Lens swap from Canon to Sony?

[matthewcelia]

I'm having a debate and wanted to hear people's thoughts (hopefully based on experience!)

Moving from a Canon set up to a Sony A7s and having a crisis of lenses. Currently I own a Tamron 17-50 F2.8 and Canon 70-200mm 2.8 IS II as my AF zoom lenses. I'm primarily a documentary shooter, so always run and gun, and having a solid fast zoom is essential to the work I do. I also like to take stills, so having a good AF and a smallish size (why I like the A7s in the first place) is important.

Would you trade those lenses for the comparable Sony options?

Or would you invest in a Metabones adaptor which I think would yield better cinematic results and pick up the cheap kit lens to have a general "around town" AF solution?

Debate!

[eleison]

I want to move to Sony FE mount also.  However, i noticed all their good lenses are slow.  There are no zooms with higher aperture F2.8.  I think faster lenses are just too big.   Sony wants to keep their mirrorless systems small.  That's what they are trying to sell to the public - mirrorless systems are smaller.  I think once mirrorless systems get even more popular, sony will introduce native faster zoom lenses.  However, these lenses will be as big as the lenses we have currently in the dslr field.  At the end of the day, people will notice full frame mirrorless isn't substantially smaller than dslrs...  I think sony wants to hide that fact for right now..... in conclusion, just an opinion, but I think no native fast zoom lenses for a while.  But I'm no expert :-)

[Steve Townsend]

Yes I am interested in the same.  I have a host of EF glass and Zeiss ZF converted to EF.  

I would keep your existing lenses and as Eleison correctly points out their zooms are a bit slow.  That said maybe with both the A7s full frame and high iso you don't need such fast glass for shallow DOF and exposure in low light?  Anyway I would get the 24-70FE f4 as a minimum but your existing I would keep.

 

[aldolega]

Sounds like you need to go for the Sony f4 zooms. For run & gun with a full-frame cam, I doubt you would ever want shallower than f4 anyways. Unfortunately selling the Canon stuff won't cover buying the Sony's.

Your 17-50 is an APS-C lens, so assuming you want the ability to shoot your wide to normal FOV's on full frame, you would need to replace it anyways. 

[jcs]

Here's a solution that might work for you:

$99 Commlite for A7x (full frame): http://www.amazon.com/COMMLITE-Focus-EOS-NEX-EF-EMOUNT-Version/dp/B00MOB2FL0/ . This will allow you to use the Canon lenses for your cinema style shooting. Autofocus won't likely be fast enough for stills. I have the MB EF to NEX IV, however forums have reviewed the $99 Commlite perhaps better than the MB.

$898 Sony SEL18200 lens: http://www.amazon.com/Sony-SEL18200-E-mount-18-200mm-F3-5-6-3/dp/B0042GFYLI/ . When used with AutoISO, you can zoom while shooting documentary style. At F3.5-6.3 it's not a fast lens with shallow DOF, however it works great for run & gun, autofocus for video is decent, it's sharp, etc. It's an APS-C lens which is helpful for run & gun: reduced rolling shutter. Here's what it looks like in low light, with the camera on auto-everything, stock PP6, 60p (slowed to 24p in most shots): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq8m2FaVL1U , many different light colors (auto WB), handheld. If you need slow, cinematic power zoom (doesn't do fast power zooms), the SELP18200 is worth a look. If not needing power zoom, I prefer the non-power version as the focus ring is wider.

You can use the SEL18200 for stills with autofocus- the range is great. However Canon bodies (e.g 5D3) with Canon lenses are a much better stills combo, especially if shooting people/skin.

[Steve Townsend]

jcs your fashion example about certainly shows off all very well and auto everything it is impressive.  That is the A7s?

Yes I have read the Commlite is good.

[jcs]

Steve- thanks, yes A7S.

[toxotis70]

i have both A6000 and A7s.

I only have emount APSC lenses, but for Video is more than enough!

50mm 1.8 OSS is nice  in A7s , sharp as can be, 75mm eq. , perfect for portraits and very low light.

I have also Sony 18-105mm f/4 OSS, with incredible stabilization, very sharp, constant aperture, and very useful range (27-160mm eq).

Very fast focus too.

I have sony sel 10-18mm f/4 OSS, sharp too, and very wide for indoors use (15-27mm eq).

 

You don't loose any sharpness (on the contrary you have more sharp image) , you only loose 1 stop of light, but its not that important in A7s.

You also gain less rolling shutter in crop mode.

 

 

If you want another fast , more wide prime, there is 35mm OSS , very good lens, 50mm eq in A7s and with OS !

 

 

Here is an example of a7s and sony sel 50mm 1.8 OS

 

 

[richg101]

lens speed becomes unimportant when you move to A7S.  So don;t let lens speed get in the way of your decisions

[eleison]

lens speed becomes unimportant when you move to A7S.  So don;t let lens speed get in the way of your decisions

​
Unless you want shallow DOF on a native sony zoom :-)  However, that's more of an issue if one is taking pictures.  F4 seems to be fast enough for video.

