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Sony A7 II (Mk2) + Metabones Mark IV, usable in real world?


jdmf13
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Hi everyone,

 

First post from a long time Canon DSLR user who is, like many others out there, looking into the possibility of switching to mirrorless. Yes I know there are countless threads out there like this but hear me out....

 

I'm looking at going for the A7 II (the base version, A7R II is twice the price) with the Metabones EOS to E-mount Mark IV adapter, both of these would be running the latest firmware of course and always using Phase-Detect AF.

 

I've gone through hours and hours of Youtube videos, some hail the AF performance as being fantastic and other show AF hunting issues at longer focal lengths.

 

My question to anyone with this kind of combo is, how good/bad is it in the real world with EF lenses?

 

The EF lenses I'd be looking to use are:

 

- 70-200 F4 USM L (non-IS version)

- 24-105 F4 USM IS L

- 50 STM F1.8

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You don't mention just how dependent

you are on state-of-the-art AF. I don't

care about killer AF performance. If AF

is simply accurate and reliable, I'm OK

with the mere convenience of it. OTOH

you may be the opposite type. For my

needs, I'd get the Metabones without

hesitation if I had your Canon lens kit

to preserve. But if your AF needs are

of a more extreme nature, hopefully a

user like yourself will be using your kit

on a Sony. It's a fairly typical lens kit. 

 

Anywho why not post again, regarding

the nature of your AF requirements.

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Thanks for the feedback Golem!

 

I don't think I need extreme and constantly adapting AF (Canon 7D Mk2 style) performance but I do enjoy street photography and taking photos of people on the street. For the street stuff AF isn't that important but when taking photos of people in public, I need the AF to be fast and precise when the lens is on its longest (200mm), if not the "moment" is lost. In other words, I can't have the lens hunting around for focus.

 

In fact I've just come back from an afternoon (that's another 16GB card) session and it was a 70-30 mix of using the 70-200 f/4 L for "people" photos and the 24-104 f/4 L for the rest.

 

I guess I'm looking for people's feedback on AF with the Metabones IV and these sorts of lenses.

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I have the a7ii and use both the 24-105 and the 70-200 f4 IS with the metabones IV adapter. I have the latest firmware on both the the a7ii and the metabones IV. Before I had upgraded the firmware the 70-200 would hunt near the 200mm however now it's fine.

 

I'm very happy with the performance so much that I am not even considering upgrading to the FE 70-200 for now.

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Just bought a Fotodox Pro EF-NEX Auto for $106 new on eBay. The only difference between that and my Metabones was $300. Look for charts that sellers of adapters have on their eBay selling page (for Canon lenses.). The lenses are listed according to how fast they focus in groups, like acceptable, fair, sucks, etc. Ok, maybe not sucks...I can't remember. Basically the older lenses are slower ( probably 3-4 seconds) and the newer lenses are better ( probably 1-2 seconds). I use the 17-40 f/4 L and it hunts for a few seconds. The newer 16-35 f/4 L is in a faster group.

 

 

markphoto4u

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I have the A7ii and the Metabones IV, and the 50 STM, 70-200 f4 (non IS) and they work fine. The only issue I have with the Sony Metabones combo is the AF area being a bit limited, but really not much more so than say the Canon 6D I came off. I find I often prefer using my MF lenses on the A7ii, you can focus magnify anywhere in the full frame, and there are so many legacy lenses which are just a joy to hold and work with, which is why I bought it in the first instance, but having those AF lenses, and a few others I carried across from my canon days just rounds it out for me. Best of both worlds. I haven't bought into the native E mount lens platform, I wont risk my cash on a short flange focal length lens system at this stage which is why I adapt. All my MF lenses (mainly Zeiss Contax) are adapted to EF (using Leitax hard mount adapters) the Metabones is my common mount point, the adapter is always on my body, so no mucking around with adapters. Lots of nice gear out there, its hard to keep up with all the developments, and all of it has its strengths and all of it has its weaknesses.

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