p.1 #1 · Why might my Sony A7rIV overexpose adapted manual lenses?
Playing around with a few Leica lenses on a Novoflex (non-communicative) adapter on my Sony A7rIV I noticed it was overexposing. It does not do this with any of my Sony lenses, or the Nokton E 40mm f1.2. What might be going on?
Sep 06, 2025 at 10:36 AM
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p.1 #2 · Why might my Sony A7rIV overexpose adapted manual lenses?
wolfloid wrote:
Playing around with a few Leica lenses on a Novoflex (non-communicative) adapter on my Sony A7rIV I noticed it was overexposing. It does not do this with any of my Sony lenses, or the Nokton E 40mm f1.2. What might be going on?
What mode are you shooting in? You can really only shoot in aperture priority or fully manual mode with adapted lenses when using a non-communicative adapter. If you are shooting fully manual mode, then obviously you need to increase the shutter speed. If you are shooting aperture priority, then the camera should give you a shutter speed with a decent exposure. If it isn't then check exposure compensation. If exposure compensation is set to zero, then you could adjust that to get a proper exposure.
You might also try a different metering mode. I use center weighted for adapted lenses. I think the vignetting that is common in the edges and corners can trick the camera into thinking the aperture is narrower than it is if you use a different mode of metering.
p.1 #4 · Why might my Sony A7rIV overexpose adapted manual lenses?
Presumably, you are focusing while stopped down to your desired aperture. In aperture priority, that should be good either way, but if you were shooting in M mode and based exposure on wide open, then stopped down, you’d need to compensate for the change.
p.1 #7 · Why might my Sony A7rIV overexpose adapted manual lenses?
Are the lenses, those that have strong-ish levels of vignetting? If the evaluative metering is sensing the "darkness" of the Zones B/C from the vignetting, it may be overexposing to compensate for those areas. The diminutive size of M lenses can often times bring more vignetting to the table, than larger contemporary glass.
Center weighted / average metering might yield different response vs. evaluative metering.
Run some tests and you may find that something like average metering, combined with -1/2 EC works well (or whatever your testing reveals to you) for those lenses, instead of evaluative metering.
