I was using it on the v1.8.0 Techart firmware, and the v1.0 A7V firmware. I had to return the Techart before the v1.0.1 firmware came out, before the amazon return window closed. I assume that it's just part of the general "lots of third party lenses are having issues with the A7V" issue. Whether it's fixable on the camera's side, or will require Techart to update, will have to wait and see. I'd also want to hear that someone was having 95-100% success (obviously any AF can miss a shot here or there), for a full session, before trying it out again.
That said, the Sigma 24-70 f2.8 II is a dream, and frankly I probably just don't need to put anything else onto the Sony.
honestly I've never got 95-100% with LM-EA9 and adapted lenses. I uses that with my A7IV to shoot my fast moving cats in AF-C mode close-up though, it's good enough for me. I will test that on A7V more once I have a chance. Initial impression it's similar to A7IV
Hi, some dumb questions. Is it better to use AF-S or AF-C with this? And do people leave lenses wide open, focus and then stop down? Or focus when stopped down?
teraflame wrote:
Hi, some dumb questions. Is it better to use AF-S or AF-C with this? And do people leave lenses wide open, focus and then stop down? Or focus when stopped down?
I haven't used mine recently, but I have used it with many different lenses over time on my A7CII. I always try to shoot mine using AF-C as first option but if it doesn't work reliably, AF-S can be a fallback option to try. I typically always focus my MF lenses at shooting aperture as that's what I prefer, but I find that AF with LM-EA9 can be less reliable (more false positives) at stopped down apertures and some slower lenses never focus reliably with it (especially my MS-Optics H-Prot 40/6.3).
Overall it works much better with some lenses (generally 50mm or longer and fast maximum apertures seem to help) and with some lenses it's so unreliable or troublesome that I would rather never use it with those. I generally want to compose my shot first and focus on desired point (I don't like to focus centrally and then re-compose and with many character lenses that doesn't even work anywhere near accurately enough), and often the desired focus point can be outside of central third of the sensor area. LM-EA9 can be quite restricted when it comes to focusing in any outer areas of the frame, especially with wider angle lenses. I end up using it mostly with longer lenses and mostly when shooting at wider apertures. For stopped down landscape or cityscape type shooting I can't really rely on it to nail focus perfectly and then I'd rather do it manually.
The User Guide (mine came with a Japanese paper prepared by Japanese distributor) says (auto-translated) that:
-----------------------------------------------
In the case of AF (autofocus)
The autofocus speed and accuracy depend on the performance of the camera's image-plane phase-detection sensor and the amount of incident light (lens brightness). Therefore, the smaller the aperture of the lens, the slower the focusing speed becomes, and the more difficult it is for the camera to focus. First, focus with the lens aperture wide open, and then take the picture at your preferred aperture value.
*If you have difficulty autofocusing due to the lens' optical properties, set the camera's focus mode to AF-S and focus using the centra focusing area, or focus manually.
-----------------------------------------------
teraflame wrote:
Hi, some dumb questions. Is it better to use AF-S or AF-C with this? And do people leave lenses wide open, focus and then stop down? Or focus when stopped down?
AF-C works well for me with the 28 and 40 Nokton but need to manage expectations on what the use case really is.
AF-C works well enough for keeping critical focus on subjects that mostly, but not completely still. This is where its really useful for fast aperture lenses as slight movements are enough to throw you out of focus in AF-S.
It is not great for tracking things that are actually in motion across long focus ranges. The mental approach is to allow the lens to pre-focus, and then it will maintain critical focus on a relatively still subject. 85 GM, which I've used for over a decade for wedding and event use, behaves pretty similarly to this adapter so I use the same work-flow as I did with that lens.
The one issue I see with this adapter is that there is a big of lag between hitting the shutter button and the shutter actually opening. It's long enough to screw the timing of opening the shutter up.Not sure if anyone has any tips for eliminating the lag.
For me it generally works a lot better at wider apertures.....say below 2.8.
Once I close down the aperture the focusing gets very unreliable.
All this is on AF-S.
Overall different lenses behave quite differently....some work great, some dont work at all.
My best results are between 40mm to 75mm.
Your mileage may vary.
