Just found upon this thread. Phew, just in time, I was considering trading in my A7R4 for an A1. As I own all Loxias and am really fond of them, I'll postpone the upgrade until this issue gets resolved.
addieleman wrote:
Just found upon this thread. Phew, just in time, I was considering trading in my A7R4 for an A1. As I own all Loxias and am really of them, I'll postpone the upgrade until this issue gets resolved.
I am afraid this issue may not get resolved, Zeiss Loxia lenses won't have much priority either with Sony or Zeiss.
I can absolutely use my Loxia 25 on the A1, the problem at this stage is more cosmetic than a dealbreaker, because with a bit of care by means of small nudges to the aperture ring that I de-clicked, at aperture settings around f5.6 I can still get it to stay in maginified view and I don't have the exposure issue, but should it get worse, then the lens cannot be used anymore on the A1.
It is obviously a case where the very fast and responsive A1 reacts to little disturbances in the signal that it gets from the Loxia lens, and these disturbances will likely have to do with the Loxia aperture ring and how the mechanical setting is electronically transferred. I see this not as an A1 issue but as a Loxia issue that was less (or not at all) problematic on previous less responsive and reactive bodies, but that starts to get problematic with the ultra fast and responsive A1.
If it does get worse, I will trade in the Loxia 25 for the 24GM, as I already have the 35GM. I like the Loxia rendering, but the 35GM produces great images on the A1, and the 24/35GM lenses are light enough for travel, so I expect the 24GM to be a good replacement.
I've got a 35mm Loxia that's does the same thing on my A7II - sometimes it's better, sometimes it's worse. When it's not so bad, it's merely annoying. When it's really acting up, it's borderline unusable.
I've considered taping over the contacts, but haven't gone that far, yet.
I finally got a late respons from Zeiss, that is puzzling in more than one way:
"Thank you for your request to ZEISS Customer Care. Please apologize the late reply to your message.
As of now, we are not aware of a general problem of our Loxia lenses in combination with the Sony A1 camera.
Is your Loxia 2.4/25 using the latest Software version 1.20? We generally recommend to always keep lenses update with the most recent firmware."
They seem blissfully unaware of the widespread issues, but that is the way it goes. I referred to this thread for updating their lacking awareness of the issue.
At least as puzzling is the firmware remark. The Zeiss website says that no firmware updates are available nor needed for the Loxia lenses. I responded with the question what firmware update they are referring to, but I certainly would welcome a firmware update to make the Loxia lenses work as intended on the A1. The Loxia 25 positively shines on the A1 and it would be a pity not to be able to use it because of this issue.
ChrisMak wrote:
I am afraid this issue may not get resolved, Zeiss Loxia lenses won't have much priority either with Sony or Zeiss.
I can absolutely use my Loxia 25 on the A1, the problem at this stage is more cosmetic than a dealbreaker, because with a bit of care by means of small nudges to the aperture ring that I de-clicked, at aperture settings around f5.6 I can still get it to stay in maginified view and I don't have the exposure issue, but should it get worse, then the lens cannot be used anymore on the A1.
It is obviously a case where the very fast and responsive A1 reacts to little disturbances in the signal that it gets from the Loxia lens, and these disturbances will likely have to do with the Loxia aperture ring and how the mechanical setting is electronically transferred. I see this not as an A1 issue but as a Loxia issue that was less (or not at all) problematic on previous less responsive and reactive bodies, but that starts to get problematic with the ultra fast and responsive A1.
If it does get worse, I will trade in the Loxia 25 for the 24GM, as I already have the 35GM. I like the Loxia rendering, but the 35GM produces great images on the A1, and the 24/35GM lenses are light enough for travel, so I expect the 24GM to be a good replacement....Show more →
While the 24GM will undoubtedly do just fine, depending on what you shoot, you should maybe hope you can hang on to the Loxia. I have both the 24GM and the Lox, and while I prefer the 24GM for people pics (partly just because it's a bit faster, partly because of it's wider aperture rendering) the Loxia has a gorgeous snappy contrast stopped down a bit, combined with much nicer rendering than is usual with high contrast high resolution lenses, that makes it really special for many kinds of work. It's my favourite Loxia.
