Need a lens for A7s

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DvxHerb

Well-known member
Hi everybody,

I returned my Gh4 and just sold my sigma 18-35 1.8. So I'm looking for a lens for my A7s which arrives today. I also got the Metabones EF to Nex MkIV adapter as well as both Nikon F & G adapters.

Thoughts?
 
I have the Sony FE 24-70/4 OSS lens as my only native-mount glass. It's actually far better than the reviews on the web give it credit for.

Other than that, I have a lot of Canon EF glass and I use it with the Commlite adapter. Just make sure you get the one with the rectangular opening because the one with the round opening vignettes pretty heavily on the full-frame sensor in the A7s.

Canon glass works fine, IS works... but AF is really hunty and only hits about 70% of the time for me.
 
Here's a great stills thread with thousands of samples using a variety of adapted lenses - including adapted EF.

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1255248

I would definitely get the FE 28-70, its cheap (many sell the kit lens in the $250 range), light, has OSS and its a good standard zoom. Beyond that, use everything you have as pretty much any lens will adapt to the E-mount.
 
photochris,

I only have a vintage Nikon 50 1.4 that I'm using today. After selling the Sigma, the only other lens I own is the 12mm SLR Magic MFT lens. Kinda starting from scratch.
 
My plan is to stick to my current set of vintage Leitz glass for the Leica-R mount (24+35+50+90+135+180), using a cheap adapter from ebay that will stay always on the camera. I really love how you can put any glass you want on these mirrorless bodies.

The only lens I may buy specifically for the a7s is some pancake or small prime to make it near-pocketable. Maybe the Sony 35mm f/2.8, if I can save the cash for that one. Does anybody know about a cheap vintage pancake for rangefinders?
 
The Sony 40mm pancake looks nice. The great thing about having a full frame and great ISO performance is that I we can stop down with little worry of noise. So, slower lenses....not that big of a deal with this cam.
 
As others have said, there's a world of possibilities - the great thing about the E mount, which I think is the most interesting mount being used today - I don't know why Sony has not capitalized on it much.

Since you have the Metabones already, which is a fair chunk of change, I would start looking at EF. However, if you haven't opened it, I would consider returning it and putting the money towards other things, because you don't have any EF currently.

I'd get the Fotodiox ND throttle, then get a few Rokinon manual primes: 14mm, 35mm and 85mm. You have the Nikon, so I'd get an nikon to EF adapter for that if you don't have it. So then you have a set of fast primes that work with the ND throttle - essentially giving the A7s a built in ND Filter. Since those primes are manual, you can then use a cheap ($20) ef-E mount mechanical adapter if you don't want the ND in the picture.

I'd then either pick up the E mount 24-70 for a day to day zoom that has autofocus, or wait until more E mounts hit the market, and also consider a long lens if you need it.

The reason to have the Metabones IMO is if you already have a lot of EF Glass, or you want to use modern EF Zooms. I have an EF 70-200 2.8 II (A fair chunk of change), an 2X EF III extender, a 24-105 f4, and a Tokina 16-28 2.8, the 85mm 1.8, and 2 manual m42 primes (50mm 1.4 and 105mm 2.8) so I have about $5000 worth of EF glass already, the metabones makes much more sense for somebody like me. You have a lot of freedom to choose - metabones is an expensive kludge that I would avoid if I could.

As it is, I'm considering selling some of the EF glass - the 70-200, while basically the best zoom on the planet at that range without going to 30,000 cine glass, is heavy and I find I don't use it that much as a result. THe 24-105 is incredibly versatile, but it's easy to find at a cheap price anywhere. The 85mm has little use if I have the 70-200 in my bag, and the Tokina, again, absolute best IQ in a zoom in that range, but doesn't take filters and is a bit big, could be replaced with the Rokinon 14mm or the new Canon 16-35 f4, or even the Tokina 11-16, which could be used on the A7s in APS-C crop mode, or at 15-16mm in full frame mode, and is much lighter and takes filters.
 
Samuel H said:
Does anybody know about a cheap vintage pancake for rangefinders?
Click to expand...

You should be careful with rangefinder lenses on the FF E-mount cameras. Anything wider than 50mm needs to be researched individually. There are issues with borders and corners smearing and purple vignetting. Back elements close to the sensor are killing these cameras.
The A7S is supposedly better than the A7 (which is better than the A7R) in this regard, but you never know.

That said, I like the M-mount Voigtlander Color-Skopar 35/2.5. Not vintage, but decent price.

Edit: Also, beware of long MFD of rangefinder lenses. You can be unpleasantly surprised.
 
cpc said:
You should be careful with rangefinder lenses on the FF E-mount cameras. Anything wider than 50mm needs to be researched individually. There are issues with borders and corners smearing and purple vignetting. Back elements close to the sensor are killing these cameras.
The A7S is supposedly better than the A7 (which is better than the A7R) in this regard, but you never know.

That said, I like the M-mount Voigtlander Color-Skopar 35/2.5. Not vintage, but decent price.

Edit: Also, beware of long MFD of rangefinder lenses. You can be unpleasantly surprised.
Click to expand...

That voigtlander looks great, thanks!

I know abot the thing with the cover glass killing resolution in wide angle lenses (link, link), but it goes away (mostly) when you stop down, and this is not going to be my main lens, just something that I use when I want a pocketable system. In any case, I woun't buy anything until I've tested my 24mm f/2.8 on the a7s, to see how bad the problem really is.
 
Samuel H said:
That voigtlander looks great, thanks!

I know abot the thing with the cover glass killing resolution in wide angle lenses (link, link), but it goes away (mostly) when you stop down, and this is not going to be my main lens, just something that I use when I want a pocketable system. In any case, I woun't buy anything until I've tested my 24mm f/2.8 on the a7s, to see how bad the problem really is.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately your 24/2.8 won't show you what to expect as it is an SLR lens; just how bad a wide rangefinder lens can be on a digital sensor may come as a shock.
With symmetrical rangefinder lenses we are talking back focal distances as low as 12mm (15mm for M lenses) and exit pupils as low as 20mm or less. These lenses can have extreme inclination angles for light rays going into the outer parts of the sensor.
FWIW, my otherwise excellent 25mm Skopar needs to stop down do f11 for decent borders at infinity on a NEX-6 (yes, not even FF).

Initial info on the A7S and rangefinder wides is encouraging though.
 
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