Hey, Don't Shoot: sony e mount

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Tuesday, July 7, 2020

Sony 24-70 f/2.8 E Mount, Two High Quality Options

Special thanks to my good friend Keith follow him at https://www.instagram.com/coffee_2_cocktails/

From Left to Right: Sony A7RII with Zeiss 24-70mm f/2.8 Sony (A Mount) mounted with the

Sony LA-EA4 adapter. Sony A7III with Sony G Master 24-70mm f/2.8

As my good friend David Davis would ask "What's with you and mid-range zoom lenses?" It's true, I have a hankering for mid-range zoom lenses. A mid-range zoom lens basically a lens featuring a focal range of around 24-28mm up to 105mm. They are also referred to sometimes as an "every day lens" due to the versatility of the focal range. A "walk around" lens can be almost any focal length but mid-range zoom lenses might also fit that catch term as well.

As it is with making a choice for a lens at any focal length or range, it really comes down to how much you're willing to pay and what kind of performance you're looking to get for your money.
A f/2.8 mid-range zoom lens is not super important as far as what I have to choose from in my inventory. Most of the time I am usually carrying my Zeiss FE 24-70mm f/4 lens. It's my mid-range lens of choice due to several factors. Firstly, it's a Zeiss lens, so you know it's going to be good. And it comes in at a slightly easier to swallow price tag of $898 USD brand new. I am mostly shooting street photography and landscapes these days so the fact that the widest aperture on this lens is f/4 doesn't really bother me that much. I am usually at f/8 sometimes f/5.6 for most of my street stuff and when it comes to landscapes, most of the time I'm at the other extreme, f/18-f/22. This usually isn't my go to lens for shooting portraits and/or models. For that kind of photography you'll usually find a nice prime lens with a wider aperture of f/1.8 or f/2.

Pictured above: Zeiss 24/70mm f/4

Pictured below: Sony DT 16-50mm f/2.8 APS-C A Mount lens (Full frame equivalent 24-70mm)

I've also recently added another option for my mid-range focal length zoom lens addiction and that's the surprisingly good Sony DT 16-50mm f/2.8 lens. It's an A mount, APS-C lens which gives me a full frame equivalent focal range of 24-70mm when mounted on my A77II A Mount camera body or my E Mount Sony A6500, which is mounted via the LA-EA3 or LA-EA4 adapter.

"But Felix, isn't the Sony G Master 24-70mm f/2.8 a better lens?"

Overall, yes it is, it better be for the WHOPPING PRICE TAG of $2,198 USD for a brand new lens.
More on this lens later... but first let's talk about a less expensive alternative...

There is another option for those of you wanting a full frame 24-70mm f/2.8 lens for your Sony E Mount camera body such as the Sony A7III, which seems to be the most popular camera body amongst the Sony crowd. The Zeiss 24-70mm f/2.8 A Mount can be mounted on your full frame E Mount body for less than half the price of the G Master. Using the Sony LA-EA3 or LA-EA4 adapter, you can use the A Mount Zeiss 24-70mm lens! You can find a nice, used Zeiss 24-70mm f/2.8 A Mount lens on EBay for around $700-850 USD. There are two versions of this lens, with version II incorporating some improvements such as a better T* coating for less flare and ghosting, improved weather sealing and more. I have version I which seems to work better with the LA-EA4 adapter. Version II will cost slightly more than version I. Both are no longer in production, I am pretty sure Sony is only producing E Mount lenses now. However, I see that Adorama still has brand new version II available but they are priced at $2098 USD.

You will not be able to take advantage of all your focus points using the adapter, but the lens still performs well and the images are extremely sharp.

Sample images:

Above is a nice example of the creative advantage that a large, high resolution sensor, like the 42 MP sensor on the Sony A7RII can provide. The two images above are the same image, with the bottom image having been cropped for Instagram. You can crop an extreme amount and still maintain a very nice, hi-res image, especially when paired with a high quality lens such as the Zeiss ZA 24-70mm f/2.8

Enjoy the following samples taken with the Sony A7RII with the Zeiss ZA 24-70mm f/2.8 A Mount lens mounted with the Sony LA-EA4 adapter. As you can see, it produces very nice, sharp images and is something you should definitely consider if the Sony G Master 24-70mm f/2.8 is out of your price range.

