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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
09-16-2015, 08:57 PM
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I bought it and at first I was going to take it back. Its expensive for a macro lens. I kept it and shot a wedding with it this past weekend, and now I'm pretty sure I will keep it. The colors and 3d pop wide open make it work really well and the AF is faster than I was expecting for a macro on my A7II. I'm definitely applying a little negative clarity to skin. Its really, really sharp. My only complaint is that the OIS really sucks down the battery power.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
09-11-2015, 05:43 AM
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I have been shooting with it for a few weeks now. Very sharp lens with very little distortion.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
06-13-2015, 02:54 PM
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I have only used the 31mm extensively. I think its just as good as the K-3. The 31mm is not real challenging for the SR and a FF sensor is a little more forgiving. My other K-mount lenses don't have aperture rings, so I don't use them as much on my A7II.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
01-17-2015, 09:01 AM
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Mirrorless or not, you are still designing for a FF image circle with the A7m2 line. The new 90mm F/2.8 macro with OIS looks pretty large. Hopefully the 85mm F/1.8 or F/2 will be more compact since it wont have to focus so close or have OIS built in.
I think the A9 will look a lot like an A99 (in size) when it comes out. Big grip for high capacity batteries to handle the processing power needed for a high performance mirrorless.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
01-16-2015, 10:56 AM
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No. There is no loss of IQ.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
01-15-2015, 03:46 PM
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Since you have a lot of older MF glass with aperture ring, I think you will really love the A7m2. Having my 31mm actually work like a 31mm is so nice. Now I'm tempted to buy the 77mm.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
01-09-2015, 06:32 PM
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It has an AF-C tracking feature that is surprisingly fast. Realize I had low expectations of mirrorless, so what is surprising to me might not be surprising to people who have been using cameras like the Olympus EM-1 or Sony A6000. Just having my dog run towards me I got 80% keepers and it has a very fast burst. What I didn't like and what might just be me not using the AF correctly was sometimes it took too long to identify and lock onto my dog. Sometimes I didn't think it was tracking my dog and just as I hit the shutter button it would lock focus on my dog and track her until she was too close to focus with the 55mm F/1.8. That is the only time I have played with the fast tracking. I don't shoot a lot of fast moving subjects, so what it does do is more than I expected.
You can program facial recognition into the camera and I have used that with a couple of child portrait sessions so that as the kid moved around or I recomposed, the camera kept focus locked on to the face. My wife's face is stored in the system so if I have that feature turned on and she it in the crowd, it will lock on to her face. The feature worked pretty well and I don't know if it has been improved with the new firmware. I tried to use it with a child in her rocking chair with her cat and me shooting at F/2 and window light. She was 3 and kept rocking back and forth (into and out of my plane of focus). The feature was a little too slow for consistent results, but if improved it could be a great. That was a tough test, but I see this eventually being a great feature for mirrorless.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
01-09-2015, 04:21 PM
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The A7m2 firmare 1.10 that was released yesterday is a definite improvement. Start up speed, write speed, wake-up from sleep are all improved. I never considered the shutter to have much lag, but it seems instant now. With firmware 1.00 I was getting 2-2.5 stops improvement with IBIS. With 1.10 I'm getting a pretty sold 3 stops. Not sure how many stops Sony rates the IBIS for.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
01-09-2015, 09:05 AM
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Nothing wrong with waiting. The A7m2 isn't going to go up in price. By this time next year it will be selling for $1,200 probably. You should rent it with an adapter for a week. It cheep and then you can play with the MF (peaking and magnification) and IBIS. If you enjoy old MF glass, the A7m2 is the best option on the market currently, but there will always be something better come along.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
01-09-2015, 07:35 AM
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DxO released its scores for the A7m2 this morning. No real change over the A7 and still the the 11th best sensor by their scoring system. Look at the Color Sensitivity graph with the A7m2 and the K-3. The colors from the A7m2 at 1600 and under are the biggest area where the A7m2 has an advantage. DxO gives the A7m2 an ISO score of 2449 which is twice that of the K-3 (1216). I can only print A3+ in-house and at that size the K-3 holds it own until ISO 800. The A7m2 is producing excellent prints at 1600 - 3200 (A3+). Neither camera provides usable color prints at ISO 6400 for A3+. I still do a lot of B&W and the K-3 holds it own in B&W prints pretty well. I really like the grain of the K-3 when it comes to B&W up to 3200.
The A7m2 is very well priced for what it does. The A7s is a good bit more expensive at $2,500 so I imagine the A9 will be priced at over $3,000. The A7m2 is my first mirrorless body and I'm still trying to decide if I will go completely mirrorless and invest in a complete system. IF I do, the A9 will be an option, but Sony needs more lenses and the A7m2 is a great camera for me to explore mirrorless with.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
01-09-2015, 05:33 AM
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Just shot a 30 second frame. Back LCD is still active during the exposure, but only shows black, so they have not fixed it.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
01-08-2015, 07:29 PM
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Sony released a large 250mb firmware update today that is supposed to improve IBIS and other functions. Its very good to see Sony quickly addressing issues like this. It was only a year or two ago that Sony was absolutely awful at releasing firmware.
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Forum: Canon, Nikon, Sony, and Other Camera Brands
01-08-2015, 07:00 PM
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It is a great camera. I was surprised by its performance. I think I have pretty low expectations of mirrorless still. I would say the AF is on par with the K-5. The Af tracking is better than I expected. Having all of the custom buttons is great. Manual focus with peaking and magnification is great. Love the 31mm on the A7m2. For me the IBIS is not as good as it is on the K-3, but its still very nice to have.
As for noise, I don't see a big difference between it and the K-3. What does stand out to me is the color and tonality of the images. There is a clarity and smoothness to the RAW files that is really nice. Not smooth as in noise reduction or plastic skin that Canon JPEGs are known for, but smooth as in the color and tone transition. The micro contrast with the Sony 55mm F/1.8 is very good. Good headroom in the highlights for post processing. RAW files are really good work with. I really don't notice the EVF anymore and having the ability to see the effects of WB and exposure in the EVF is nice. Mostly though its the really good color and clarity that I'm getting that stands out.
I use DxO Film pack 5 and VSCO film packs for certain projects. I was never happy with the colors of the VSCO with the K-3. VSCO doesn't support Pentax cameras so you don't get their custom color profiles. DxO works pretty good with the K-3 files, but the Sony works much better with VSCO and a little better with DxO.
Battery life on the A7m2 is just as bad as everyone says, but changing batteries every 200 shots is still better than swapping rolls of film every 36. The rear screen is really nice. I was surprised by how good it is. Ergonomics are much improved over the A7. I can use the camera for hours and not have any complaints. Its not quite as quick and responsive as the K-3. Partly its due to me not being use to the Sony A7m2 controls and having to think about settings, but it is still a little slower sometimes. Not by much though.
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