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Recommendation from Canon EF Lens users
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Apr 8, 2019 05:49:40   #
cwhi1444 Loc: Orland Park, IL
 
I see you use the Fotodiox Pro adapter. How do you like it? I have thought about getting one for my a6300 to use my Canon lenses but have read pro and con. Can not make up my mind from the reviews.

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Apr 8, 2019 07:35:02   #
Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina
 
Canon 85mm f/1.8 is a great lens for the money. You may want something wider for what you are interested in shooting also.

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Apr 8, 2019 09:33:53   #
wireloose
 
For street photography look at the Rokinon 35mm f2.8 in e mount. Its very compact and on the A7 is pretty inconspicuous. The big zooms-Canon or Sony- kind of stand out, even more so with the added length of the adapter. I normally travel with the 24-105 or 24-240 but this little fellow is usually in my bag. The 85/1.8 Canon is good value too, or if you dont need the speed there are a ton of options in 100ish/2.8 macros in EF mount with outstanding optics. I use the Sigma md11 adapter which works very well with most ef mount glass

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Apr 8, 2019 09:37:34   #
dsmeltz Loc: Philadelphia
 
Bike guy wrote:
I recently purchased a Sony a7ii which I really like. I want to use it primarily for urban (street) photography. I also got a Fotodiox Pro Canon EF to Sony E-Mount adaptor, bought a Canon 50mm 1.8 EF lens. It works great on the camera, though I find I manually focus more frequently using the peaking function. Manual focus is not problem for me since I did it so long on 35mm film cameras.

There are a lot of EF lenses out there for sale at reasonable prices. I am only interested in prime lenses, full frame, not interested in macro (at this time). What recommendations to fill out my stable of one lens for my street taking photography.
I also do have the Sony FE 28mm-70mm kit lens.
Thanks
I recently purchased a Sony a7ii which I really li... (show quote)


Do you have a budget?

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Apr 8, 2019 12:16:45   #
gessman Loc: Colorado
 
cwhi1444 wrote:
I see you use the Fotodiox Pro adapter. How do you like it? I have thought about getting one for my a6300 to use my Canon lenses but have read pro and con. Can not make up my mind from the reviews.


I would suggest the Sigma mc-11 adapter. I've tried a couple of other adapters and the Sigma blows them away with EF lenses. From those who have used both, the mc-11 beats Metabones. It autofocuses my EF lens almost, if not as fast as my Canon bodies. The major drawback is that EF lenses do not autofocus when shooting video.

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Apr 8, 2019 13:08:40   #
rcarol
 
imagemeister wrote:
It sounds like you need IS - and the latest Canon 35 f2 IS is a great Lens if you can afford it - try ebay used.....

Yongnuo is making 35 f2, and 85 1.8, and 100 f2 in Canon EF mounts - no IS tho ....

Tamron has a 85 1.8 with VC ....
.


He doesn't need IS in the lens since the Sony A7 II has IBIS.

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Apr 8, 2019 13:25:30   #
TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC
 
rcarol wrote:
He doesn't need IS in the lens since the Sony A7 II has IBIS.


Never the less, the latest version of the EF 35 f2 (which happens to have IS) is decidedly better than the earlier non-IS version.

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Apr 8, 2019 13:32:08   #
bwana Loc: Bergen, Alberta, Canada
 
Bike guy wrote:
I recently purchased a Sony a7ii which I really like. I want to use it primarily for urban (street) photography. I also got a Fotodiox Pro Canon EF to Sony E-Mount adaptor, bought a Canon 50mm 1.8 EF lens. It works great on the camera, though I find I manually focus more frequently using the peaking function. Manual focus is not problem for me since I did it so long on 35mm film cameras.

There are a lot of EF lenses out there for sale at reasonable prices. I am only interested in prime lenses, full frame, not interested in macro (at this time). What recommendations to fill out my stable of one lens for my street taking photography.
I also do have the Sony FE 28mm-70mm kit lens.
Thanks
I recently purchased a Sony a7ii which I really li... (show quote)

I have a Sony A7R II and A7S, and used to use Canon glass with adapters. I bought a Sony LA-EA4 adapter a few years ago and have gone totally Minolta AF lenses (16mm thru 500mm). Inexpensive, good quality, fast autofocus and solidly built glass. Couldn't be happier!!