From Left to Right: Sony A7RII with Zeiss 24-70mm f/2.8 Sony (A Mount) mounted with the

Sony LA-EA4 adapter. Sony A7III with Sony G Master 24-70mm f/2.8

Above: Sony A7III with Sony G Master 24-70mm f/2.8

My good friend Keith https://www.instagram.com/coffee_2_cocktails/ has been debating is next lens purchase for a fair amount of time. He rented the Sony G Master 70-200mm f/2.8 a few months ago and we both found it to be worth every penny. But he admits, the G Master 24-70mm took a little time to grow on him. At first, he was not overly impressed with the performance given the asking price, but did tell me that the longer he used it, the more he liked it. SPOILER ALERT: he is more inclined to spend his money on the G Master 70-200mm and prefers the bokeh that it renders.

The overall size and weight are relatively comparable to my rig which comes it at 1261.55 grams for the lens and LA-EA4 adapter together, whereas the Sony G Master 24-70mm f/2.8 comes in at 885 grams. However, I do have to say that in the hand, they feel similar in weight. That being said, neither of these are light weight lenses by any stretch of the imagination. Compare that to the Zeiss FE 24-70mm f/4 which comes in at half the weight at only 426 grams. And with that in mind, you can see why I usually reach for that lens. After all, one of the main reasons I switched to the Sony E Mount system was to rid myself of having to carry so much weight around all day.

It was clear to me that the advantages of using a native E Mount lens over an adapted A Mount lens are many, the overall image quality between the two lenses is similar but things such as auto-focus speed and number auto-focus points and lighter weight (376.5 grams less) make the G Master the better choice for many. Image stabilization may or may not be an issue for some users as the G Master actually DOES NOT have image stabilization. That being said, most Sony E Mount camera bodies have in-body stabilization. The Zeiss 24-70mm f/2.8 A Mount DOES have image stabilization built into the lens. All that aside, there is of course, as I previously mentioned is the difference in price. For my money, I will forego the more expensive Sony G Master, for now. Perhaps I will stumble into a financial windfall in the near future catapulting me into the "money is no object" elite, in which case I would most definitely purchase Sony's entire line of G Master lenses. But short of that, I'll go "on the cheap" with by taking advantage of the fantasic A Mount to E Mount adapters that Sony has to offer and continue to use my excellent A Mount glass on my E Mount camera bodies.

Which would you choose?

Enjoy the samples below, taken with a Sony A7III with Sony G Master 24-70mm f/2.8 lens.

Friday, March 24, 2017

Vintage Lenses and Adapters for Sony E Mount

Leica Summicron 35mm f/2 mounted on a Sony A7II

Watch the video on our YouTube channel - https://youtu.be/n2bY1EkRnB8

I was able to take off from my day job (Staff Sgt. US Army) at lunch time last Monday and was happy to hear the news from my girlfriend, Vanessa, that she took the entire day off work. So that led to the cliche question; "What should we do today?". While I usually pride myself on being an "idea" person, it was Vanessa who suggested we take a drive up old New Mexico Hwy 28 to Mesilla, a small, quaint historic Southwestern town. Mesilla is centered around a town square, complete with a bandstand. I had seen Mesilla advertised in the local "Things to do in El Paso" magazines that you find in hotel lobbies etc., and it looked like a neat place to visit, certainly it would be a great place to snap some photographs. Without hesitation, I replied in the affirmative to Vanessa's terrific suggestion.

It had occurred to me that this fun, half-day trip, would provide an excellent opportunity to shoot a new vlog for "Hey Don't Shoot". The potential problem is that Vanessa has never, ever, shot video before. And believe or not, it's necessarily an easy thing to do. But what better way to teach her than to just put a camera in her hands and do it?

I have been wanting to shoot a little video with my Sony RX1RII and thought this would be an ideal opportunity because it's small enough that Vanessa could put it in her purse when we weren't shooting. Also because I primarily wanted to enjoy a day off with my girlfriend, shooting the photos and vlog would be secondary. So I made an executive decision and gave Vanessa the RX1RII, attached to her body with a shoulder strap, naturally. This decision almost came back to haunt me because we learned, the hard way, that while the RX1RII is one of the finest still photograph cameras in the world, and it is capable of shooting high definition video in XAVCS, it wasn't made for that. As a result, it has a few shortcomings in the video department, the most noticeable was that it overheated after about 1 minute of shooting video! The day was warm, but not overwhelmingly so. I think it was somewhere between 80-84 degrees. As you may or may not notice in the video, when I talking on camera, I'm talking with a fast pace, because I have to hurry and record my monologue before the camera over heats! You might also notice a lot of "cuts" in the editing of my monologue because we would have to wait for a few minutes, every time the RX1RII would over heat, before we could shoot again. So that's why my monologue is a bit chopped up and also why the opening is shot in the sunlight, but then we moved to shade. Lesson learned: always shoot video with the VIDEO CAMERA (Sony AX33) that's what it's made for!

