Sony NEX-7... Canon.... Wake Up!

Croasdail wrote in post #14505144
A couple of weeks into it with the NEX, and I have to say that the lack of affordable good glass is a real issue. The little pancake wide is no where to be found. The travel oriented 18-200 lenses are all at a steep premium to their standard format siblings. I still very happy with image quality, but the lens problem is a real issue. I am traveling to Spain on business next week, and I have no real lens options.

This could be an issue.

Listen... what's that sound... oh, it's the m4/3 calling.




Seriously, any interchangeable-lens system is only as strong as its lens collection.

(Think about it -- how many of us are still using the first body that got us started in the EOS system?)

RetroBlader wrote in post #14508799
Seriously, any interchangeable-lens system is only as strong as its lens collection.

lens collections can grow. But I want to put Canon lens on a mirror-less system

I'm in the same boat. I had a 5DMII and the weight and high dollar carrying cost made it more of a burden to carry on trips. I sold all my gear after I stopped freelancing.

I'm about to pull the trigger on the Nex-7 today or tomorrow.

watt100 wrote in post #14511309
lens collections can grow. But I want to put Canon lens on a mirror-less system

Sure they can, but there is no guarantee they will grow fast enough....

How long has the Sony Alpha mount been around? I believe it started out as the Minotla Maxxum/Alpha mount back in 1985, and Sony took over in 2006.

Sure, the Alpha lens collection has grown over the years, but how does it compare to the Canon EOS or Nikon F lens collections?




Nobody knows how many lenses Canon will introduce with its mirrorless system (although rumour has it 3 lenses will be announced at the same time as the body, and there will be a roadmap showing what is to come).

Also, no one knows if the EF/EF-S backward compatibility will be full or "crippled" -- as you may have read by now, conventional DSLR lenses are optimized for phase-detection AF, and they don't work very well with contrast-based AF, which almost all mirrorless cameras use.

People with Olympus DSLRs quickly found out how slow their DSLR lenses work on the mirrorless bodies. Sony tried to get around the same problem by having a separate phase-detection AF unit in their adaptor, but this increases the bulk/cost of the adaptor, plus some light loss (due to the use of a pellicle mirror).

However, my reply you quoted was actually targeted at NEX (which Croasdail has), not this yet-unknown Canon mirrorless system.

The NEX system was first announced in May 2010, yet in two years, Sony has come out with only 7 lenses. (They have been busy introducing bodies though -- 6 so far.)

In comparison, m4/3 has been around since August 2008, and in less than 4 years, Olympus and Panasonic have come out with a total of 28 lenses (Olympus 13 and Panasonic 15).

However, the number of lenses is only half the story.

Even more important is the variety of lenses available. In m4/3, you can find a wide variety of wide-to-tele zooms (including a constant-F2.8 12-35, a weather-sealed 12-50 which can also do pseudo-macro, a collapsible "Pancake zoom" 14-42, a few superzooms, plus several generations of the kit lens), in addition to quite a few tele zooms including a 100-300 (giving 600mm FOV), several pancake primes, and perhaps most importantly, many fast (F1.8 or faster) primes (including the latest 75mm/1.8).

Do I wish I can use some of my EF/EF-S lenses on the OM-D E-M5? Of course.

However, there is definitely enough breadth and depth among native m4/3 lenses for it to be a viable alternate system for serious photographers....

I am not too worried about the number of lenses.... I still have a dslr for that kind of stuff. I just need a couple of right lenses. I am not looking for a super telephoto. This is a travel camera for me so a super wide and then a travel length zoom is what I am looking for. I am not looking for 30 lenses, just 2 right ones. If you looking for lots or lenses and not as worried about shutter responsiveness nor noise control as much, the Olympus and Panosonic are great little systems. I have recommended them more than a few times.

I am just not looking to duplicate my l lenses.... Travel is all I care about at this time.

I must say the kit lens the camera came with works surprisingly well.

canon is happy with the g1x and the dslr sales. their focus is on video at the moment as shown with the c300.

if you want to use EF lenses on a mirrorless get a NEX and a conurus EOS smart adapter.
http://sonyalphanex.bl​ogspot.com …ter-review-by-bryant.html

Croasdail wrote in post #14513739
If you looking for lots or lenses and not as worried about shutter responsiveness nor noise control as much, the Olympus and Panosonic are great little systems.

What do you mean by "shutter responsiveness"?

If you mean delay caused by inability to focus or slow focusing, my experience with the OM-D E-M5 is that such delays are almost non-existent, even in low light (EV 2-3).

