Using Mamiya 645 medium format lenses on an A7r (Guest post by Austrokiwi).

This is a Guest post from Guest post from Austrokiwi (first posted on SonyAlphaForum).

I read with amusement the complains of those who say there are not enough lenses for the sony FF e-mount system.  I get the impression the people who complain about the lack of lenses are;

  1. Just envious Nikon and canon owners who are looking at a means to knock the mirrorless revolution.  Perhaps they just want to sound intelligent  when saying they will not switch to mirrorless.
  2. Professionals who tend to blame their tool and  simply lack the old analogue skills. ( they are technicians rather than artists)

I,m an amateur so I guess the pros will say the A7r is made for me!!! That’s not to say the camera isn’t without its frustrations. I take macro photos and that shutter has me saying lots of naughty words  at times. Lets hope there is an A7RII  or the A9 with an EFCS  as well as the IBIS.

I use a range of lenses on the A7r, Old minolta legacy lenses an EOS mount Petzval( thank you Lomography) as well as microscope objectives and enlarger lenses. For my macro photography I wanted a tilt shift system. Of course I wanted a wide angle Tilt shift as well . The compromise was  to order a Mirex Tilt shift adapter ( A truly simple  effective piece of engineering). Following the some discussions with the manufacturer( I had started out thinking the Mirex would be best as a M42 mount)  I settled on a Mirex Mamiya 645 -EOS adapter which of course is fitted to the A7r via an EOS – Nex adapter.  The result isn’t beautiful but the results are. I then purchased two Mamiya 645 lenses  a 35mm wide angle and the 80mm macro. Heres a shot of the 80mm macro in action:

This is the sort of picture it produces:

The 35mm ( Mamiya Sekor C 35mm F 3.5 N) produced this test panorama:

And with the tilt function:

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(SR2) Is the new “cheap” FF E-mount camera coming in April?

I got a new rumor about the new Sony entry level FF E-mount camera. The anonymous source says:

The super cheap e mount 35mm cam will be published next month. We got a delivery in our sony store. It will ship 21 april 15

Over a month ago we got a rumor about that camera having a price of around 799 Euro. Sony patented that FE entry-level camera in 2013 already (SAR article here). Doesn’t mean the camera is coming for sure yet. But if Sony would really announce it this would become the world’s most compact FF camera yet. Still, Sony has no real compact FE lens to offer along this one a part of the [shoplink 33616 ebay]Zeiss FE 35mm f/2.8 lens[/shoplink].

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Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!

(SR4-5) Small update on the FE 24-240mm announcement and other upcoming products.

Had a chat with Digicameinfo and with two of my sources. Here are the key info:

1) Digicameinfo is usally spot on wiht rumors and he told me directly the FE 24-240mm will ship on March 12 in Japan but the real announcement with full pricing info, preorders and specs is expected to be within the next few days (maybe this week already). I would usually rate the rumor SR5 because he is usally right. Hope he doesn’t make any mistake exactly that time :)

2) SR5: There is a very high chance of another Sony product announcement coming in late March (or first week of April).  SR4: And that should be for camera(s)

3) SR4: The other three FE lenses (90mm macro, 35mm Zeiss and 28mm G) price should be announced in April.

The real question is what’s coming from Sony ont he camera front. I got reliable rumor about the High Res camera, RX2 (curved sensor) and A7000. But the very same sources told me Sony Japan is keeping the release date info very secret.

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Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!

(SR5) Updated: Sony FE 24-240mm lens will ship in Japan from March 12!

sony-fe-24-240mm-zoom-lens

UPDATED: At last! Sony Japan will start shipping the new 24-240mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS FE lens on March 12. This means Sony will announce the price of the lens and accept preorders in a very few days already! The other three new FE lenses should be released in April.

And there are also rumors about another announcement in late March (should be for cameras!).

via Digicameinfo.

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Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!

 

(UPDATED to SR5) Sony to launch new products in late March-early April.

UPDATE: Multiple sources confirmed the Sony product announcement event. I upgraded the rumor to my max SR5 score :)

The sources “heard” that Sony will announce new “major” products in late March-very early April. They didn’t share the actual public announcement date yet. But this confirms the rumors we got the last couple of weeks suggesting that Sony would “skip” the Cp+ event to get more spotlight on their new products. I will now try to get the date of the March announcement event. And let’s hope some of the rumored cameras (a7rII, A7000 and so) will be announced on that day too!

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Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources
SR5=almost certainly correct!

Sony says they will update many A-mount lenses. And they know internal 4K recording is highly requested.

The Japanese site Mapcamera interviewed Sony. The interview is in Japanese but our SAR readers Kuonji and Chaika translated some of the key info for us (Thanks!):

1) Currently, Sony has no plan to implement 4K internal recording on the A7s. However they recognize there is a huge request to get this feature in future cameras.
2) Sony is planning for making a new mark II A-mount lenses to replace old popular lenses i.e. 70-300, 24-70, 16-35. More to come in the future
3) Sony is still quite young in terms of mirrorless market, they think of themselves as a challenger, but because they are a challenger, they believe they can do a lot of innovative stuff.

Sony also said they cannot share any details about when the new FE lenses will be released.

Sony Artisan Brian Smith: “someone might just make a 50mp camera for less than 3700 bucks!”

5ds

Sony Artisan Brian Smith commented after the Canon 5Ds launch:

Canon fired the first shot in the Great Mega-Pixel War of 2015, announcing a pair of 50.6 mp Canon 5DS cameras – This is just the first shot! Expect to hear more announcements soon… Who knows, someone might just make a 50mp camera for less than 3700 bucks!

He is likely “hearing” the same rumors I got….sounds exactly like the A7rII to me ;)

Sony has now plenty of time to “fight back” with the A7rII as the Canon 5ds preorders will start on April 30 only at Amazon. And shipment is June/July.