foto16 wrote:
Fred Miranda wrote
foto16 wrote
I'm wondering do people use adapted M lenses wide open for serious work?
As mentioned earlier, the thicker cover glass of the Sony cameras will introduce field curvature and make the image soft for an off-center subject, when using adapters because the M lenses are design for a thinner cover glass. This is apparent in Fred's lens reviews (and Philip Reeve's review site). Only when you stop down to f5.6-8 you get sharp edges. So this looks to me just for fun when you already some m lenses but not for serious work.
I'm thinking of adapting a 35/1.4 m-mount lens because the E-mount AF f1.4 lenses are so huge. But I'm not going to adapt a f1.4 lens and only shoot it stopped down to f5.6-8. The main issue is the amplified field curvature introduced by the thicker sensor in M lenses, as they were originally designed for a much thinner stack. The solution is to stop the lens down for a broad depth of field or to modify the Sony camera by reducing the sensor stack. With these mods, AF will still work, there may be challenges with auto WB and the WB presets, requiring custom WB for accurate colors.
Another alternative is to use the full-frame Sony in crop mode, which also helps alleviate the curvature issues to some extent. Does Nikon Z also have this issue, or it has a thinner cover glass than Sony?
Yes, there's a similar issue compared to Sony, contrary to misinformation posted online. It might have a slightly thinner stack than the Sony's sensor stack, but it's not enough to make any noticeable difference.
In my experiments, I found that only the Leica SL sensor stack works well with M-lenses (although still not optimal). This is true unless you're using modified sensors or, of course, M bodies.