Here are a couple of examples. No artistic values whatsoever -- just me playing with the E-M5 while waiting for our food to come in a restaurant, mostly lit by candlelight.

In over 95% of the shots, the E-M5 latched onto focus almost instantaneously, and the focus was bang-on. (I found it very neat that the E-M5 can do full-time manual focus, plus 10x LiveView manual-focus while one looks through the viewfinder!)

Croasdail wrote in post #14513739
I am not looking for 30 lenses, just 2 right ones. [...] I am just not looking to duplicate my l lenses.... Travel is all I care about at this time.

"Travel lens" can mean very different things to very different people, not to mention the lens selection largely depends on the travel destination.

For example, most people would want a UWA to tackle narrow streets in many European cities. Similarly, someone going to Africa for safari may want as much telephoto as they can physically carry.

Care to share which two lenses you consider the perfect travel duo?

ken_vs_ryu wrote in post #14516607
canon is happy with the g1x and the dslr sales. their focus is on video at the moment as shown with the c300.

if you want to use EF lenses on a mirrorless get a NEX and a conurus EOS smart adapter.
http://sonyalphanex.bl​ogspot.com …ter-review-by-bryant.html

do the EOS adapters allow you to change the lens aperture?

Croasdail wrote in post #14513739
If you looking for lots or lenses and not as worried about shutter responsiveness nor noise control as much, the Olympus and Panosonic are great little systems.

The early Olympus Pen models had some issues with focus speed and shutter lag. That is absolutely not the case since the 20011 models came out and was never really a problem for Panasonic, and certainly not now.

Luckypenguin wrote in post #14518445
The early Olympus Pen models had some issues with focus speed and shutter lag. That is absolutely not the case since the 20011 models came out and was never really a problem for Panasonic, and certainly not now.

Good to hear. I have buddy looking for a camera, and I big fan of Olympus from the early days of my shooting. when I shot an OM-10 for a while.

To the question of what lenses do I want to travel with - the answer is as few as possible. Right now with my 5D I travel with a 14L, 24-105L and a 135L - or sometimes a 17-55 f2.8. I am am going on a sports oriented shoot then I take my almost worn out Sigma 120-300 and 400 f2.8L. But I avoid taking these on trips if I can.

I have worked through the issues of not having a really wide lens for the Sony by tilting the little camera on its side and letting the camera do a Pano. The only time there are issues is if I need to cross the sun in the process and then it doesn't work because the latitude in shot exposures is too wide. Otherwise, works good enough. I am not trying to sell them, and I just printed up a 86x32 that looks pretty dang good. Not gallery quality, but home or office wall quality.

It is replacing the 135 that is most problematic. I love the compactness of the lens, being able to shoot great city scenes in no matter what light. As I pack right now for a trip to Spain where I am staying the weekend to shoot, it is the one lens I miss I will not be taking. But I will not miss taking a dedicated camera bag as the Sony fits into my computer bag just fine.

Its a compromise. I have found there is no scene too dark for the Sony to focus. I love the manual controls - easy to set shutter, aperture, and ISO without dropping camera from my eye... I love it has a decent but not perfect viewfinder ( I prefer real view versus a screen), I love the tilt out screen - great for kid or dog level shots, battery lice seems to be good enough. I just don't like the variety of lenses, nor their prices. Not sure I would want one, but the 18-200 is double the price of a SLR model of the same lens... and you still get soft edges.

I am ok with it.... I buy a new camera each year, and this one will keep me entertained for at least another year. I do wish it had GPS though. Had to manually geocode my images... a step I would prefer to skip.

watt100 wrote in post #14518296
do the EOS adapters allow you to change the lens aperture?

yes aperture is controlled by the NEX body. IS works. Autofocus does not work.

Congrats to you for making the plunge I did the same a while back and have not regretted it!! Incredible powerful camera with nothing short of killer image quality.

Here's my Nex-7 Hands on Review if anybody is interested as well.
http://sonyalphalab.co​m …ny-nex-7-hands-on-review/

Here is what that 24mp sensor looks like up close:

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This will also be the sensor used in the upcoming Nikon Crop updates...

I absolutely love my 5n (despite otherwise hating Sony). I have the kit lens and the 50 1.8 oss (the fastest, stablized lens around as far as I know), but I mostly shoot it with Canon FD glass (50 1.2, 55 and 100 macros and a Vivitar 70-2010) and my EOS mount Samyang fisheye (which is fully manual anyway). With the focus peaking feature, manual focusing is way easier than it is on any EOS camera.

Focus peaking was a game changer for me!!