DavidBM wrote:
While the 24GM will undoubtedly do just fine, depending on what you shoot, you should maybe hope you can hang on to the Loxia. I have both the 24GM and the Lox, and while I prefer the 24GM for people pics (partly just because it's a bit faster, partly because of it's wider aperture rendering) the Loxia has a gorgeous snappy contrast stopped down a bit, combined with much nicer rendering than is usual with high contrast high resolution lenses, that makes it really special for many kinds of work. It's my favourite Loxia.
I have already come to that conclusion. The Loxia 25 is stunning on the A1, so much so, that I would tape it if the auto magn. jitter would become too bad. For landscapes, it has a unique look that you describe well.
Come to think of it, I've had a few instances of this random aperture number showing in the finder of my A7R2 with the Loxia 35mm. Being an electronics engineer I supposed that it could be caused by an intermittent contact problem, so I moved the aperture ring a few times back and forth and the problem went away. From memory this occurred twice with that lens, not with any other Loxia on any other camera. It also never occurred with the Loxia 35mm on the A7R4.
addieleman wrote:
Come to think of it, I've had a few instances of this random aperture number showing in the finder of my A7R2 with the Loxia 35mm. Being an electronics engineer I supposed that it could be caused by an intermittent contact problem, so I moved the aperture ring a few times back and forth and the problem went away. From memory this occurred twice with that lens, not with any other Loxia on any other camera. It also never occurred with the Loxia 35mm on the A7R4.
On the A1 it is consistent and easy to reproduce. Mine falters at aperture around f5.6. I de-clicked the aperture ring to enable a small nudge to get it out of the fast jumping routine. If it does not progress, I can live with it. Should it worsen, then it becomes a real problem, because there is no way to avoid or stop the jumping. As soon as you touch the focus ring, it goes off on its routine. It is a major engineering flaw, and an illustration of the sometimes problematic support of third party products.
After an inquiry with Zeiss service, I got almost a copy/paste of the same response. Dunno why, but that strikes me as funny when the issue is supposedly unique.
As a follow up, I recently (re)purchased the Loxia 50mm, a brandnew one.
It works perfectly well on the A1, not displaying the issue described in this thread.
I thought hard about buying another Loxia next to my Lox 25, that does act up badly at times, but the images the Loxia lenses produce on the A1 are just so appealing that I decided to live with this issue.
I have also done some experimenting with peaking in the color red, and that also seems to work exceptionally well on the A1, no doubt aided by the very good EVF. In fact, it works so well for the Lox 25, that I am transitioning to MF with peaking for that lens, leaving the dreaded auto magnification bug behind. It is obviously a much better workaround to use peaking on the A1, then taping the contacts in order to make it a dumb lens and set magnification to a custon button. For the Lox 50, the auto magnification is still essential for critical focus with portraits wide open. I would have returned it, if it had had the bug.
Bokehddicted wrote:
FWIW, i have the issue on my A7Siii with my Lox25 and Lox35. Will follow this thread.
Interesting that the newer Loxia doesnt have the issue?
I think it may be the luck of the draw. I have no idea of the numbers of affected lenses though, 1 in 5, 1in 10?
I still have warranty on the L25 until 2024 so will at one stage send it in to Germany.
Bokehddicted wrote:
Thinking out of the box: Maybe the ‚new‘ one doesnt have the problem because of ‚other‘ topics not related to build or firmware.
Like, the contacts are clean and its kinda finicky if its not.
Just thinking out loud.
No, you can skip those ideas completely. I had the L25 on the A7RIVa and it worked 100% fine, and I still had the A7RII, same story.
The moment I put it on the A1, the bug was there, and it never went. There is definitely something wrong with the chip used in the Loxia lenses, or with other electronic parts or even with the mechanical-electronic coupling. As I am now sure of, it does not affect all copies, but it appears to affect a good number of copies. Apparently the A1 has zero tolerance for the disturbances in the signal from the chipped lens to the camera, so lenses that will behave on the A7RIV or A7RII, will act up on the A1.
BTW. I have noticed that going out into full sun on a warm day makes the lens act up to near unusable, while in the evening the issue is again as I am used to. I don't think, as I read on the diglloyd website, that the problem get's progressively worse, but that it acts up very badly in hot weather with the sun heating the camera and lens up.
