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Oh drat, the FE-mount Zeiss 35mm/1.4 is a different design from the existing 35mm Distagons. I wonder if it'll actually beat the Sigma now or not.
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Feb 14, 2015 14:47
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Combat Pretzel posted:Oh drat, the FE-mount Zeiss 35mm/1.4 is a different design from the existing 35mm Distagons. I wonder if it'll actually beat the Sigma now or not. It's difficult to imagine Sony releasing that lens if it has anything less than top tier image quality. I'm holding off buying a wide angle until I see how the Sony 35 and new Otus perform.
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Feb 14, 2015 17:27
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Waiting for reviews and MTF charts myself. I'd like an autofocused 35mm, but if the new design is still performing worse than the Sigma Art, I'd rather rely on the lovely CDAF of the EF-FE adapter, especially considering the Zeiss is twice the price of the Sigma.
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Feb 14, 2015 18:06
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Saw a used A7 mark 1 going for roughly 1000 USD with the kit lens, and a used 35mm f/2.8 for about 450. I'm coming from a Canon 7D with 30mm f/1.4, so I'm guessing I'll lose some bokeh here for the size and sensor tradeoffs. There was also an A7 for 250 less body only. I'd also like a telephoto to replace my 70-200 f/4L. Oh and I am dependent on AF. I am useless with MF. Worth the move you think?
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Feb 15, 2015 09:28
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LiquidRain posted:Saw a used A7 mark 1 going for roughly 1000 USD with the kit lens, and a used 35mm f/2.8 for about 450. I'm coming from a Canon 7D with 30mm f/1.4, so I'm guessing I'll lose some bokeh here for the size and sensor tradeoffs. Really, really, really depends on what you intend to do with it. For fun hobbyist shooting, which I will assume based on using a 7D? 100% switch over. Professional or intentions of becoming professional, buy a used 5D2 instead and keep your lenses. I initially planned to switch platforms, but a DSLR is just a much more capable camera when you can't afford to miss shots. Exception for bright, natural light shooting, where the A7 performs on par, but any kind of indoor or low-light setting and a DSLR runs circles around it. And trust me when I say I really wanted to be able to sell my Canon gear and go all-in on mirrorless because it's so much more fun to shoot and much less of a pain in the rear end to carry around. mr. mephistopheles fucked around with this message at 09:37 on Feb 15, 2015 |
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Feb 15, 2015 09:34
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The only EF lens I have is the 70-200 f/4L which I bought for a ludicrously low price. ($650 with bag in near-perfect condition) The 30mm Sigma and the 11-16mm Tokina are both EF-S and are basically worth zip. I never bring my 7D around with me anymore because of the weight, so I'm definitely going mirrorless. Went to a camera show recently and left completely unimpressed with the Oly E-M5 mk2 (lack of bokeh in a 50mm equiv lens) but quite impressed with the a6000 and A7 mk2, but the A7 mk2 is  and while I am all for saving up for it, if I can get an A7 at half that and put it into glass... well, yeah.I have used the super-duper 7D tracking once in the last two years when I went to an F1 race, and I gotta admit I loved it, but it's my least used combo by far. I am definitely a hobbyist but I do expect good performance out of my stuff. Is the A7 (either mark) really that bad in low light? My 7D's AF (and sensor noise  ) fail as soon as I start having to reach over ISO 800 but for daylight it's practically foolproof. The Sigma 30mm ain't exactly a fast focusing lens though, and the 11-16mm ultrawide even slower. The a6000 is really fast, almost as fast as Olympus, while the mk2 isn't bad and I know the mk1 is right on the edge of acceptable. (at least it's not EOS M levels of terrible, and having just tried an EOS M3, the situation there isn't getting much better)So to sum up: I dunno. I'm torn between a6000 for AF and affordable glass, or full frame  . There is nothing for me in missing a shot except for some disappointment, and by moving to a Sony sensor with its better ISO capabilities (and especially a full frame) with what I shoot these days I am going to gain more shots by being able to shoot higher ISO than I will lose through mediocre AF. It's mostly [kai]BOKEH[/kai], better low light, and better stills I'm after if we're ignoring size. (I'd love to not tradeoff speed/AF, naturally, but I think that just comes with mirrorless territory)
LiquidRain fucked around with this message at 09:53 on Feb 15, 2015 |
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Feb 15, 2015 09:48
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Sounds to me like you don't need fullframe, save some bucks and get the a6000 and a good lens/adapter with it instead of an a7 and a mediocre lens.
