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Sony A7 series & legacy glass

dan m

dan m

pfm Member
Anyone here had a play with this? Black Friday is approaching and I could get tempted to try the base A7 with my leica m-mount lens collection. They've already discounted it $200- since its introduction. While the A7s looks the bomb for shooting black cats at night, its price is close enough to a used M9 that I'd be tempted to go that route. However an A7 at, say $1300, could be a great way to employ my existing lenses and dip it to FF digital. I've also heard it's a bit better with the wider glass than the A7R. I'd be really interested in comments on the ergonomics - e.g. how's the EVF & focus peaking in auto iso mode (manually set aperture & speed) for travel photography (most of what I do).

Dan
 
It becomes an expensive hobby Dan - I've started legacy glass on 5N and went to the A7. There is just one problem with what you are trying to do - the A7 does not work well with wide (wider than say 35mm/28mm) M-mount lens and may experience magenta shift (I've never had a Leica lens but numerous reviews/reports are out there). R-mount is perfectly fine - I just havent been able to find something sensibly price to test. The Contax G lenses suffer same issues (just stay with 35mm+ and should be fine). I've used M42s, Zuiko OMs and Contax Zeiss glass to good effect. It is however a manual system with legacy glass.
 
Compared to the investment in lenses I already have, the cost of a body isn't anything like switching to a different line of cameras. It's either something like this or $3-4K for a used M or M-E. In LSM or M mount I have:

15/4 Heliar (LSM)
35/1.7 asph. Ultron (LSM)
50/1.5 asph Nokton (LSM)
50/2 summicron (M)
90/4 elmar-c

My guess is that one of the 50s will likely be glued to the camera - it's my preferred focal length.

My main worry is the ergonomics - how quick to start up and snap a shot if you've zone focused?
 
Well if its a fast moving subject - keeper rate would go down. The peak focusing would speed things up but I prefer EVF and using the magnified view - you can custom the keys and its relatively quick (keeper rate is very high other than photographer errors being me). That being said it might not work as well in places like museums but perfectly fine for landscape.
 
Dan, while not exactly what you had in mind, you may want to look at an A7 and the Sony Zeiss FE 55mm f1.8, and finance the lens by selling one of your 50mm lenses. Given that the Zeiss is very well reviewed and that it will interface best with the A7, this seems a worthwhile consideration...
 
I use a A7 with an old 35 cron, a Zeiss C Sonnar 50 and an old 90 cron, it's great. I have also used it with Contax G 28, 45 and 90, the 45 & 90 are great, the 28 suffers a little from colour casts.

I have tried mounting Canon lenses on it too but found that this where too big and unwieldy.

The viewfinder works well on the manual focus lenses and you see DoF directly.

H
 
koowat: is focus peaking not available with the EVF? I rarely focus/frame with the LCD.

EIffel: Yes, I thought about that. I'd likely not sell a 50 though, since I have no intention of selling my M6ttl. But might be tempted to get the 55 for sports / P&S duties, if I find the sony works well.

haddock: Really good to know the viewfinder works well with manual focus lenses. I'm not expecting DSLR auto focus speed here, but want something I can verify the zone of focus easily, just as when you align the RF patch in my Leica. Have you tried a close-focus adapter? If not, does the 90cm minimum focus distance of a typical 50 prove problematic?
 
focus peaking is available on the EVF - I don't really use the LCD
I dont think minimum focus distance changes/or is any different on the A7 - that's just the optics of the lenses but you've got the benefit of magnification to really finetune your focus but no it wont be DSLR auto focus with the kit lens at the very least
 
dan m said:
More details on the new Sony - I'm almost certain I'll be getting it when it's available.
Click to expand...

Spiffy is right, didn't know about that.

On legacy glass I prefer to use EVF magnify for precise focus instead of peaking, though more often don't bother with either as I find with practice it is usually possible to judge well enough (for me/most of the time) without, depending on lens and aperture.
 
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