Kolari Vision a7 thin filter conversion?

[Colin Surprenant]

Hi,

 

User LCT mentioned a few time the Kolari thin filter conversion on his a7s. I am considering it for my a7m2 and I was wondering if anyone else had experience with this conversion? Are there any potential down sides in doing this conversion? any caveat I should be aware of before considering the conversion? How was the conversion process/interaction with Kolari?

 

Roger Cicala @ lensrentals wrote a review of a kolari modified a7r - seems pretty positive.

 

Colin

[Michael_j]

The Leica Forum has quite a number of threads about and examples of the the conversion. Just do a search for Kolari 

[Steve C]

If you look for user name uhoh7 on various forums you'll find he won't stop banging on about it. Best 400 dollars he's ever spent apparently.

[nomad]

OTOH, if I see the the 35mm changing from less usable to just acceptable, while most symmetrical lenses of shorter focal length still have severe problems in the corners, I doubt the importance of it. OK, maybe if you are heavily invested in Leica-M glass. AFAIK, the Sony models without an AA filter already have a thinner stack.

 

But if you are a lover of vintage lenses like me, and didn't own a Leica before, part of the joy is finding hidden gems making fine images for not too much money. How much sense does ist make to invest 400 to make one or two lenses acceptable when there is such good native glass around now, like the 28mm f2 by Sony or the new native Zeiss models?

 

Maybe we just need to accept that many symmetrical wides will never be perfect on digital sensors, at least not an Bayer patterns…

[LCT]

[...] How much sense does ist make to invest 400 to make one or two lenses acceptable when there is such good native glass around now…

Depends on how much one likes their legacy lenses of course but i would multiply your "one or two" by 10 at least personally.

I have not tried all my M lenses on the A7s mod yet but the only problems i've got so far is moiré with sharper lenses, due to the lack of AA filter, and some corner smearing out of the Leica 21/3.4 asph at very close distance (20 or 30 cm). Even one difficult lens like the CV 21/4 works fine on the A7s mod (pics below at f/4). I have no experience with wider lenses than 21mm though.

For those interested, here are the M lenses that passed the tests below at full aperture with me:

- Leica 28/2.8 asph, 35/1.4 FLE, 35/2 asph, 35/2.5, 50/1.4 aph, 50/2 apo, 50/2.5, 50/2.8 v2, 90/2 apo, 90/4 macro

- ZM 35/2.8, 50/1.5

- CV 21/4 (pics below), 35/1.4 SC

FWIW

 

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[EDBR]

Is there a possibility to perform this somewhere in Europe (I'm from Belgium)

Had some IR conversion done in in the States but with slow and expensive Customs + Sending

 

Thanks a lot for any reply about that

[LCT]

No idea sorry i bought mine to Kolari Vision in the USA. BTW the Belgian TVA rate does not change when you import goods from the USA but you know that already.

[EDBR]

We are confronted to import taxes + Belgian taxes, around +30% on : total sum of goods/conversion + costs of transport

 

http://www.invoercalculator.be

[LCT]

I don't read Dutch sorry but you would pay the Belgian VAT on a Belgian sale anyway so the difference lays only on import taxes (around 4% IINW) and shipping costs.