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

I'm really concerned about the lack of consistency accross sony's lenses, they feel like they've bee. Developed in isolation (well with the zeiss lenses I suppose they in fact were), where as fuji lenses seem to have been designed with consistency in mind, consistency of look , size, feel, function and apperture ring

Like the look of the new 16 1.4, might have to invest in an xe2 just for that lens and the 56 1.2, 2 holes that won't be filled until the batis lenses drop (although I suspect they will be even more expensive than the fuji lenses and a body to go with them !)
 
MF with AF lenses. DMF and AF/MF / AEL switch and button. In AF mode half press the shutter and call up MF by turning the focus ring and to switch to MF press the AF/MF/AEL button and manually focus. Press the button again to reselect AF and focus stays where you set it. Works well IMVHO.
 
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Very nice :D

I'm tempted by this lens and the 85mm but still can't make my mind up if I want to move away from manual lenses or not.
 
woof woof said:
A7s + Mitacon 50mm f0.95 write up...

http://www.stevehuffphoto.com/2015/06/08/the-mitakon-dark-night-50-0-95-by-isi-akahome/

Have to say it's not a look I'd be going for too often but each to their own.
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One of my favourite combos. Like the idiot that I am, I sold it because of incurable GAS.

16300370099_83dbc20a48_o.jpg
 
I owned one at one point
Agreed it was front heavy and mine literally fell to bits after a month so got a refund- heard a few horror stories about build quality and after looking at the internals I can see why- it's incredibly badly out together
Shame as from the outside it looks like a 'tank'
Very heavy too, would have preferred a nice sharp 1.4/1.2 in a more compact package


twist said:
Fantastic lens, very front heavy on an A7 though.
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Just ordered the 28 f2 as my fun lens compared to the massive 35 1.4, which I love but found it's not really as sharp as my friends sigma art, and barely sharper than the canon 35, which surprised me, maybe I have a lemon...

I still can't get over the loudness of the shutter, I agree the a7ii is marginally quiter but it's still loud, I was tempted by another a7s but they're so expensive and I am sold on the 'ergonomic improvements' and ibis of the a7ii, so if an a7s ii drops soon I'll get that, but in the meanwhile I've actually just bought an xe2 as my quiet camera, which I'll get the 56 1.2 and the 16 1.4- which all came out to be marginally more expensive than one zeiss batis lens by itself

As always, I remain unconvinced by any system aha
 
domart said:
I owned one at one point
Agreed it was front heavy and mine literally fell to bits after a month so got a refund- heard a few horror stories about build quality and after looking at the internals I can see why- it's incredibly badly out together
Shame as from the outside it looks like a 'tank'
Very heavy too, would have preferred a nice sharp 1.4/1.2 in a more compact package
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I think they've improved the design now and used some form of loctite. I'm assuming your screws came out then it came apart. Supposed to be very easy to put together again. No issues with mine.
 
domart said:
I still can't get over the loudness of the shutter, I agree the a7ii is marginally quiter but it's still loud
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Noticed this today too, covered a bunch of presentations at work and even with 100 people in the room the shutter noise was pretty brutal even with the Electronic Front Curtain thing on, made me a little uncomfortable. The X-T1 is very quiet in comparison.
 
Agreed
I bought the a7 for low light purposes, with the idea to use adapted canon lenses with manual focus (as af wouldn't work in low light anyway), but I found that:
Low light usually means quiet, and the a7 is just too loud
I much prefer a good evf to an ovf

So my options are a7s with adapted canon lenses again (but a but big and heavy), a7s with more sony lenses (expensive- and I'm doubling up on expensive lenses as I already have a whole bunch of canon l lenses)
Fuji x system with af glass
Go back to dslr's and put up with slow live view af (maybe the 5d4 will have evf, or at least fast af in live view)

I have a fair few voigtlander lenses too but I have mixed thoughts on them

Time will tell how I get on with the sony 28mm, and the fuji system
I think my a7 mk1 will be sold though, my head is spinning

Why can't they just make the a7 shutter quiter, why!!
Wouldn't be so bad and might actually make me slow down the shooting process but the shutter lag means I keep missing the moment, maybe it's just me being slow...


ukaskew said:
Noticed this today too, covered a bunch of presentations at work and even with 100 people in the room the shutter noise was pretty brutal even with the Electronic Front Curtain thing on, made me a little uncomfortable. The X-T1 is very quiet in comparison.
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Anyone heard rumours of a Sony 28-70 f4 G lens in the works? A poster on YouTube mentioned it but didn't state the source. This could offer me a glimmer of hope if it proves to be better than the zeiss f4. Nothing on alpharumours.
 
leaf shutters are really quiet

i think the a77ii is quieter than my mums a6000, but my sigma dp and rb67 shutters are way quieter. rb has the mirror slap tho ;/
 
I've got an a77ii coming tomorrow (with the 70-400) for my long lens stuff, so will see how the shutter compares.
 
domart said:
Agreed
I bought the a7 for low light purposes, with the idea to use adapted canon lenses with manual focus (as af wouldn't work in low light anyway), but I found that: Low light usually means quiet, and the a7 is just too loud
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Have you thought about MFT? When I compared Fuji high ISO to my GX7 I was surprised how well the GX7 did, not a fantastic difference between them in whole images IMVHO. With MFT you don't get the retro dials but you avoid the Fuji issues that put me off.

I don't mind the sound of my A7 but I don't shoot for money so upsetting people with the noise isn't an issue :D I don't think I'd use it in a place it might disturb strangers though and if I need a quiet camera I can use my GX7 with its electronic shutter. When shooting outside I don't think that the noise is an issue.

