considering switch to mirrorless a7R2

[@chasingmagellan]

Ok, considering coming to the dark side from canon.  My question is around the a7r2 and aps-c mode.  I use a telephoto lens probably 70% of the time when traveling.  A 50-250mm aps-c lens for its length, size, and weight.  This obviously is equal to 80-400mm length on a full frame.  What options do I have on the sony a7r2 to either:

 

a.  Duplicate this length in an aps-c lens

b.  Use this same canon lens on the sony

 

What are the pitfalls, can someone explain to me exactly how the aps-c sensor mode works on the sony?  Does it give you the same length gain as using the same lens on an aps-c native camera?  I just need an intelligible break down of how the aps mode works on the a7r2, and does it increase your focal length when using aps lenses the same as a native aps camera would??

 

Thanks in advance!

 

@chasingmagellan

[jayteepix]

Ok, considering coming to the dark side from canon.  My question is around the a7r2 and aps-c mode.  I use a telephoto lens probably 70% of the time when traveling.  A 50-250mm aps-c lens for its length, size, and weight.  This obviously is equal to 80-400mm length on a full frame.  What options do I have on the sony a7r2 to either:

 

a.  Duplicate this length in an aps-c lens

b.  Use this same canon lens on the sony

 

What are the pitfalls, can someone explain to me exactly how the aps-c sensor mode works on the sony?  Does it give you the same length gain as using the same lens on an aps-c native camera?  I just need an intelligible break down of how the aps mode works on the a7r2, and does it increase your focal length when using aps lenses the same as a native aps camera would??

 

Thanks in advance!

 

@chasingmagellan

 

AFAIUI with the ILCE-7RM2 in APS-C mode your focal length doesn't change but your FOV is that of an APS-C sensor.

Instead of a 42MB ARW you get about 18MB ARW from the in camera crop i.e. you get the centre the rest is thrown away - so you will get the 'reach' you are looking for.

[Guest all8]

If you are going to shoot APS-C Crop Mode only/mostly then you can save a good 2000+ by buying the APS-C a6300 camera. The A7r2 is no toy, you may find a camera like the a6300 is more enjoyable and gives you better results.

 

 

Here is a description : http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/53928053 

[@chasingmagellan]

AFAIUI with the ILCE-7RM2 in APS-C mode your focal length doesn't change but your FOV is that of an APS-C sensor.

Instead of a 42MB ARW you get about 18MB ARW from the in camera crop i.e. you get the centre the rest is thrown away - so you will get the 'reach' you are looking for.

 

so, what I see in the viewfinder of the sony in aps mode, will be the exact thing i see in the viewfinder of the canon aps camera, using the same lens?

[@chasingmagellan]

If you are going to shoot APS-C Crop Mode only/mostly then you can save a good 2000+ by buying the APS-C a6300 camera. The A7r2 is no toy, you may find a camera like the a6300 is more enjoyable and gives you better results.

 

 

Here is a description : http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/53928053 

 

When you say its no toy, what do you mean?

[Guest all8]

When you say its no toy, what do you mean?

 

 

Its an advanced FF camera. I guess that you can adapt your Canon APS-C lens to the a6300, right?

[@chasingmagellan]

Its an advanced FF camera. I guess that you can adapt your Canon APS-C lens to the a6300, right?

 

yes, my reason to just go ahead and invest in the a7r2 is the ability to do both aps-c and ff, hopefully still be able to use my canon telezoom or an equivalent, and have a gold standard ff lens for my wide/mid range shots, with of course the benefit of 42mp....to me its the camera of the future, and lots of lenses will continue coming out for it, so worth the investment, although high.....

[Guest all8]

You can google around to get some first hand experience ... like this :

 

http://www.sonyalphaforum.com/topic/262-using-aps-c-lenses-on-alpha-7/

[Rockgod]

Don't know if this helps , but my good lady is into wildlife so uses a 70d and a 7d with a Tamron 150-600 .

I've recently purchased a a7rii with a 25 mm f2 Batis .

I took it out yesterday to have a play and took a couple of snaps of a duck to test the crop factor of the camera , now this duck was hardly anymore than a dot in the viewfinder, it fitted inside the eye focus ring,

( designed just for foucusing on the human eye in case you are not aware ) anyhow I was truly amazed after I had cropped it 100% you could even see the catchlight in the ducks eye .

Not blisteringly sharp admittedly but useable .

