Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2014/02/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]The Sony a7r is not a perfect camera by any means, but it's good enough that it will be what I take to Italy in a month, leaving the M9 home (or it'll be a backup camera). The Zeiss 35mm ZE optic for the Sony can easily out-shoot the M9 with the Zeiss 2.8 Biogon, which was my main lens. The Biogon at it's best on the Sony is a hair sharper in the center than the FE, but the FE at 2.8 at the edge is essentially equal to the Biogon on the M9 at f8. This is quite an achievement. It may signal that design of wide angle optics for the specific characteristics of the sensor's micro-lenses is needed. We'll see of Zeiss can pull off the same magic when it releases the wider optics. ALL M optics I've tested below 50mm do not work well on the Sony. The edges smear. This is the major disappointment with the camera. The 75mm Leica 2.8 is amazing on the Sony. So, my 2-lens outfit is the 35mm FE and the Leica 75. The Sony auto-iso is not as adjustable as I'd like, but I leave the camera on Manual with auto ISO. There the only issue is that the ISO does not show until I tap the shutter button. But, for control we need to see all three exposure variables -- f-stop, shutter speed, and iso -- in the viewfinder on a continuous basis. Vibration has been a big issue for some, but for hand holding, it does not appear to be very significant. Hands absorb the vibration very well. The Sony is no Leica in terms of smoothness or speed of focusing. Sony has also clearly not matched the M9 in the micro-lens edge performance for RF optics. Also, the higher the MP count is, the worse the problems of ray angle appear to be. It may be the end of relatively symmetrical RF wide angles. Too bad. On the other hand the optics Zeiss has made so far for the Sony are amazing. They appear to have found a price/quality point for aspherics that allows them to make appropriately priced lenses that can handle high MP sensors. I actual shooting, what I notice the most between the Sony and M9 are the electronic level in the viewfinder and the superior quality of the Sony metering. The Leica's focusing speed and accuracy are missed, however. The Sony leveling is allowing superior pan stitching of hand held shots. The Sony meter is sampling 1200 zones. It's essentially automated spot metering -- no need for checking the shot and it's histogram after the fact. You can have a live histogram in the viewfinder, but even where it seemed to be leaving too much room to the right, it turned out there were bright spots that would have "burned out" if the shot were given more exposure. The Sony leaves some tiny spectral highlights that are "burned" (as appropriate), but even there one can almost always recover some detail. At that point you run into the issue that the Sony is compressing the very top highlights. Just below total burn-out the CMOS highlights (as with my Canons) do not seem to be as good as the M9's CCD near-spectral highlights. It's not the ultimate camera, but the Sony a7r is another clear step forward for landscaper work I do. It's a keeper, but I expect in 3 years it'll be obsolete. There is still a lot of room for improvement, and it's no street/people shooter. Paul www.PaulRoark.com On Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 5:43 AM, Sonny Carter <sonc.hegr at gmail.com> wrote: > The A7r is not earth-shattering. It does a nice job shooting my Leica M > lenses, Leica R lenses, Nikon F lenses, and of course the native 35 Zeiss > makes real purty pitchurs. > > The camera is sturdy, fairly easy to handle even with my big paws. I like > the folding screen and live view. It comes to hand real nice. I've been > shooting it since the new year, and almost everything you've seen posted is > from that camera. > > I read Sean's stuff, back when he was a regular guy, not an expert you had > to pay to read, and sometimes I agreed with him and sometimes not. In the > case of corner sharpness, as it applies to my work, well, it rarely does. > Almost everything I do is cropped in some fashion, and even if it isn't, > I'm not wanting you searching out the corners to see how sharp they are. > > At any rate I was pretty happy with shots from my Summilux and the 35 > T*. I even put my Leica 21 that Mark hates on it and played with it. It > was OK. > > In the foregoing graph, I said I was pretty happy with the Zeiss T*. > Actually, I think this camera and this lens were born for each other. > > When I get the swing of them, I think it will feel like I felt with my M7 > and 35mm Summicron. That, my pals, was awesome. > > > Regards, > > Sonny > http://sonc.com/look/ > Natchitoches, Louisiana > 1714 > Oldest Permanent Settlement in the Louisiana Purchase > > USA > > > > > On Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 5:47 AM, Gerry Walden <gwpics at icloud.com> wrote: > > > I agree with Nathan that it doesn't look that earth-shattering. Having > > read their not-so-favorable conclusions, I was then a little surprised to > > read how positive they were in the 'Final Word' section. > > > > Gerry > > > > Gerry Walden > > +44 (0)23 8046 3076 or > > +44 (0)797 287 7932 > > www.gwpics.com > > > > On 19 Feb 2014, at 07:33, Jayanand Govindaraj <jayanand at gmail.com> > wrote: > > > > > http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/sony-alpha-a7r/18 > > > > > > Cheers > > > Jayanand > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Leica Users Group. > > > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Leica Users Group. > > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > > > > > > ? > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >