Sony A7R3 users - THROW AWAY YOUR CANON LENSES!

[Andrew Reid]

14 minutes ago, Grégory LEROY said:

My question was about focus by wire. Andrew doesn't seem to posses any Sony lens (at least expensive ones). So I was wondering if for video grapher possessing an A7RIII, sigma art lenses were providing the best of both world: video autofocus and physical manual focus. Nobody talk about manual focus, but it seems to be a big advantage over sony native lenses (or not if nobody talk about it, i don't have your experience with mirrorless)

Of the Sony lenses I own, I have the Zeiss 55mm F1.8 FE, Zeiss 35mm F1.4 ZE, Batis 25mm F2 and Batis 85mm F1.8. Can highly recommend them all, but the Sigma ART lenses are WAAAAY better value for money.

The advantage of the Sony ones is generally.... smaller, lighter, quieter, no adapter needed (obviously) but the optical performance is similar to Sigma and no giant step up even on the best lenses. In fact the Sigma 85mm F1.4 ART is better than the G-Master from Sony!

[Grégory LEROY]

1 hour ago, Andrew Reid said:

Of the Sony lenses I own, I have the Zeiss 55mm F1.8 FE, Zeiss 35mm F1.4 ZE, Batis 25mm F2 and Batis 85mm F1.8. Can highly recommend them all, but the Sigma ART lenses are WAAAAY better value for money.

The advantage of the Sony ones is generally.... smaller, lighter, quieter, no adapter needed (obviously) but the optical performance is similar to Sigma and no giant step up even on the best lenses. In fact the Sigma 85mm F1.4 ART is better than the G-Master from Sony!

Thank you for answering. So manual focusing doesn't come into the equation for shooting with Sigma.

Focus by wire is not a real issue. Native Sony lenses are as easy as Sigma Art to manually focus with.

[teddoman]

On 2/5/2018 at 2:14 PM, Grégory LEROY said:

I was answering Jonpais  stating "Sigma lenses are fbw"   (I was surprised)

My question was about focus by wire. Andrew doesn't seem to posses any Sony lens (at least expensive ones). So I was wondering if for video grapher possessing an A7RIII, sigma art lenses were providing the best of both world: video autofocus and physical manual focus. Nobody talk about manual focus, but it seems to be a big advantage over sony native lenses (or not if nobody talk about it, i don't have your experience with mirrorless)

There's no lens, even sony native with such characteristics: video autofocus + classic manual focus (not by wire). I don't like sigma lenses. the only lens I've broken is a sigma but in that (video) scenario it's seems wiser to invest in sigma art lens, canon or sigma mount instead of Sony ( I only have a nikon camera, so no adapting for me)

Interesting that the lens manufacturers don't have a specific designation for FBW lenses. You have to know that Canon STM lenses are all FBW, for example, but there isn't a separate designation for FBW vs non-FBW lenses.

Apparently the Sigma 20mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art is not a FBW lens, so perhaps it's not totally true that all Sigma lenses are FBW. It shows up on the list of MC-11 compatible lenses (Canon mount)

 

 

 

[jonpais]

That’s good to know - but the lack of hard stops and short focus throw make this lens difficult to recommend for video work where manual focus will be used extensively.

[Asmundma]

In 2018, with a New Sony or Canon camera, who is shooting manual most of the time?

[jonpais]

exactly, which is why we don’t need mechanical lenses for video.

[Grégory LEROY]

22 hours ago, teddoman said:

Interesting that the lens manufacturers don't have a specific designation for FBW lenses. You have to know that Canon STM lenses are all FBW, for example, but there isn't a separate designation for FBW vs non-FBW lenses.

Apparently the Sigma 20mm f/1.4 DG HSM Art is not a FBW lens, so perhaps it's not totally true that all Sigma lenses are FBW. It shows up on the list of MC-11 compatible lenses (Canon mount)

 

 

 

Can you show me the list of MC-11 compatible lens pleas?

[Grégory LEROY]

16 hours ago, Asmundma said:

In 2018, with a New Sony or Canon camera, who is shooting manual most of the time?

Ok interesting, I never had any Sanon or Sony camera. So Canon and Sony shooters never manually focus. I remember this cam operator from Vice uk covering my training, he seemed to manually focus a 35mm canon L on a C300mkI, but I'm not sure.

[webrunner5]

52 minutes ago, Grégory LEROY said:

Ok interesting, I never had any Sanon or Sony camera. So Canon and Sony shooters never manually focus. I remember this cam operator from Vice uk covering my training, he seemed to manually focus a 35mm canon L on a C300mkI, but I'm not sure.

Well you can manually focus them but since they are Focus by Wire there is no smooth way to do it, or make it repeatable. Not counting any kind of crash focus. 

I have no clue why Canon, Nikon doesn't copy the Olympus Clutch thingy. They are a heck of a lot more usable for video.

