Photo of Blue Flag Irises taken July 2, 2015 at about 9:32 AM, Schoodic Point near Winter Harbor, Maine, Acadia National Park. Image taken with my tripod mounted A7r and my Leica M 90mm f2.5 Summarit lens with my Hawks Factory Helicoid V5, ISO 100, lens set to probably f11 for 1/125 second. Exposure corrected by +0.24 Stops and processed in LR6.
I've always had a major gripe about 85mm lenses I've tried or owned -- none of them have close focusing. Not in the same category, I've always appreciated the Canon 90/2.8 TS-E for it's close-up, near macro, capability. But the 85/1.2L? Nope! I always wanted it to come about 1.5 feet closer for head shot close-ups.
A few years back, I bought the Samyang (B&H branded) 85/1.4. It was cheap, and took good pictures, but I couldn't warm up to its 1m minimum focus distance.
I just ordered a Pixco helicoid EF to FE adapter for the Samyang, and my prayers seem to be answered, at least for a manual focus lens. Here are a few shots of the adapter and lens on a7R, followed by another post with a few quick sample shots this morning.
Fit and quality are very good for an adapter that cost less than $40 shipped from China, by Roxsen on eBay.
On the a7R, with adapter at the "normal" position without extension, the lens focuses just a touch past infinity -- perfect for my needs.
A7RII - The first two photos were taken with an old Minolta MD Zoom 35-70 Macro f/3.5, still one of the sharpest zooms I have ever used. The third shot was taken with the Leica WATE set at 16mm at minimum focus distance.
A few test shots with the Sigma APO 180mm F3.5 Macro, handheld.
It's a Canon mount, using a Fotodiox adapter. AF is VERY much hit or miss, but seems to work acceptably well at macro/close focus distances.
Have a Viltrox vIII on order, as it's supposed to be "better".
For whatever reason, this is more forgiving to shoot with than the Zeiss 100mm Makro Planar, for me.
Seems like a decent, affordable lens.
Excellent shots everybody. This thread is simply amazing. Despite the speed, the quality of the images has constantly stayed on an extremely high level. Kudos to especially the regular contributors.
a7rii with the Loxia 21. This is a single exposure taken at ISO 6400. For whatever reason, stacking didn't work this time, as the colors in the final image were completely washed out.
