I am attracted to the idea of having a set of relatively compact sharp primes for landscape photo hikes, where real manual focusing is an asset. The Loxia line is perfect, with all lenses sharing the same filter diameter.
However, I've seen the reports of Loxia lenses popping out of zoomed focus peaking at some apertures with newer bodies. That's unfortunate.
Question for Sony A7RV owners: do you own a Loxia lens that's working properly? I am interested in the 25-35-50-84mm lenses. Just trying to understand whether its a matter of finding a good copy, or they're all problematic.
I've never seen that with my copy of the Loxia 25.
(Ah. "All apertures" you said. I just checked the 25 at all apertures, and the focus peaking is a bit hard to see at f/16 and f/22. But popping out of zoom mode, no. My copy of the 25.)
The Loxia lenses have 2 problems: they don't have a place to grab to take the lenses on/off the camera (I grab the focus ring and twist to the end of the range), and the lens hoods get dislodged easily. Other than that, amazing lenses.
The 21 and 25 are as good as 21/25mm lenses get, ditto for the 85.
The 50/2.0 is the classic 1896 Planar design. Exactly*. (!!!!!!!!!!!) This is seriously amazingly kewl beyond words. From the MTF charts, the 35 and 50 aren't as good as, say, the CV APO lenses, but people really like their color rendition.
old-gregg wrote:
I am attracted to the idea of having a set of relatively compact sharp primes for landscape photo hikes, where real manual focusing is an asset. The Loxia line is perfect, with all lenses sharing the same filter diameter.
However, I've seen the reports of Loxia lenses popping out of zoomed focus peaking at some apertures with newer bodies. That's unfortunate.
Question for Sony A7RV owners: do you own a Loxia lens that's working properly? I am interested in the 25-35-50-84mm lenses. Just trying to understand whether its a matter of finding a good copy, or they're all problematic.
Thanks.
I have a 25 and an 85 at work and a personal copy of the 85. All three lenses work fine without popping out of zoomed focus at any aperture.
Dec 18, 2024 at 07:46 AM
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davidjl wrote:
I've never seen that with my copy of the Loxia 25.
(Ah. "All apertures" you said. I just checked the 25 at all apertures, and the focus peaking is a bit hard to see at f/16 and f/22. But popping out of zoom mode, no. My copy of the 25.)
The Loxia lenses have 2 problems: they don't have a place to grab to take the lenses on/off the camera (I grab the focus ring and twist to the end of the range), and the lens hoods get dislodged easily. Other than that, amazing lenses.
The 21 and 25 are as good as 21/25mm lenses get, ditto for the 85.
The 50/2.0 is the classic 1896 Planar design. Exactly*. (!!!!!!!!!!!) This is seriously amazingly kewl beyond words. From the MTF charts, the 35 and 50 aren't as good as, say, the CV APO lenses, but people really like their color rendition.
I have used extensively the 21, 25, and 85 Loxia. They are brilliant lenses optically. I do have complaints beyond what you mention, however. Let me start out with other nice features. They are built very solidly and I love the focus ring on all the lenses. IMO, it is well damped and just the right focus throw. It also is pretty unusual to have smallish manual focus lenses that are weather sealed. I think that comes at a cost as I think it increases the weight of these lenses as they all seem a bit (21 and 25 ) to a lot (85) heavier than they ought to be.
Like you I also dislike there is no easy place to grab the lenses when mounting and dismounting and yes the hoods and lens caps kind of suck. The hoods are bigger and heavier than they ought to be and do not secure via the bayonet as well as most of my other lenses and like every Zeiss lens I have ever had the lens caps fall off too easily and I end up losing them and replacing them with caps that stay on better.
What I dislike about the ergonomics the most, however, is the aperture ring. It is way too close to the camera, IMO, and it is very thin and not easy to grab. I also need to literally turn the camera around to see it unless I am in front of the camera. I much prefer the aperture ring to be at the end of the lens like it is with Leica M and Voigtlander lenses. One final complaint is that the mechanism to de-click the aperture ring is needlessly difficult to adjust. Many modern lenses it is just a switch. Having to find the tool and change whether the aperture is declicked or not by using it really is more complicated than it needs to be.
FWIW, Map Camera in Tokyo has all the Loxia lenses available, both new and used, with the used lenses available in "excellent", "good", and "ordinary" quality grades (the number of used ones varies with the model, and all the new ones are "limited numbers available". The funkiest 50/2.0 will set you back 57800 Yen, which is well under US$400. (Although the funkiest used ones may not have the hood, so one with the hood may sneak up on US$500.)
Some of the others (25 and 85) can be a bit pricier, though.
(I'm trying to persuade myself to buy the 50/2.0. Like I said before, I really really really like it that it's the 1896 design. I don't need it/wouldn't use it much. But it's soooooooooooooooooo kewl.)
old-gregg wrote:
Thank you, everyone. So it looks like a QC variation between copies.