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Feb 15, 2015 09:55
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LiquidRain posted:The only EF lens I have is the 70-200 f/4L which I bought for a ludicrously low price. ($650 with bag in near-perfect condition) The 30mm Sigma and the 11-16mm Tokina are both EF-S and are basically worth zip. Never used the Mark 2 but the A7 may as well be manual focus only in low light with how lovely it is. What lens would you buy if you got the A7?
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Feb 15, 2015 10:04
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^ can you define low light? are we talking indoors with lights on, bar scenarios, night landscapes, nighttime city skylines...? I have an option of the kit lens for $250 and the Zeiss 35mm f/2.8 for $500, the latter I'd get for sure - I'd want as close to a pancake as possible while being as close to my current walkabout 30mm f/1.4. For others I'd probably either wait to buy or get an A adapter and get used lenses for the rare-case stuff like telephoto, as the FE 70-200 is ludicrously expensive for what it is and how often I'd use it. Renting might be an option here. (I am spoiled by aforementioned super cheap 70-200 f/4L) If I bought an a6000 it'd be the Sony 35mm f/1.8 for walkabout, the ludicrously cheap & plentiful kit power zoom (it's so cheap and small, why not), Sony 10-18mm f/4 (16mm pancake+11mm adapter would be cheaper and smaller but poo poo optics) , and I'd pretty much be stuck with the 55-210 cheap telephoto as a native E-mount option unless I want to start A-mount adapting which opens things up a bit more. The problem is I really like the lenses I have now for my Canon, but I never use them (or the camera) because it's all so big and heavy. Similar (or better) alternatives would be awesome but I guess the wide-open apertures I want are too pricey to be marketable, or the E-mount system is too new. If I had to put a figure on things, I use my 30mm 80% of the time, my 11-16mm 15% of the time, and my 70-200 5% of the time. (but goddamn do I love using it when I can, and it produces just such lovely pictures) I used to have a 17-55 f/2.8 that was on my camera almost all the time, and it remains dear to my heart, but I stopped bringing it around because of the sheer size and weight. (and thanks for the consultations, by the way, this is helping me narrow down the decision a lot, even though my gut is still pulling me towards full frame - I'm guessing most folks in here do MF with adapted prime lenses?) edit: I live in a country that's getting the EOS M3 and I considered it since I could keep my lenses. I've actually tried it in person aaaaand it's rather poo poo, especially compared to the a6000. It'd be a backup to an SLR, it's in no way anything I'd consider as a main camera. LiquidRain fucked around with this message at 10:40 on Feb 15, 2015 |
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Feb 15, 2015 10:18
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Elliotw2 posted:Sounds to me like you don't need fullframe, save some bucks and get the a6000 and a good lens/adapter with it instead of an a7 and a mediocre lens.
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Feb 15, 2015 11:22
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Are you a fan of manual focus? It's an important question since it changes things drastically. Personally, I've been shooting mf since day one on my a7r and it's a joy because of the focus aids and resulting accuracy. I have precisely one af lens which is the ze55, and while the af hasn't failed me, to be honest I don't trust the lack of control (and to be honest, it's less fun!). I'm in a similar situation in that it's just a hobby to me and I'm rarely shooting action, so I'll go mf whenever I can for the focus accuracy and enjoyment. Honestly, I find that nothing beats using an a7 (which offers the best mf aids) with the feel of using quality, dedicated mf lenses. If you want shallow depth of field, full frame wins every time. You can buy a cheap old mf Nikon 50mm 1.4 ai and an adapter for next to nothing and have large aperture, low light fun with that on the a7 all day - that's the lens I started out with on mine, and I had no complaints about the quality and portability. I got an old 28mm Nikon lens as well, and a little Sony bag that just about fit the a7r and my two lenses, and shot entire holidays with that setup while barely noticing I was carrying anything. A big advantage of going down the manual focus route is that you don't have to care about mounting systems, since you can just use adapter for everything. I use Sony, Canon and Nikon lenses on my camera, and switch between them without skipping a beat. Some people don't like adapters for some reason, I'm guessing it's because they shoot with af. In terms of lens options, the world is your oyster if you go full frame manual focus. There's an insane choice of both modern and legacy glass available, for any price range. Personally, I have no problems investing in quality glass because good Nikon mount manual lenses will hold their value for decades, and in general second hand glass is both readily available and easy to sell. Plus, if you ever decide to go upmarket, Zeiss and Leica lenses become an option to you, offering optical (and build) quality that just isn't available to af-only shooters. If you get fed up or decide you can't afford it after all, just throw it on eBay and you'll barely lose anything (or even earn a bit if you're good). That's my personal experience anyway, probably a bit different too many people but that probably just reflects how I got started on this stuff - I hadn't been exposed to dslrs much before I started getting into photography early last year, so I didn't have to care about being used to one thing or another.
