The Amazing Sony A1/A7/A9/APS-C & Anything else welcome Mega Thread!

woof woof said:
I sometimes think the world is leaving me behind.

I used to work in computers and wider electronics but these days I seem to turn my back on technology, other than photography of course :D

Years ago I knew everything but these days I wouldn't know how to load an app :D or why I'd want to :D I'll leave it to you youngsters :D
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Same here
PCPhil said:
Linky?
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No idea how to link to it, it's just called Remote Camera.
 
350wedge said:
Ahh so you got the other one, there were only two of them.

I can confirm that wide open it is indeed not that sharp, although I only got it today and I've just done a couple of quick indoor tests on my 1D IV.

By the time you hit F2 - F2.8 though things improve a great deal. I'll have a play over the weekend if it ever stops raining!!
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My 58mm f1.2 is sharp wide open, not the sharpest lens in the world but it's certainly not an issue using it that wide. In fact I've rarely stopped it down, f1.2 is just so lovely!
 
Alan Clogwyn said:
Kipon Canon FD - NEX adapter surgery, as promised:

When it arrived lenses wouldn't mount, at all. Flipping it upside down revealed the problem: The aperture stop down actuator (a simple screw through the side!) is fitted in the wrong location, it stops the lens sitting flush onto the bayonet.

View attachment 3967 View attachment 3968

So I took it out and attacked it with a grinder until the lens would mount and the lever would move freely.

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Then there was another problem. The ring that moves the stop down pin is too loose, so I took out the spring behind the ball bearing that gives the click and replaced it with a solid chunk of elastic band. That holds the ball bearing much more firmly against it's detent recess and still has enough give that the ring can be turned.

So that was a PITA, but it now works and I am very much enjoying using the 58mm f1.2!
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Any idea if this is an issue with all next to FD adapters?
 
I've been tempted to try some FD's but as I already have almost duplicate Rokkor and Zuiko sets I must stop myself from buying a third set.

I'd be interested to see any size comparisons of FD's against similar Rokkor's or Zuiko's if anyone has them and time to shoot them.
 
I've just got my FD adapter. It's a "Pixco" brand. The lens mounts OK but the aperture does not work. Any idea what's going on?
 
ShrubMonkey said:
Any idea if this is an issue with all next to FD adapters?
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No, just Kipon by the looks of it. I've sent them all the relevant details so hopefully it'll get corrected in future. Who knows how many iffy ones are floating about though.
 
Tobers said:
I've just got my FD adapter. It's a "Pixco" brand. The lens mounts OK but the aperture does not work. Any idea what's going on?
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Does it have a ring to open/close the aperture or is it just a fixed pin inside? If it's a fixed pin you have to mount the lens by turning the wrong way first, then turn the right way (if you mount off camera you can see the pin in the adapter and how it should close the linkage on the back of the lens)
 
Tobers said:
I've just got my FD adapter. It's a "Pixco" brand. The lens mounts OK but the aperture does not work. Any idea what's going on?
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I think mine's the same brand.

You need to move the collar from 'Open' to the 'Lock' position to engage the aperture stop down on the lens, otherwise it'll remain wide open.

If that doesn't work, take the lens off, move the collar back to 'Open' and re-fit the lens before moving it to 'Lock' again.

If the collar is at 'Lock' when you put the lens on, the pin is in the wrong position to engage the lever afterward.
 
Edit: thanks for the replies - you guys are just too fast!!

Ah there's a rotating ring on the adapter that I hadn't figured realised rotated. It was set to "open" which leaves the aperture wide open. Set to "lock" the aperture adjusts with the aperture ring on the lens as you'd expect.

I thought "lock" and "open" related to putting the adapter on the camera. Dur.
 
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350wedge said:
Ahh so you got the other one, there were only two of them.

I can confirm that wide open it is indeed not that sharp, although I only got it today and I've just done a couple of quick indoor tests on my 1D IV.

By the time you hit F2 - F2.8 though things improve a great deal. I'll have a play over the weekend if it ever stops raining!!
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I've had a brief play and it looks plenty sharp at 1.2 to me, though obviously the depth of field is ludicrously narrow. The manual focus zoom facility on the A7R works very nicely to get it spot on. I'm really looking forward to experimenting with this lens.
 
Tobers said:
I've had a brief play and it looks plenty sharp at 1.2 to me, though obviously the depth of field is ludicrously narrow. The manual focus zoom facility on the A7R works very nicely to get it spot on. I'm really looking forward to experimenting with this lens.
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I only had the briefest of plays at close range indoors, but off to Portsmouth historic docks tomorrow so will give it a workout then. I don't have my A7 yet so playing on my 1D instead.
 
Mr woof - I see that this camera addresses 2 of your m43 gripes (1/8000 shutter and ISO 100), but how do you find the EVF in the dark? Is it still burning your retina?
 
bl0at3r said:
Mr woof - I see that this camera addresses 2 of your m43 gripes (1/8000 shutter and ISO 100), but how do you find the EVF in the dark? Is it still burning your retina?
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It's a LOT BETTER! To the point of being usable.