It could just be wear and tear. It is an issue with the electronics of the lens and not the optics. The lenses work fine if you disable the electronics of the lens by taping over the electronic contacts even if they are having problems if you don't tape over the contacts. Some speculate that if the proper care isn't taken in mounting and unmounting the lenses, and there is only a small place to hold the lenses when doing so, that over time this might damage the electronics. I don't know if that is right, but something is affecting the electronics of some but by no means all of the Loxia lenses.
My new lenses exhibited this from the get go. I don't think it's 100% wear and tear. My "old" Loxia 21 doesn't do it as much as my new Loxia 25 did, and my new Loxia 85 is more well behaved than my 25.
Maybe it's my a7R V. Seems like a lot of people don't have any issues.
tsdevine wrote:
My new lenses exhibited this from the get go. I don't think it's 100% wear and tear. My "old" Loxia 21 doesn't do it as much as my new Loxia 25 did, and my new Loxia 85 is more well behaved than my 25.
Maybe it's my a7R V. Seems like a lot of people don't have any issues.
Have you tried reaching out to Zeiss? There are folks on Reddit who said Zeiss repaired their Loxias (takes many weeks of waiting though) and the supplied paperwork said something along the lines of "replaced aperture encoding". You can probably google it.
Yes, I did. The person I talked to wasn't very knowledgeable. I even mentioned that encoder replacement info. He couldn't confirm, but did say to send it in under warranty. Quite a bit has happened in my life in the past year, and I just haven't sent mine in. I've gotten "used" to dealing with it, but I should send at least send in the Loxia 25. It doesn't happen much with my Loxia 85. My Loxia 21 is well out of warranty as I bought it right about when it was released.
I tried multiple Loxia 25s, 2 new and 2 used, they all did it. Those who have copies that don't do this, hold on to them!
old-gregg wrote:
Have you tried reaching out to Zeiss? There are folks on Reddit who said Zeiss repaired their Loxias (takes many weeks of waiting though) and the supplied paperwork said something along the lines of "replaced aperture encoding". You can probably google it.
I bought a new A7RIII for use with my Loxia 25/50 lenses.
I had issues with the Loxia 25 on the A1, and like the Loxia lenses best (rendering wise) on the A7RII/A7RIII anyway.
I absolutely love the A1 for birding and wildlife, but for travel and landscape photography, I am really content with the A7RIII.
Of course the Loxia lenses work flawlessy on it.
This is a good point, the availability on the used market. I bought it all new, but now... I believe I would get them used if some good copies are available.
davidjl wrote:
FWIW, Map Camera in Tokyo has all the Loxia lenses available, both new and used, with the used lenses available in "excellent", "good", and "ordinary" quality grades (the number of used ones varies with the model, and all the new ones are "limited numbers available". The funkiest 50/2.0 will set you back 57800 Yen, which is well under US$400. (Although the funkiest used ones may not have the hood, so one with the hood may sneak up on US$500.)
Some of the others (25 and 85) can be a bit pricier, though.
(I'm trying to persuade myself to buy the 50/2.0. Like I said before, I really really really like it that it's the 1896 design. I don't need it/wouldn't use it much. But it's soooooooooooooooooo kewl.)
"Maybe it's my a7R V. Seems like a lot of people don't have any issues."
This would be my thought. I bought my first CF express card the other day, and got a couple of "can't enlarge image" messages when I tried to check the focus on a shot I had just taken.
Google revealed that this is a problem that's been reported in the past on earlier a7R models, but didn't find anyone with this problem on the a7RV.
My point being that these cameras are seriously complicated gizmos and it's hard to test them for intermittently occurring errors.
What I'd recommend doing is taking your worst-behaving Loxia with you the next time you go to a camera store and trying it on 2 or 3 demo bodies they have out.
Not a lot of camera stores in central Pennsylvania anymore. Maybe Dan's Camera City near Allentown. The lenses work fine on my a7R III. The people who have these issues are usually using cameras that came after the a1.
In any case, it's annoying, but I've grown accustomed to working around it. Usually you can find an aperture that allows focusing, as long as you don't dilly dally too much.
I keep hoping that every firmware release for the a7R V it will magically disappear.
davidjl wrote:
"Maybe it's my a7R V. Seems like a lot of people don't have any issues."
This would be my thought. I bought my first CF express card the other day, and got a couple of "can't enlarge image" messages when I tried to check the focus on a shot I had just taken.
Google revealed that this is a problem that's been reported in the past on earlier a7R models, but didn't find anyone with this problem on the a7RV.
My point being that these cameras are seriously complicated gizmos and it's hard to test them for intermittently occurring errors.
What I'd recommend doing is taking your worst-behaving Loxia with you the next time you go to a camera store and trying it on 2 or 3 demo bodies they have out.