Also a full suite of Sony A lenses available that work with the LA-EA4 adapter.

You might also want to look at Samyang lenses. Great price and good quality.

A note on Canon to FE adapters. I tried almost every one in existence: MetaBones, FotoDiox, Commlite, Sigma's MC-11, etc. The MC-11 beats them all WRT autofocus, focus speed, compatibility, etc.

bwa

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Apr 8, 2019 14:49:52   #
amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA
 
To me "street photography" means small, unobtrusive lenses. Preferably primes with relatively large apertures. For street photography it also can be useful for a lens to have a distance scale, to allow pre-focusing techniques.

If manual focusing is fine, as you state, then there are a great many other lenses you should be looking at, besides Canon EF. Simple adapters would open a whole world of very affordable, excellent vintage Canon FD (FD"n" or "new" tend to be more compact), Nikkor F-mount, Olympus OM, and many others. On a mirrorless like the a7ii, even vintage rangefinder lenses are usable... and along with their adapters, might be more compact than comparable SLR lenses. Some of those vintage lenses can be bought for a song!

Since the a7ii is a full frame camera, among modern Canon lenses you need to stick with EF and avoid EF-S which are "crop only" designs. Also be aware that USM and STM lenses allow full time manual focus override... they don't need to have the AF first turned off, before manual focusing. Some Canon EF lenses (including the older 50mm f/1.8 II, earlier non-USM versions of 35mm f/2, 28mm f/2.8 and 24mm f/2.8, among others) CANNOT be manually focused without first turning AF off at the switch. Failing to do so will damage the auto focus mechanism of the lens. These "micro motor" lenses that require you turn off AF first, before manually focusing them, can best be identified by NOT having either STM or USM in their designation. There are just a few manual-focus-only "specialty" Canon lenses also without those STM and USM auto focus drive designations, including the TS-E "Tilt Shift" lenses and the ultra high magnification MP-E 65mm macro lens, but I doubt any of those would be among the usual choices for street photography.

With a few exceptions, USM lenses can be manually focused without power. Several USM (the 85mm f/1.2 is one that comes to mind) and all STM lenses are "fly by wire"... These require power from the camera even to manually focus. When off the camera or when the camera is turned off or "asleep", the focus ring of the lens will merely spin freely and do nothing. This probably won't be an issue, just something to be aware of with STM lenses, especially.

Personally, for candid street photography I wouldn't ever use a big, white lens like the 28-300mm, which sort of screams "HEY! I'm taking your picture".

My favorites for that type of photography have been compact 21mm or 24mm, a 35mm or 40mm, and possibly/occasionally an 85mm, 100mm or 135mm. These focal lengths would be what I'd carry for full frame (for crop cameras I'd use their equivalents).

Some Canon EF lenses that are reasonably compact, have a distance scale, and would be usable both for AF and manual focus:

EF 24mm f/2.8 IS USM
EF 28mm f/1.8 USM (the matched lens hood is quite compact too).
EF 35mm f/2 IS USM
EF 40mm f/2.8 STM (a very small "pancake" lens, not much of a manual focus ring tho)
EF 85mm f/1.8 USM
EF 100mm f/2 USM (not a macro lens, this is a stop faster and smaller)

Some interesting third party lenses in Canon EF mount (might be able to simply get them in E-mount, tho). Many of these are manual-focus, manual-aperture designs:

Mitakon Zhongyi 35mm f/2
Yongnuo 60mm f/2
Samyang/Rokinon 85mm f/1.4
Opteka 85mm f/1.8
Mitakon Zhongyi 85mm f/2
Yongnuo 100mm f/2
Mitakon Zhongyi 135mm f/2.8

I'm considering putting together a "street photography" mirrorless kit, myself. To be as compact as possible, I'll probably stick with an APS-C camera though, such as the Canon M5. (This is more for "fun" than for "work", so isn't high priority.... but a couple folks owe me some money and, once I collect that, I might splurge a little! )

I'll second the above recommendation for Samyang lenses, which also sell under Rokinon and, sometimes, Bower brand names. I'm considering some of their crop-only primes for use with the APS-C mirrorless and have done a lot of research on them... they've gotten a lot of praise for such high specification, yet affordable lenses. These are mostly manual focus, manual aperture lenses.... but they have recently introduced a few with AF and electronically controlled apertures, too.

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Apr 8, 2019 14:54:03   #
Bike guy Loc: Atlanta
 
amfoto1
Thank you very much for the suggestions

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Apr 8, 2019 18:25:52   #
imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida
 
TriX wrote:
Never the less, the latest version of the EF 35 f2 (which happens to have IS) is decidedly better than the earlier non-IS version.



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Apr 8, 2019 18:51:01   #
DrJ
 
I have numerous Canon EF primes. Two of my favorites are the 40/2.8 pancake and the 100/2.0. Each of my specimens is as sharp as an L zoom and each is affordable. My Canon 85/1.8 is an excellent indoor sports lens, but my Canon 100/2.0 has a very slight edge in IQ. Although I have a Canon 70-200 f4 L, my Canon 200/2.8 Mk II L is possibly my sharpest lens. I shoot many legacy MF lenses on my SONY NEX-7 and enjoy manually focusing. The Tamron Adaptall 90/2.5 is an extremely sharp lens and can be bought used for around $100. There are many 135/2.8 or f2.5 MF lenses that are very sharp including Tamron Adaptall 2, Olympus, Konica and Nikkor. The Konica 40/1.8 MF lens is a good bargain and fun to use. Keep us posted on how you do with non SONY lenses on the a7 II. Thanks, DrJ

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Apr 8, 2019 20:02:55   #
crazydaddio Loc: Toronto Ontario Canada
 
35mm 1.4L is my go-to street lens.
At 1.4, it can give you artistic blur and low light performance. Its pricey.
Have the 85mm 1.4L IS ... portraits only not as sharp as the 35mm.

MC11 is the go-to adapter for Sony according to reviews ( for photography and not video).

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Apr 8, 2019 20:46:48   #
Bike guy Loc: Atlanta
 
DrJ wrote:
I have numerous Canon EF primes. Two of my favorites are the 40/2.8 pancake and the 100/2.0. Each of my specimens is as sharp as an L zoom and each is affordable. My Canon 85/1.8 is an excellent indoor sports lens, but my Canon 100/2.0 has a very slight edge in IQ. Although I have a Canon 70-200 f4 L, my Canon 200/2.8 Mk II L is possibly my sharpest lens. I shoot many legacy MF lenses on my SONY NEX-7 and enjoy manually focusing. The Tamron Adaptall 90/2.5 is an extremely sharp lens and can be bought used for around $100. There are many 135/2.8 or f2.5 MF lenses that are very sharp including Tamron Adaptall 2, Olympus, Konica and Nikkor. The Konica 40/1.8 MF lens is a good bargain and fun to use. Keep us posted on how you do with non SONY lenses on the a7 II. Thanks, DrJ
I have numerous Canon EF primes. Two of my favori... (show quote)


I have the Fotodiox pro and itvis great. Half the price of the MC11. I bought for use on my Sony 6000 and now use it on both cameras.
I did get the Canon EF 1.8 and it works well on the A7mk2. It will autofocus at some apertures, but not all of them. Too much hunting and runs the battery down. So I just find it easier to MF.
I'll check the Tamrons
Thanks

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Apr 9, 2019 11:49:34   #
gessman Loc: Colorado
 
Bike guy wrote:
I have the Fotodiox pro and itvis great. Half the price of the MC11. I bought for use on my Sony 6000 and now use it on both cameras.
I did get the Canon EF 1.8 and it works well on the A7mk2. It will autofocus at some apertures, but not all of them. Too much hunting and runs the battery down. So I just find it easier to MF.
I'll check the Tamrons
Thanks


Not sure why you'd say the Fotodiox "is great" and go on to talk about it not focusing at some apertures but I'd bet if you'd go on and get the mc-11 you'd get focus at the other apertures but of course you're ok with manual focus, so... nevermind.

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