p.50 #1 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
Gentlemen, thanks to Alan (aly324) , I got my ZM 35/1.4 today. I am going to show my usual slanted horizon, infinity shot here to show how SHARP this lens is! I'm serious if Zeiss is going to release a 50/1.4 this sharp, I'll have to let my 50 APO go. Zeiss needs to be more involved in developing the ZM line up to the modern standard. The lens is perfect at f/4 .
On a modded cam, there is ZERO field curvature at the corners. I used my usual set-up, Algonquin tripod, Sunwayfoto XB-44, 2-sec delay, no EFCS. There is a bit of de-centering that I might have to send it in for Zeiss service.
This is a cross-post from the ZM 35 thread. This is for the repository of lenses I have tested on a Kolari-modded cam for future Kolari users.
I've only just got my copy of the A7rII and will start putting together the database I posted about a while ago (for the unmodded version), but I'm not expecting much improvement over the A7r. I may get my copy, or a 2nd, modified after a photo trip late this month if Lloyds test show it's a winner.
p.50 #3 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
hiepphotog wrote:
Gentlemen, thanks to Alan (aly324) , I got my ZM 35/1.4 today. I am going to show my usual slanted horizon, infinity shot here to show how SHARP this lens is! I'm serious if Zeiss is going to release a 50/1.4 this sharp, I'll have to let my 50 APO go. Zeiss needs to be more involved in developing the ZM line up to the modern standard. The lens is perfect at f/4 .
On a modded cam, there is ZERO field curvature at the corners. I used my usual set-up, Algonquin tripod, Sunwayfoto XB-44, 2-sec delay, no EFCS. There is a bit of de-centering that I might have to send it in for Zeiss service.
This is a cross-post from the ZM 35 thread. This is for the repository of lenses I have tested on a Kolari-modded cam for future Kolari users.
Wow that is impressive. I see a little bit of aliasing in the second crop at f/4 in the grating material. Reminds me of my ZM 25/2.8 at f/4 on a crop 16mp sensor, so so good. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and send my A7 in. Have any cameras actually been damaged during the mod? I know it's a small risk, but it seems like the likelihood would go down with their increasing experience performing the work on these cameras.
I've only just got my copy of the A7rII and will start putting together the database I posted about a while ago (for the unmodded version), but I'm not expecting much improvement over the A7r. I may get my copy, or a 2nd, modified after a photo trip late this month if Lloyds test show it's a winner.
Mike
Mike, less vignetting and color cast does improve the apparent sharpness a bit (less degradation due to PP), but I agree that there will be no drastic improvement on the smearing end. My Lloyd's Leica subscription will end soon and I don't know if I should renew it. I think after the mod, the A7RII will just behave like all other modded cam (again with the minor improvement due to less PP for cast and vignetting
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uscmatt99 wrote:
Wow that is impressive. I see a little bit of aliasing in the second crop at f/4 in the grating material. Reminds me of my ZM 25/2.8 at f/4 on a crop 16mp sensor, so so good. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and send my A7 in. Have any cameras actually been damaged during the mod? I know it's a small risk, but it seems like the likelihood would go down with their increasing experience performing the work on these cameras.
You would think that any mishap with the mod would be all over the internet by now . I have not come across any incident report so far. He did have some misalignment issues that can be resolved easily.
p.50 #5 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
hiepphotog wrote:
Gentlemen, thanks to Alan (aly324) , I got my ZM 35/1.4 today. I am going to show my usual slanted horizon, infinity shot here to show how SHARP this lens is! I'm serious if Zeiss is going to release a 50/1.4 this sharp, I'll have to let my 50 APO go. Zeiss needs to be more involved in developing the ZM line up to the modern standard. The lens is perfect at f/4 .
On a modded cam, there is ZERO field curvature at the corners. I used my usual set-up, Algonquin tripod, Sunwayfoto XB-44, 2-sec delay, no EFCS. There is a bit of de-centering that I might have to send it in for Zeiss service.
This is a cross-post from the ZM 35 thread. This is for the repository of lenses I have tested on a Kolari-modded cam for future Kolari users.
p.50 #6 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
k-h.a.w wrote:
Many thanks. Impressive performance!
2 questions.
What performance would the lens show on an unmodified A7r2?
