Sony A7s Lens Planning

Samuel H said:
Not really. You'll get about the same smearing as you get when you downsample your current stills to 12MP.
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You're probably right, but I read somewhere (just some random person online) that a sensor that's less densely packed with photosites, with larger microlenses, should make the incident ray problem less severe.

I mean, the A7R has offset microlenses, the A7 doesn't, but the corner/edge performance is similar between the two right? So perhaps a lower-res sensor is indeed less prone to edge smearing, all else being equal. I thought the NEX-5n was better with wide-angle RF lenses than the NEX-7 for this very reason.

I guess we'll find out soon enough.
 
mmm... could be, but since it seems it is created by the thick glass protector, and that one is staying on the a7s, I wouldn't be particularly optimistic. It would be a nice surprise, I'm using my 24mm a lot lately (but I'm usually adding strong vignettes in post, so I wouldn't care that much anyway).
 
I wanted to revisit this thread as my A7S is on its way. I'm really struggling with what to get with this. Now that a lot of you have had time with the camera, what are your thoughts? I have the two native primes but neither are stabilised. Hence I wanted to get a stabilised lens. There'd be a lot of advantages to getting the native 24-70 but it is obviously not had very good reviews. I don't know how greatly this affects video though compared to photography? If I was shooting 1080p video at 24mm f4 would I have equally soft corners as a resulting raw photo would have?

I'm definitely leaning towards getting the 70-200 as I had a play with it and really liked it. I don't know its value though as a video lens as I don't think that'd be my go to range for video. Am I better going with something like a Canon 24-105 f4 or the Rokinon Cine lenses? I just don't know what to get. Would you guys stick to native glass or would you recommend branching out?
 
The 24-70 is a much better lens on the a7s than on the a7r. The corner image complaints arose from testing the 24-70 on the a7r whose image pixels are very small and have an limited angle of image acceptance, and therefore is very picky about what lens it works with, especially with wide angle lenses. The a7s is much more forgiving since it has larger pixels with greater angles of image acceptance. Our team has an a7s and a 24-70, and my impression is that the sweet spot of the lens is indeed 35-55mm, but that the images at 24 are very good, just not great, and no one has ever complained about corner falloff. At least on our sample the weakest point is the overall image at 70mm. However, the micro contrast of the lens makes colors pop at any focal length.

Having said that this lens was the third example that a poor soul, not me thank God, had to test before finding a good one. Decentering problems.

Remember that video crops the corners further reducing any corner problems, which seem to be much worse on the a7r.

As far as the 24-105mm Canon, we sold ours because the image from the Zeiss is much better. Even when shooting with a C100 we found that the image from the Canon f4 70-0200mm IS was far superior at 70mm. Not even close.

Despite the complaints about the 24-70mm Zeiss, our experience is that it was much much superior to the 24-105mm Canon. I have not seen any objectionable soft corners in video mode. Can I pixel peep to find something wrong, yes. But for the money we we are very happy with this lens. When I am just picking up the camera to carry with me, not going to a formal shoot, then it is always the 24-70mm that accompanies me. The only exception is when I want the shallow DOF and wider aperture of the 55, a great lens worth buying the system to get.

If you are going to shoot APC then the 16-70mm Sony Zeiss offers the same FOV as a 24-105mm on FF. The 18-105mm PZ also has a good reputation on APC.

Our FE 70-200mm should arrive soon so I can only go on the experience of others, and that is that the image at 70mm is superb.

In summary we like the 24-70 and feel there is no doubt that our example is much better than the Canon 24-105mm. Ignore tests done with anything other than the a7s, and those seem to be pretty positive.
 
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Would it more fair to compair the sony zeiss 24-70 f4 to the Canon 24-70 IS f4 or to the non stabilized but brighter canon 24-70 2.8 II?
How is the stabilization and focus working on the Zeiss? Did you have a change to compare the image with these 2 canon zooms by chance?
Would be curious indeed to know...

vince*
 
vincent thomas said:
Would it more fair to compair the sony zeiss 24-70 f4 to the Canon 24-70 IS f4 or to the non stabilized but brighter canon 24-70 2.8 II?
How is the stabilization and focus working on the Zeiss? Did you have a change to compare the image with these 2 canon zooms by chance?
Would be curious indeed to know...

vince*
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Don't have the f2.8. Apples to apples would be to compare it with the Canon 24-70 f4 IS and do not have that either. No complaints about focus or stabilization on the Zeiss 24-70mm. Although the focus in still mode is not as fast as with Canons, it is still good and that is a characteristic of the camera and not the lens. In low light it will autofocus but hunt a lot.

I have a EF auto function lens adapter, and simply forget autofocus with Canon lenses and the a7s.

My major focus complaint is that only continuous and manual focus are available in video mode, and the continuous is horrible for video since it constantly tries to refocus and every time it does that the image pops out of focus for a second or so. Single autofocus would be much better. In autofocus the peaking does not show up, and so you have to push the AF-MF button to see peaking, and you need both peaking and autofocus for extreme low light focus quick shots in still.

For some reason it is harder to manually focus with the a7s screen than it was with Canon or GH cameras. The EVF seems to have a slight softness that makes MF a little harder. Not a deal breaker but aggravating.

My major stabilization complaint is that Zeiss will not let Sony make OSS primes, and for video I really miss the Canon stabilized primes, we had the 35 F2. Again very aggravating, not not disqualifying.
 
Very interesting feedback for sure. Sounds like the 24-70 might be the go despite it's issues. I also have the a7r so it's a shame about its performance with that camera. So you guys wouldn't recommend a different lens from another makes in the sort of range? I don't want to go with an APSC lens. Talking about stabilized primes, my number one would be a stabilized 85mm. I'll keep dreaming though! For people who are 5D Mark 3 shooters with the RAW hack, what are some of the most popular lenses for video on that?
 
philiplipetz said:
My major focus complaint is that only continuous and manual focus are available in video mode, and the continuous is horrible for video since it constantly tries to refocus and every time it does that the image pops out of focus for a second or so. Single autofocus would be much better. In autofocus the peaking does not show up, and so you have to push the AF-MF button to see peaking, and you need both peaking and autofocus for extreme low light focus quick shots in still.
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With the A7s set to MF, you can use the button in the AF/MF-AEL switch as a camcorder style push button AF when its set to AF/MF. It behaves exactly like pressing the shutter in AF-s mode.

One thing that does drive me nuts is the fact that in movie mode the focus magnify will only go to 4x, but in stills it goes from 4.2x to 8.3x. With adapted lenses I'm usually in M rather than Movie because of that.
 
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photochris said:
With the A7s set to MF, you can use the button in the AF/MF-AEL switch as a camcorder style push button AF when its set to AF/MF. It behaves exactly like pressing the shutter in AF-s mode.

One thing that does drive me nuts is the fact that in movie mode the focus magnify will only go to 4x, but in stills it goes from 4.2x to 8.3x. With adapted lenses I'm usually in M rather than Movie because of that.
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I am aware that you can push the AF/MFT button BUT the position of the video button makes this impossible without totally reseating my grip since I, and most people, push the video button with my thumb. So, it is there but not really accessible in my shooting style.
 
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My remote turns on video record, and I keep thinking about mounting it somewhere. I certainly will use the remote when the Atomos Shogun ships and I use a rig.
 
I'm trying to decide between the Sony 24-70 f4 or going down the ugly road with the Tamron 24-70 2.8 VC. Obviously there are many reasons why the Sony is better, being native and all. But that f2.8 sure would be nice!

I already have the 55mm 1.8 but really wouldn't mind some OSS for video.
 
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