Sony A7II and legacy lenses

[JJChan]

Tom, Jan Anne et al
Thought I would post a few pictures with A7II. It really is a fun camera to use and manual focus is so very easy. The files look good with the not-easy-to-find Sony Image Data Converter (not on Sony Oz site) and spectacular if a little hyped with PhotoNinja.
Posted to show some of the characteristics of the lenses - photos are a little boring though....

1 and 2 Pentax Super Takumar M42 50mm f1.4 showing interesting flare. I ended up de-yellowing the lens (it was my father's and is 44years old) - this flare is now mostly gone replaced with nice micro-contrast and really pleasing rendition
3 Pentax Super Takumar M42 Macro 50mm f4 - really cheap, tiny and slowish but goes to 1:2 and like all Takumars is exquisitely built
4 Mighty Apo-Lanthar 125mm Ai-s

JJ

[Bjørn Rørslett]

These look very promising. Apparently you have got yourself a capable tool. Takumars have a very good reputation for build and optical quality.

Yesterday I purchased a nice second-hand, not too expensive A7 to use for my old Nikkor "S" mount lenses. Tried them on my Panasonics m43, but neither handling nor image quality convinced. Hopefully the battery-hungry^* A7 can give justice to these old champions. I ordered some Nikkor S to Sony E adapters so will be set up quickly once these arrive. I do know from my film days with the Nikon S-mount rangefinders that these old lenses are excellent performers considered their time of production. In particular I look forward to using my W-Nikkor 3.5 cm f/1.8 and the legendary Nikkors 8.5 cm f/2 and 10.5 cm f/2.5.

* note to self: purchase more Sony batteries.

[Erik Lund]

Congratulations on the Trinitron 

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Will lead to some "tune-up" modifications, you know

[Jan Anne]

Congrats to you both and a warm welcome to wondrous world of full frame mirrorless cameras

How cool is it to use your (dads) old favourite lenses as they were designed to be used focal length wise, that must be really special.

The Sony cameras are like smartphones, you can't really turn them off and they will drain the battery within a month or so. The trick is to take the battery out and pop it in whenever you go out and play.

Bjørn, as you usually take the car when you go out shooting you should considering buying a USB 12V cigarette charger so you can top off the a7 when ever your driving between shooting locations. This way you will never run out of juice.

[Jan Anne]

Btw JJ,

Sony just announced a firmware update for your a7II, it will the option to shoot in 14bit RAW files and use Phase Detect AF for third party lenses like the a7RII does.
http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sony-will-add-uncomrpessed-raw-on-the-a7ii-via-firmware-updated-coming-on-november-18/

Sony wasn't clear for how many models they will add the 14 bit RAW option but my a7S is chronologically the next in line so fingers crossed.

[tommiejeep]

JJ, thanks for posting.  That first image is pretty wild with the flare.   Looks like you're having fun with the old lenses  .   My a7II arrived about a week ago but outside of watching some You Tubes on how to set it up, I've not done any serious shooting until yesterday.    I am going to like the CV 75 2.5 LTM.  The 28 f2 Ai looks good as does the 105 2.5 Ais.  The IBIS did not handle the 180 2.8D very well .  Needed to keep the speeds up but it may be easier to hold (steadier) with the grip mounted.  Fortunately , the 85 1.4D is good.

At the moment I'm using the Magnification and Peaking set on low.  It will come  .   Menu is not as bad as I thought it would be, just need to get my short term memory working better  . 

I had a moment of angst when the computer was having trouble getting the files to transfer but downloaded the Converter and then it worked.  I can open in Bridge and then to Photoshop.  I'll look at some other options.

I am shooting an event this evening with the a7II and Df so yesterday I took them to the venue to checkout the light.  Looking like ISO range will get pretty high for some as the ambient daylight disappears.  ISO 3200 looks pretty good but I have a felling that I'll need to extend to 6400.   Several of the areas have florescent lighting so will have to watch the shutter speeds.

JA, cool about the FW for the a7II.  Makes me a bit more confident about Sony.   Hope you get your a7s FW soon.   I really wish Sony would say something about the new lenses soon.  The FE lenses are pretty darn expensive, for what they are, and I want to chose slowly.  My wife will be back in the UK in January.  I'll see if I can find some  older lenses for her to buy 
Cheers,
Tom

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The Sony user interface and menu system are directed towards engineers in their ivory towers, not photographers in the field. But I still am willing to give the camera a chance until my Nikkor S-Sony adapters arrive and I can assess its performance better. If I continue to be troubled I just sell it off and recoup my outlay as I got the camera quite cheap.

[JJChan]

Thanks for the comments everyone.
JA - thanks for the heads up re: FW update. I'll also take the battery out when not using. I think my Nikon V1 killed an EN-EL15 when I left it untouched for about 3 months so I will take care with my Sony battery.

Tom - I have Focus mag set for 5secs, Peaking Level High, Peaking Colour Yellow and Centre button set for Focus mag (2 presses gives high magnification). I set C4 for SteadyState to easily adjust IBIS (but forget often....) I still can't have a quick AE and AF lock button like on the Nikons so panoramas not easy on AF.

Re: Sony lenses: I've got 2 as there were big cash rebates going on. I bought the 90mm to partly justify the camera for work purposes(!). It is smallish and 'good' but compared to Voigtlander 125 and Zeiss 135 ZF2, it is really not that special. Equivalent FL Lanthar 90mm is also much more pleasing in rendition. The Sony is sharp and contrasty but seems a little dull in microcontrast. The AF is good in bright light but struggles in room setting and MF with peaking can be much faster. It does however focus close and goes 1:1 with 5 axis IBIS. I certainly would not regard it as a must have or great lens.

The 28mm FE was purchased for general AF walk-about but again doesn't compare to the AFS 28 1.8 nor Zeiss 28mm ZF2 or even the 28mm focal length of the AI-s 28-50mm in terms of rendition. AF is pretty snappy. It is reasonably priced and is probably worth it as a native lens.

I think I'd save my pennies for other reasonably priced interesting lenses rather than buy any more native FE gears including the Loxia or Batis.

Bjorn R - What I really would like to know is how the Nikkor 21mm would go given that the lens should not protrude deep enough to touch the sensor.

[Erik Lund]

The Sony A7 series has a rather thick sensor cover glass, this causes issues with many legacy lenses. that are designed for film ie no glass and for some not so old legacy lenses that where designed for thin cover glass like on Leica M digital cameras.

The only issue with the Nikkor S 21mm could be if the shutter is further forward in the Sony A7 series than rangefinder cameras, the distance from flange to sensor is identical (more or less, due to the thickness of the sensor cover glass...)

My guess is that there is a huge amount of smearing and color abrations when shooting on the Sony A7, it might have acceptable centralperformance on A7S but never into the corners.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

I'll try the 2.1 cm Nikkor plus the 15 mm f/4.5 Heliar in due time. Not ordered any Nikon F-> Sony E adapter, but I have both wide angles in "S" mounts.

[Erik Lund]

JA, did you start with A7, A7R? and then A7S,,, I think so, so you can elaborate further...

15mm 4,5 Voigtlander S will also suffer on the Sony A7 i'm affraid - JA has shot with the identical design in Leica M mount - That's one of the reasons for the New Voigtlander 15mm Mark III version that came out.

the 12mm 5,6 is so so on the A7 but only on the A7S model.... but as you all have seen there are Mark III on that as well comming out

Bring the Sony along for your scheduled visit to Copenhagen and we can see how the A7 does with some of the Leica M lenses as well 

[Bjørn Rørslett]

I plan on converting the Nex-3 that Jan Anne gave me to be host for some exotic lenses by replacing its bayonet entirely for someth9ing more appropriate. Maybe I should order some Leica LTM adapters too then?

[JJChan]

Some macro shots from A7II

Sony FE 90mm 1/125 @f2.8
Pentax SMC Macro 50mm f4 1/160 @f4

JJ

[Bjørn Rørslett]

Not bad at all - were these shot directly as jpgs in-camera?