1960 Canon lenses on A7R (images)

[Graham Clark]

One of the most exciting things about a camera that has a short focal flange distance is that nearly any 35mm lens ever made will work. I decided to start out by trying my Canon FL, Canon FD and Nikon Kogaku lenses first, and my first results with my Canon FL 50mm 1.8 was astounding at this medium format resolution range. Note all the images below are unsharpened RAW.

Take a look:



San Francisco Skyline from Treasure Island  |  97s  -  F11  -  ISO 80  |  Canon FL 50mm 1.8 (1964 – 1971)

Take a look at the 100% crop of the bridge detail:



Take a look for yourself and download the RAW file (.ARW), the original TIFF16BIT (200MB+) and the hi/low-res JPEGs directly by clicking here: https://app.box.com/s/03vu6r4c05d6q4v5550a

There's a bit of flare here on the originals that you may not find on modern lenses, however my real interest in these lenses will be black and white street photography, not landscape. Just wanted to test these on something of such extreme detail before my street photography photography meetup tomorrow in San Francisco's Chinatown.

Huge win on sharpness and corner detail, completely shocked me even on playback of image on the camera, but even more so on a 27" Thunderbolt. Will post back here with images from the Streets of Chinatown in B&W (http://www.meetup.com/Landscape-Photography-SF/events/167445242/) tomorrow sometime.

Graham

[Telecaster]

My experience with the A7r so far jibes with this. Many of my so-called "legacy lenses" do really well on this camera. In particular I'm so pleased with the Pentax 31/77/150 set that I've decided to take it, and the camera, on an upcoming Grand Canyon trip instead of the Pentax 645D. The notion that only the sharpest lenses can do the job in front of a high-res sensor is bunk. Instead the A7r's sensor seems capable of pulling the best in technical terms out of older lenses without sacrificing the characteristics that make those lenses appealing (to me anyway) in the first place. A win win!

-Dave-

[LKaven]

There are warehouses full of Canon FD lenses waiting for their second act.  I'll bet there are some pristine examples at bargain prices. 

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

And together with modern deconvolution sharpening it's even better ....

[peterottaway]

I was running a joint Nikon / Minolta ticket for quite a number of years and purchasing cameras and lenses that suited me.My last Nikon camera was the D700 and personally I haven't been able to justify any new Nikon camera since then. But with the Sony A7r I simply don't have to worry anymore.

So I can use my Contax 18mm, Nikon AF-S f 1.8 primes lenses, A mount and FE lenses. I must admit even though I do have a collection of Minolta MD and Olympus lenses that I will be working through, they are not my principal interest. Yes there are some good mf lenses out there but a lot of them are coming to the end of their lives. Added to this the potential condition of their lens coating and cement used in construction then I will leave this buying to the real enthusiasts.

I'm not trying to stir up a debate but I truly do wonder whether the f 1.2 or 1.4 primes have any real world advantage with the AF and auto exposure systems on modern cameras. Plus the time has gone when I could manual focus those lenses in the dark. So it's f 1.8 to 2.0 primes and f 4.0 zooms for me these days.

[Telecaster]

I've used my Pentax 50/1.2 on the A7r with real nice results. Not at f/1.2 but rather 1.7 where IMO its out-of-focus character is more appealing. There does seem to be a full stop gain in light transmission with this lens from f/2 to wide open (not f/1.4), which could come in handy in extreme low-light situations. But otherwise, yes, f/2 or so (f/4 for zooms) does the job fine.

Attached is a pic taken earlier today with the A7r & Pentax 50mm at f/1.7, part of a series intended to poke fun at car porn. My subjects are all scale models, of course.

-Dave-

[Graham Clark]

My experience with the A7r so far jibes with this. Many of my so-called "legacy lenses" do really well on this camera. In particular I'm so pleased with the Pentax 31/77/150 set that I've decided to take it, and the camera, on an upcoming Grand Canyon trip instead of the Pentax 645D. The notion that only the sharpest lenses can do the job in front of a high-res sensor is bunk. Instead the A7r's sensor seems capable of pulling the best in technical terms out of older lenses without sacrificing the characteristics that make those lenses appealing (to me anyway) in the first place. A win win!

-Dave-

Hey Dave,

I agree, in fact my notion of lens price, quality and marketing positioning was turned upside down by just seeing the results of these classic 1960's lenses...

Graham

[Graham Clark]

Today I shot Chinatown in Black and White here in San Francisco. From the 600 images (29.52GB), below are the top selects. The first half are with the Canon FL 50mm 1.8, second half are with the Canon FD 50mm 1.8:


Streets of Chinatown in B&W  |  1/320  -  F8  -  ISO 125  -  Canon FD 50mm 1.8 with Sony A7R


Serve Yourself  |  1/640  -  F8  -  ISO 320  -  Canon FD 50mm 1.8 with Sony A7R


Looking East  |  1/250  -  F8  -  ISO 200  -  Canon FL 50mm 1.8 with Sony A7R

Click here to see all the other images

Click here to view and download the RAW, TIFF, DNG and hi-res JPEG files (5.2GB)

Click here to view the astounding sharpness of the Canon FD 50mm 1.8 with the Sony A7R. Can you spot the photographer?