Now my point is that you would obviously never use a 25mm for wildlife but with a reasonable telephoto I expect you would get very good results using a full frame a7rii taking into account the pixel count of the Sony . To my eye and from years of using apps-c the crop on the a7rii with the 25mm Batis is better than a crop of the 150-600 Tamron on the 70 and 7d.

I also understand that with the Meta adapter you can use the Tamron 150/600 aps-c lens on the a7rii but it will have to be manual focus after 450 mm , vignetting aside .

[Vcize]

I believe that the A7r2 will do what you want.  As far as I'm aware mounting that 50-250 crop lens on your A7r2 and using it in crop mode will give you the same FOV in the viewfinder as if you'd mounted it on a crop camera.

 

Its an advanced FF camera. I guess that you can adapt your Canon APS-C lens to the a6300, right?

 

It sounds like he still plans on using the A7r2 in FF mode, it's just that when he's traveling AND shooting telephoto he prefers to carry an APS-C telephoto lens to save space/weight.

[Guest Colin Scott Johnson]

Actually, you can turn APS-C mode ON instead of the default AUTO and get 18.8 MP files instead of 42MP and 1.5x effective focal length.

 

I used this a lot on my recent trip on SE Asia and turned the 70-200mm into a 105-300mm and the Zeiss Batis 85mm into a 135mm.

I even tried it with the 35 F2.8 and it worked excellent too, since these are all FF lenses.

 

The only APS-C lens I've tried is the 20mm F2.8 pancake and this makes a decent street lens for the A7r 2.

It's light at 90g and if you shoot compressed, the A7r 2 writes small files around the size of a Canon 5D Mk3, which means you get more shots before locking up

[KlausH]

Actually, you can turn APS-C mode ON instead of the default AUTO and get 18.8 MP files instead of 42MP and 1.5x effective focal length.

 

...

 

This describes exactly what I do. The A7RM2 is such a versatile camera. When shooting wildlife with my Minolta 300mm F4, I frequently turn APS-C mode on and get the FOV of a 450mm lens or even 630mm adding a teleconverter. Of course, you achieve the same when cropping in post process. But I prefer to frame my pictures with a viewfinder and not on a computer. You get smaller file sizes too when in APS-C mode.

All APS-C lenses, wether Sony or Canon, will work fine in APS-C mode and behave the same as if they were mounted on a APS-C camera.

[Guest all8]

This describes exactly what I do. The A7RM2 is such a versatile camera. When shooting wildlife with my Minolta 300mm F4, I frequently turn APS-C mode on and get the FOV of a 450mm lens or even 630mm adding a teleconverter. Of course, you achieve the same when cropping in post process. But I prefer to frame my pictures with a viewfinder and not on a computer. You get smaller file sizes too when in APS-C mode.

All APS-C lenses, wether Sony or Canon, will work fine in APS-C mode and behave the same as if they were mounted on a APS-C camera.

 

 

Not wanting to pay the price of admission for the A7r2, I've started to wonder if an a6300 is a better alternative to Wildlife photography - _much_ cheaper, a third lighter, faster AF and more MP over the APS-C frame. I could leave it attached to the 70-200G4, would not take much room in my small bag (relative to the lens), and then keep the Batis/Loxia for the A7m2.

 

Should get me around effective 600mm with a 12mp file, right? 

[Mathias]

There will only be one small difference to your Canon: The Sony's APS-C mode has a 1.53x crop factor, where as Canon uses 1.62x. So your lens will equal to a ~75-375. Not a big deal of course.

The rest works exactly as you want it to. You will see the cropped image in the viewfinder and get away with an 18MP file.

[yali]

Not wanting to pay the price of admission for the A7r2, I've started to wonder if an a6300 is a better alternative to Wildlife photography - _much_ cheaper, a third lighter, faster AF and more MP over the APS-C frame. I could leave it attached to the 70-200G4, would not take much room in my small bag (relative to the lens), and then keep the Batis/Loxia for the A7m2.

 

Should get me around effective 600mm with a 12mp file, right? 

 

How did you get 600mm with 12mp?

Doubled the focal length and halfed the Mp count?

Doesn't work that way sadly, as focal length is linear and Mp is quadratic.

So when doubling the focal length, Mp will decrease with 2 squared, so 4.

That would give you 6 Mp files with 600mm...

Or if you want 12mp that would be 420mm.

