[Leica] Leica Lenses on Sony /A7s

[richard at richardmanphoto.com (Richard Man)]

I have no plan of using my M lens on anything other than an M-something,
but your statement that "...No matter what fancy electronic focusing system
is developed in the future there is no way around the fact that you must
focus wide open to nail focus when viewing through the lens." How does that
reconcile with people who are using the M-T240 and the EVF, even the R lens
like George Lottermoser does?


On Sun, Aug 3, 2014 at 1:56 PM, Richard Taylor <r.s.taylor at comcast.net>
wrote:

> I recently tested the new full-frame Sony A7s with a 15mm Voightlander
> Heliar, 28mm Summicron ASPH, 35mm Summicron ASPH, and a 60's era 50mm
> Summilux and thought you'd be interested in the results.   They are shown
> in the links below.  These are all full-size files and will show the
> results most clearly when viewed at 100%.  These were all taken at the
> closest focusing distance which is the worst case.  The corner smearing is
> less at typical working distances.  The camera has only a 12 MP sensor, but
> that is good enough for most of my uses, and the hi-ISO performance, said
> to be spectacular, was worth exploring.
>
> I shot these pictures in RAW and processed them in Lightroom 5.5.  The
> only adjustments I made were to equalize exposures in some instances and
> level those that came out at a small angle.
>
> I think the Leica lenses worked really well.  The smearing in the corners,
> even wide open, may not be serious in practice, unless you put your subject
> in the corners.  The lenses need to be stopped down to at least f5.6 to
> reduce the smearing and f8.0 get rid of it completely.
>
> The A7s is a *really* nice camera.  Only a little larger than an OM D
> EM-1, it produces good-looking, easy to process files and, as you will see
> when you look at these jpgs, the Hi-ISO performance is astonishing.  The
> EVF is excellent and it's easy to see the whole frame even with eyeglasses.
>  With Sony autofocus lenses I think it would probably probably be a gem.
>  If I were buying one though, I'd probably go for the A7 because of the
> higher pixel count even though the hi-ISO noise performance is poorer.
>
> But... focusing was a bear.  Even at the lowest setting, focus peaking was
> sometimes unreliable even wide open.  Stopped down, it was almost
> impossible to use.  I assigned focus magnification to a custom button next
> to the shutter release and, with magnification, focus was almost always
> spot on wide open or slightly stopped down.  Being a disciple of Dr.Ted,
> though--"Oh, look at that:  Wow! click"--that procedure is not for me.  A
> more deliberate shooter might find it just fine.  With wides like the 15,
> zone focus worked well.
>
> I am now of the firm opinion that Leica M lenses are only suitable for
> Leica rangefinder bodies.  No matter what fancy electronic focusing system
> is developed in the future there is no way around the fact that you must
> focus wide open to nail focus when viewing through the lens.
>
> The camera and adapter were rentals and that worked out well.  The
> Voightlander adapter I used has a cool feature.  After releasing a catch,
> it's possible to screw the adapter outward about a quarter inch to allow
> close focusing with Leica lenses.  I tried it.  It works.  But, I didn't
> look at any of the images close enough to say anything about the image
> quality close in.
>
> Here are the results.
>
> 15mm Voightlander Heliar:
>
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/rtaylor/PICKS/a7s_leica_lenses/15+Voightlander+Heliar.jpg.html
>
> 28mm Summicron ASPH:
>
> gallery.leica-users.org/v/rtaylor/PICKS/a7s_leica_lenses/28+Summicron+ASPH.jpg.html
>
> 35mm Summicron ASPH:
>
> gallery.leica-users.org/v/rtaylor/PICKS/a7s_leica_lenses/35+Summicron+ASPH.jpg.html
>
> 60's era 50mm Summilux:
>
> gallery.leica-users.org/v/rtaylor/PICKS/a7s_leica_lenses/50+Summilux+_60_s+era_.jpg.html
>
> ... and, two shots with the 15 and 28 at a local playground:
>
> gallery.leica-users.org/v/rtaylor/PICKS/a7s_leica_lenses/Playground.jpg.html
>
> Happy browsing.  Comments always welcome.
>
> Best,
>
> Dick
>
>
>
>
>
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>



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// richard <http://www.richardmanphoto.com>
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