[marimagen]

Jeez, I'm quite impressed! Only a few days ago I posted a comment on using Canon FD lenses on a Nikon D700 body. In my case the match didn't work out because I was not using the right kind of adaptor. Do you use an adaptor to fit your FD lenses to the A7R?

[RJA4000]

I use Novoflex CAN/NEX. I own 3. All are perfect.

Tons of FD lenses are incredibly sharp. Most are light and inexpensive too.
Look at FDn 35mm f/2.8 : it's probably as sharp as Sony FE 35mm f/2.8 and costs... less than $50.
FDn 35mm f/2.0, FDn 28mm f/2.8, FDn 50mm f/1.4 (much better than f/1.8 ); FDn 85mm f/1.8, FDn 100mm f/2.8, FDn 100mm f/2.0, FDn 135mm f/2.8, FDn 200mm f/4.0 are all very good performers.
Then FDn 135mm f/2.0, FDn 50mm f/3.5 Macro, FDn 20mm f/2.8, FDn 28mm f/2.0,...
Then you have the L's : FDn 50mm f/1.2L, FDn 85mm f/1.2L, FDn 20-35 3.5L, FDn 80-200 f/4.0L, FDn 100-300 f/5.6L, FDn 50-300 f/4.5L, FDn 300mm f/4.0L,...
Not to speak about FDn 300mm f/2.8L, FDn 500mm f/4.5L, FDn 150-600 f/5.6L, FDn 200mm f/1.8L,...

I own 25 of those and most are really impressive on A7R. And a joy to use.

(See http://erphotoreview.com/wordpress/ for some Imatest with FD lenses on A7.
And of course http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/canon/fdresources/fdlenses/ for reference about Canon FD lenses)

[Rob C]

Bar one lens, I'm still using nothing other than AIS manual Nikkors on my D700; both body and the lenses give me all I could reasonably wish for in technical and aesthetic terms.

As I've commented before, babies and bath-waters have a habit of being discarded together by mistake. This is fact, borne out by repeated personal experience, unfortunately.

The only real thing I could still desire, which doesn't exist, is a Hasselblad 500 Series with a full-format digital sensor that I could afford. I'd still want to have both formats, though, because not all courses are the same.

Rob C

[Graham Clark]

I use Novoflex CAN/NEX. I own 3. All are perfect.

Tons of FD lenses are incredibly sharp. Most are light and inexpensive too.
Look at FDn 35mm f/2.8 : it's probably as sharp as Sony FE 35mm f/2.8 and costs... less than $50.
FDn 35mm f/2.0, FDn 28mm f/2.8, FDn 50mm f/1.4 (much better than f/1.8 ); FDn 85mm f/1.8, FDn 100mm f/2.8, FDn 100mm f/2.0, FDn 135mm f/2.8, FDn 200mm f/4.0 are all very good performers.
Then FDn 135mm f/2.0, FDn 50mm f/3.5 Macro, FDn 20mm f/2.8, FDn 28mm f/2.0,...
Then you have the L's : FDn 50mm f/1.2L, FDn 85mm f/1.2L, FDn 20-35 3.5L, FDn 80-200 f/4.0L, FDn 100-300 f/5.6L, FDn 50-300 f/4.5L, FDn 300mm f/4.0L,...
Not to speak about FDn 300mm f/2.8L, FDn 500mm f/4.5L, FDn 150-600 f/5.6L, FDn 200mm f/1.8L,...

I own 25 of those and most are really impressive on A7R. And a joy to use.

(See http://erphotoreview.com/wordpress/ for some Imatest with FD lenses on A7.
And of course http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/companies/canon/fdresources/fdlenses/ for reference about Canon FD lenses)

Amazing resource, thanks. Great articles on your site

[Graham Clark]

This past week I have been to a few locations shooting with the Sony A7R, including Rodeo Beach, Treasure Island, Golden Gate Bridge and Death Valley National Park. Here's a few field notes and images that I came away with:

• Dynamic range is pretty good, indistinguishable from the Canon 5D3 and Canon 6D
• Electronic Viewfinder is a game changer for landscape photographers, especially in bright environments. Check out the back LCD in this high elevation harshly lit Death Valley mountain peak below. Notice how you can’t really determine the exposure and composition properly, or if you could you’d be straining your eyes quite a bit? One look in the viewfinder changes all of that:



