new camera body for adapted/legacy lenses

goinggreynow

goinggreynow

Suspended / Banned
Messages
862
Edit My Images
No
Over the last couple of years, I've been steadily building up a collection of old lenses and currently use them on m43.
I'm on the point of upgrading my camera body (Panasonic G80) and can't get away from this nagging feeling that this is the time to upgrade to FF.
In saying this, I appreciate the many arguements both for and against such a move.
The Sony A7 range is probably the most obvious way forward, given that Panasonic and Nikon Z are out of reach financially.
Given my overriding aim is to use my legacy lenses in preference to native, would any fellow TP members have any first hand advice on whether a move to say the A7iii is "overkill"?
 
Just to add that I appreciate pros/cons of FF allowing the legacy lenses to be used at their "true" focal length and crop/m43 sensors giving more effective reach (in FF terms).
 
You can get a secound gen A7 fairly reasonably nowaday. I've used a lot of M43/M39, Minolta and Olympus glass on cropped Sony's and Fuji's. With all of the Industar lenses I prefer the look on a cropped sensor, but this is not really an objective/scientific approach, more a going out with my A7/A7ii and A6000 and shooting a ton and looking at the images over time. I'd still say the A7ii is preferable in most cases, but a lot of the argument about the native look/intended look you see in classic lens Facebook/Flickr groups is a bit silly as they look considerably different when shot on their intended film bodies.
 
I've done quite a bit with legacy lenses in the past, albeit adapted to the nex-6 at the time (so crop, but not 4/3).

One thing is that while some of these lenses are very good, other are... clearly not as modern in their lens design. Using a crop sensor helps in my experience, because most lenses are better in the middle of their image circle and the crop sensor omits the outer parts. So if you use a ff camera, especially a high resolution one like the a7iii, you might find that suddenly you don't like many of the lenses as much. Especially vignetting is fairly common in older designs and the high resolution will also show a lack of lens resolution in some.

I think certain designs are more robust, for example an old 50mm might work just fine, but in my experience especially some of the tele and "wide angle" lenses really weren't that great 40 years ago, when attached to a modern sensor.

Just some thoughts. Maybe you know someone that would let you try the lenses on an ff camera before spending so much on a body?
 
I recently went for a used A7ii which seems a great tool for adapting. I've hardly used my MT gear since getting it, even picking it for my backup camera at the local airshow recently (with both a 500mm/8 mirror lens & a 100mm/3.5 via the techart pro for AF).

The A7ii mount is effectively the same as the NEX6 I have as well so they can share adapters.
I've also picked up a MFT-NEX adapter allowing me to use any manual lens I could adapt to MFT on the Sonys.

The big disadvantage of the Sony system seems to be the price of it's native lenses. Despite using 2 cameras in this mount I haven't got a single native lens for them.
 
A7iii is overkill for your intended use!

The only advantage of an A7ii over the original A7 is IBIS if that matters to you or not? But then I think you have to program/set the focal length into the body as it obviously doesn't know what is attached to it.....
 
LeeRatters said:
A7iii is overkill for your intended use!

The only advantage of an A7ii over the original A7 is IBIS if that matters to you or not? But then I think you have to program/set the focal length into the body as it obviously doesn't know what is attached to it.....
Click to expand...
Not just IBIS, the techart doesn't work with the mk1.
 
I use adapted film era lenses on my A7.

I went for mass market stuff and have Minolta Rokkor, Olympus Zuiko, Canon FD, Nikon and a few third party lenses most notably a Sigma 50mm f2.8 macro. I use Novoflex adapters for the Minolta, Olympus and Canon lenses and a cheap adapter bought off evil bay for the Nikons and to be honest the cheap adapter works just fine.

It's a lot of fun researching lenses, deciding what to get and finding a nice one and it doesn't cost a lot either plus the lenses are lovely to use. It's good cheap fun and I'd recommend it :D
 
Last edited:
just logged on and both surprised and delighted by number of responses, so I’ll say a big thanks to everyone rather than commenting on individual posts.
I sense that the A7iii is probably more than I need for now but if things change in the future (e.g. I ever get back to motor sport photography) then I wonder just how limiting I might find the A7ii at 5fps.
some things I’m fairly clear on, though. Despite others having success with the A7, I would very much like IBIS as I have on m43. Also, although 4K video (A7iii) would be nice to have, I don’t regard it as essential.
unless I decide to stop faffing around and get on and enjoy m43, my decision seems to be A7ii now at a substantially lower cost than the A7iii but aware that it may not prove to be ‘enough’ and have to change again in the future, perhaps if/when the A7iii price reduces significantly?? Or buy the A7iii now with the full intention of it being my main camera - without any thoughts of needing to change again - for many years to come.
Over to me. Thanks to all once again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top