[6BQ5]

Anyone here shoot with an A7 series body and manual lenses? I am thinking of picking up a used body and adapting my M42 and K-mount lenses. What's it like to focus from a Pentaxian's perspective? I always appreciated Pentax's focus peaking implementation. Is Sony's as good or better? Most of my lenses are 50mm or longer.

Thanks!

[clackers]

I have the A7, Boris.

It and the A7R don't have IBIS, so are inferior to Pentax.

The more expensive A7II and A7R II do.

I like the Sony focus peaking implementation better than Pentax ... you can change the colours, for starters. Some find the video-style zebra option irritating, I don't mind it.

Lenses without aperture rings are painful to use with clickless adapters, but your situation is perfectly fine, even if there's no green button.

I shot this with the Tamron 70-200 using zone focus:

[TomB_tx]

I have an A7 purely for my old manual focus lenses - it's my digital MX. I prefer it to any dSLR iVe tried for legacy lenses. I don't miss IBIS, having shot without it for over 50 years. I've used Leica "R" reflex lenses from 24 to 400 on the A7, my Leica RF lenses, and mainly my Pentax-M lenses. The SMC-M 20mm f4 is great on the A7, and the Pentax M lenses are matched to its small size. The EVF is very easy to focus even without focus aids, but a button press magnifies for critical focus. After using the A7 I have no interest in a full-frame digital Pentax.

[clackers]

Whereas since getting the K-1, my A7 is staying in the cupboard.

[Wild Mark]

Whereas since getting the K-1, my A7 is staying in the cupboard.

I am interested in the Sony 7 series too, but only as a travel camera as the K-1 will be too bulky. As clackers succinctly infers, the K-1 is superior but may not be ideal in certain circumstance (for me - travelling)

[clackers]

I am interested in the Sony 7 series too, but only as a travel camera as the K-1 will be too bulky. As clackers succinctly infers, the K-1 is superior but may not be ideal in certain circumstance (for me - travelling)

Next year, my wife and I will be doing a lot hiking and bike riding in first Scotland, then Idaho, so I may take for those weeks the A7 (hope it's forgiven me for keeping it in a dark cupboard for so long), the FA77, FA31, and Voigtlander 20mm f3.5 pancake.

Of course it's compromised compared to the real thing, and I would rather the K-1 with Sigma 12-24, DA*55 and Tamron 70-200, but travel itself is a compromise.

[grahame]

Sony A7 series are the best digital back for MF lenses. I really love the EVF when MF. I set one of the button for magnifying the image, and set focusing peaking at high (you need "high" to use peaking when image is enlarged in EVF). Very accurate and effective. Much better than split focusing screens. I installed all kinds of focusing screens on my DSLRs, including EE-S, EC-B and kateye. None can complete with A7.

[pinholecam]

I use the K1 for my AF lenses unless its static/slow stuff that I can use LV with manual lenses.
The A7 (Kolari modded) is my go to MF camera.

Its like a digital ME in size with the smallish Pentax lenses.
Focus peaking implementation is better than Pentax for me. (so YMMV).
In fact, I often just use the "shimmering" that happens on the EVF on the in focus area to determine if I'm focused and that works too.
Its also become quite the habit to zoom in to get accurate focus (despite the rather silly implementation of 2 presses to zoom in).


Do note that the thicker filter stack on the A7 series can mean poorer edges on some lenses.
I do see this difference in edge IQ between the K1 (which is 36mp) vs my A7 (which is thin filter modded) vs unmodded A7.
So K1 still does better with some of these old lenses on the edges even at 36mp. (only impt if you are picky about such stuff)

[clackers]

Sony A7 series are the best digital back for MF lenses. I really love the EVF when MF. I set one of the button for magnifying the image, and set focusing peaking at high (you need "high" to use peaking when image is enlarged in EVF). Very accurate and effective. Much better than split focusing screens. I installed all kinds of focusing screens on my DSLRs, including EE-S, EC-B and kateye. None can complete with A7.

My experience has been the opposite, Grahame.

I can focus much more quickly with the Katzeye on my K-30 than using the EVF on my A7 ... and it works even in poor light or when there is low contrast on the subject, where the A7 can show no focus peaking at all!

An EVF of course does not show what's in focus, it shows the high contrast areas of the scene.

[BigMackCam]

Hi Boris - I use the A7 MkII primarily with manual lenses, and for that application I think it's fantastic. Once you have it set up the way you want, it's easy to use. Focus peaking is great - better, in my view, than Pentax's implementation. I tend to use focus magnification when time allows, however, as it results in even greater accuracy (with any focus-peaking implementation, you still have to intuitively judge where the middle of the peaked range is when focusing). I particularly like the custom function button placement on the camera, too...

[shampeon]

This is how I mainly shoot now, with manual lenses on an A7ii. I only have one native AF lens, (the FE 28 2.0, which is great little lens). The ability to nail focus with the magnifier in the EVF, focus peaking, and ability to adapt pretty much every manual lens makes it so awesome to use. It's compact and pretty light, and now that I'm used to the controls I can make it do what I want.

Vivitar VMC 50mm f1.4


Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f1.4:


Pentacon 135mm f2.8


Pentax A 70-210mm f4


Zenitar 16mm f2.8


Helios 44-2 58mm f2