p.44 #2 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
mcbroomf wrote:
Seems to be in limbo. I just got a reply from Ilya saying some time this month (May now), but no date ...
Last I heard from Ilija was on April 29 and his response agrees with Michael has indicated. Ilija is supposed to keep me informed at this point so that I can send my A7r in for modification with the shortest downtime.
p.44 #3 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
FYI regarding white balance / color output: Huelight just released their v100 of the A7 color profile, and it seems IMO quite a bit better so far. I just tried it out on some photos taken over the past month. Some of the greenish cast I've seen post-Kolari is removed, and at least yellows and reds are substantially improved.
p.44 #5 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
Okay, I finally received my A7rM, and had some time to test it over the weekend
Quick feedback on how the modded camera performs with my lenses, from widest to longest focal length:
- Canon 17mm TS-E: absolutely no change in behavior, sharpness, CA; even fully shifted I cannot see any difference (after shimming the Metabones adapter - before looked plain horrendous - like a digital holga)
- Voigtländer 35mm f/1.2 II: good improvement in corners, f/1.2 is actually pretty impressive at infinity. There's a portion (mid-zone) where sharpness is not that great up-close, but I'm not sure whether this was the case before. It looks a bit "smudgy" - not horrible but it's there. I'll try to check older shots I took with the original A7r to see if it was already there. No color shift whatsoever, even at infinity. Awesome lens on the A7rM! Also worth noting, great improvement on purple fringing, I was expecting an improvement but was not prepared for this
- Leica Noctilux f/1: No change in sharpness that I can tell (which was already pretty awesome on the A7r - similar to what I observed on my old Leica M9) , maybe a slight mid-zone improvement, difficult to say. As for the Nokton, BIG improvement on the purple fringing! It's almost gone.
- Contax 50/1.4 MMJ: only received this lens while the camera was being worked on, so cannot say if it improved, just posting to give feedback on the lens as it proves to be a lightish combo for a 50/1.4. Focusing is so smooooth! Love it. Since the register distance is long, I would not expect any improvements vs. the original stack. But the lens shines!!! I would not hesitate to use the lens wide open, recommend trying one out if you can!
- Canon EF 85/1.2 I: After shimming the Metabones adapter, I also can't notice any difference, as expected, considering the longish focal length. Razor sharp!
When it comes to WB shifting after the mod, I did not notice a big difference. Maybe the greens look a bit weird in harsh sunlight, but that's just the auto WB going a bit crazy. Manual adjustment of the WB (whether in-camera or afterwards in RAW conversion) fixes this.
The only thing I would recommend is to send your camera with a lens so that Kolari can adjust the sensor position to match the original optical position. On my camera (which I sent without a lens) I had to add shims under the lens mount on the camera to make up for that "overcompensation" that Kolari did for the mod. Not ideal. Even the Hawks adapter could not be adjusted to make up for that difference as the difference was so big (0.2mm approximately).
Overall, very satisfied with the mod! It makes me want to get a Voigtländer Ultron 21/1.8 now, or maybe even test a smaller ultra wide lens (any recommendations? I'm thinking Heliar 15 vIII).
p.44 #6 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
beetlephoto wrote:
Overall, very satisfied with the mod! It makes me want to get a Voigtländer Ultron 21/1.8 now, or maybe even test a smaller ultra wide lens (any recommendations? I'm thinking Heliar 15 vIII).
I think the new 15 would be fantastic, but overall, the world is now your oyster. ZM18 SEM21 SEM24 ZM25 28cron and a bunch of 35s now should all do pretty well. The tiny CVs lenses would still be funky to some degree (though nico makes the 21 work)
Of course the big lenses: 21/1.8 and 35/1.2 are going to be great, but...they are....big. The real point of this mod is get the footprint small and the IQ tall.
A great 28 and one 21 or wider UWA is where I would start.
It's funny, I sent no lens with my A7, but have not needed to shim anything. Good advice to send a lens, though you think they would keep one around at some point.
p.44 #7 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
uhoh7 wrote:
It's funny, I sent no lens with my A7, but have not needed to shim anything. Good advice to send a lens, though you think they would keep one around at some point.
Actually it is more about sending in your adapter, assuming your lenses are identically and properly calibrated. Kolari uses a Zeiss Planar ZM 50mm as a focus calibration reference but still needs to leave some margin for adapter variability to ensure infinity focus. So sending in the camera with your adapter and asking them to adjust for precise infinity should be enough - if your lenses are all the same and correct. Of course, including a favorite lens is an additional option, but I actually don't expect much additional benefit subject to the "lenses being properly adjusted" caveat.
p.44 #8 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
Bump, keeping the thread alive!
Has anyone tried an Elmarit 21/2.8, or a Biogon 21/2.8 on an A7rM? I like the Ultron 21 (looking at the good results from Nico), but I prefer the compacity of the lenses mentioned above.
p.44 #9 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
beetlephoto wrote:
Bump, keeping the thread alive!