Does FE lens performance suffer on a modified A7r2?
TIA.
With kind regards, K-H.
Thank you K-H. I have not done this on an unmodified A7R2, but here is a couple of review of the ZM on other A7 bodies that would give you some ideas (no slanted infinity so you have extrapolate from there.
I have tested only the FE 55 with the modded cam and the difference is only in the extreme corner with slight sharpness degradation (similar to the corner crop of the ZM 35/1.4 at WO above). Lensrental shows slight degradation with MTF measurement. on both the FE 35/2.8 and FE 55/1.8. There is no further analysis anywhere. Personally, I would be most interested in the FE 16-35 performance on a modded cam.
p.50 #7 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
@Hiepphotog or anyone else, are you still satisfied with the g21 stopped down? I recently bought an a7rii and am really tempted to do the kolari mod and give the g21 a try. I almost always crop to square or 4:5 so far corners are not a huge issue. From a cost, size and potential performance it seems tough to beat. I already have a g90 and g45 and would expect some modest improvements with those as well. Batis 25 looks great but I'm mostly looking for lenses for backpacking so size and weight are a serious consideration.
p.50 #8 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
brendans wrote:
@Hiepphotog or anyone else, are you still satisfied with the g21 stopped down? I recently bought an a7rii and am really tempted to do the kolari mod and give the g21 a try. I almost always crop to square or 4:5 so far corners are not a huge issue. From a cost, size and potential performance it seems tough to beat. I already have a g90 and g45 and would expect some modest improvements with those as well. Batis 25 looks great but I'm mostly looking for lenses for backpacking so size and weight are a serious consideration.
You are right to expect modest improvement with the G45 and 90, with more improvement on the G45 (not trivial).
On a modded A7, the G21 is strictly an f/11 lens for landscape regardless of square crop or full frame. You might need to place the focus at the very corner of your frame to get the best near-far sharpness; this works well at f/8 and f/11. So below I attached the frame of reference with a square crop, my "optimized result" from the G21 (no focus adjustment for WO, maximum adjustment for f/11), and the corner difference between optimized and non-optimized results at f/11. I shot a total of 20 pictures (4 aperture series) to find this out .
p.50 #9 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
Thanks a bunch; that's very helpful. Something like the ZM25 2.8 might make more sense; used prices look more reasonable than I expected and from reading through the thread it sounds like it might be a bit more usable at other apertures. Smallish 21-25 is what I'm looking for preferably under $700ish USD...
I guess the other consideration is we haven't yet seen if improvements on the Rmkii are comprable to previous A7x models.
p.50 #10 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
Has anyone tried the Leica 40/2 Summicron-C (or the Rokkor version of the same lens) on a modded Sony camera? I really like the lens, but the corners are aweful on the non modded camera.
p.50 #11 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
Makten wrote:
Has anyone tried the Leica 40/2 Summicron-C (or the Rokkor version of the same lens) on a modded Sony camera? I really like the lens, but the corners are aweful on the non modded camera.
Hi Martin,
I know that Charlie (uhoh7) has and he is/was quite pleased at least at as I recall f5.6 and f8 using the Minolta CLE MC 40mm f2 M-Rokkor lens. He posted some images someplace in thread, but without really checking I am not sure where he posted. But, I believe that it may have been toward the beginning of the thread. The improvement of the performance of this lens and the WATE are the driving force for me to get my A7r modified sometime in the future.
p.50 #12 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
naturephoto1 wrote:
Hi Martin,
I know that Charlie (uhoh7) has and he is/was quite pleased at least at as I recall f5.6 and f8 using the Minolta CLE MC 40mm f2 M-Rokkor lens. He posted some images someplace in thread, but without really checking I am not sure where he posted. But, I believe that it may have been toward the beginning of the thread. The improvement of the performance of this lens and the WATE are the driving force for me to get my A7r modified sometime in the future.
Rich
I'll have to dig then. The thing is that the lens is quite OK at f/5.6-8 even on the stock a7. So I wonder how it does at wider apertures where the curvature of field will be visible.
Edit: I found the images and it still looks just as terrible wide open on the modded camera. :-/
p.50 #13 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
Makten wrote:
Has anyone tried the Leica 40/2 Summicron-C (or the Rokkor version of the same lens) on a modded Sony camera? I really like the lens, but the corners are aweful on the non modded camera.
