Damn! I'm in the city for my face to face work days and left my gear in the country where I tele-work the rest of the time. Won't be able to try the new firmware up until Friday! Free GAS now that's unusual - GAS in normally expensive.... GMPhotography wrote:
AFS seems just as fast as AFC and I feel a big improvement. I'm literally in the dark with just some can lights on very low.
Mine's also focusing faster with fw 4.0 and a canon FD 35 F/2 in night-time, indoor lighting - I tried the configure app with the new f/w, but its still not finding the adapter, although the update app found it almost instantly. So far I've tried the FD 35, an M-Hexanon 50, an Elmarit-m 90, and a 180 ApoLanthar - all are very usable, particularly with a bit of pre-focus for the Elmarit and ApoLanthar. The big gain is with close up where getting that razor thin dof was always quite hit and miss with manual focus, particularly on a moving subject.
Exciting about the 180 APO Lanthar! My M42 to M adapter (my Lanthar is m42) hasn't come yet. I'm hoping that the TAP will give better results at long distances, where the focus throw of the helicoid is so short that it's tricky to focus manually - the main reason why it has a rep for being less good at distances.
navmannz wrote:
Mine's also focusing faster with fw 4.0 and a canon FD 35 F/2 in night-time, indoor lighting - I tried the configure app with the new f/w, but its still not finding the adapter, although the update app found it almost instantly. So far I've tried the FD 35, an M-Hexanon 50, an Elmarit-m 90, and a 180 ApoLanthar - all are very usable, particularly with a bit of pre-focus for the Elmarit and ApoLanthar. The big gain is with close up where getting that razor thin dof was always quite hit and miss with manual focus, particularly on a moving subject....Show more →
Fred Miranda wrote: Chris_88 wroteFred Miranda wroteUnless the 90/2 AA is way better than the 90/2.5, it's really no contest. I just tested both at infinity (Zeiss 85/4 ZM and Leica 90/2.5) and I confirm my findings. The ZM is very flat field wide open and the Leica has significant field curvature at f/4. (Infinity distance)
Towards the edges, the ZM is much sharper even when focusing on the edge. (which would give a soft center)
At f/8, field curvature is somewhat masked for the Leica but the ZM has a substantial contrast/resolution advantage and it's better corrected for CA.
Perhaps I have a bad copy of the Leica but it's very well centered and razor sharp for portraits. (close distance)
I can post some crops if requested.
I current shoot with three 85-90mm lenses because they excel at different purposes. The 85GM is my go to portrait lens, the Leica 90/2.5 is my travel companion and the 85/4 ZM is my landscape telephoto.I don't have any experience with the 90 Cron, but I don't believe you have a bad copy of the Summarit, Fred, as my experience with it on an a7r is similar to yours. If my memory serves me correctly, stopping down to f5.6 wasn't enough for sharp corners and I usually stopped down to f7.1. I too wondered whether I had a less than perfect copy, since I felt that the 75 Lux I tested at one point was somewhat sharper across the frame at f5.6 than the Summarit. My Elmarit 90 2.8 too is better than the Summarit.
I'd be curious what others with more experience with Leica glass like Charles, think about this, since I found it interesting that the old Lux outperformed the newer Summarit.Perhaps the Summarit is optimized for close distances which I have to confess, it's brilliant at that. I mainly use it for portraits when packing light.
However, as far as my copy goes, the unusual field curvature for a telephoto, lack of contrast and astigmatism towards the edges makes it a poor choice for landscapes.
I may rent the Elmarit and try it out.
I haven't run any side-to-side comparisons (as I'm not good at that), but my Batis 85 reaches excellent sharpness across the frame at least one stop faster than my Elmarit 90. Then again, I like the cooler Leica color rendition and the MF feel of the Elmarit better for landscapes and hence use that far more frequently than the Batis.
I pre-ordered mine several days ago, then unfortunately needed to cancel (within 12 hours even). It says in the details orders are final, so fair enough if they don't accept the request, but no reply from them, not even to say they can't, seems like a great start to customer service :o
I worry what it's like if you have a faulty one.
Can't deny I'll have fun trying it when it does arrive though.
Did the update this morning and I agree, AF is much faster in low light. On my way to exercise class, I snapped a couple out my car window. It's muggy almost hazy morning but AF was quick and no problem at all.
