Hi all, currently I have an A72. Relative to the A72, would Leica M lenses perform better on either the A7S/A7S2 or the A7R2? I'm particularly thinking of the 35 summilux ASPH FLE and the 50 summilux ASPH.

 

Thanks in advance for the help.

Those wider rangefinder lenses all seem to have trouble with silicon based photography, if you follow the discussions.

 

A 35mm might still be OK on the A7R II, since it doesn't have an AA filter, so the filter stack is thinner. The A7S II has the thicker stack, but OTOH it's resolving less and doesn't challenge the lenses as much. But any symmetrical construction under 35 is not really cutting it on digital (the WATE seems to be an exception, but it's zoom and not symmetrical). Owners of classical rangefinder glass – like Leica-M or Zeiss Biogons – had high hopes for the A7R II in particular, but got quite disappointed by anything from 28mm or wider.

 

Sony (together with Zeiss) is obviously doing something quite right with their native lenses if you look up all the discussions about adapting some of the wider rangefinder glass from Leica or Voigtländer. Those symmetrical Biogon lenses were great (albeit very expensive) for film, but have massive problems on chips, some even on Leica's own.

OTOH, classical retrofocus constructions are not that great either, as those of us know who are not only using their center part, but full frame. The 25mm Contax C/Y which I owned for my GH2 had to go after I got me an A7S and it showed such bad corners. Their new Batis seems to outclass it by far. The only wide I kept was the 18mm, but that one is slow (never wanted to hunt down a 21mm considering price and weight).

It's obviously an advantage that Zeiss has been making both retrofocus (like C/Y) and symmetrical (think Contax G) wides for decades. If you look at Sonys native FE primes, theres not a single one that disappoints and the prices are quite fair! The 55mm for example (which I had for a test) is so close to an Otus, but for a fraction of the price. Canikon, watch out!

If you like vintage glass as much as I do, go for retrofocus wides. I still own the Contax C/Y 18mm f4, a Minolta SR 21mm f2.8 and both Oly 21mm f3.5 and 24mm f2.8. But don't expect performance like the Sony FE 28mm f2.0 or the Zeiss Batis line wide open without stopping the old ones down to f8!

My A7s modified by Kolari Vision works fine with both 50/1.4 asph and 35/1.4 FLE lenses. Corners are rather soft at f/1.4 on the 35/1.4 FLE though but they don't look signicantly sharper on the M240 to be honest. Here A7s mod with 35/1.4 FLE at about 0.5 metre, f/1.4, focus on "Castelot". FWIW.

 

I'm not sure about previous A7's before the A7Rii, but the 35mm summicron and longer focal lengths are fine with my A7rii.  I haven't tried the batis line yet but hear good things about them.  Perhaps I'll have to get one if I ever decide to do autofocus again in the future.  i"m too use to manual focus for now.

100% agree with the comment regarding Sony's 55 1.8 and 28 2.0; stunning wide open.  Still I'm very happy with Leica 35 summilux ASPH, 50 summicron, 75 summarit and 90 cron, all seem to perform well using helicord adapters that reduce MFD to about half of standard adapters.

 

I purchased a new Zeiss Distagon 35mm f1.4 ZM about a month ago and will test it against the 35 lux and will keep what I think is the winner. I'll try to post some test results here after I'm done.

 

Regarding jmr's post, I can only comment on my use with the A7R-ll and A7R and I'm pleased with what i seem thus far.  I'd like to see how the 24 Summilux performs on the A7R-ll but that's a budget buster at this point.

The A7S  and A7SII.

 

The wider Zeiss ZM and Voightlander and the Leica M mount lenses in perform better with less purple fringing and better corners on the A7S and A7SII sensor.

 

I do own both of theses along with the A7R. There is a difference.  

I used the Voightlander adapter on my A7ii and it worked well, plan to use it with the 50'lux on my A7Rii landing later this week. 

i have summicron 35mm 8 elements on A7 and A7S

 

on A7S it work´s perfect