For low light and normal night time shooting the A7 allows good framing, you can see more than by eye and you can see what you're doing and the light output isn't too bad. In the same light the G1 would simply show a black screen making any sort of accurate framing simply impossible and it'd burn my eye.

If the light drops still further to the point of out of town no moon darkness or indoor dark it fails to show the detail visible by human eye and it still kicks out too much light causing eye strain and loss of night vision.

So, if you want to shoot a landscape at night the A7 is perfectly good enough. It's also good for low light shooting indoors. If however for any reason you want to frame a shot and shoot in darkness (and by darkness I mean at a light level at which a human can still make out shapes and move around the room / environment perfectly well) I think that you may have problems and a camera with an OVF and a wide aperture lens will almost certainly allow more accurate framing and be a better option.
 
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Tobers said:
I've had a brief play and it looks plenty sharp at 1.2 to me, though obviously the depth of field is ludicrously narrow. The manual focus zoom facility on the A7R works very nicely to get it spot on. I'm really looking forward to experimenting with this lens.
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Just as an update, I've had a proper go at using it today and my copy is horrendous below F2, F1.2 is totally unusable, no part of the image is sharp. It only gets better above F2 so I'm going to send it back. The standard 50 F1.8 I have is better as is the 28mm F2.8 that I ordered at the same time.
 
Hi all,

I have just bought an A7. I'm basically a Leica M shooter but with an Olympus MFT as backup and to do those things an M cameras can't, like macro and tele.
I bought body only and so far can't take a single shot as I am waiting for adaptors for OM and Leica M.

The Oly MFT system is up for sale so I was considering buying a NEX SEL1855 kit lens as a basic walk around, quick and easy lens for casual shooting. They are very cheap at £60 or so on ebay. Is it worth it do you think? I do understand crop factors, reduced pixel count etc by the way.
 
Cap'n Bill said:
Hi all,

I have just bought an A7. I'm basically a Leica M shooter but with an Olympus MFT as backup and to do those things an M cameras can't, like macro and tele.
I bought body only and so far can't take a single shot as I am waiting for adaptors for OM and Leica M.

The Oly MFT system is up for sale so I was considering buying a NEX SEL1855 kit lens as a basic walk around, quick and easy lens for casual shooting. They are very cheap at £60 or so on ebay. Is it worth it do you think? I do understand crop factors, reduced pixel count etc by the way.
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I'm actually really impressed with the black kit lens that came with my Nex-7, it performed far better than the silver version that came with my old Nex-5! Couple of snaps with the Nex-7 (not the a7):

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A nice cheap all-rounder prime is the Sigma 30/2.8 DN as well. I use one on the a7 and crop out the edges for a field of view of about 35mm.
 
Since we're all still on Canon lenses....

FL 58mm f1.2 in action



 
I had my most enjoyable day yet with my A7.

I took three lenses, 24mm f2.8, 50mm f1.4 and 85mm f2, one on the camera and two in a bum bag. I changed lenses about a dozen times and when I got home there wasn't a single spot on the sensor at f16. Taking my 5D and three lenses would have been a different experience.

My keeper rate was my best yet as I remembered to keep an eye on my shutter speed as I find 1/60 too slow. When the camera did go to 1/60 I just selected manual mode and selected something more sensible and didn't worry about the ISO, there's no need.

Ditching the 5D was the right decision for me. I may go for AF lenses at some point and I may look for a longer macro. I have a 50mm f2.8 but I fancy somthing longer.

Anyway... loving the A7 and legacy lens combination.









 
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I've cleaned mine but only with the inbuilt clean thingy and a rocket, I've not had to wet clean.



Love the detail and colour in this 100% crop.

 
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My 5D needed a frequent wet clean as did my 20D.

Both got better as they got older but they were both much worse than my Panny G1 and A7.
 
My A7 arrived today, the in camera charging is a little annoying, especially not charging whilst turned on, oh well just need to wait a little longer :)
 
Yeah, I already ordered 2 DSTE branded batteries and mains charger, batteries already arrived but still waiting for charger
 
This may be blooming obvious, but it wasn't to me until I saw it mentioned on a thread on DP Review:

When you're in magnified view (for manual focus) you can move the box about the screen with the top-plate rear scroll wheel (left-right) and front scroll wheel (up-down).

I've been using the four way buttons on the rear dial up till now and this is a lot better. :rolleyes:
 
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DPR now has a review of the A7...

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/son..._source=mainmenu&utm_medium=text&ref=mainmenu

It's hardly glowing, but what do they know :D and as an example of their odd thinking...

"As for the new FE-series lenses, we were impressed with the sharpness of the two primes (35mm F2.8, 55mm F1.8). The 28-70mm F3.5-5.6 is not as good, but produced respectable results for a kit lens."

My God, do they expect a kit lens to match a prime?

Matched against some of the mid range kit zooms from Nikon and Canon rather than an expensive wide aperture prime I think the Sony will shine a little more :D
 
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They make frequent reference to poor JPG quality in the review, this could be a big deal to some, I only ever shoot JPG on my phone camera, so no issue for me
 
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