First of all, I would like to thank everyone here. After a long break from photography, I bought a small A7CR and spent countless hours reading through the Leica and Voigtländer threads on Fred Miranda.
It was both inspiring and dangerous for my wallet!
After a lot of reading, I finally decided to get the Techart adapter and the Kolari sensor modification. Today, it has become my everyday kit.
For those interested, Kolari now offers the sensor glass modification through their European service.
They handle the shipping between Europe and the US, which avoids customs fees and a lot of paperwork.
The whole process took about one month from shipment to return.
My current setup is a Voigtländer Color-Skopar 28mm VM II, a Leica Summicron 50mm v4, and a Tele-Elmarit 90mm f/2.8.
The entire kit goes everywhere with me.
The size is almost ridiculous compared to what it delivers.
For my type of photography, I love the rendering. I mainly use it for family moments, walks, and, of course, my cat.
With the 28mm, I mostly use focus peaking as I find it more practical.
With the 50mm and 90mm, however, the Techart works surprisingly well. It took me some time to develop the right habits: pre-focusing, using AF-C with Eye AF, and assigning focus peaking to a custom button. But once you get used to it, it becomes very natural.
Is it as effective as native Sony autofocus? No, of course not. But for my use, it works well enough that I happily carry and use these lenses every day.
I also have a Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 ZA and a Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 in another bag. When the kids are running around, when the light is challenging, or when I need reliable AF, they are still the right tools for the job.
What surprised me is that they are no longer my default choice. The M lenses have become the lenses I want to use, while the AF lenses are the ones I use when I need to.
My bag vs. my 35mm:
Some pictures taken with the Color-Skopar last week at f/5.6:
Some pictures taken with the Summicron last week at f/2:
Here is an example of what the Techart can do with Eye AF in a real-world family situation:
The funny thing is that I bought the Techart as an experiment, but it slowly turned my M lenses into the lenses I use most often.
Maybe one day I'll replace my Tele-Elmarit 90mm with a Sonnetar 73mm.
Thanks again to everyone on this forum for sharing your experience and helping me build a kit that I genuinely enjoy using every day.
I'm debating between sending in my A7CR or A7RV to Kolari for the UT sensor mod for use with the LM-EA9 and some beautiful (most likely Voigtlander) glass.
On one hand I love how compact the CR will be and I've seen plenty of pictures of that package here on FM/this thread with the Techart adapter, looking sleek. I imagine though, wanting to have each lens share the same filter size so I can bring ND filters in an effort to keep the A7CR shutter speed under 1/1000, so I can shoot wide open in any situation.
On the other hand, the RV gains me the full mech shutter, a much better buffer, and of course that EVF. The over all size will be much bigger than the Q3 I sold, and it does not have the same rangefinder-like aesthetic.
Whichever one I don't send in for modding will be sold off to pay for some lenses.
Regardless, I appreciate this FAQ thread and have read most of the comments. There is such a wealth of information on this forum!
steedad wrote:
I'm debating between sending in my A7CR or A7RV to Kolari for the UT sensor mod for use with the LM-EA9 and some beautiful (most likely Voigtlander) glass.
On one hand I love how compact the CR will be and I've seen plenty of pictures of that package here on FM/this thread with the Techart adapter, looking sleek. I imagine though, wanting to have each lens share the same filter size so I can bring ND filters in an effort to keep the A7CR shutter speed under 1/1000, so I can shoot wide open in any situation.
On the other hand, the RV gains me the full mech shutter, a much better buffer, and of course that EVF. The over all size will be much bigger than the Q3 I sold, and it does not have the same rangefinder-like aesthetic.
Whichever one I don't send in for modding will be sold off to pay for some lenses.
Regardless, I appreciate this FAQ thread and have read most of the comments. There is such a wealth of information on this forum!...Show more →
I'm debating getting the Kolari mod on my a7cr but am worried about impact to WB and how the native Sony lenses I still own will be affected. My main use case for adapting via the LMEA9 is mainly for eye-AF for portrait work...which means I'm typically shooting with a fast aperture and throwing the corners out of focus, so I'm not sure it matters a whole lot. I don't see any with what I've shot thus far, and I do have native Leica M bodies that I would use for landscape type shooting. Would love people's comments here.