[KlausH]

Not wanting to pay the price of admission for the A7r2, I've started to wonder if an a6300 is a better alternative to Wildlife photography - _much_ cheaper, a third lighter, faster AF and more MP over the APS-C frame....

 

I use my A6000 for wildlife too. With a LA-EA4 adapter the AF is more or less the same on the A7R2 and the A6000. The adapter uses it's own AF system. With the FE 4/70-200 and the A6300 this might be different.

Although, I wouldn't buy the A7R2 for wildlife mainly, it has some advantages over the A6X00:

+ better low light capabilities

+ IBIS (when the lens is not stabilized)

+ bigger/better EVF

 

But I agree, an A6300 is probably a very capable camera for wildlife photography

[Guest all8]

 

But I agree, an A6300 is probably a very capable camera for wildlife photography

 

 

I did read that the a6300 EVF is improved for burst photography, at least when set to 8 fps. I find that also very interesting in comparison to the A7 series. Ofcourse the a6000 is now selling for under 500 €, so by the time I get around to it the a6300 should be only a little more expensive than a lens adapter or teleconverter - which really does not make much sense.

[Riftwind]

Ok, considering coming to the dark side from canon.  My question is around the a7r2 and aps-c mode.  I use a telephoto lens probably 70% of the time when traveling.  A 50-250mm aps-c lens for its length, size, and weight.  This obviously is equal to 80-400mm length on a full frame.  What options do I have on the sony a7r2 to either:

 

a.  Duplicate this length in an aps-c lens

b.  Use this same canon lens on the sony

 

What are the pitfalls, can someone explain to me exactly how the aps-c sensor mode works on the sony?  Does it give you the same length gain as using the same lens on an aps-c native camera?  I just need an intelligible break down of how the aps mode works on the a7r2, and does it increase your focal length when using aps lenses the same as a native aps camera would??

 

Thanks in advance!

 

@chasingmagellan

 

 

To get a couple things clear here... When you throw your APS-C 50-250mm on the A7Rii with an adapter, nothing else done, you will see vignetting (Just an circle image in the center of black borders). When throwing an APS-C lens on a FF camera, it does not step up to a 75-375mm lens. Putting that APS-C lens on an APS-C sensor camera will give you the 75-375mm (At least with the 1.53x crop factor from Sony). FF lenses will cover both FF and APS-C sensors, but when used in APS-C mode it will only use the center of the lens (usually better image quality in center of a lens as well). APS-C lenses on the other hand, will only cover APS-C sensors, and when used on FF sensors they will have the image in a circle surrounded by black that I described above.

 

So, when using the A7Rii and the *APS-C* lens that you have (50-250mm), you HAVE to put the camera into Super 35 (cropped sensor) mode if you do not want the image in a circle, surrounded by black. This uses only the center of the Sony sensor (18MP) and will give you the same experience as if you had that lens on one of your Canons, albeit with a 1.53x crop factor, not the 1.6x on Canon. If you really want great image quality though, it would be better to find a Full Frame lens to do this with. As stated, when using the Super 35 mode, it is using only the center of the sensor, and the same is true when you throw FF glass on it. Only the center of the glass!

 

So to make my last point, and my argument on one more reason why you SHOULD get the A7Rii over the A6300 .. This flexibility of being able to crop in like an APS-C, but with the ability to do so on FF glass. Usually, Distortion and Chromatic Aberration are more pronounced on the edges of the glass. If you use your APS-C lens while the camera is in cropped mode, it works like normal, but there are possibilities for lower image quality because it is using the lens as a whole. Throw a FF lens on, put the camera in cropped mode, and you are just using the center of the glass where IQ is generally better. But it is important to note, you are not gaining any more or less from that specific lens when you throw it on the a6300 or A7rii, it will still be the 75-375mm equivalent in 35mm. Now if you throw a teleconverter into the mix, that is when it gets interesting....

[Guest Colin Scott Johnson]

@Riftwind

 

 

"To get a couple things clear here... When you throw your APS-C 50-250mm on the A7Rii with an adapter, nothing else done, you will see vignetting (Just an circle image in the center of black borders)."

 

Well, if you put an APS-C lens on the A7r II, it defaults to auto detecting it so it works as an APS-C lens.

The only way you would get the black circle or vignetting is if you turned APS-C mode OFF, which you would never do.

 

Auto or ON will work with APS-C lenses, ON forces the mode to work with FF lenses.

I tried the 16-35 F4 today for a while in crop mode and it gave me 24-50, which was pretty nice