I was curious to see the effect of EFCS on my 55mm F1.8 ZA, as I often forget to change it. It's On by default on my camera.
Btw, have they implemented an auto EFCS mode in the A1 ? shouldn't be that difficult to add it all A7 bodies.
Some of the bokeh balls are cut in half with EFCS = ON at 1/5000sec, and it looks a bit more nervous, as expected.
I was also surprised to see that the roof of the garage on the right is not the same shape/size. I used a tripod + timer, and repeated the test a few times to be sure there was no user error. I didn't refocus between all the images from [email protected].
So, remember to turn EFCS off when using your brand new 35GM or 50GM wide open ( The 35GM is on my GAS list, it may replace the 55mm )
Was also curious to see the bokeh difference between the Sigma 24-70 @70/2.8 and [email protected]. The depth of field appeared to be a bit shallower with the 55mm, but it's hard to compare 2 different FLs. Not to mention that I the focus point is not exactly the same, definitely not a perfect test. Just to have an idea.
Wow. that's a big difference in busy looking bokeh! If these were two lenses, people would pay 30% more for the lens on the left just because the bokeh is much better.
I am still curious, why this has something to do with the shutter type. Very strange.
On the A1, you just use the electronic shutter all the time and the issues visible using EFCS at high speed is no longer there. You can actually trigger flash using the electronic shutter on the A1.
It seems that Sony took a different route than implementing "auto" shutter -> dropping the mechanical front curtain shutter completely from their latest models ...
Fboss wrote:
Was also curious to see the bokeh difference between the Sigma 24-70 @70/2.8 and [email protected]. The depth of field appeared to be a bit shallower with the 55mm, but it's hard to compare 2 different FLs.
you compared f/1.8 vs. f/2.8, and found that the dof was different? i can't imagine why ;-)
beyond that, longer focal lengths at the same aperture setting typically have more background blur, which gets confused as dof.
afaik, the a1 does not have efcs capability, because it doesn't have a mechanical front curtain shutter?? i couldn't find an efcs setting in the a1 manual.
Both the A9 and A1 do not have EFCS feature since it is not needed. The rolling shutter effect of the electronic shutter (ES) from both camera are not visible. The rolling shutter effect is a major drawback of the A7 series cameras when ES is used for moving targets. The difference between the A9 and A1 in terms of shutter, the A9 needs to use the mechanical shutter to trigger flash while the ES of the A1 can trigger flash. Both can use the fully mechanical shutter if needed though.
osv2 wrote:
you compared f/1.8 vs. f/2.8, and found that the dof was different? i can't imagine why ;-)
Wanted to see how the background blur would compare between 55f1.8 vs 70f2.8 ( a smaller aperture but on a longer FL). I was expecting a different dof but wanted to see the rendering. A ~ [email protected] would probably start to have a similar background blur as the 55f1.8 (at the cost of more compression of the background objects)
AGeoJO wrote:
Both the A9 and A1 do not have EFCS feature since it is not needed. The rolling shutter effect of the electronic shutter (ES) from both camera are not visible. The rolling shutter effect is a major drawback of the A7 series cameras when ES is used for moving targets. The difference between the A9 and A1 in terms of shutter, the A9 needs to use the mechanical shutter to trigger flash while the ES of the A1 can trigger flash. Both can use the fully mechanical shutter if needed though.
Full e-shutter set aside, so the below is only for mechanical shutter:
A1 and A7C don't have a mechanical front curtain and therefor always uses EFCS when set to mechanical shutter.
A9 and A9II does have mechanical front curtain shutters and can toggled to use EFCS or not when used with mechanical shutter.
Sony calls EFCS "e-Front Curtain Shutter" in respective bodys HelpGuide which are my source.
A good effort, very illustrative of the issue. Notice that the OFF images soften the bokeh balls and remove or lessen outer ring effects and half mooning, making ball LoCA much less intrusive, even removing unwanted colour by reducing contrast.
I used to see really obvious LoCA from this lens and wonder how that happened. Maybe this is the trick, I used this one for years and 1000s of images - but on an a7r - and struggled to even see it much.
( The 35GM is on my GAS list, it may replace the 55mm )
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