Next big A7-A7r legacy lens test.

November 18, 2013
reviews
81 Comments

Zhang QianLi, a Chinese travel photographer who got early hands on with A7 and A7R has done a quick test of adapting an array of M mount lenses with pre-production A7 and A7R (referred as engineering version 0.90 in his post) and posted his comment on Sina blog and images on flickr.

His post on sina blog: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_643b266c0102e33e.html
test images with A7: http://www.flickr.com/photos/inikon/sets/72157637688730425/
test images with A7R: http://www.flickr.com/photos/inikon/sets/72157637668801615/

All images taken with tripod and magnified live-view manual focusing, and direct jpeg output and upload. File names are Camera body–Lenses model–Aperture value. For example: A7R-VM125.6-11 means Voigtlander 12mm f/5.6 lenses on Alpha 7R with aperture set to f/11″

He tested the following lenses and you see lenses and image samples on the Flickr links I posted on top:
[shoplink 22592 ebay]Voigtlander Ultra Wide-Heliar 12mm f5.6 Aspherical (click here to see acutions on eBay).
[shoplink 15490 ebay]Super Wide-Heliar 15mm F4.5 Aspherical II (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 21607 ebay]Voigtlander Color Skopar Pancake II 21mm F4 (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 21606 ebay]Zeiss Biogon T* 21mm f2.8 ZM (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 10899 ebay]Voigtlander Ultra 28mm f2 (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 21793 ebay]Voigtlander Nokton 35mm f1.2 Aspherical VM II (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 22603 ebay]Leica Summicron-M 35mm f2 ASPH (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 20202 ebay]Leica Summilux-M 50mm f1.4 ASPH (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 21848 ebay]Leica Summicron-M 50mm f2 (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 22846 ebay]Voigtlander Nokton 50mm f1.1 Aspherical (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 12485 ebay]Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f2 ZM (here on eBay)[/shoplink].
[shoplink 12505 ebay]Voigtlander Color Heliar 75mm F2.5 MC (here on eBay)[/shoplink].

SAR reader Aero” was so kind to provide us with a translation (Thanks!):
“Not a real test, just that we pooled the lenses I and friends had with us at the time and did some simple test shot. The results does not present official conclusion, it just represent the result on the two pre-production models, to provide some reference for ppl interested in adapting lenses.
Both bodies are version 0.90 pre-production model, one A7 and one A7R, first generation Kipon adapter was used in this test, I brought this adapter when NEX-5 was first releaseed. After test shots were taken, it was found out the vignetting issue are pretty apparent. I was able to purchase the newest voigtlander adapter in Hong Kong couple days ago, the build quality of the voigtlander adapter was way better than the Kipon one, but the vignetting issue did not seem to improve by much.
The leica m9 and type 240 performance are not better than A7R/A7. (Aero’s note: “I assume he’s talking about color shift and vignetting issue without software correction”)
Overall it can be said the result are not really good, for all wide angle under 35mm the results are hardly acceptable. Voigtlander 35 f1.2 II has magenta shift under big aperture, it gets better after f/2.8, and become acceptable. The performance of Leica 35 f/2 was disappointing, Leica 50 f/1.4 has a little bit of magenta shift for aperture larger than f/2.8 as well. On the other hand, Leica 50 f/2.0, Zeiss ZM 50 f/2, and Voigtlander 50 f/1.1 performed acceptable. For tele-focal lengths there’s not much issue from magenta shift. In addition, it is also confirmed that color shift issue are much worse on A7R than on A7, strange since it is the A7R that supposedly have the micro-lenses adjustment.”

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.

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

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