Thinking back to my Canon days the 5D was a lot better than my 20D which sounded like an anvil being thrown into a tin bath. Neither were all that ideal for quiet place shooting but people must have shot professionally with them at events and the like.

I hope that electronic shutter comes to the A7 series but we might have to wait a bit.

I still keep thinking about the Fuji as I like the oldie worldie look and the dials but on the negative side the low (for these days) max raw ISO, the allegedly wonky ISO values and the possible mushy file issues all add up to put me off. I can see the attraction especially for those who shoot JPEG's and people and I can't say that I'll never buy one but just as the A7 needs a few generations of development for some people the Fuji needs a few generations before I'll be tempted. Even if I do buy a Fuji the A7 is going nowhere as it's the perfect platform for 35mm manual lenses and the only FF CSC option, other then Leica. And besides all that I just like it :D
 
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woof woof said:
I still keep thinking about the Fuji as I like the oldie worldie look and the dials but on the negative side the low (for these days) max raw ISO, the allegedly wonky ISO values and the possible mushy file issues all add up to put me off. I can see the attraction especially for those who shoot JPEG's and people and I can't say that I'll never buy one but just as the A7 needs a few generations of development for some people the Fuji needs a few generations before I'll be tempted. Even if I do buy a Fuji the A7 is going nowhere as it's the perfect platform for 35mm manual lenses and the only FF CSC option, other then Leica. And besides all that I just like it :D
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Woof you would love an XT1. You'd appreciate the organic experience being into MF. The dials are great which make it lots of fun to use. Plus the f-stop is on all the lenses(most). The shutter sound is buttery smooth, real quality compared to the A7. The mushy files aren't an issue in the real world and to be honest the lenses are so sharp and contrasty you dont even think about it. No need to worry about lens quality or cost, theres something for everyone. Set your preferred auto ISO values and min shutter speed and forget about it. It niggled away at me as i'd never shot full frame before, now I have, I feel it's been somewhat tainted by the A7 experience. I don't know what I'm going to do now, I may go back to Fuji as it's much less of an headache. As your invested in Sony I'd sell your other gear and run Sony/Fuji, you won't regret it.
 
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I'd miss the two things I bought the A7 for, FF in CSC and FF for old lenses and the Fuji doesn't provide either. APSC may be a Goldilocks system but as I want FF the better companion system for me is MFT.

One of the biggest A7 gripes seems to be the cost of the lenses but luckily for me cost isn't an issue, only my short arms and deep pockets :D The A7 series seems to be a bit Marmite but although I have a few issues as I'm very critical mostly I love it :D
 
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Just buy one of those speed booster things, then you get an extra stop of speed negating the high iso limit of 6400 ;)

In all seriousness, horses for courses. I didn't like the a7, much prefer the Fuji. Prefer my 6D for manual lenses over both due to the ovf :D
 
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With the Sony, looking through the EVF whilst changing settings, you have to wait for the screen to return before selecting to adjust the next setting. Is there anyway of just changing them from one screen on the fly, like the Fuji? As it's much quicker.
 
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More of an FYI: I'd been suffering dreadful problems with flare with all my Contax lenses with the £10 cheapie adapter I'd bought, plus my 50mm f1.7 wouldn't click home properly when mounting it (though the 85/2.8 and 28/2.8 were fine).

As a result I just wasn't using them at all, so I finally bit the bullet and purchased a Novoflex C/Y to NEX adapter last week and it's cured both problems brilliantly.
 
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rodd1000 said:
With the Sony, looking through the EVF whilst changing settings, you have to wait for the screen to return before selecting to adjust the next setting. Is there anyway of just changing them from one screen on the fly, like the Fuji? As it's much quicker.
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what settings are you adjusting?
 
Hmm, that's a beast then :0)

http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sony-a7rii-specs/

42MP Full-Frame Exmor R BSI CMOS Sensor
BIONZ X Image Processor
5-Axis SteadyShot INSIDE Stabilization
399 Phase-Detect AF Points & 5 fps Burst
Internal 4K XAVC S Video & S-Log2 Gamma
Weather-Resistant Magnesium Alloy Body
Built-In Wi-Fi Connectivity with NFC
ISO 102,400
no shutter blade motion
3,5x faster than the A7r
A7rII focus is almost 40% faster than the one of the A7r
Shipping in August
 
Musicman said:
More of an FYI: I'd been suffering dreadful problems with flare with all my Contax lenses with the £10 cheapie adapter I'd bought, plus my 50mm f1.7 wouldn't click home properly when mounting it (though the 85/2.8 and 28/2.8 were fine).

As a result I just wasn't using them at all, so I finally bit the bullet and purchased a Novoflex C/Y to NEX adapter last week and it's cured both problems brilliantly.
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Nvoflex adapters are nice. I have Minolta MD, Zuiko and FD.


stevelmx5 said:
Hmm, that's a beast then :0)

http://www.sonyalpharumors.com/sony-a7rii-specs/

42MP Full-Frame Exmor R BSI CMOS Sensor...
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WoW.

I wonder if there's still a 50mp model on the way?
 
Beyond testing it to see if it worked I've not used my 28-70mm and it's just sat in a drawer but I've been thinking of using it so I took it into the garden and fired off some test shots at various focal lengths and f5.6 and f8 and I think it's actually very good.

This is a 100% crop at f5.6 and 70mm. It's via Photobucket which may well mangle it a bit but it's actually very sharp on my screen and I'm impressed, so much so that I might actually take it out and use it :D



Actually Photobucket has strangled it. Oh well, it is sharp on my screen.
 
New York plus a a7s hehe.

f*** the UK and it's dodgy weather! New York so amazing and a great playground to see how far your a7 type camera can go
 
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