RT-- wrote:
I was shooting with my 50 today, and it pretty much refused to stay in magnified view at f/2. I'd say on average it held for 2 secs; sometimes it backed out immediately, a couple of times it held for almost 10 seconds.
Next I'll try it on my friend's 7M3 or 7RM3 to see if it's really the A1 that is to blame.
Has anyone contacted Zeiss or Sony about this issue?
edit: Sent a message to Zeiss tech support.
I haven't contacted Zeiss or Sony. My MF lenses are all Voigtlanders and I'm happy with them. I do prefer the Loxia 21 rendering over the Voigtlander 21's (Nokton & Color Skopar) but the Loxia lenses are unusable on my A1. As of now, I've tried 3 Loxia 21's, 2 Loxia 25's, and a Loxia 85. Same problem with all and never have had a problem with my Voigtlanders (12, 15, 21, 35, 40, 50, 65, and 110).
The main two problems are:
1) I am unable to remain in magnified view. About half the time the camera comes immediately back out of magnified view (I have C2 set for magnified view 4.2X, unlimited time). About half the time I will get a few seconds before it kicks out of magnified view.
2) Taking images with the self-timer is almost impossible. On starting an X-second timer, about half the time the timer stops immediately. The other times I get a variable number of seconds before the timer stops. It's unusual when the timer actually completes and the image is obtained.
* The problems seem to occur at any aperture or shutter speed.
* The problems seem more likely to occur if/when I switch between the back LCD and the eyepiece (set on auto).
* The problems seem to be occurring only on the A1.
* The lenses which demonstrated the abnormal behavior (all Loxias that I have used on my A1) work normally on friends' A7RIV's and A9's
If anyone gets this sorted out, please let this thread know about the solution.
Just returned from travel and had a nice package waiting for me. Loxia 21/2.8 from Scott. Put on A1 just now. Magnified view worked fine. Shooting with self timer worked fine. I'm on FW 1.1 so not the latest version. I also have Auto Magnifier in MF set to On.
I continued to have the same problems with other Loxia lenses and one Voigtlander lens. Just sent the A1 in for repair (under warranty) and will follow-up on how that goes.
any updates here?
I have the CV65 and Loxia 21, I have the a1 and had multiple copies of a7siii and a7iv, all of them have this problem at some point, but some more pronounced than others.
Yesterday when I first got the a1 I immediately tried the cv65 it worked perfectly. But today I was trying the loxia 21 and got the problem, now when I switch back to the cv65 I also have the same problem and more severe than any I've seen before, the aperture change command is spammed constantly I can't enter magnifier for more than an instant.
However for my lenses I have consistently noticed that it's much more problematic at maximum aperture, and not so much closed down.
I had this problem with a new CV 65mm, soon after they were released as far as I recall (or after the reviews came in). I returned it immediately for a new one which was and continues to be fine.
My 4 years old Loxia 50 developed a strange problem today. (A7II camera) The electronics keep reading f22 at F2, beyond F5.6 and at certain small steps in between. Does anyone know what is the best tape, or paint to permanently, or rather semi permanently disable the electric contacts? :-)
Does anyone know the intricate workings of the aperture reading mechanism? Could it be dust?
~I tried re-clicking with no success, also my other Loxia is operating just fine.
Sinasina wrote:
My 4 years old Loxia 50 developed a strange problem today. (A7II camera) The electronics keep reading f22 at F2, beyond F5.6 and at certain small steps in between. Does anyone know what is the best tape, or paint to permanently, or rather semi permanently disable the electric contacts? :-)
Does anyone know the intricate workings of the aperture reading mechanism? Could it be dust?
~I tried re-clicking with no success, also my other Loxia is operating just fine.
I have the same problem on my Loxia 35 (that was unfortunately not treated well by the previous owner, though optically excellent). I think it's a lens-internal problem - my guess is that they use a mechanical-electrical encoder to tell the lens electronics which aperture is selected and it's worn out or has mechanically shifted. Mine is usually off by 1/3-2/3 stops but most annoyingly jumps between adjacent apertures randomly which cancels image magnification.
