p.114 #1 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
Samuli Vahonen wrote:
The FE55 looks quite disappointing based on first samples seen - big LoCa and some other issues.
The full-sized samples I've seen of the FE55 posted online are the sharpest corner-to-corner images I've ever seen from a ~50mm lens wide-open. I don't recall seeing any LoCa. Do you have some links you can share?
p.114 #2 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
Samuli Vahonen wrote:
Yes, FE35 is quite good, but I doubt it can beat ZE/ZF 1.4/35 or ZE/ZF 2/35 @ f/2.8 (my mostly shoot aperture, due to f/1.4 and f/2 lenses being their best compromize ~f/2.8 what comes to DOF and quality). However to finally get my ideal 3 lens & camera setup I prefer 28mm since 35mm is little too close to 55mm in FOV (and even closer to 50mm before I get my hands to Otus...) and as widest lens to carry with you it's little tight.
Based on fullsize samples online it seems that FE35 beats hands down ZE/ZF 2/28 on sharpness department. I have always tried to avoid f/2 with ZE/ZF2/28 due to the corners, and by f/2.8-3.2 they tend to be quite OK.
I'm afraid that Sony/Zeiss FE wide angle will be 24mm - Sony seems to favor that focal length. I find 24mm almost always too wide, but on other hand not wide enough for crazy shots (where 21mm Distagon is brilliant). For me even ZE/ZF 2/25 feels most of the times too wide, even it's real focal length is 26mm. (reading this please keep in mind that I suck at wide angle shooting, I feel more "home" with normal lenses and short teles). Maybe there will be native FE mount manual focus 28mm Zeiss one day - thou that will be 2015 before we get those lenses so better concentrate to what we have and keep shooting, and later figure out the ideal wide angle lens.
The FE55 looks quite disappointing based on first samples seen - big LoCa and some other issues.
(let's see after 12mths this post and laugh - I would be surpriced if I wouldn't have FE35 or FE55 or both...)
You would probably love the F2 Sonnar on the RX1 given your remarks above. It's far better than the ZE/ZF 35/2 at any aperture and even at F2 gives really nice sharpness over the majority of the frame. It's also wide for a 35mm lens, giving an AOV closer to about 32mm's. Imo, it's the best FF 35mm lens made.
p.114 #3 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
snapsy wrote:
The full-sized samples I've seen of the FE55 posted online are the sharpest corner-to-corner images I've ever seen from a ~50mm lens wide-open. I don't recall seeing any LoCa. Do you have some links you can share?
They do look good, but you need to go look at the Otus, like, right now!
p.114 #4 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
dennishh wrote:
I think they were brilliant by pricing the cameras at this point. It's like buying a color printer they get you for the inks not the price of the printer. Same way with Sony making its money on lenses, adapters and cable releases. If they priced at much higher they would've been in the Nikon / Canon full frame wheelhouse.
It *might* be a brilliant strategy except that there are no lenses to buy! The FE35 is barely in stock anywhere, and the only other available lens, the 28-70, comes only in a kit with the A7, and is not that interesting.
p.114 #5 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
snapsy wrote:
The full-sized samples I've seen of the FE55 posted online are the sharpest corner-to-corner images I've ever seen from a ~50mm lens wide-open. I don't recall seeing any LoCa. Do you have some links you can share?
No link sorry, it's somewhere on this or one of the other Sony threads going on. I remember the webpage (mostly white, it was some sort of review with photos) and photo (tree against cloudy sky), and in websize (very small like 600-800px) the LoCa was clearly visible, didn't need 100%.
Tariq Gibran wrote:
You would probably love the F2 Sonnar on the RX1 given your remarks above. It's far better than the ZE/ZF 35/2 at any aperture and even at F2 gives really nice sharpness over the majority of the frame. It's also wide for a 35mm lens, giving an AOV closer to about 32mm's. Imo, it's the best FF 35mm lens made.
I know I would like RX1(r), now - luckily (for my wallet...) I have somehow avoided RX1(r) stuff until I started to read A7(r) stuff. Didn't know it's actually 32mm, makes me like it even more...
p.114 #6 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
michaelwatkins wrote:
Sony Alpha Rumours posted a new "SR4" rumour about Sony having a 54 megapixel full frame sensor (the NEX-7 sensor grown up one supposes) that depending on cost of production might make its way into cameras by 2015/16.
p.114 #7 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
carstenw wrote:
It *might* be a brilliant strategy except that there are no lenses to buy! The FE35 is barely in stock anywhere, and the only other available lens, the 28-70, comes only in a kit with the A7, and is not that interesting.
That seems to be Sony's Modus Operandi though. Release really enticing bodies without lenses. With Sigma and Zeiss onboard, hopefully in a year there might actually be a native lens selection.
p.114 #8 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
Tariq Gibran wrote:
You would probably love the F2 Sonnar on the RX1 given your remarks above. It's far better than the ZE/ZF 35/2 at any aperture and even at F2 gives really nice sharpness over the majority of the frame. It's also wide for a 35mm lens, giving an AOV closer to about 32mm's. Imo, it's the best FF 35mm lens made.
