ebrandon wrote:
Just wanted to report my findings today with adapters:
LA-EA3
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Sony Zeiss 24-70mm f2.8 v1. Excellent fast, accurate, AF. Will be my go-to lens for this camera.
Sony Zeiss 85mm f1.4 -- No AF. Excellent MF lens on this adapter.
Sony 135mm f2.8/4.5 STF -- Not an AF lens. Excellent on this camera. IBIS really helps.
Sigma 150mm f2.8 OS Macro -- Decent AF. Hunts on low-contrast subjects or in low light.
L
Much more testing to do.
With the 85mm on the LAEA3 are you able to choose the PDAF point, manually focus and then confirm focus with a green blink (on that focus point)?
GMPhotography wrote:
It's not bad it's really just not that useful using 5x when one immediately jumps to focus closer in at 12.5. I don't think anyone focuses at 5x . honestly I wish the 5 x was not even there it's just a extra button push to get you to 12.5 where you want to focus anyway.
Be careful what you read.
On peaking the high setting is nice in low light but can get very busy in good light on the high setting. You really want it as low as possible as that will also be more accurate. When it's too high it goes to contrast levels that maybe not be even in focus. I think this is a issue with folks saying it's not very accurate. You really want the least amount of dancing ants as possible given the light your working in. I learned this using Phase One backs with there focus peaking, the lower the amount the more precise that focus points or areas become....Show more →
I focus, or at least focused a lot before I got the IBIS in the A7R II on the 7.2x magnification, when I was manually focusing longer lenses like APO 135. 14.4x magnification was quite jumpy on my caffeine-addict shaky hands. A7R II with IBIS seems much better with long lenses so I'll propably gonna use max magnification more.
Truth to be told it has been months since I last manually focused in good daytime light. At least until half an hour ago when I went out to test FE 70-200/4 AF-C tracking, Lock-On AF etc. Tested MF too briefly and I for outdoor daytime conditions agree with you, even at full magnification the peaking can be overpowering. Gonna have to learn to remember to have lower peaking level for daytime outdoor.
I use Live View Setting Effect "off" a lot too and given the lens (or at least anything with camera-body controlled aperture) remains wide open during focus that decreases the dancing ants a lot. This way I rarely see too much peaking on highest magnification even with peaking at "high", often it is just the few red blinks from the iris that tells me the focus in the eyes is perfect.
retrofocus wrote:
Same experience with focus peaking. High is okay for landscapes, but cumbersome with more critical shallow DoF shots, for example portraits. I found another good work-around without using the magnification tool to save time to manually focus: set the EVF display to B&W. This works a lot better than color to use focus peaking - especially at a lower amount of the red peaking lines. Much more accurate this way.
For my shooting I have found high very good for indoor eye/iris blinkie hunting with Live View Setting Effect off. B&W is a good tip, used that a lot with Nex-7 due to way noisier EVF in low light, but since it cannot coexist with Live View Setting Effect "Off" I've been using it less lately.
TSY87 wrote:
Just got my A7r2 tonight and yes, the focus magnification is definitely not as good as the a7r... hopefully this can be addressed with a firmware update.
How are you comparing? A7rII at "High" EVF quality setting and at the maximum zoom ratio (12x or whatever)? Is it not as sharp or not zoomed in as much or ??
I just got my A7RII and can confirm that MF magnification at 5X is a big let down when comparing to the A7R at 7.2X. This is for Standard or High quality display. It's pixelated with visible artifacts.
This does not happen at 12.5x which I will use exclusively on this body. IBIS at 12.5x helps a lot with critical focusing and that's a big bonus. Sorry for the bad news guys but I'm afraid the initial reports were actually correct.
If this can't be fixed in firmware, perhaps the option to go straight to 12.5x would be a workaround for many shooters.
Fred Miranda wrote:
I just got my A7RII and can confirm that MF magnification at 5X is a big let down when comparing to the A7R at 7.2X. This is for Standard or High quality display. It's pixelated with visible artifacts.
This does not happen at 12.5x which I will use exclusively on this body. IBIS at 12.5x helps a lot with critical focusing and that's a big bonus. Sorry for the bad news guys but I'm afraid the initial reports were actually correct.
If this can't be fixed in firmware, perhaps the option to go straight to 12.5x would be a workaround for many shooters....Show more →
I have not seen the 5X on the other cameras, so for me, I don't have anything to gauge. What is bad about the 5X.
Also, I have turned off the live view on the LCD before but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to do it now and just use the EVF. I was playing with it the other day, on and off, and have been through the booklet (kind of a cheap book for a camera costing 3200 clams, and through the menus over and over. EDIT: I found it. The wording could leave a lot to be desired, IMO.
Fred Miranda wrote:
I just got my A7RII and can confirm that MF magnification at 5X is a big let down when comparing to the A7R at 7.2X. This is for Standard or High quality display. It's pixelated with visible artifacts.
This does not happen at 12.5x which I will use exclusively on this body. IBIS at 12.5x helps a lot with critical focusing and that's a big bonus. Sorry for the bad news guys but I'm afraid the initial reports were actually correct.