• Small size is amazing


Composition Study | 30s – ISO 64 – F18 – Canon 50mm FD 1.8

• Sensor gets quite a bit of dust on it, the shutter vibration technology is all marketing. Same performance as 5D3 and 6D
• Sony A7R bug prevented Bulb Mode: http://youtu.be/o6pH8XWbiaM
The Sony A7R fails in bulb mode in the field. Prevented me from getting a few shots, unfortunately. After this video I tried my Canon EF lens and still no resolution of the issue. It turned out to be a bug in the camera, as resetting the entire camera back to factory defaults fixed the issue, but didn’t fix the time it took to re-configure everything as it was before resetting : (


Human Landscape | 43s – F20 – ISO 80 – Canon 50mm 1.8 FD

• Canon FD and FL lenses are resolving just as sharp as my sharpest L lenses, corner sharpness is excellent
• Battery life in Death Valley suffered. It takes about 4 hours 1/2 to charge one battery off the car USB. Needless to say I didn’t get many batteries charged, and struggled to take photographs late in the day


Face Above San Francisco | 205s – F20 – ISO 100 – 20mm – No Photoshop

• Shot with the Canon 6D half the time in the park due to low battery life on the Sony a7R, and I had 3x batteries
• Image Quality of the Sony A7R is quite a few margins above the 5D3 and 6D


Composition Study | 30s – F22 – ISO 50 – Canon 50mm 1.8 FD


Composition Study | 30s – F18 – ISO 50 – 35mm


Composition Study | 135s – F18 – ISO 100 – Canon 50mm 1.8 FD 1962


Composition Study | 20s – F18 – ISO 50 – 30mm


Composition Study | 49s – F20 – ISO 100 – Canon 50mm 1.8 FD 1962

[billy]

"Dynamic range is pretty good, indistinguishable from the Canon 5D3 and Canon 6D"

Wow really? I thought the Sony had 2 stops more DR? Not trying to be a dick but that doesn't seem correct. At least at base ISO, maybe your referring to higher ISO.

[Graham Clark]

"Dynamic range is pretty good, indistinguishable from the Canon 5D3 and Canon 6D"

Wow really? I thought the Sony had 2 stops more DR? Not trying to be a dick but that doesn't seem correct. At least at base ISO, maybe your referring to higher ISO.

14.4 vs. 11.1 - I don't see any difference in real world shooting.

[eronald]

Your pics are very nicely composed. DR is nice. Maybe texture is a bit off, possibly due to flare.
What is clear is that one body plus a few hundred dollars gives you a complete first quality landscape lens collection, non AF but very usable with the EVF.

Edmund

[bcooter]

Your pics are very nicely composed. DR is nice. Maybe texture is a bit off, possibly due to flare.
What is clear is that one body plus a few hundred dollars gives you a complete first quality landscape lens collection, non AF but very usable with the EVF.

Edmund

Edmund.

In all honesty, I think if you took your engineering skills to a coder and worked out a way to change the shutter delay on the A7R to reduce shake, maybe made an app for tethering and added a configurable mobile app to run the camera and change format from 2:3 to 4:5 or anything for that matter, you'd probably sell 10 million more of them than you would your open source medium format back.

Just a thought.

IMO

BC

[MrSmith]

And think of the man hours saved, time that could be spent just wandering around with a lightweight landscape camera and a couple of lenses...

[eronald]

Edmund.

In all honesty, I think if you took your engineering skills to a coder and worked out a way to change the shutter delay on the A7R to reduce shake, maybe made an app for tethering and added a configurable mobile app to run the camera and change format from 2:3 to 4:5 or anything for that matter, you'd probably sell 10 million more of them than you would your open source medium format back.

Just a thought.

IMO

BC

Just wait for the next release and they'll fix vibration and add an app.

I thought they had an app already, but it seems the trademark of a "pro" camera these days is that it has less features than the consumer model.

Edmund

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

I am not sure the A7r vibration levels can be solved in software, I guess it takes a better sensor and a better shutter. Actually the A7 without the 'r' has both. The A7 has electronic first curtain, 2 ms response time, no vibrations from first curtain. The A7r has a shutter that must be closed and cocked before exposure. So it needs rapid cocking to have a reasonable response time.

Also, A7 has on sensor phase detection AF and the A7r has not. The A7r is simply using old technology.

Personally I wait for next generation sensor with on sensor PDA, electronic first curtain in a body deserving a ´9´ designation.

Best regards
Erik

Edmund.

In all honesty, I think if you took your engineering skills to a coder and worked out a way to change the shutter delay on the A7R to reduce shake, maybe made an app for tethering and added a configurable mobile app to run the camera and change format from 2:3 to 4:5 or anything for that matter, you'd probably sell 10 million more of them than you would your open source medium format back.

Just a thought.

IMO

BC