Which Zeiss Mount to buy to use with A7(x)?

I have some nice Zeiss ZE glass that I was planning to sell for ZF glass to use on my A7R. I like having manual aperture control with this camera. I haven't tried an EOS lens on it though. Can you see the stopped down aperture through the viewfinder real time with EOS like you can with manual lenses? I know about the benefits of the EXIF info already. Also, I'm one of those guys who feels the parallelism of the adapter is critical and so I've been arming myself with Novoflex and already have the NEX/NIK adapter. I've heard reports of spotty quality with the Metabones. I like the thought of not being held hostage to the contacts when/if they go south. If I want to go AF, I'll just go native FE mount.

Pretending I don't already have EOS lenses and was coming in from scratch, do you feel the EXIF info is benefit enough to risk being held hostage to the adapter? Or does the total flexibility of the manual ZF lens with a dumb but precision adapter outweigh it? Thanks!

dog rocket wrote in post #17560015
I have some nice Zeiss ZE glass that I was planning to sell for ZF glass to use on my A7R. I like having manual aperture control with this camera. I haven't tried an EOS lens on it though. Can you see the stopped down aperture through the viewfinder real time with EOS like you can with manual lenses? I know about the benefits of the EXIF info already. Also, I'm one of those guys who feels the parallelism of the adapter is critical and so I've been arming myself with Novoflex and already have the NEX/NIK adapter. I've heard reports of spotty quality with the Metabones. I like the thought of not being held hostage to the contacts when/if they go south. If I want to go AF, I'll just go native FE mount.

Pretending I don't already have EOS lenses and was coming in from scratch, do you feel the EXIF info is benefit enough to risk being held hostage to the adapter? Or does the total flexibility of the manual ZF lens with a dumb but precision adapter outweigh it? Thanks!

NO, keep your Canon-mount Zeiss lenses!
Actually you present some nice reasons for the Nikon versions, but I just can't stand the thought of not having EXIF data. We all have our idiosyncratic priorities. Ours are likely completely different.

Thanks David. Now, what about this? You pack your A7S, A7R and all your ZE lenses to South America for your dream vacation only to realize your cheapo adapter contacts take a dump and your camera gives you nothing but errors. You're SOL with no camera stores or internet there to save you. What now? =8^O

Would you buy another $400 adapter just for that trip?

dog rocket wrote in post #17560258
Thanks David. Now, what about this? You pack your A7S, A7R and all your ZE lenses to South America for your dream vacation only to realize your cheapo adapter contacts take a dump and your camera gives you nothing but errors. You're SOL with no camera stores or internet there to save you. What now? =8^O

Would you buy another $400 adapter just for that trip?

You better believe I would....Absolutely! In fact I already have multiple adapters. It's far more likely that your camera or memory card is going to take a dump than the adapter. That's why there is comfort in redundancies. So, I'd be taking my two cameras, two adapters, and at least four cards and a crap-load of batteries.

If you buy the metabones, its that costly. But if you buy the Commlite knock off from Amazon, it'll only run you about $100, which you'll lose more than that possibly if you sell your existing Canon lenses. Some have said that the Commlite has slower AF than the metabones, but honestly I feel bad for you if you are getting a metabones to use AF with.

Also, no manual aperture control for EF glass, but at least it has electronic control, and full EXIF.