p.164 #1 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
A7 cameras are like BMWs - bloody malevolent wallet-emptiers. Consult your financial controller.
Joan, the rumours site is reporting an FE G Macro lens to be 'announced' what looks like mid-year, in case you want to factor that into your plans. Of course 'announced' might be different to 'released'. A Zeiss 'fast prime' (thought to be a short telephoto) and wide angle zoom due to be announced in March.
More on the system business: It's easy to see why quality-conscious Leica M users are in the vanguard of a7 interest; the M cameras don't do so well for fast sports, high speed children, etc. No zooms nor nano second AF in them, nor telephotos longer than 135mm.
No one doubts their quality nor complains about their deserved place in the scheme of things though. It's all a matter of perception and doing due diligence on what you want and what you need, then checking that against candidate cameras / systems. One person's functionality is another person's impoverished system, and it cuts both ways.
p.164 #3 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
If i am shooting sports or anything that has a limited time window and a money component: DSLR's with enough repeat shots with chimping to get the focus right.
For everything else: all cameras are good enough. Just that the Sony's are full frame if someone cares about the look.
I wont give much importance to EM5's faster focus vis a vis Sony A7 in that context. It eorks.
All Cdaf cameras are equally accurate when it comes to focus. Thats their generic streanth.
p.164 #4 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
Lloyd Chambers published this:
'I spoke with Sony today (Sony PR and a technical representative in SoCal) regarding the Sony 7R shutter vibration issue.
From the technical representative:
Sony does not agree that there is a shutter vibration issue.
Sony tech suggested they might consider implementing a shutter delay mode akin to something I had suggested (no commitment).'
p.164 #5 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
yes, nanda devi, but the cameras deliver more than a look, e.g. the 55mm FE on an a7, that is something that delivers better images from anything other than an Otus on a D800; it is better by a good margin than any of C/N's normal lenses, all of them.
It turns things upside down when a small mirrorless camera for $1500-1700 and a lens costing $1000 can do that, make better images than pro cameras...make no mistake: the D800 rewrote the IQ book, and was a runaway sales success - it remains the benchmark, and many D800/e users are looking very closely at these Sonys. My point is that many people care deeply about image quality despite the m43 talking up on forums.
It is not supposed to work that way. Pros get the best gear, the plebs copy their buying model - that is the C/N marketing strategy. The a7r drives many of them crazy, it's an extra level up. This is just the start of it, more lenses over the next year might be equally good. I expect as much.
Then even better FE cameras, and Sony would not be so silly not to put most R&D into FE. Zeiss are not making a high performance range of manual focus optics for A mount are they? An exclusive Sony deal most likely unless someone else makes a short reg FF camera...sound of crickets on that front.
p.164 #6 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
philip_pj wrote:
e.g. the 55mm FE on an a7, that is something that delivers better images from anything other than an Otus on a D800; it is better by a good margin than any of C/N's normal lenses, all of them.
That's highly subjective. Technically the 55/1.8 FE might be superior to most 50mm-ish lenses, but the look it provides leaves me cold so far. It's quite agressive. High contrast bokeh, which can also be harsh/nervous at times. There are a lot of lenses that aren't as sharp, but give you a smoother rendering.
There's more to a lens than sharpness for me.
p.164 #7 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
Jochenb wrote:
That's highly subjective. Technically the 55/1.8 FE might be superior to most 50mm-ish lenses, but the look it provides leaves me cold so far. It's quite agressive. High contrast bokeh, which can also be harsh/nervous at times. There are a lot of lenses that aren't as sharp, but give you a smoother rendering.
There's more to a lens than sharpness for me.
Which lenses do you prefer? And it's great that you can mount them on the A7r.
p.164 #8 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
philip_pj wrote:
Joan, the rumours site is reporting an FE G Macro lens to be 'announced' what looks like mid-year...
A Zeiss 'fast prime' (thought to be a short telephoto) and wide angle zoom due to be announced in March.
Grrr... where's the wide prime! That's the lens I really need to make the system viable as a compact travel option, the Samboyang FE mount 14mm and 24mm lenses are just too large for this purpose, and rangefinder wides all seem to suffer the dreaded ray angle problem.
p.164 #9 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
Matt Grum wrote:
Grrr... where's the wide prime! That's the lens I really need to make the system viable as a compact travel option, the Samboyang FE mount 14mm and 24mm lenses are just too large for this purpose, and rangefinder wides all seem to suffer the dreaded ray angle problem.
I would imagine we will have to wait for the manual focus Zeiss this fall.
p.164 #10 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
ken.vs.ryu wrote:
Which lenses do you prefer? And it's great that you can mount them on the A7r.
For example: the 50/1.4 ZE/ZF planar, slightly stopped down if you want smooth bokeh.
The new nikon 58/1.4 also renders much more gracefully than the 55/1.8 FE.
It's just a matter of taste ofcourse.
p.164 #11 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
Hi, just bought the A7, first impressions are very good!!!
One question: how can I set it for use with a remote controller (I have a third party controller, which worked perfectly with my NEX-7 and NEX-6)?
Txs, francesco
p.164 #17 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
The 55mm is fabulous for many things but none of them will satisfy all aesthetic needs which is why people keep lenses for specfic purposes if they can afford it, and good 50s are often cheap.
If you can have just one 50-50mm lens for the money the 55mm is an extremely good choice, it does full view landscape to city to artistic to very sharp near wide open, great corners when you need.
All super accurate great lenses, in terms of raw performance, will need good handling, the 135 APO and the D15/2.8 being cases in point. This is the modern CZ look, to my eyes.
I think also people are still learning the lens. Here is a very nice bokeh shot - first image from thebratts (who is an RX1 shooter, a camera which does this kind of thing as well):
The bokeh is very 'informative' of background object shaping, which is a personal need for me in street work and low light work indoors. Of ocourse it is a match made in heaven with the massive DR of the a7 cameras - which also may account for some 55mm shots that could not have been taken with many other cameras.
Many shots might benefit from less final exposure. But cold and soulless it is clearly not. It reminds me of the D21 actually, that gritty rendition of fine detail. At $1000 it is a bargain. Speaking of bokeh, I am seeing some fine shots made with the 35/2.8 around the image forums.
p.164 #18 · Official: Sony A7 and A7R Fullframe Mirrorless
fracas wrote:
great! txs!!! menu is not that easy :-)
Beware! Setting remote ctrol.on, disables the auto shut-off feature. The camera never 'goes to sleep' unless you turn the main switch off..Therefore, the battery lasts even less than in normal conditions ( which, to begin with, isn't that much )
I discovered that in the hard way..
