What lenses and adapters for Sony A7s?

[hempo22]

Hi all,

 

I'm moving from the BMCC MFT to the Sony A7s. The BMCC all rigged up is just too much for me as a one man band, too heavy and too many pieces to put together and keep track on. The pay off (the image) is worth it, but I feel it's limiting me creatively in a bad way. I also want to get back into still photography (Never had full frame before, this should be interesting).

 

That's also why I'm getting rid of my Nikon AI(s) primes. I want zooms. Not because they're better, but more convenient, I got more of a "on the go in available light" kind of style. Nikon mount is great with adapters thanks to a click-less aperture control, but it would be nice to have autofocus as well (apparently that's a no go with Nikon according to my googling and forum reading skills), but everything Canon leaves a bad taste in my mouth (well.. not really, I'm just as skeptical as any other DSLR shooter who started out on Canon and saw them staying behind on purpose). I haven't found a good affordable alternative to Metabones yet. Likewise with native Sony FE mount.

 

Full frame also use all of the glass, so I'm being more careful about the quality in the edges this time, nothing I had to worry about before, really. For 1080 video I guess it's alright, not really noticeable, but when taking stills and maybe later 4K video... What is acceptable? Not asking for perfection, I got more of a "on the go in available light" kind of style. I really like to film/photograph people in their surroundings.

 

Sláinte!

[Nikkor]

You will regret selling your ai nikkors, specially if you are going fullframe.

[Michael1]

I'm interested in hearing what turns up here for full frame shooting.  In looking at the Sony FE lenses there are still only a total of only five, count 'em five!  I thought Sony was going to start cranking out more lenses.  Other than the "kit lens", they are expensive, too.  While the performance is great, they are overkill for video.  In fact, they are overkill for the 12MP sensor.

 

So then you have the adapters...(more money, more clutter)

 

http://briansmith.com/sony-a7-a7r-lens-mount-adapters/

 

Looks to me that only the Canon lenses are really supported for auto focus and aperture, but it doesn't look like distortion, chromatic aberration, or vignetting correction is supported.

 

Michael

[noone]

I'm interested in hearing what turns up here for full frame shooting.  In looking at the Sony FE lenses there are still only a total of only five, count 'em five!  I thought Sony was going to start cranking out more lenses.  Other than the "kit lens", they are expensive, too.  While the performance is great, they are overkill for video.  In fact, they are overkill for the 12MP sensor.

 

So then you have the adapters...(more money, more clutter)

 

http://briansmith.com/sony-a7-a7r-lens-mount-adapters/

 

Looks to me that only the Canon lenses are really supported for auto focus and aperture, but it doesn't look like distortion, chromatic aberration, or vignetting correction is supported.

 

Michael

There are only 5 SONY lenses so far but there are also the Samyang/Rokinon lenses in full frame E mount and there is also the Mitakon 50 f0.95 in full frame E mount.    So closer to around 10 native lenses with more coming.    The LA adapters are considered by Sony as native part of the system too I think, adds to the cost, yes but if someone has a few A mount lenses then it would well be worth getting an LA-EA4 maybe.

 

I like using FD L lenses on my normal A7 and think they would be very nice on the A7s for both video and stills.

[elgabogomez]

If looking for autofocus it might be a good idea to look into contax g lenses and an electronic adapter, there is one that covers fullframe and the lenses are zeiss made. It's supposed to be almost as fast AF as native E mount lenses.

[ShaunC]

Well you've come to the right website. Buy and read Andrew's guide to lenses for the new Sony cameras.

http://www.eoshd.com/eoshd-shooters-guide-sony-a7-a7r-lenses

[Michael1]

There are only 5 SONY lenses so far but there are also the Samyang/Rokinon lenses in full frame E mount and there is also the Mitakon 50 f0.95 in full frame E mount.    So closer to around 10 native lenses with more coming.    The LA adapters are considered by Sony as native part of the system too I think, adds to the cost, yes but if someone has a few A mount lenses then it would well be worth getting an LA-EA4 maybe.

 

I like using FD L lenses on my normal A7 and think they would be very nice on the A7s for both video and stills.

It's actually worse than I thought.  There are only two FE lenses with optical image stabilization.

 

Michael

[richg101]

It's actually worse than I thought.  There are only two FE lenses with optical image stabilization.

 

Michael

 

the third point of contact (your eyebrow) while shooting with an A7S nullifies the importance of IS in my experience.  Personally I find IS is the single best way to make video look like video, and less like cinema.  As are native lenses from the range.  Grab some zeiss, olympus, canon, nikon etc from 35mm up to 135mm and you;re sorted.  Full frame means a 35mm is as wide as you need to go in most instances.

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

tPersonally I find IS is the single best way to make video look like video, and less like cinema.

I disagree. I find micro vibrations, shakiness make video look like video. IS eliminates those ugly micro vibrations and gives cinematic, smooth motion.