Sony A7 models with non-Sony lenses

vinmunoz wrote in post #17555361
Nadim, just curious

the A72 and your Canon 6D has anti-aliasing low pass filter, does it bother you at all in terms of image quality?


To anyone having both the A7R and the A7/A72, is there a huge difference in image quality and sharpness?

Can't say I noticed. Mind you, I have not tried the A7R, but from everything I've seen and read, no one seems to be going "Oh, don't get the A7II because of the anti-aliasing filter". You know? Seems to be a very minor consideration, at best.

mystik610 wrote in post #17555442
The a7 has phase detect AF points which focus significantly faster than the a7rs contrast detect AF.

A friend of mine got the a7II and it focuses significantly faster than my a7r. That said, even the a7II will struggle to lock in low contrast light. I stress tested the af of both systems in the typical poor lighting you end up shooting in during a wedding. Both have instances where they will fail to lock....the a7II simply failed faster lol

I still think DSLR's are the way to go for wedding shooting until Sony truly gets the AF up to par.

Edit: I've shot weddings with the a7r as a second body. Usually by the reception the a7r gets put back into my bag, as it can't hold a candle to my 5DIII in those shooting conditions and the general pace of the events

I don't do weddings, so I'm ok with the Sony (which I focus manually almost exclusively). But the few times I've wanted to shoot a bird or whathaveyou, I have definitely noticed how lacking the Sony AF is (even with Sony native lenses). So I think what Mystik said here stands true: DSLRs are probably still the way to go for weddings, sports, action and birding.

@Puckman: I'm a bit confused. Some people call you Dean while others call you Nadim. Which one is correct?

I never had a chance to test or compare AF between a7 and a7R - didn't get my first AF lens until December 2014.

In my opinion an a7S II with PDAF and IBIS would be brilliant for wedding ceremonies. The a7S' electronic silent shutter just blows me away - I have it turned on by default. My only complaint with my a7S is, like the a7R, it is a bit slow on the focus.

What is it with Sony giving us these almost-amazing cameras?!

A7s has same contrast detect only AF.

vinmunoz wrote in post #17555537
A7s has same contrast detect only AF.

Exactly. It is why I am pining for an a7S II with PDAF and IBIS. Would be killer.

it should be a killer. read somewhere that the silent shutter degrades image quality? i'm not sure.

vinmunoz wrote in post #17555426
Thanks for your input. I asked because occasionally I have wedding gigs and for that a bit more faster AF and more quiet shutter is necessary.

I'm thinking if the A7R2 specs is not that impressive, I wanna go A72. Nobody from my clients ask for very large prints anyway.

Regarding AF with your A7 and A7R, there's no significant difference huh? Sony said A72 is 30% faster than A7 though. I don't know how true.

I came from a 6D, then a7R and now the a7S and to me they all are as near as makes no difference as far as sharpness goes. Yes, the a7R definitely has more detail, obviously the resolution is going to give it that... but as far as how sharp the image looks... to my eyes they didn't look any sharper than shots with my a7S do (which to me makes since because I'm using the same lenses).

jocau wrote in post #17555476
@Puckman: I'm a bit confused. Some people call you Dean while others call you Nadim. Which one is correct?

I believe his username is Puckman and actual name is Nadim. Some people refer to me as Lucas on here because I used to watermark my photos, I respond to either and my guess is that Nadim does as well

vinmunoz wrote in post #17555576
it should be a killer. read somewhere that the silent shutter degrades image quality? i'm not sure.

It does, but to an insignificant degree most of the time. For me the issue is that I can't tell when I've taken the shot so I always end up taking several or moving my hand mid-exposure. I only use mine for street shooting when I don't want to disturb people. You can also get a rolling shutter when shooting in artificial light (especially florescent).

Another of Chipper, who's currently doing almost this same pose in my lap...

Yashica ML 50mm f...? (I have 3 of these all with different max apertures, not sure which one this was taken with, but it was likely at f2 regardless).

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/rwY4​WE

Thanks for your info Lucas. That should help me determine what to get next time. Maybe an A7S II is still far from even a rumor. I want that IBIS. Maybe I will end up with A7II. The little AF PDAF advantage, IBIS, a more quiet shutter, and the new shutter location is what I'm looking for.

vinmunoz wrote in post #17555597
Thanks for your info Lucas. That should help me determine what to get next time. Maybe an A7S II is still far from even a rumor. I want that IBIS. Maybe I will end up with A7II. The little AF PDAF advantage, IBIS, a more quiet shutter, and the new shutter location is what I'm looking for.