I use mine on the A7M with nice results. It's my preferred walk-around lens - small, light, and inexpensive. Contrast is a bit soft wide open, but improves a lot at f2.8 and is very good by f4.0. At f5.6 it's very good (sharpness) across the frame. Of course, better is available, but for $400 and the size and weight, it's a keeper for me.
I posted a sample on the A7M group on Flickr... have a look there.
p.50 #15 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
uhoh7 wrote:
RE 40/2: I'm afraid these are after sundown, so not as sharp as with real light, but I think you get an idea of edge performance relative to center:
The two first ones look absolutely terrible, but they are obviously misfocused since the foreground is much sharper than the rest. The rest look good though.
I have the Loxia 35 which is good, but kind of hard to use and a bit unpredictable in its rendering. So I'm wondering if I should send the camera to Kolari and get something else.
p.50 #16 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
Makten wrote:
The two first ones look absolutely terrible, but they are obviously misfocused since the foreground is much sharper than the rest. The rest look good though.
I have the Loxia 35 which is good, but kind of hard to use and a bit unpredictable in its rendering. So I'm wondering if I should send the camera to Kolari and get something else.
Get the mod only when you have more M-mount than just a couple of lenses, or you have a really expensive M-mount . If this Rokkor is $400 and you pay $500 or more for the mod, essentially it's an overpriced lens. Do you have any other focal length in mind?
p.50 #17 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
hiepphotog wrote:
Get the mod only when you have more M-mount than just a couple of lenses, or you have a really expensive M-mount . If this Rokkor is $400 and you pay $500 or more for the mod, essentially it's an overpriced lens. Do you have any other focal length in mind?
Unless Martin has or is going to update, I think he has an A7. So, the cost for the Kolari Mod for an A7 or an A7r is $400. The cost of a Kolari Mod for the an A7II or an A7rII is $500, The 40mm M-Rokkor is so tiny and light it just makes for a tiny and light package that performs quite well particularly after the sensor modification.
In my case, my Minolta CLE MC 40mm f2 M-Rokkor cost me about $500 but it was a M or possibly a M- sample. Also, in my case, having the WATE, I am still really considering the modification to my A7r and to get an A7rII in the future when the price has dropped. Finally though it would probably not make much of a difference with my M 90mm f2.5 Summarit, others have reported improvements with other film based SLR lenses so it may also improve the performance of my R 28mm f2.8 Elmarit V2 and possibly some of my other R lenses.
I'm not writing mom about the corners, but the edges really are pretty good, starting at f/4. I think the real point here is we are getting close to showing the lens "as designed" on a Sony body. Quite something.
The 40/2 is widely loved, but I don't think it was ever supposed to be a flagship. Instead it was a gateway lens to Leica photography on the CL, which was wildly popular to the point it killed the M5. For it's size and weight it's very sweet. A v4 Cron of the same era is way way ahead and small too. The Sonys, even stock, love that lens. Pretty easy to find one for 900 these days. But 40mm is pretty cool FL And the lens is certainly good enough that in the right hands it will make fantastic images; even landscape, on A7.mod of any flavor. I think I paid 325 for this one.
p.50 #20 · A thinner sensor stack may be possible after all!
hiepphotog wrote:
Get the mod only when you have more M-mount than just a couple of lenses, or you have a really expensive M-mount . If this Rokkor is $400 and you pay $500 or more for the mod, essentially it's an overpriced lens. Do you have any other focal length in mind?
The mod will affect other lenses too, since any older manual lens is optimised for film. I can see some Nikkors behaving worse on the a7 than they did on the D700. The cost is nothing I worry about. But I do wonder if the Loxia 35 will be worse or better.
Edit: And if it wasn't clear; I already have the 40/2.
, I got my ZM 35/1.4 today. I am going to show my usual slanted horizon, infinity shot here to show how SHARP this lens is! I'm serious if Zeiss is going to release a 50/1.4 this sharp, I'll have to let my 50 APO go. Zeiss needs to be more involved in developing the ZM line up to the modern standard. The lens is perfect at f/4 
The thing is that the lens is quite OK at f/5.6-8 even on the stock a7. So I wonder how it does at wider apertures where the curvature of field will be visible.
