Canon EF vs Sony A?

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dmitrizigany

Veteran
What route to take? Canon or Sony A?
Most things speak in favour of canon, I guess. IS, wider range of lenses, more common etc etc.
Pretty much the only thing that speaks for the A mount is auto focus.

I wonder why Sony is charging so much for their adapter? If they sold it at no profit or even a small loss, more people would take that route and they would make up for it in increased lens sales.

More specifically, I'm looking for a good allrounder for these occasions when you don't have time to change lenses and things are not quite planned so auto focus is helpful.

The way I usually do that with the stock lens or the SEL 50mm I have is that I'm in manual focus but with face detection activated. And then hit the 'push auto' to focus when needed. Works surprisingly well, especially on the 18-200. The 50mm is considerably slower in finding focus and faces.

The new 16-70 f4 OSS would have been ideal if it had been 2.8.

Am I right in that the A mount lenses have phase detection but face detection doesn't work? And they also don't have any stabilisation?

And the canon via Metabones adapter offer IS but no or very slow auto focus? (and obviously no face detection)

I wish sony brought out a 2.8 lens with OSS and a decent zoom range.
Has anyone tried the new 16-70 OSS and 24-70 on an FS700? Do they suffer the same horrible pin cushioning as the 18-105 PZ?
 
The only real reason to consider A mount (IMHO) is if you're going to use the 1635 and 2470 ZA zooms which are really very good. The focus throw isn't too bad, and they have semi hard stops for follow focus units. The image quality (especially on APS-C) is excellent.

The AF is meh, it works, you can one stop focus (just focus to start) but then autofocus is of limited use anyway.

If you're going manual then there is a huge range of older SLR glass that can be really nice. Contax Zeiss are very good.

I'm still waiting for decent e-mount electronic lenses, especially zooms. The recent attempts from both Sony and Zeiss are frankly awful pathetic attempts at lens design, instead relying on electronic compensation to make them anywhere decent. It's a crime they sell for so much...

The new sigma stuff seems very nice though, which is a nod to canon (because i don't think they have A mount versions yet?)

cheers
Paul
 
Clermond said:
2.8 would have added some weight and would have been beyond every budget ;-)
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Well, if they made an APS-C/Super35 version of the 24-70 Zeiss A Mount, it would mean slightly less glass, then add OSS and they could sell it for the same (€1700 or whatever it costs). That would be a killer lens for the FS100/700. Having such a good lens with OSS and good auto focus and face detection would really help sell the cameras too! Shouln't be impossible to make.
 
But I guess it wouldn't sell to any NEX still camera users, and just the FS100/700 market is probably too small to make a lens for. So I guess it depends on Sony's future plans. Maybe they have no plans of releasing any more video cameras with e mount. But if they do, they should really bring out some decent lenses. They dropped the ball on the 18-105 f4 G. If they had made that work and released some more decent power zooms that would make the FS100/700 cameras even more unique, as there's no reasonably priced power zooms for any other S35 video cameras that I know of.
 
I think the main target for this lens is the new Sony full frame mirrorless camera A7 and A7R which have e-mount also.
 
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dmitrizigany, how do you like your SEL 50? I've been curious about that lens. I have a couple Nikon 50s (on speedbooster so they're "wider") but thought the stabilization in the Sony might be cool.
 
I like the SEL 50/1.8. Wish I had the new black one instead of the old silver though! ;)
It hardly weigh anything, so the FS700 almost becomes manageable as a handheld camera without a rig with it. My main issue with the 50mm is that auto focus and face detection seem to be quite a bit slower than with the 18-200PZ.
Thinking of getting the SEL 35/1.8 just because they are useful for hand held. I'm allergic to shaky handheld footage but sometimes you just have to do it, and then OSS/IS is a must (to me). Again, the 18-200 has stronger, 'active' stabilisation.
 