The jumping between apertures is what makes me think it's an encoder issue.
lora_to wrote:
I have the same problem on my Loxia 35 (that was unfortunately not treated well by the previous owner, though optically excellent). I think it's a lens-internal problem - my guess is that they use a mechanical-electrical encoder to tell the lens electronics which aperture is selected and it's worn out or has mechanically shifted. Mine is usually off by 1/3-2/3 stops but most annoyingly jumps between adjacent apertures randomly which cancels image magnification.
The jumping between apertures is what makes me think it's an encoder issue.
That's interesting - I never noticed the aperture shift on mine (CV), but auto-magnification issue happens from time to time...
Just to add another datapoint, I have an A1 with firmware 1.20 and a Loxia 21mm (Ver.01 according to the camera). I bought the lens pre-owned from a forum member here a couple of weeks ago, and it's been well cared-for and is in excellent condition, but it's certainly not new.
I've spent quite a bit of time trying to replicate the problem, but everything's worked properly each time.
Is there any info from users that have experienced the problem with exiting auto magnification, and had it solved?
I recently got the A1 and my Loxia 25mm exits auto magnification at the aperture setting of f5.6. I have not tried de-clicking the aperture yet, but if I move the aperture ring to júst away from the clicked setting, either towards F5 or towards F6.3, the problem goes away, and neither does it occur at any other aperture.
At the same time, this does nót happen when using the A7RIVa, it safely stays in maginified view on that camera. So the issue is not entirely caused by the lens alone, but is also augmented by the body used. The A1 senses the aperture is changing, because the aperture change ends magnified view. Aparently, on my Loxia 25, the clicked f5.6 setting somehow falls right inbetween values that the A1 sees as an aperture change. I wonder how a de-clicked Loxia will behave, perhaps I have to try that.
ChrisMak wrote:
Is there any info from users that have experienced the problem with exiting auto magnification, and had it solved?
I recently got the A1 and my Loxia 25mm exits auto magnification at the aperture setting of f5.6. I have not tried de-clicking the aperture yet, but if I move the aperture ring to júst away from the clicked setting, either towards F5 or towards F6.3, the problem goes away, and neither does it occur at any other aperture.
At the same time, this does nót happen when using the A7RIVa, it safely stays in maginified view on that camera. So the issue is not entirely caused by the lens alone, but is also augmented by the body used. The A1 senses the aperture is changing, because the aperture change ends magnified view. Aparently, on my Loxia 25, the clicked f5.6 setting somehow falls right inbetween values that the A1 sees as an aperture change. I wonder how a de-clicked Loxia will behave, perhaps I have to try that....Show more →
I'm the OP. I had the same problem that you describe with several Loxia 21's and two Loxia 25's on my A1. I finally found a Loxia 21 that worked correctly with my A1. I just bought a new Loxia 25 and now have both the A1 and a new (to me) A7RIV. I'll see what happens when the Loxia 25 arrives...
smpetty wrote:
I'm the OP. I had the same problem that you describe with several Loxia 21's and two Loxia 25's on my A1. I finally found a Loxia 21 that worked correctly with my A1. I just bought a new Loxia 25 and now have both the A1 and a new (to me) A7RIV. I'll see what happens when the Loxia 25 arrives...
I will contact Zeiss on this issue. Not that I believe they will be able to help out, but my Loxia 25 is virtually new, and as said, only shows the behavior with the aperture set to f5.6 (as yet!). I am planning on selling my A7RIVa, but will put that on hold until I hear what Zeiss has to say.
As you said, the Loxia lenses are useless without a way to use focus magnification.
I just finished sending an email to Zeiss in Oberkochen describing the problem.
I de-clicked the aperture ring, but that did not change/solve the behavior on the A1. It now happens between apertures at around f5-f6.3 randomly, and the lens is still usable with some fiddling, but if this get's worse, the lens will be useless.
I asked Zeiss if it is possible to break the aperture communication from lens to camera, and this would make it a dumb lens, with the vignetting correction becoming a real bother, but at least then it will be possible to enter maginfied view manually and stay there without the camera kicking me out of magnified view due to an invalid aperture change detection.
I gues that would also break the automatic jump to magnified view when engaging the zoom ring, but at least I can then use the Loxia on the A1 like I did adapted Zeiss classic lenses on the A7RII.
It would be a real shame to not be able to use such a stunning optic becasue of such a futile problem.
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