Vanessa did a great job her first time out shooting with me! She's pictured here resting in the hatchback of my Toyota Prius Hybrid (no big deal) with the Sony RX1RII in her hands. Now that's what I call trust. Note the shoulder strap.

Now, about the photography and gear...

If you follow "Hey, Don't Shoot" you might be aware that I, Felix, have been struck with a severe case of G.A.S. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and as a result have accumulated a relatively impressive inventory of vintage film cameras and lenses, including few that might be considered iconic. But prior to the E Mount system coming along, your options for shooting these lenses digitally were limited to a few rather expensive solutions. Digital backs are available for a few of the medium format systems like the Hasselblad V and Mamiya 645, and there's the Leica M digital system. The problem is that, even for a hardcore gear head like me, those solutions are far too costly (we're talking close to the tens of thousands of dollars).

But with the introduction of the Sony E Mount system, along came a plethora of E Mount adapters that were available for a wide variety of vintage lens mounts. The result is that you can now mount your vintage lenses onto a Sony E Mount digital camera for less than the cost of dinner at Applebees. I was able to find adapters for the following lens mounts:

Hasselblad (medium format) - Buy yours here

Mamiya 645 (medium format) - Buy yours here

Leica M - Buy yours here

Olympus OM - Buy yours here

Mamiya ZE - Buy yours here

Rolleiflex QBM (not working, more on that later) - Buy yours here

There are adapters available for more than what I listed, those are just the ones that I purchased.

The adapters are all manual focus only, and they don't support exif data, which means your lens settings will not be saved. If this is important to you, I recommend bringing along and notebook to jot down your lens settings, otherwise, you won't have that information available to you as if you were using a lens which would otherwise be compatible with the Sony E Mount.

There are some adapters, new to the marketplace, that can turn your old manual focus only lens, into an auto focus lens on the Sony E Mount. I am aware of one such adapter for Leica M lenses but there might be others. The problem for me, at this point, is the price. For now, i'll just be content with the manual focus adapters. Besides, part of the enjoyment of shooting with vintage lenses, is the entire experience of shooting in manual focus. If I wanted auto focus, I can just slap on one of my many modern lenses.

Let's get back to Mesilla and Las Cruces, New Mexico and have a look at the lenses and adapters that I brought along with me...

Below you will also see all the photos that we shot on Monday, including some behind the scenes and product photos of the adapters and lenses. We had a great time and I hope you enjoy the video and images. Perhaps this vlog and blog might sway you to pick up an adapter for one or some of your vintage lenses?

The bokeh from the Hasselblad 80mm lens is tremendous. This lens is a depth of field monster. This image was shot at f/2.8 in aperture priority mode. I was about 4-5 feet away from the small yellow flowers that I focused on. But just look how the shallow depth of field makes them "pop"! It's a great luxury to be able to capture this lens on my Sony E Mount cameras, thus, eliminating the need for an expensive Hasselblad digital back.

Capturing "Sunset on a Mesilla Farm" with the Leica lens and Sony A7II. We found this spot along scenic Hwy 28. There was just so much to see along this road. I could go back 50 times and never run out of new things to shoot. Farms, wine vineyards, pecan tree orchards, rustic architecture and much more!

Leica M to Sony E Mount adapter, Sony A7RII body, Zeiss Planar ZM 50mm f/2 and Leica Summicron 35mm f/2

Mamiya 645 to Sony E Mount adapter pictured with Mamiya 45mm f/2.8 lens

Mamiya ZE to Sony E Mount adapter with Mamiya ZE 50mm f/1.7 lens

Olympus OM to Sony E Mount adapter with Olympus 50mm f/1.8 lens

Hasselblad adapter with Hasselblad Planar 80mm f/2.8 lens

Here is the Rolleiflex QBM to Sony E Mount adapter that isn't working properly. The 50mm lens will not mount at all and the 28 mm will mount and "snap" onto the adapter, but the aperture ring doesn't turn completely. I have ordered a replacement from a different manufacturer and I'll report back.