If you got A-mount camera and you use a lot of auto focus, then A-mount lens is the choice.
My suggestion is wait few months 1st then decide if you can. Sony going to release dslr body 4k camera very SOON, still dunno what mount it will be, if it is A-mount, then you can just invest it and maybe future you can use with sony dslr body style camera with good video spec too. Currently Sony also work very hard on E-mount camera, there are some high quality lens come out from E-mount too like the full frame 35mm and 55mm, soon wide angle zoom lens, and now having rumour this sunday release a7s with 4k video, i doubt it =/ i believe both mount will coming out more good quality lenses.

Personally i will use A-mount sony lenses, samyang cine lens and E-mount for my fs700. I using sony adapter too for my A-mount lenses for auto focus shooting, and i already place my order for metabones A to E-mount too while i do not need auto focus and want the extra 1 stop light benefit (mostly will be use in shooting film/night shooting), and i forget to mention i own A-mount camera too. But of course the bad side of sony adapter for A-mount is auto focus only set at f3.5 aperture, so i wait for sony to release some good quality wide angle zoom lens too for my fs700 for auto focus shooting with any aperture and more easy to carry as well.

So my plan is wait and see sony release what camera in this few months, but probably i willgetting both A-mount lenses and E-mount lenses for my fs700. Here is my plan on both A and E mount lenses:
A-mount lenses: Samyang Cine lens (use with metabones for extra light and depth of field for film mostly), long distance zoom lens like 70-200/70-400 (A-mount zoom lens quality is better and available at f2.8, auto focus too) i already own 24-70, 50, 16mm fish eye too, planning to get 16-35mm, but actually still hoping a 16-35mm f2.8 E-mount, but i think they will just release f4 first.
E-mount: Wide angle zoom lens and some high quality prime lens and especially macro lens.

I will wait for another half year to decide which mount i will invest more on it. Samyang cine lens no doubt i will just get A-mount to work with. I take photo too, so bringing fs700 with a-mount camera at same time is crazily heavy, so planning to getting E-mount camera in future(when there is a good spec for video) instead of A-mount anymore, only will concern dslr body shape a-mount camera that main on video.
 
Thanks for sharing, Stuart. Looked good!

The thing is, that most of the time when filming unplanned things I tend to be at f4 anyway as anything else is too shallow. But I also do a lot of things in badly lit places and then f4 is too slow. That lens is so close, but just not right. Damn.
 
dmitrizigany said:
Thanks for sharing, Stuart. Looked good!

The thing is, that most of the time when filming unplanned things I tend to be at f4 anyway as anything else is too shallow. But I also do a lot of things in badly lit places and then f4 is too slow. That lens is so close, but just not right. Damn.
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yep, can't deny I wouldn't mind another stop of light on it ;)

have you looked at the Zeiss Touit prime lenses?
 
Stuart Keasley said:
have you looked at the Zeiss Touit prime lenses?
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I'm going with the Samyang Cine lenses for primes.
But looking for this elusive all round lens for times when there is no time to swap lenses etc. A 16-70 f2.8 OSS with auto focus and face recognition would have been the ideal. Oh, and power zoom. I'll keep dreaming ;)
 
Clermond said:
sel 16-70 Zeiss.
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Yes, most likely mainly geared to the A7/r crowd. But could be an interesting lens for FS700 owners too if it doesn't have the horrible pin cushioning of the 18-105 (which it seems it doesn't). If it was 2.8 it would have been a no brainer to get even if it was a few hundred euros more. Now it's a "close but no cigar" kinda lens.
 
Ok, so today Sony teased with a new 28-135 f4 cine lens, which I guess use the e mount. With that range I'm willing to live with it being only f4. Looks like a really serious lens. Wonder when it'll be released, what it will cost and if it'll have OSS.
image.jpg
 
Stuart Keasley said:
We have the 16-70 F4, we're very happy with it. The following was shot on it, probably at about 21mm from memory.


https://vimeo.com/82280380
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awesome, I've been on the fence about this lens and now definitely leaning towards it. have you shot anything else on this, full wide and open aperture?

I just received the 7Q, so once the camera comes back from the "upgrade" I will be looking for smaller lenses. Currently speed booster + EF glass is great... but with the addition of the 7Q weight and size, i want to cut something down. The 16-70 looks promising.
 
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