LostBoyNZ wrote:
I pre-ordered mine several days ago, then unfortunately needed to cancel (within 12 hours even). It says in the details orders are final, so fair enough if they don't accept the request, but no reply from them, not even to say they can't, seems like a great start to customer service :o
I worry what it's like if you have a faulty one.
Can't deny I'll have fun trying it when it does arrive though.
FWIW, you can sell it here in no time, and I'd imagine at 99.9% of your original cost due to lack of availability.. I would be amazed if it stays up for more than an hour without an offer.. in fact, someone might even PM you right from this thread, I know there are a lot of lurkers.. :P
BrandonSi wrote: LostBoyNZ wroteI pre-ordered mine several days ago, then unfortunately needed to cancel (within 12 hours even). It says in the details orders are final, so fair enough if they don't accept the request, but no reply from them, not even to say they can't, seems like a great start to customer service :o
I worry what it's like if you have a faulty one.
Can't deny I'll have fun trying it when it does arrive though.FWIW, you can sell it here in no time, and I'd imagine at 99.9% of your original cost due to lack of availability.. I would be amazed if it stays up for more than an hour without an offer.. in fact, someone might even PM you right from this thread, I know there are a lot of lurkers.. :P
Good point I've got a couple of Sony lenses in the Buy Sell forum right now (35mm f/2.8 at $499 and 70-200) so I might have some positive feedback by then too, to help the Techart Pro sale.
LostBoyNZ wrote:
I pre-ordered mine several days ago, then unfortunately needed to cancel (within 12 hours even). It says in the details orders are final, so fair enough if they don't accept the request, but no reply from them, not even to say they can't, seems like a great start to customer service :o
I worry what it's like if you have a faulty one.
Can't deny I'll have fun trying it when it does arrive though.
Regarding a faulty adapter, on the Techart website they say:
"Every product sold through our website or authorised reseller will enjoy 1 year warranty. You may choose to send the product back to our US / UK or Hong Kong warehouse and we will ship you a replacement."
So, I updated both of my TechArt Pro adapters successfully to Version 4. Took about 8 minutes each.
I must have a slower Internet connection than Fred.
First time I tried the blue progress bar got stuck halfway through the download.
No problem. To get the Update application back to its start I had to reboot my iPad3.
With my cameras, an A7r.2 and an a6300, there seem to be problems when trying to write the focal length into Exif.
Sometimes it works correctly, sometimes it doesn't.
Anybody else experiencing the same?
If not - I must be doing something not quite correctly.
Okay initially looks like it's draining battery some. But more importantly and more testing of course. AFS and AFC seem equal now in speed and it really picked up speed a lot. Also wide works just as fast. Off center works you can go part of the way say 3/4 in and still works but if you get too close to the PDAF Area it does hunt. This you need to find the comfort zone . Put on medium spot and just keep moving it over until it starts to hunt. Speed is almost as fast as native so let's say slowest native lens speed maybe faster but I don't want to exaggerate anything but it is quite fast now.
Maybe AFC has a slight edge but I am liking this slightly off center. My EXIF has not changed but I am eating some battery up. Myself I could care less about that but that's me. It maybe faster in brighter light it's raining so still dark and early morning
GMPhotography wrote:
I had to reset the focal length . Seems okay after that but I need to go play . Darn hurricane has clouded everything up here in Phoenix
Thanks Guy. Yup, pretty cloudy and rainy here in the Santa Fe, NM area as well. However, we need the rain!
So check battery
Check off center
Check AFS vs AFC
Speed changes and accuracy
Keep eye on EXIF
Note any command changes . They may have changed things not sure 35 is still F22
Report findings and maybe our friends at TechArt will explain the changes. I looked around and found no data on the version 4
Now battery changes I'm seeing maybe just temporary so don't read to far into the drainage. I do think we should test it tonight with fresh battery install.
I also tried to update after I did last night and it seemed my Bluetooth went off as it should after my update as it could not find the adapter. I'm assuming that means Bluetooth is off.
I hit f90 again and worked. But that maybe not the way. First time I did the update. I tried the update again and could not find the adapter so I'm assuming it's off now. I hope I'm sucking battery pretty hard here