(part one) More A7-A7r legacy lens test and reports (Martin Stelbrink, Sean, Hakan, Andrew, Yuri)

December 1, 2013
reviews
32 Comments

Many SAR readers were so kind to share their legacy lens test. Here is a first part of the mails I got. More articles will follow soon! Feel free to send me your tests at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com. Thanks!

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Martin Stelbrink (M and R mount lens test):

I have made a number of sample shots with the Sony A7R and legacy lenses. I have posted them with full resolution on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinstelbrink/sets/72157638008570035/

What may be interesting to your readers is that Cornerfix (at least for me) has issues with A7R calibration shots, but the Lightroom Flat File Correction Plug-in works beautifully.

Set description:
A test of Sony Alpha 7R (A7R) with the following legacy lenses. I have posted the first ones of the country road both as original camera jpg and RAW processed in Lightroom (flat file corrected for the wide angle ones of 35mm or less). I did NOT get Cornerfix to work on the files. It created green edges, when correcting the magenta ones. The same calibration shots worked on Adobe Lightroom Flat File Correction Plugin, though.

M-Mount lenses:

[shoplink 10507 ebay]Voigtländer Cosina Heliar 12mm f5.6 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
Surprisingly usable, if colour is flat file corrected. Not more “smear” than on film. But on the first shot you may be shocked at the amount of color casting.

[shoplink 10331 ebay]Zeiss Biogon 25mm f2.8 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
Significant corner / edge smear at open aperture. When stopped down it is usable, if colour is flat file corrected. The center piece is insanely sharp. It also could be used in a cropped mode, e.g. as a 35mm (the resolution of the A7R is more than enough)

[shoplink 22603 ebay]Leica Summicron 35mm f2.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
A wonderful pairing for the A7R, but also needs some flat file correction for colour (but no real smearing on the edges apart from the “character” of this 50+ year old lens)

[shoplink 22846 ebay]Voigtländer Cosina Nokton 50mm f1.1 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
Great lens on this camera, no issues (apart from the tiny shadow of the lens hood on a full frame sensor)

[shoplink 12505 ebay]Voigtländer Cosina Heliar 75mm f1.8 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
Wonderful lens for this camera!

[shoplink 17311 ebay]Leica Elmar-C 90mm f4.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
I found no issues that I put down to the camera, but it shows that this is a 40+ year old lens that was never one of Leica’s “top notch” lenses (significant vignetting). This lens is much nicer on the Nex-7, where I will probably use it as the standard lens, when I take the Nex-7 as my second body next to the A7R.

[shoplink 23124 ebay]Leica Tele-Elmar 135mm f4.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
Brilliant sharpness from corner to corner. Wonderful lens for the A7R

R-Mount lenses:

[shoplink 23125 ebay]Leica Apo-Macro-Elmarit-R 100mm f2.8 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
There is no limitation to use this wonderful classic. Sharp as hell, but also the tiniest DoF, which is very hard to focus in Macro mode. Well, but that is the same on the old Leica R… :-)

[shoplink 23126 ebay]Leica Apo-Telyt-R 180mm f3.4 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
Also no limitation on this nice old tele lens.

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Sean (M, OM and FD mount lens test):

I did a corners test of the A7R + [shoplink 21602 ebay]Voigtlander 21mm f/1.8 Ultron (here on eBay)[/shoplink] recently and the results(with 100% crops) can be found at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55528252@N02/10994380866/
I’ve also done corner tests with the [shoplink 23128 ebay]OM24mm f/2.8(here on eBay)[/shoplink], [shoplink 23129 ebay]FD50L (here on eBay)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 23130 ebay]FD85L (here on eBay)[/shoplink] on my flickr page which also contains additional samples:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55528252@N02/

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Hakan (M-mount):

Here are a few high ISO shots from A7R and [shoplink 21603 ebay]Summilux 21mm (here on eBay)[/shoplink]
http://www.flickr.com/photos/72049239@N05/11011908443/in/set-72157637973525726/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/72049239@N05/11011601186/in/set-72157637973525726/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/72049239@N05/10991649335/in/set-72157637973525726/

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Andrew (M and Ai mount):

I did some A7r vs M9 tests with some M-mount lens. I want to look at A7r’s vignetting, color shifting, corner smearing and sharpness comparing directly to M9. I turned on M9’s lens corrention because that is what I’ll use in real life. It’s all about the final images I get out of camera.

I hope this is also useful for others.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrew_xjy/11025143804/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrew_xjy/11025142444/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrew_xjy/11025140944/in/photostream/

Lenses tested were
[shoplink 21602 ebay]Voigtlander 21mm f1.8 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]
[shoplink 22603 ebay]Leica Summicron 35mm f2 ASPH (here on eBay)[/shoplink]
[shoplink 20202 ebay]Leica Summilux 50mm ASPH (here on eBay)[/shoplink]
[shoplink 8842 ebay]Nikon 28mm f2.8 ais (here on eBay)[/shoplink]
[shoplink 23131 ebay]Nikon Micro 60mm f2.8D (here on eBay)[/shoplink]

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Yuri (M42-mount):

Sony A7 + [shoplink 23133 ebay]Super-Takumar 50/1.4(here on eBay)[/shoplink]. Samples at Yuri.

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Specs and Preorders in Europe:
Sony A7r body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE.
Sony A7 body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony RX10 at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE.
Zeiss 35mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT,
Zeiss 55mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT
Zeiss 24-70mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, SE, PT
Sony G 28-70mm lens at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO.

Specs and Preorders in US and Canada:
Dedicated Sony announcement page at Amazon US (Click here).
Sony A7r body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony RX10 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 24-70mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 35mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 55mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
70-200mm A-mount at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony A-Mount to E-Mount Lens Adapter at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony A to E adapter with mirror at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
A7/A7r leather case at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
A7/A7r vertical grip at Amazon, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony W Series Battery Charger at Amazon, BHphoto.
Sony FA-CS1M Off-Camera Shoe at BHphoto.
Semi-Hard LCD Screen Protector for A7-A7r at Amazon, BHphoto.

Asia:
A7r at Digitalrev.
A7 at Digitalrev, Amazon Cina.
A7 with 28-70mm lens at Digitalrev.