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Feb 15, 2015 12:07
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I've honestly never been good at MF, frankly quite terrible at it, and while I used to use it on a Rebel a long time ago I basically went all-in on AF on my 7D about 4 years back. The number of focus points, the speed, and the accuracy just led to the camera having a much much better hit rate much more quickly than I could ever do with MF. The killer continuous tracking was just icing. The MF aids on the A7 would help a good deal here I imagine. I guess what it really comes down to is 1. Learn MF and get an A7 2. Don't learn MF and get an a6000? It just feels like the a6000 isn't that much of a step-up. Just a sideways move for the most part to get things shrunk down, with my main lens going from f/1.4 to f/1.8 and there being no wide-open standard zoom at all. (again I dearly loved my 17-55 f/2.8) I suppose I'm looking for both and I'm seeing the A7 as a way to get a shallower depth of field, better ISO, and smaller size at the sacrifice of AF and burst speed. Curse you Canon for making the EOS M3 so lovely.  vvv yes, I know we're due for an a6100/a7000 practically any day. If I'm going down the APS-C route I'd be waiting. LiquidRain fucked around with this message at 13:45 on Feb 15, 2015 |
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Feb 15, 2015 12:52
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Yeah... I think a lot of people write off mf because they come from a dslr background. Autofocus lenses are terrible for it because you don't get the response, and dslrs are terrible for it because you don't get the speed and accuracy you would from using an evf. I doubt I'd have much, if any, success trying to manually focus an autofocus lens on a dslr, it's difficult to overstate how different that is. I won't try to sell it any more though, can't really explain much more without being hands on. Do bear in mind as well, Sony are due a camera body update announcement imminently (probably within the next month, although no guarantees) so you might want to consider holding out for that - if only because it'll probably mean you can get older bodies a bit cheaper. Jimlad fucked around with this message at 13:33 on Feb 15, 2015 |
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Feb 15, 2015 13:31
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Jimlad posted:Do bear in mind as well, Sony are due a camera body update announcement imminently (probably within the next month, although no guarantees) so you might want to consider holding out for that - if only because it'll probably mean you can get older bodies a bit cheaper. LiquidRain posted:I've honestly never been good at MF, frankly quite terrible at it, and while I used to use it on a Rebel a long time ago I basically went all-in on AF on my 7D about 4 years back Second, with the Sony cameras you get focusing aids in the EVF, both peaking (high contrast boundaries get highlighted) and magnification* (zooming in). While latter doesn't help on action shots, former can help placing focus a little better and quicker (altho your DOF needs to be of some distance, trying to quickly place accurate focus with say 50mm/1.4 on a subject at an arms length or two, that don't work without magnification). And finally, if you spend another 100 bux, you can keep your Canon gear. With slow but accurate AF, tho. *: You can get magnification on Canon, too, in LiveView mode. Personally, I don't dig holding a camera at arms length, tho. Especially when a heavy lens is mounted. Combat Pretzel fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Feb 15, 2015 |
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Feb 15, 2015 14:10
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If you like to do a lot of shallow depth of field, slow photo stuff mf is where it's at. The a7ii is the best camera on the market for mf legacy lenses. Obviously if you do candid street photography, you'll want to af and tracking, which it does fine in okay lighting. Here's two test shots I took with the loxia 50 (native mf prime) using focus peaking and magnified live view in the evf. Ibis while magnified is ridiculously handy.  And a low light example:  Iso 6400 f2 1/125
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Feb 15, 2015 18:13
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Combat Pretzel posted:
You can get one of those magnifying eyepieces for the screen if you don't mind looking like a gigantic doofus
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Feb 15, 2015 18:18
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timrenzi574 posted:You can get one of those magnifying eyepieces for the screen if you don't mind looking like a gigantic doofus He already uses canon, so it's not like he can look any worse.
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Feb 15, 2015 18:19
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Focusing the native and manual Mitakon 50mm/0.95 with the EVF, works just awesome. Westwall by cerealbawx, on Flickr
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Feb 15, 2015 18:58
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I think I might go with the Fuji X-T1, actually. It has a much better lens ecosystem than the crop E-mount, good AF, and is still significantly less expensive than the A7 & friends. Wish I'd paid attention to it earlier. Thanks, thread.
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Feb 16, 2015 07:11
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It's p great and so's the fuji glass, you'll most probably love it.
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Feb 16, 2015 21:15
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I had my A77ii out of the house for the first time this weekend. My first impression from playing with it when it first arrived was that I was going to regret my purchase based on the battery life. But when I took it out to shoot the Honolulu Chinese New Year parade, I quickly realized I had bought the right camera. Out of about 400 shots, only ~5 were taken with the viewfinder. The others were taken by reaching the camera over and around other people in the dense crowd, using the rear screen. Having full autofocus performance in live view turned out to be a huge deal.   Then after the parade, I swapped out my A77ii for my NEX-5T, since it was much less unwieldy when among the crowd and drew less attention. That really hammered home the A77ii's advantage - waiting for the NEX to autofocus felt excruciatingly long when stopping to take a shot meant that I was holding up a wave of people behind me.  
Nomenclature fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Feb 17, 2015 |
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Feb 16, 2015 23:28
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Some Spanish photography magazine interviewed some Sony folks and one tidbit that came out of it was that the current FE lenses can resolve a future 50MP sensor. Two things can be assumed from this, the A7R II is real and coming, and the Zeiss 35mm may just beat the Sigma, making my wallet cry in near future. Also, that new piezoelectric DirectDrive SSM  system can supposedly keep anything under the phase detection sensors in focus both continuously and smoothly. Do want.
Combat Pretzel fucked around with this message at 14:16 on Feb 17, 2015 |
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Feb 17, 2015 14:13
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Earlier, I posted crops showing that my Beercan wasn't very sharp, which was surprising considering how much praise the lens gets for its sharpness. Since then, I bought a used Sony 50mm f/1.4 and found that its sharpness was horrible until stopped down to f/2.8. So, I started playing with in-camera AF micro-adjustment, and at -15, the difference was amazing. Check out these before and after crops: So, I started wondering if the Beercan had the same problem. At -10, the results were significant:  So, I did another sharpness comparison between the Beercan and my Sony DT 55-300mm F4.5-5.6 SAM. At 210mm, the Beercan (top) still wasn't quite as sharp as the budget Sony, but the difference wasn't noticeable unless you were zoomed into the image.  At 100mm, the Beercan (again on top) still had a tiny bit less sharpness, but I found something interesting. The Sony had a pixel of purple tinting at some black/white edges, but the previously horribly color fringing monster Beercan had none. I will test whether the fringing in bright sunlight has been improved tomorrow. 
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Feb 19, 2015 09:05
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Ended up going with the fe 55, can't wait.
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Feb 20, 2015 17:32
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Google Butt posted:Ended up going with the fe 55, can't wait. Me too. Bought a used copy off ebay that just got here today. So far I love it. Going to take it on a wedding tomorrow and see how it does.
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Feb 21, 2015 08:49
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Some dumb shits in Germany are relabelling the Mitakon f0.95 E-mount lenses and selling them for three times as much. http://www.meyer-optik-goerlitz.de/de/nocturnus-f095-50mm/ http://www.meyer-optik-goerlitz.de/de/nocturnus-f095-35mm/ That this poo poo flies... --edit: Apparently the other lenses they offer are also from Mitakon/Zy Optics.
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Feb 28, 2015 04:54
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