With regards to if the LMEA9 can replace the Q3....I have a Q2 so a generation behind autofocus wise, and the LMEA9 with the 28 nokton is actually better than the Q2. AF tracking really will stop in the outer parts of the frame, but you're talking pretty far out..as in outer thirds of the frame where you're not going to be framing anything. I have the 28 and 40 nokton so its kind of like having both a Q3 28 and Q3 43, but I'm not sure if the shooting and carrying experience is quite the same as my Q as it's pretty heavy, unbalanced because the adapter shifts the weight of the lens forward, and kind of goofy looking. I'm a proponent of the LMEA9 for what it is as I'm really impressed with the autofocus experience, but I'd try it out to see if you're in love with the experience for your own use case before you mod the sensor.
Loic H44 wrote:
First of all, I would like to thank everyone here. After a long break from photography, I bought a small A7CR and spent countless hours reading through the Leica and Voigtländer threads on Fred Miranda.
It was both inspiring and dangerous for my wallet!
After a lot of reading, I finally decided to get the Techart adapter and the Kolari sensor modification. Today, it has become my everyday kit.
For those interested, Kolari now offers the sensor glass modification through their European service.
They handle the shipping between Europe and the US, which avoids customs fees and a lot of paperwork.
The whole process took about one month from shipment to return.
My current setup is a Voigtländer Color-Skopar 28mm VM II, a Leica Summicron 50mm v4, and a Tele-Elmarit 90mm f/2.8.
The entire kit goes everywhere with me.
The size is almost ridiculous compared to what it delivers.
For my type of photography, I love the rendering. I mainly use it for family moments, walks, and, of course, my cat.
With the 28mm, I mostly use focus peaking as I find it more practical.
With the 50mm and 90mm, however, the Techart works surprisingly well. It took me some time to develop the right habits: pre-focusing, using AF-C with Eye AF, and assigning focus peaking to a custom button. But once you get used to it, it becomes very natural.
Is it as effective as native Sony autofocus? No, of course not. But for my use, it works well enough that I happily carry and use these lenses every day.
I also have a Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 ZA and a Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 in another bag. When the kids are running around, when the light is challenging, or when I need reliable AF, they are still the right tools for the job.
What surprised me is that they are no longer my default choice. The M lenses have become the lenses I want to use, while the AF lenses are the ones I use when I need to.
Mystik wrote:
I'm debating getting the Kolari mod on my a7cr but am worried about impact to WB and how the native Sony lenses I still own will be affected. My main use case for adapting via the LMEA9 is mainly for eye-AF for portrait work...which means I'm typically shooting with a fast aperture and throwing the corners out of focus, so I'm not sure it matters a whole lot. I don't see any with what I've shot thus far, and I do have native Leica M bodies that I would use for landscape type shooting. Would love people's comments here.
With regards to if the LMEA9 can replace the Q3....I have a Q2 so a generation behind autofocus wise, and the LMEA9 with the 28 nokton is actually better than the Q2. AF tracking really will stop in the outer parts of the frame, but you're talking pretty far out..as in outer thirds of the frame where you're not going to be framing anything. I have the 28 and 40 nokton so its kind of like having both a Q3 28 and Q3 43, but I'm not sure if the shooting and carrying experience is quite the same as my Q as it's pretty heavy, unbalanced because the adapter shifts the weight of the lens forward, and kind of goofy looking. I'm a proponent of the LMEA9 for what it is as I'm really impressed with the autofocus experience, but I'd try it out to see if you're in love with the experience for your own use case before you mod the sensor.
I will certainly purchase the LM-EA9 and a lens before committing. I have another Sony body so I would sort of dedicate the camera to adapted lenses. Fixing the WB shift in-camera seems to make that a non issue, but smearing from wide angle native lenses is certainly a reason to give pause. Thanks for that additional picture. Eye-AF is my main reason for wanting the adapter as well, by pre focusing and then nailing focus with the AF-ON button, I feel like that would be a pleasant experience.
Use this for a low-light event with a7rc + nokton 40. Its not as good as native glass for sure but is a workable solution even in low light provided you are smart about pre-focusing.
