CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I just finished posting some examples from the Butterfly Haven at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Chicago. I've only been once before and when checking hours on their site, I found Thursdays are free for IL residents. I figured maybe more crowded, but 10am to mid afternoon, it was a continuous stream of pint-sized visitors. I can see how some of the winged ones might have felt like the toys in the daycare in Toy Story III...

I've rented a Sony A7II for the week and purchased a Metabones FD - E mount T. I have several FD L lens that are just not getting the work. I'm finding I favor my EOS 1v for film work with EF lenses. Seeing what the manual focus lenses will do on a digital body is an effort to either divest of the FD mount equipment or to see if they're a viable option mounted to Sony.

I'm impressed so far. The aperture is manual on the lens. For ISO and shutter, I can manage these with the camera to the eye with the details in the view finder. The biggest + is the subtle shimmer for the plane of focus in the EVF (electronic view finder). Although you can zoom the focus in the EVF, I found the zoom shaky and not stabilized making the focus via the manual lens a bit problematic. But, getting the focus "right enough" via the EVF zoom and then watching the simmer zoomed out via the EVF, I found the results from this set-up to be comparable, if not interchangeable, to my AF lenses and EOS 5DIII. I think with some more practice, I've found a viable platform for the manual focus lenses.

The images shared in the Photo Gallery are all but one from the New FD135mm f/2. The Sony doesn't capture the aperture so you have to guess at the approx aperture from the DOF of the image. I used a Canon Extension Tube FD 25mm to reduce the minimum focal distance to about 30 inches on the FDn 135, good for when I could get near a butterfly or moth, but useless otherwise. The images mix between the tube off and on, I have no way to know except guessing. The final moth image is the New FD50mm f/1.2L that can focus much closer at about 18-inches.

Overall Pluses

The in-camera stabilization had every image sharp. Any failures / throwaways are my focus abilities, not camera shake. I was shooting 90% from a monopod and kept the SS around the 1/focal length. More testing will be needed on my ability to handhold at slower shutters.

The ability to manually tune the stabilization to the lens focal length is a wonderful tool.

The noise grain is manageable with LR and Topaz Denoise. Although, the settings needed to be tuned to the Sony characteristics that differ from my existing Canon presets.

The camera and lenses are smaller, even with the Metabones that adds some length to the lens.

Overall Minus

I'll have to learn the menus and see what I can customize. I haven't yet found a low-speed continuous shoot. I also couldn't figure out what nor why the EVF shows the last image sometimes and continues to shoot at other times. Too many times when I wanted a run of images, the camera wasn't shooting and instead was showing me the details of the last image.

Also, putting the lens to the Metabones to the camera takes a good deal of care to assure everything is aligned and properly locked together. Not recognizing some near misses, I had a lens falling off the camera more than once, but thankfully, each time was only a near miss and no actual disasters.

I'd also like the EVF zoom to jump straight to say 50% or maybe 75%. If I can't do this, I guess just more practice is needed with what the EVF can do.

foathog Loc: Greensboro, NC

It seems fairly iffy to me Paul. Are the results worth all the effort?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Henry - good question. I found I needed to up my game a bit as some parts of shooting this configuration are probably at the limit of how far I'll go for purity. I needed to consider an aperture, get the exposure and then go 100% concentration on the focus so there was a lot less fiddling and fine-tuning the exposure while shooting. The display and / or the light made it next to impossible to see anything other than a histogram. Mostly I was hoping that if I had the shimmer in the EVF properly placed and the exposure wasn't blowing the highlights, maybe something useful would turn out.

Even with the difference in size, the weight is much the same. Here's the FD and EF cousins.

http://farm1.staticflickr.com/860/40698042375_a586c4316e_b.jpg

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Welcome to EVF's Paul ! .....

..

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Two questions:

(1) Is the "shimmering" a form of 'focus peaking'?

(2)What do you think of the build quality of the Metabones adapter?

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Yes, it is focus peaking. I guess you can tell I didn't read the manual for the term or even know it was a feature. I just found it while shooting. Now I've found you can change the color and red seems a better choice than than the default white. The adapter is fine. Some lenses slide right on and a few others need to be carefully aligned and firmly pushed together to then connect easily. This version is a metal donut with no glass. It has a built-in Arca dovetail making me wonder if I'd want an L-plate for the body.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

I seem to have been living in a cave ...

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

gwilliams6

You will have a better experience with better dynamic range, focusing,ergonomics,menus ,battery life and all if you try a newer A7III or A7RIII. There have been vast improvements over the A7II that would address and solve all the issues you mention. Also the MC-11 adapter works significantly better than the metabones, which can be iffy. I have used both MC-11 and Metabones and the difference is stunning. Cheers

https://www.sony.com/electronics/interchangeable-lens-cameras/ilce-7rm3
https://www.sony/e.comlectronics/interchangeable-lens-cameras/ilce-7m3-body-kit

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thanks gwilliams6. The newer III models are more than I want to spend as well as each would generate more software needs. I'm not looking to switch. The MC-11 doesn't seem relevant to the FD lenses I'm testing. Spending some time finding what can be customized has helped my understanding of the Sony.

gwilliams6

I am curious exactly what lenses are you using? If you can rent the newer models, it might make a difference for you. Cheers

Logan1949

When I mount the Voigtlander 40mm manual focus lens on the A7ii, I try to remember to use the menu to set the SteadyShot Settings SteadyS. Focal Len. to 40mm, the Release w/o Lens to Enable, and the AF w/ shutter to Off. But then I have to remember to turn the last two to Disable and On when putting an Auto Focus lens back on the camera.

Also, I have the MF Assist set to On (with Focus Magnif. Time set to No Limit), and have it assigned to the C1 button, so I can press C1 a couple of times to get a magnified view for focusing.

Edit: When you push the Fn button and select the shooting mode, the multiple frames/sec boxes should say Hi or Lo; these are toggled by the left or right side of the ring surrounding the select button. But we only get the two choices.

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Thank Logan1949! I have all the same settings for my manual focus lenses. Some customizations and practice are helping.

JPL

Welcome to the future. !! You are still missing the most important feature of the Sony, focus magnifying. It is a better tool for manual focus than the focus assist. Assign the focus magnifyer to a button on the camera that is comfortable for you to use and press it once for 50% magnification, twice for 100%. And I promise you will get as sharp or sharper pictures with the Sony and the Canon glass than you get from your high end Canon gear ;)