Advice needed on mirrorless for MF lenses

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

I bought a clean NEX 7 five years ago for about what you paid for the A6000. The NEX 7 is basically a predecessor to the A6000, and shares many of its features, most notably its 24.3mp sensor. Or at least an earlier version of it. I've found that 24.3mp provides plenty of resolution for almost all of my needs. This translates into 4000 x 6000 pixels image files, which is usually plenty. Same as one gets with a Nikon CoolScan, in fact. Which is why I also use my NEX 7 for duping slides and negatives.

Most of my lenses are manual focus, and most of those are Canon FD, Nikon F, and Tamron SP. I find that I tend to use the Canon and Tamron lenses the most. Nothing wrong with the Nikons -- I just don't have as big of a selection of them as I do Canon and Tamron.

Some of you have commented on how nice the Canon nFD 85/1.8 is. I have a copy and I must agree. It is a sweet lens. I also own a Canon FD 85/1.2 SSC Aspherical, the ancestor to the 85/1.2 "L" lenses. Now, that is one incredible optic, but you have to want to use it. The 85/1.8 is a much easier lens to use. I'm also very fond of the Canon 50/1.4 SSC and 24/2.8 SSC.

I really like how APS-C format gives extra legs to my telephoto lenses, but I really miss my wide angles being wide angles. And I think that, sooner or later, you're gonna miss this capability with your A6000. Only solution with the A6000 is to buy the expensive short focal length lenses made for it that will give you the wide frames you need. And it is for this reason that I now recommend people figure out a way to buy into a full frame system. The price of the A7 has dropped so far now that it falls into that 500 pound price range now. And the A7 II can be had for a bit more than $800. The 24.3mp sensor size on the A7 is plenty big enough. Consider that Canon's 5D series had to get all the way to the 5D IV before its sensor was greater than 22mp. And nobody seems to fault the 5D series for not having enough image resolution.

I'll likely be upgrading to a clean used A7 or A7 II in the near future, just so I can get my wides back.

Gardener · Joined: 22 Sep 2013 Posts: 950 Location: USA

Lightshow · Joined: 04 Nov 2011 Posts: 3669 Location: Calgary

kiddo · Joined: 29 Jun 2018 Posts: 1121

I really like how APS-C format gives extra legs to my telephoto lenses, but I really miss my wide angles being wide angles. And I think that, sooner or later, you're gonna miss this capability with your A6000. Only solution with the A6000 is to buy the expensive short focal length lenses made for it that will give you the wide frames you need.[/quote]

There's a focal reducer wich i assume that are working well , I'm not sure if all lenses work good enough though

e6filmuser · Joined: 12 Nov 2010 Posts: 579 Location: Reading UK

Gott23 · Joined: 10 Dec 2018 Posts: 250

So I stuck a thorium Pancolar on the A6000 today and results seem impressive so far...

What I really like about the A6000 so far is firstly its size, and also you can use it in as basic manner as you wish; I'm using the viewfinder way more than the screen, and the 11fps is fantastic for street stuff, plus I find having a drive like than can sometimes compensate for camera shake.. I think this should amuse me until such times I do go full-frame mirrorless.

All just about unprocessed, other than pushing exposure and slight temp change. The bridge shot I did lower the contrast, desaturated a bit and upped the blacks/shadows a bit. B&W pigeon shot had a Scala 200 emulation applied. The first shot was at 800 ISO, so I'm quite pleased with how it handled that kind of light.

cooltouch · Joined: 15 Jan 2009 Posts: 9097 Location: Houston, Texas

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

I've grown to love and depend on my Pentax IS.
I've been using it for a dozen years.
One of the best things about a Pentax.

I dont know why everyone doesn't use it, if only as a fallback.

luisalegria · Expire: 2018-01-18

I've tried three focal reducers (borrowed), and in the end bought the cheapest I could find.

The reason is all were soft at the edges, but considering everything one must consider it a reasonable trade, and live with it, so might as well be resigned to it from the begonning. My style, such as it is, and the kind of subjects I am attracted to, do not suffer much from soft edges. Sharpness across the frame does me little good.

Its a personal thing.

Sciolist · Expire: 2021-04-16

Gott23 · Joined: 10 Dec 2018 Posts: 250

Sciolist · Expire: 2021-04-16

bwfcnottingham · Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 12:19 pm Post subject:

Gott23 · Joined: 10 Dec 2018 Posts: 250

Well....

Took it out for a few hours this morning in some half decent light, with a selection of lenses..

Not sure if it was because I'm a glasses wearer, or I have the eyepiece adjust out of place, but it was really hard to get a focus in the far distance, looking through the eyepiece..

Now that was in combination with a screen that kept cutting out..

Then I finally realised later today, it was my hand moving in front of the eyepiece cutting it out; not a wonky connection... *doh*

Despite a fair bit of swearing, the results have proven to be quite interesting.. Current favourite lenses have to be the Lydith 30/3.5, a Domiplan 50/2.8, Thorium Pancolar 50/1.8 and my Flektogon 35/2.8

I did try out a Lydith 20/4 on it last night but I really think that benefits from a full-frame; especially with that field of view.

Pentacon 135/2.8 - which I didn't think was focusing at infinity - and yes, I'll use a tripod next time.. >.< Unprocessed, not sure if blue cast is light or lens

CZJ Flektogon 35/2.8 @ f/5.6

Meyer Optik Domiplan 50/f2.8

Pentaflex Auto Colar 50/1.8 (A Meyer Oreston 50/1.8 in disguise?)

(I was surprised how well this turned out, as it was pretty soft wide open; not much light but I think this was one of the few I got at about 5.6/8 ish)

Silver CSZ Tessar 50/2.8

(This is a flawed beauty though; no infinity focus... but I can live with tht...

and finally the Meyer Lydith 30/3.5

I think this will be my go to lens for the camera, as its so lightweight, easy to control and the sharpness is unbelievable..

KEO · Joined: 27 Sep 2018 Posts: 761 Location: USA

I'm not interested in IBIS personally. The longer you stick with manual focus the better you get at it. These days I have little trouble getting nice, clear, in-focus shots handheld with my 200mm lenses. For focal lengths longer than that I always try to brace against something, but I still shoot handheld. With more normal lenses like a 50 or a 58 I've been able to tap off beautiful shots at 1/10 sec., though not routinely. I never could have done that when I first started. I still feel I'm improving (and that I have room to improve) too.

Still, I prefer to shoot around 1/200 if possible. You have to screw-up pretty bad to get motion blur at that shutter speed.

Gott23 · Joined: 10 Dec 2018 Posts: 250

OK, so the Helios 44-2 I have officially kicks ass... It's great to be able to use it without serious workarounds and the focus/aperture are so smooth to work with - even if the aperture scale is in reverse...

These are all unprocessed other than where I've corrected the temperature; I was shooting at 4400K given the gloom...

(full size versions can be see via this album: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmBnwj1Z - the detail of some of the power station shots is on a par with what I've seen a Pancolar 50 do on long exposure at night....)

For a lens that cost me all of £30 at most, I am blown away...