I wouldn't mind having IBIS either, but I honestly don't miss IS a majority of the time... the high ISO is so good from the a7S I have no hesitation to push it up to and above ISO25600.

I realize I'm in a very small minority... but I actually thoroughly prefer the shutter button on the a7/S/R over the a7II. I can understand why it would be better in the "new" spot for a wildlife or sports shooter, but for me I love where it's at on the a7S. It makes it much more convenient when shooting from the hip as my thumb naturally rests right where the shutter release is and it tends to keep my finger off the shutter until I'm ready to take the shot... sort of like trigger discipline like when I'm at the range

EverydayGetaway wrote in post #17555591
It does, but to an insignificant degree most of the time. For me the issue is that I can't tell when I've taken the shot so I always end up taking several or moving my hand mid-exposure. I only use mine for street shooting when I don't want to disturb people. You can also get a rolling shutter when shooting in artificial light (especially florescent).

Other than the obvious rolling shutter issues in some fluorescent conditions and fast-moving subjects have you been able to quantify or discern a real image degradation with the silent shutter? I get fantastic results on silent shutter on my a7S...can't imagine what I might be missing. I guess I need to do some pixel-peeping side-by-side comparisons to see what the degradation is.

And I keep wondering if using the silent shutter adds longevity, since camera longevity is typically measured in mechanical shutter actuations. Any thoughts on that?

David Arbogast wrote in post #17555611
Other than the obvious rolling shutter issues in some fluorescent conditions and fast-moving subjects have you been able to quantify or discern a real image degradation with the silent shutter? I get fantastic results on silent shutter on my a7S...can't imagine what I might be missing. I guess I need to do some pixel-peeping side-by-side comparisons to see what the degradation is.

And I keep wondering if using the silent shutter adds longevity, since camera longevity is typically measured in mechanical shutter actuations. Any thoughts on that?

I honestly am not convinced that the degradation I see when I use it isn't due to user-error. As I said, it's such a surreal feeling when I use it that I genuinely think the slightly less sharp images I get are due to me moving my hands mid-shutter release. I don't know for sure and honestly don't care enough to test it out, it works well enough that I don't hesitate to use it when I need to

Also, the regular shutter is so much less obnoxious on the a7S compared to the a7R that I don't usually feel the need to use the silent shutter

Funny how mental we can get with our gear. I love my a7R, but that shutter offends me so much that I probably shoot in silent mode almost exclusively on the a7S as a sort of compensation.

David Arbogast wrote in post #17555636
Funny how mental we can get with our gear. I love my a7R, but that shutter offends me so much that I probably shoot in silent mode almost exclusively on the a7S as a sort of compensation.

Haha, I hear you, I'd probably do the same if I still owned both

Oly 38/1.8

IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/scob​yf

the 12mp is what stops me from getting the A7S because I sometimes print a 30 x 40 canvas or bigger. Very seldom but there's a chance i print those sizes.

when i had my 5D3, i'm in love with a herringbone wrist strap. it makes my camera felt more secure and stable for slow shutterspeed shots. It's impossible to use it with the current shutter position of the A7/A7R/A7S.

David Arbogast wrote in post #17555532
I never had a chance to test or compare AF between a7 and a7R - didn't get my first AF lens until December 2014.

In my opinion an a7S II with PDAF and IBIS would be brilliant for wedding ceremonies. The a7S' electronic silent shutter just blows me away - I have it turned on by default. My only complaint with my a7S is, like the a7R, it is a bit slow on the focus.

What is it with Sony giving us these almost-amazing cameras?!

I'm hoping that one day we get PURE PDAF, if possible. I think the bottleneck in the hybrid AF system in the A7II is the reliance on the contrast detect to fine-tune the focus. It sets the system up for failure in low contrast light....because, as the name implies, the system is dependent on the contrast of the scene. Perhaps they could add a 'speed priority' or 'low light' AF mode that will use PDAF only. You'd give up the accuracy of contrast detect, but will have the speed of pure phase detect.

This would also likely improve the AF tracking ability of mirrorless cameras.