Agreed, although, for me, I actually wish the RX1's lens was on the "longer" end of 35mm, like the FE35. Of course, cropping is no big deal, but I need more practice with this slightly wider than 35mm lens. I love it for square, though.
p.114 #9 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
Yikes, my camera finally arrived down town and my dealer is even as I type diving into the boxes to charge up the battery pack so it'll be good to go by the time I make my way down there.
p.114 #10 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
michaelwatkins wrote:
Yikes, my camera finally arrived down town and my dealer is even as I type diving into the boxes to charge up the battery pack so it'll be good to go by the time I make my way down there.
p.114 #12 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
I thought Sigma has already stated that they will not be making lenses for FE mount (I thought I read this somewhere in reference to them putting out some mirrorless cameras of their own)? Did I dream this up or has there been some other announcement?
Tariq Gibran wrote:
That seems to be Sony's Modus Operandi though. Release really enticing bodies without lenses. With Sigma and Zeiss onboard, hopefully in a year there might actually be a native lens selection.
p.114 #13 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
My "first look" impressions of the A7 are not good.
Build quality. Plastic body feels every bit as cheap and hollow as the 300% cheaper NEX-6. And since it's a smooth glossy plastic instead of the NEX-6's textured matte, it actually LOOKS cheaper. Battery and SD card doors are going to be extremely easy to break.
Grip. A bright spot. Thank goodness, it is much taller than the NEX's. Only half a finger and a fifth of my palm hang off the bottom. I think with the vertical grip I'd be able to hold it quite comfortably. That's a step backwards from my D700, but hey.
Ergonomics. I hate this retro trend. A lot. No, A7 designer, I don't care that some old film camera some old fogies are nostalgic for had the shutter button there. It's a bad spot. You should've at least tilted it forward some, though it still would've been a bad spot. I can't stop "pressing" the top of the front control dial (aka where the shutter should be). And as others have reported, shutter "feel" is horrible, I can't identify crossover point from AF/AEL to firing (it feels different every time). Also, for ergonomics, none of the buttons (excluding the shutter) have enough "travel," especially the Menu and C2 buttons since they're recessed behind the LCD.
EVF. Panel itself is great. Optics are crap. "Eye point" is too low to use with glasses: I see reflections and severe smearing around the edges. Diopter correction is extensive enough that I can shoot without my glasses (something my D700 can't say, so that is impressive), but I'm too blind to leave my glasses off (and what a pain to push them up every time I want to shoot). Should've put the eyepoint several millimeters farther back (which would've been worth doing just to solve the nose-jamming-into-LCD problem even if it didn't fix the optics) The A99 had great EVF optics, they should've used those.
Shutter Lag. EDIT. I was wrong, there is no shutter lag problem. I was being thrown off by the annoying and super-weird "double cock" shutter sound.
Shutter Blackout. Horrendous. What is going on with this? It's 3-4x the NEX-6 and ~5x my D700. I kept thinking I'd bumped the shutter speed dial to a long exposure time.
Focus magnification. Very minor gripe. One press shows where the magnification "window" will be so you can easily/quickly move it, and a second press is required to actually magnify. I can see how many would prefer this functionality (even though it's probably not necessary since the "window" is far easier and faster than on the NEX's to move during magnification - just spin the control dials), but I wish it could be turned off.
Image review magnification. Another minor gripe. This is really easy and intuitive on the NEX's. Why not here?
I'll be taking it out and shooting with it for a while and taking a look at image quality before I give up on it, but so far it feels like a step backwards from my D700.
p.114 #15 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
Are you insinuating that Rock Huffwell and/or his guest writer are deliberately avoiding spawning a useful and necessarily deeper deeper discussion on the A7 / A7r and adapted lenses?
What possible motivation would they have for skipping over that conversation?
Infotainment at best, pecuniary interest at worst?
Hopefully folks springing good money on the cameras are doing more research than visiting just Huffwell's site. I like his enthusiasm but dislike it when he skims, or skips, over important stuff even as he dispenses buy this or that advice willy nilly.
p.114 #16 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
michaelwatkins wrote:
Are you insinuating that Rock Huffwell and/or his guest writer are deliberately avoiding spawning a useful and necessarily deeper deeper discussion on the A7 / A7r and adapted lenses?
What possible motivation would they have for skipping over that conversation?
It's simple - money. If you read Steve's "review", it's really funny how he raves about Sony, but keeps
the door open with Leica ("feels" better etc). He wants to sell the most expensive stuff, that's his existence.
It's like most big frequent miles bloggers, they are paid by the banks today and they stopped giving honest
advice a while ago. It's all about Chase, Amex etc...
p.114 #17 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
morpheus2891 wrote:
I thought Sigma has already stated that they will not be making lenses for FE mount (I thought I read this somewhere in reference to them putting out some mirrorless cameras of their own)? Did I dream this up or has there been some other announcement?
Oh, that's not good. I thought I had read they were going to support these cameras with FF E-Mount lenses but a quick search turned up the opposite.
p.114 #19 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
Tariq Gibran wrote:
Oh, that's not good. I thought I had read they were going to support these cameras with FF E-Mount lenses but a quick search turned up the opposite.
Zeiss will likely announce their lenses late next year at Photokina but actual availability will be the big question.
As I recall, sometime back it was indicated on SAR that Sigma was supporting the Sony A system and that we would need an A to E adapter (I am not sure which of the Sony adapters) to use the Sigma lenses on the E-mount cameras. Don't quote me on that though. It is possible that that was Tamron or Tamron also made that announcement/decision.