Has anyone tried an Elmarit 21/2.8, or a Biogon 21/2.8 on an A7rM? I like the Ultron 21 (looking at the good results from Nico), but I prefer the compacity of the lenses mentioned above.
Why not the SEM 21? Certainly proven to be better than all the alternatives. Leica price is plummeting and I have no doubt you can find one closed to $2k. Certainly you can get a new one from HK dealer for around that.
p.44 #10 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
Because I'd like to avoid to have to correct the color cast, which is still apparently there with the A7rM, plus the WO examples did not convince me completely to be honest. Not saying the Elmarit 21 or the Biogon 21 don't have a color cast, hence my question And to be honest $2K is a lot, I'd like to spend less - around 1k max.
p.44 #11 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
beetlephoto wrote:
Because I'd like to avoid to have to correct the color cast, which is still apparently there with the A7rM, plus the WO examples did not convince me completely to be honest. Not saying the Elmarit 21 or the Biogon 21 don't have a color cast, hence my question And to be honest $2K is a lot, I'd like to spend less - around 1k max.
I might get a loaned ZM 21/2.8 in the future to test it out, but to me the Elmarit 21 (I assume the ASPH one) is not worth the money beside that slight Leica look. Too bad, Biogon G 21 is just too picky, as it's one hell of a lens.
p.44 #12 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
If you are looking for no color-cast in a 21mm, I don't believe we have seen that in any of the compact lens options. The Ultron seems to be the best compromise else you have to go to SLR lenses, with larger adapters.
p.44 #13 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
OK... Too bad. Another option, has anyone tested the new heliar 15mm III on an a7rM? I'd like to see whether the chromatic aberrations and vignetting are minimized on the modified stack.
p.44 #14 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
beetlephoto wrote:
OK... Too bad. Another option, has anyone tested the new heliar 15mm III on an a7rM? I'd like to see whether the chromatic aberrations and vignetting are minimized on the modified stack.
I have just purchased it and it works VERY well on the A7R - a huge improvement over v2 and the original LTM.
p.44 #15 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
mdemeyer wrote:
If you are looking for no color-cast in a 21mm, I don't believe we have seen that in any of the compact lens options.
Michael
Indeed! I believe even on Leica digital bodies (with in-camera corrections applied) some WA lenses still exhibit traces of colour cast forcing additional corrections with computer based editing applications.
hiepphotog wrote: Why not the SEM 21? Certainly proven to be better than all the alternatives. Leica price is plummeting and I have no doubt you can find one closed to $2k. Certainly you can get a new one from HK dealer for around that
We all have different reasons for sensor stack modifications. For me it was the ability to use wide(er) than 35mm RF lenses. Specifically, I was aiming to replace last of my great Zeiss DSLR lenses, Distagon 2.8/21 .ZF with a smaller, lighter Leica/Zeiss equivalent or similar compromise. SEM 21 was the primary candidate: not as fast as some other 21 options, but considering percentage of my shots taken wide open with Zeiss 21 it was a non-issue.
Few months later I am still getting used to SEM 21 focussing-by-tab and less than Zeiss perfect throw, but it's undeniably a great lens, and as hiep mentioned it can be purchased brand new for $2.2k from selected HK stores.
p.44 #16 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
Woohoo, finally I sold my two Contax Jahres and going full M-mount. I should get a Cron 28 next week. Will post my usual test shots when I get it. And my dream lens should follow it in a week.
p.44 #17 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
beetlephoto wrote:
Bump, keeping the thread alive!
Has anyone tried an Elmarit 21/2.8, or a Biogon 21/2.8 on an A7rM? I like the Ultron 21 (looking at the good results from Nico), but I prefer the compacity of the lenses mentioned above.
I do not have to use any correction for colorcast on the A7.mod with the SEM 21. Perhaps the R will need it. I think both biogon and elmarit would do fine. You just shoot a profile for LR and correct there if needed.
For value at 21, nothing can beat the ZM21/2.8. Fantastic lens. Fast also.
@MIchael, TY for explaining the adapter issue. And huge TY again for getting this ball going. The kolari mod has totally resurrected my A7, and I now love the camera. It's getting much more use.
p.44 #18 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
So I got the Summicron 28 yesterday, but didn't have much time to actually take any test shots. So I did aperture series tests today. This lens is a very peculiar one; it has quite a significant forward focus shift going from f/2 to f/4. WO, I would say this lens is just as good as the Lux 50 ASPH, IMO; sharp to the outer 2/3 of the picture, then the edges and corners quickly degrade. So I tried the corner focus trick. As expected, the center is not as good, but the corners show only slight improvement. Now is the peculiar thing, stopping down with the same focus point (i.e. the corners), f/4 on actually yields sharper results across the frame. And this lens has quite a flat field that I much prefer over the Lux 50 ASPH. I'll post the full-res shots later.