If this can't be fixed in firmware, perhaps the option to go straight to 12.5x would be a workaround for many shooters....Show more →
Is the 12.5x mode basically like the Canon 1:1 mode (10x-'ish') mode? That's the only mode I ever use for critical focusing with Canon LV anyway. Sure the intermediate zoom looks nice, but it's not nearly enough for me to get a good focus anyway so I've never used it other than for a few quick test tries.
skibum5 wrote:
Is the 12.5x mode basically like the Canon 1:1 mode (10x-'ish') mode? That's the only mode I ever use for critical focusing with Canon LV anyway. Sure the intermediate zoom looks nice, but it's not nearly enough for me to get a good focus anyway so I've never used it other than for a few quick test tries.
I agree that 12.5x mode should be used for critical focusing anyways and I'm happy it looks great. I was confirming early reports indicating that the 5X magnification was inferior comparing to the first magnification (7.2X) from the A7R body.
I honestly just jump right to the max anyway.
I mean that is the purpose to zoom in anyway. No skin off my back about 5x. IMHO very minor issue but sure love to see a firmware adjustment .
Fred Miranda wrote:
I just got my A7RII and can confirm that MF magnification at 5X is a big let down when comparing to the A7R at 7.2X. This is for Standard or High quality display. It's pixelated with visible artifacts.
This does not happen at 12.5x which I will use exclusively on this body. IBIS at 12.5x helps a lot with critical focusing and that's a big bonus. Sorry for the bad news guys but I'm afraid the initial reports were actually correct.
If this can't be fixed in firmware, perhaps the option to go straight to 12.5x would be a workaround for many shooters....Show more →
It would also be nice if Sony modified the firmware to return to the same magnification after taking an exposure like Olympus MILC supports - this is incredibly helpful when MF across multiple shots for anything that isn't perfectly still.
With the Batista 25 I'm just not seeing any real issue. I can focus at 5x in standard or high. High I have focus peaking and standard seems to fall off. So with native lenses I'm not seeing too much a problem . Must really come down to third party lenses.
I've pretty much decided to finish going native with Sony 70-200 f4 and 24-70 for PR crap. Only manual lens is the VC 15. I don't have any Canon glass anyway so for me I'm better off going Sony if I have to spend the money anyway.
I just got my review sample of the A7R II, and I have to say, even having read this discussion prior, I'm amazed at how terrible the 5x magnification looks with adapted lenses. I can focus just fine with them on my A7 II, but the view is notably worse on the A7R II. It's a lot harder to focus with adapted lenses, IMO. The bigger EVF is nice when not enlarging, but yuck on the 5x.
Aug 14, 2015 at 11:31 AM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
Jman13 wrote:
I just got my review sample of the A7R II, and I have to say, even having read this discussion prior, I'm amazed at how terrible the 5x magnification looks with adapted lenses. I can focus just fine with them on my A7 II, but the view is notably worse on the A7R II. It's a lot harder to focus with adapted lenses, IMO. The bigger EVF is nice when not enlarging, but yuck on the 5x.
It's OK. I have the EVF set to high quality, but the best I can describe it is it's 'fuzzy' when magnified. One thing that's nice to see, having never shot with the original A7R (24MP was the highest resolution I'd used), is that even my legacy glass is resolving great levels of detail. FD 20/2.8 looks very nice, MD 35-70/3.5 looks great, which surprised me a bit.
On a side note, I only have 1 Canon EF mount lens right now, and it's my old Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX, which, with my cheap Fotga adapter, does not focus fast. It's better on the A7R II than it is on my A7 II, where AF frankly just gives up rapidly, but it takes a solid 3 seconds to lock focus, going back, forth, back forth, in a slowly narrowing window until focus is achieved.
Aug 14, 2015 at 11:48 AM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
Jman13 wrote:
It's OK. I have the EVF set to high quality, but the best I can describe it is it's 'fuzzy' when magnified. One thing that's nice to see, having never shot with the original A7R (24MP was the highest resolution I'd used), is that even my legacy glass is resolving great levels of detail. FD 20/2.8 looks very nice, MD 35-70/3.5 looks great, which surprised me a bit.
On a side note, I only have 1 Canon EF mount lens right now, and it's my old Sigma 50mm f/1.4 EX, which, with my cheap Fotga adapter, does not focus fast. It's better on the A7R II than it is on my A7 II, where AF frankly just gives up rapidly, but it takes a solid 3 seconds to lock focus, going back, forth, back forth, in a slowly narrowing window until focus is achieved. ...Show more →
Do you have the AF set to PDAF only? It sounds to me like that is CDAF instead of PDAF. Changing that setting may help, but perhaps the adapter is compatible with it.
Jman13 wrote:
I just got my review sample of the A7R II, and I have to say, even having read this discussion prior, I'm amazed at how terrible the 5x magnification looks with adapted lenses. I can focus just fine with them on my A7 II, but the view is notably worse on the A7R II. It's a lot harder to focus with adapted lenses, IMO. The bigger EVF is nice when not enlarging, but yuck on the 5x.
Is the 5x zoom bad only with legacy glass or equally bad with native? I would find it super odd if they were different. Also curious how it is with Loxia.
I use the standard EVF now and find it works fine. I use it with my Leica glass and can get spot on focussing. I was also using it for some closeups of a spider and the Canon 100L and had no problem on standard EVF and using 12.