[mercer]

I was under the impression that most Canon USM lenses arent FBW... well there’s obviously an electronic focus but nothing like mirrorless lenses have and still slightly mechanical with how the focus ring turns the motor. 

[PannySVHS]

I am always a bit angry and sad, that my beautiful 20mm 1.7 doesn´t have a mechanical focus. Love the rendering of that lens. No small mechanical pancakes on m43 system. Oh, wrong thread for that topic.

[webrunner5]

5 hours ago, mercer said:

I was under the impression that most Canon USM lenses arent FBW... well there’s obviously an electronic focus but nothing like mirrorless lenses have and still slightly mechanical with how the focus ring turns the motor. 

From Wiki.

"Unlike USM, STM lenses use focus-by-wire to enable full-time manual mode. Two main disadvantages are linked to focus-by-wire: First, the need to computationally process the input before the intended action is executed leads to a sometimes perceptible lag. Second, using the motor requires power, so when an STM lens is not connected to a camera or the camera is switched off, changing the focus is impossible."

"Canon announced Stepping motor (STM) lenses first in June 2012, alongside the EOS 650D/Rebel T4i/Kiss X6i."

SO I guess you are right on USM lenses.

[IronFilm]

18 hours ago, Grégory LEROY said:

Ok interesting, I never had any Sanon or Sony camera. So Canon and Sony shooters never manually focus. I remember this cam operator from Vice uk covering my training, he seemed to manually focus a 35mm canon L on a C300mkI, but I'm not sure.

Was not unusual for C300mk1 owners to be shooting with adapted Nikon lenses, and the original C300mk1 didn't initially have DPAF

15 hours ago, PannySVHS said:

No small mechanical pancakes on m43 system. Oh, wrong thread for that topic.

I though there was a third party or two who made one, one of those chinese brands

[PannySVHS]

6 hours ago, IronFilm said:

I though there was a third party or two who made one, one of those chinese brands

don´t know of any. no mechanical pancake, nor to speak of any with the optical quality of the 20mm. :/

[teddoman]

On 2/7/2018 at 12:57 PM, Grégory LEROY said:

Can you show me the list of MC-11 compatible lens pleas?

If you look at lenses on the Sigma website, you can sort for lenses by MC-11 compatible, it's one of the sort criteria. I think there are also lists out there too.

This new Sigma 14-24 in Canon mount is MC-11 compatible and under focus specs it says "full time manual - yes" which kind of sort of suggests it's not FBW

[IronFilm]

23 hours ago, IronFilm said:

I though there was a third party or two who made one, one of those chinese brands

This is a pretty compact manual focus lens for MFT (cheap too!):

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1383714-REG/opteka_optm3517m43_35mm_f1_7_high_definition.html

The 50mm looks pretty small too?

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1383719-REG/opteka_optm5020m43_50mm_f2_0_high_definition.html

And this:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1387945-REG/7artisans_photoelectric_7a35f12bkm43_35mm_f1_2_aps_c_for.html

 

 

[PannySVHS]

@IronFilm Those are pretty and they are pancakes.  Now if they could give me that in 20mm and with good optical quality at f2.8, that would be beautiful! The 7artisan 25mm might be a great start for an all purpose mechanical pancake on mft. Just a 20mm version of this would be even better, if optical quality is good.

Edit: just did a bit research. The 25mm seems indeed pretty nice. Thanks, IronFilm!:)

[IronFilm]

Yeah 35mm is a tricky focal length as a sole lens to use on MFT :-/ 

[Grégory LEROY]

On 07/02/2018 at 3:19 AM, Asmundma said:

In 2018, with a New Sony or Canon camera, who is shooting manual most of the time?

Rai TV (italia) came to me to cover an event I've organized in Poland. The cam operator had a Canon C100 mkII but he has never used autofocus at all during the whole duration of the event, it is not reliable enough according to him.

It seems that pros don't use autofocus at all, neither on Sony or Canon cameras or whatever.

Questioning the pro might be more reliable than forum.

[Holger]

On 27/01/2018 at 12:25 PM, Asmundma said:

I have also tried Metabones for video with Canon glass (both modes), it does not work properly, so I agree. These videos fool people mostly. Can use metabones in green mode for stills with center AF for stills for not to fast photos shooting. Landscapes are ok. 

The problem with Sigmas is that they make noise when your AF works hard e.g. sports. A lot of Canon glass also make quite some noise. 

The best lenses are Sonys, most of them are quite when AF for video. 

 

Not my experience, in fact, I fully disagree. Metabones (version IV od V) works better than MC11 for _stills_, esp. in AFC. The Sigma adapter is restricted to the central portion of the VF, whereas I can use eye focus and tracking over the full screen with Metabones (green mode). Performance is not as good as with native glass, but very close. Many modes are fully supported. This is consensus in all the different forums I look into, too.