[hmcindie]

About the commlite adapter, it works well except for losing stabilization. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Autofocus is so slow it's practically unusable. I can focus manually faster. Forget anything that moves.

So be careful.

I've shot f1.4 on the a7s and still wanted a bit more light but I do live in a very cold and dark country

[Gensnap]

I would hold on to your Canon lenses. I'm in a similar situation with Canon lenses and now moving to A7s. Forget auto focus with Metabones, it's quicker manual focusing. The way I see it is that I may want to return to Canon at some point and the lenses I have are expensive and I don't want to lose money selling. The A7s can be used with hundreds of different lenses, I'm going to take my chances on old Nikon, Pentax, Olympus and any others that take my fancy. I like the idea of not being tied to one lens manufacturer.

For your type of work, you should get one good wide range zoom and not worry too much about it being fast.

[matthewcelia]

Thanks for all the good feedback so far. Honestly, would have sold the lenses except the Sony 24-70mm just seems to be garbage for the money. Since I do run and gun a lot, it's very important to have IS of some kind. I find this is the key to reducing rolling shutter and "jitter". Shooting in APS-C mode will also be important. If the Commlite has trouble with IS, then I don't think that will work for me.

I recently picked up a 50mm 1.4 Canon FD lens for $40 off Craigslist which is simply amazing. Sharp, fast - I am loving the photography I am taking with this lens. Not much for my video work, but it might be enough to satisfy my photography needs for now. I think the Metabones adaptor is probably my next purchase. Then I can keep my canon glass and use the IS function of those lenses.

How do people like using the Metabones with the Sony? I assume the regular one would be fine, since one of my lenses is APS-C and wouldn't work on the Speedbooster, correct?

[ade towell]

I got the Sony 28-70 kit lens you mentioned initially, can be picked up for very little. Not much slower than the zeiss 24-70 and little difference in performance. 

I use the cheap commlite adapter for my existing canon lenses and it has worked fine, no problems so far although as mentioned forget using af with any of these adapters. The I.s. Works with the commlite once you start recording,  threw me at 1st but I guess it saves battery a little.

I also find myself using canon fd 50 1.4 a lot with this camera for stills and video, gives a lovely creamy image on full frame 

Am tempted to get the Sony 50 1.8 oss for crop mode, oss is nice to have at that focal length - tried it in a shop on full frame and with zoom function at 1.3 and the image quality is great with no obvious vignette. Worth a look 

[Steve Townsend]

For me IS is important AF not.  Can you confirm that IS works 100% with the Commlite.  hmcindle says not or at least not always, and ade says yes but only when recording.  When recording makes sense because it even needs a half press on the 5D to start the lens IS as with Nikon and others I'm sure.  Just trying to establish if I should be getting the Metabones instead of the Commlite for reliable IS.  I haven't jumped to the A7s yet but need to know this important stuff because I don't want to regret.  I have a lot of kit (2x5D3 and 12xEF lenses)!!

Secondly interesting toxtis70 thoughts on the E 18-105mm f4.  I hadn't thought about that lens!! Always been my knee jerk to get the expensive 24-70mm based on the previous lenses I have owned in that range which are also very expensive, the 24-70f2.8 Canon and Nikon!!

Appreciate your help.

 

 

[noone]

My Commlite adapter does not even mount on my A7s for some reason (works fine on my A7).

The Metabones IV works well on both.

I have 5 EF mountlenses.

50 1.8 II does not AF at all (as per Metabones site), old 20-35 2.8 L and 100-300 5.6 L are micro motor lenses that AF slowly (20-35 makes a great manual focus lens anyway), Manual focus TS-E 24 lens is really nice on A7 cameras.

The 135 f2 L lens AF is useable in some instances for stills (even for people sometimes) but the lens also makes a very nice manual focus lens on A7 and A7s.

[maddchadd]

What about the la-ea4 full frame a mount to e mount adapter? Although most a mount lenses don't offer IS, there are some that do (a few sigma lenses I believe) and you retain AF. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1008166-REG/sony_laea4_a_mount_to_e_mount_lens.html

[matthewcelia]

I'm going to try that Commlite adapter via Amazon and if it's shit, I'll send it back. $99, wish I had known about it. Would have got that to start rather than the Fotodiox with built in ND (although that ND feature is super nice when shooting SLOG)

[matthewcelia]

Commlite adpater arrived and so far it seems really solid. No wiggle. Lenses are working great. Pretty impressed. I have a shoot at the end of the month that I plan to use it on - crossing my fingers it all goes smooth.

[noone]

Update on the Commlite adapter.

It wont AF one of my(old) lenses that the Metabones IV will but it WILL AF with the 50 1.8ii that the Metabones doesn't!

There are quite a few AF adapters for Canon EF on E mount and they all seem to have quirks and what works with what camera or lens is a bit of a lottery.

AF is too slow for most purposes regardless though.