 with 4 files needed. I'll also have access to my most used movement 'Rise' to keep nice straight vertical lines

It's a great compliment to my 4150 and so far has turned out to be an extremely good purchase.

Fun times......

Cheers......

Victor
 
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drunkenspyder

Well-known member
Wish the Sony had focus stacking.... it's the only thing missing FMPOV. Files are wonderful with almost spot on color. Lens selection is extensive with world class lenses available.

So far I have the Voigtlander 65 and 110. Both have jaw dropping performance. I receive the Sigma 35mm f1.2 tomorrow and the Sigma 85mm f1.4 on Thursday. I expect those two lenses to be exemplary. For me that range of lenses covers 99% of what I shoot.
Victor, thanks for sharing your impressions. Over the weekend, I made the decision to move over to the A7RIV. I sure wish it had focus stacking built in, too, but well, it doesn't. Anyway, my primary use case is for wildlife, so the lack of focus stacking is not as critical, and I don't plan to use it in concert with my IQ4.150 kit.

Glad to hear you like the Voigtlander 65; I have that on order. Picked up the kit 24-105, 100-400 w/ 1.4TC, Zeiss Batis 18, 40 & 135. But have not yet had a chance to do any shooting.
 

vjbelle

Well-known member
The Voigtlander 65mm will make you regret many other lens purchases. It is a benchmark lens that is tack sharp with wonderful color and '0' coma or fringing. Your next purchase will be the 110mm which is also stellar:thumbup:

My Sigma 35mm F1.2 turned out to be defective so I have another one coming which will arrive tomorrow..... fingers crossed.

You will enjoy the Sony...... at least I sure do.

Victor
 

drunkenspyder

Well-known member
The Voigtlander 65mm will make you regret many other lens purchases. It is a benchmark lens that is tack sharp with wonderful color and '0' coma or fringing. Your next purchase will be the 110mm which is also stellar:thumbup:

My Sigma 35mm F1.2 turned out to be defective so I have another one coming which will arrive tomorrow..... fingers crossed.

You will enjoy the Sony...... at least I sure do.

Victor
Thanks. Looking forward to the 65. Good luck with the Sigma; their QC threshold has not been inspiring for me. I may check out the V 110, but Lloyd Chambers—I am not a disciple, just a reader—was much less enthusiastic about the 110 vs. the 65. I am looking forward to checking out the 50 as well; it may be a better all-arounder for me.
 

vjbelle

Well-known member
The 110 has some very slight curvature which is no issue for me although I am a stickler for flat field lenses. I've tried to nail down the impact of the curvature but it's so slight that I just don't consider it an issue. I would not be without this lens. Wide open it is sharp edge to edge with no fringing or coma..... just outstanding!! It's relatively compact and really goes well with the 65.

I had the Zeiss 135 for a very brief time that I returned. Alignment was out and the right hand side had a very unusual distortive look.... hard to explain. It was sharp wide open and stopping down didn't increase sharpness which was a welcome positive but not enough to keep that copy. I never did get a replacement.

Lenses, lenses, lenses...... a real PITA to get good copies...

Am looking forward to shooting the Sony on my Actus. I should easily be able to shift 20mm due to the sensor size and still keep very high image quality at the edges. Will find out soon enough.

Victor
 

vjbelle

Well-known member
Received my Sigma 85mm F1.4 DG this morning and about the only thing I can say is that it's very impressive. Lens Rentals say's it's the benchmark for 85mm lenses and posted charts comparing to all sorts of other 85mm lenses. I toy with getting a Loxia but I just don't know if it would ever be better than this. At f5.6 which is the aperture I'll more than likely always use images are sharp edge to edge corner to corner. Below this the edges very gradually get slightly softer. I could easily shoot at f4 or f3.5 and Sharpen AI would more than likely clean up the image but f5.6 is dreamy good.

I wish Sigma offered this lens at an F2 aperture as it would probably be half the weight. That's the price for f1.4 which I'll never use.

Still..... It's very impressive..... I'm pretty happy:thumbup:

Victor
 
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vjbelle

Well-known member
I just had to see how good or bad the Loxia 85mm lens was because of its size and weight. Sorry to say it's not even remotely in the same league as my Sigma 85mm and certainly any other modern 85mm lens. F8 was required for moderately sharp images.

I immediately sent it back for a refund.

Victor
 

vjbelle

Well-known member
Continuing on with lenses on the A7RIV the Sigma F1.2 35mm lens is beyond belief!! Wide open it is sharp corner to corner and edge to edge. Staggering performance!! I shoot it at f4 to f5.6 and would rather stack than move on to f8. There is a little bit of curvature which is easy to work with.

Weight and size are the two negatives but the lens performance more than negates those two issues.

I have never seen a 35mm lens perform at this level.....:thumbs:

Cheers....

Victor
 

ggibson

Well-known member
I just had to see how good or bad the Loxia 85mm lens was because of its size and weight. Sorry to say it's not even remotely in the same league as my Sigma 85mm and certainly any other modern 85mm lens. F8 was required for moderately sharp images.

I immediately sent it back for a refund.

Victor
That is surprising, I've heard good things about the Loxia 85, it is pretty well-liked over at FM and has a good review on Phillip Reeve. Maybe the difference is it's not holding up to 61MP, but it could be copy variance too.

I will say though that Sigma has been setting a high bar with their monster lenses lately :)
 

vjbelle

Well-known member
I read Reeves review which was a contributing reason to try the Loxia. I got the lens on Amazon for $300.00 less than anywhere else. The box had some stickers removed but the lens appeared new. The performance, however, was terrible. F5.6 was the start of images getting sharp but not to the edges. F8 was needed for that and on the new Sony diffraction starts at that aperture. Any aperture wider than f5.6 was unusable FMPOV.

Victor
 

algrove

Well-known member
I read Reeves review which was a contributing reason to try the Loxia. I got the lens on Amazon for $300.00 less than anywhere else. The box had some stickers removed but the lens appeared new. The performance, however, was terrible. F5.6 was the start of images getting sharp but not to the edges. F8 was needed for that and on the new Sony diffraction starts at that aperture. Any aperture wider than f5.6 was unusable FMPOV.

Victor
Must have been a used or rejected lens since they go new for $1.3k.
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
Must have been a used or rejected lens since they go new for $1.3k.
That or some people just have different levels of acceptable (which I've learned over the last few years is usually the case).

I've had someone try to argue with me in a Facebook photography group a few months back that all Leica lenses are overpriced and within the same conversation admitted to never using one ever... but that person also thought Zeiss, Sony GM, Sigma Art, etc. were all overpriced too when he can get a Canon 50/f/1.4 for $400. It was at that point I removed myself from the conversation... nothing wrong with the Canon but some lenses cost significantly more for a variety of reasons BUT if a person can't tell the difference I've learned it's best to let their ignorance be their own bliss.

It's also why I try to stick to photo boards when I can because truthfully I get tired of all of the should I buy X or Y threads on Facebook... My reply is usually neither because (1) they don't understand what their personal requirements are yet if they're asking complete strangers on how to spend their money and (2) they likely need to do more research or rent all of the choices so that they can make an informed decision.
 
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