I'm thinking of adapting a 500mm lens to the a7ii, has anyone done this?  In particular the Nikon 500mm f/4P AIS or the Canon FD 500mm f/4.5L (note: this is not an EF lens).  I'm not afraid of manual focus.  Sample photos would be welcome.

It should work very well. The usual glitch with legacy

glass is the angle of projection to the format corners

does not match the microlenses covering the pixels.

With a long lens everything is coming thru "head-on"  

as nearly parallel rays, virtually no angle at all. 

 

The other demon, the central dot reflection of the iris

as reflected back by the sensor, is exacerbated by

lenses that put a convex rear element fairly close to

the sensor ... again the opposite of your situation. 

  

I've had good results with a 350mm on a Nex body

[which scales up to about 500mm for an A7M2] using  

double digit shutter speeds but bracing the lens barrel  

against a soft object [no tripod]. Since that works very

well, the IBIS in the A7M2 should be quite adequate.

  

It's just a lens and it's just a camera. Peeps have been

attaching one to other for generations and never had

an internet by which to ask the whole world if it's gonna

be OK. Just do it !

  

`

Thanks Golem.  I have lots of experience with long lenses, and I figured the IBIS would allow me to use a less-costly (which is important) non-stabilized lens at slower shutter speeds.

I have used the 70-400 mm Sony zoom lens (old version) with the LA-EA4 adapter and the stabilization works well with this lens.

 

Brian

My short experience with my Nikkor 70-300 f4-5.6 with Metabones adapter tells me the A7ii it should work well with longer legacy lenses, provided you're shooting wide open or one stop down. The IBIS works very well, but at smaller apertures the focus peaking is less effective. 

Planning on using a A7... with 500mm as well, but did not try it extensively yet (was stuck with much work lately).

My configuration is a A7s with a Sigma 500mm f4.5 (first version, Nikon fit), the A7s has no IBIS, but no a lot of issues with the corners (big pixels) and the goal is more to use it with high ISO (e.g. 12800) and high shutter speeds (1/2500 or faster) or in twilight. It is part of the reason why I bought the A7s.

 

From what I remember this was through a window with several TCs and without a proper tripod support:

 

 

Example, at under 5 ft distance ,,,,

 

OK, so it doesn't tell much about IQ in the corners, etc,

but hey, there's no DOF at 500mm, and these lenses

are not typically used as flat field copy lenses so WTH ! 

 

The subject field here is a few inches wide. The bokeh

is peculiar cuz it's a reflector telescope optic. I like it !

And it's shot by window light, hand held, at a high ISO,

with no image stabilization. Crude but effective. 

  

EDIT: I have no clue as to why the forum software has

cropped this image so crazy, but it still serves purpose.

If you click on it, you can see the whole thing. 

Here is a video I did a while back on using the Nikon 500mm f/4P with the A7II with 3 axis IS:

 

I use a Minolta RF 500mm f8 and love it – as long as the background has no small highlights or if the donuts fit the expression…

I use a Minolta f8 AF Reflex 500mm. It the only mirror AF len s(same as the later Sony version) and its the only lens that will af at f8. i use it on A7 with a LA-EA4 adapter. it ficuses relatively fast, but uses only 1 central focus point. It is short (14cm from adapter front) and light (692g) and is easy to use handheld, though I usually use a monopod or tripod. its size makes it easy to take on a trip. I bought it cheap used ( almost unused, mint condition!) so look out for it! i love mine!

I use an inexpensive comunist - MTO-5CA mirrorlens which is decent and compact

 

http://manuellfokus.no/mto-3m-5ca/

I decided on the Canon FD 500mm f/4.5 L

 

 

 

 

 

It's working out pretty well for me  

I use the Tamron 500mm F8 mirror lens. Easy to focus manually, but will need a tripod. short (122mm including the adapter), lightweight (655 gr.) and said to be one of the better mirror lenses.

I use the Tamron 500mm F8 mirror lens. Easy to focus manually, but will need a tripod. short (122mm including the adapter), lightweight (655 gr.) and said to be one of the better mirror lenses.

 

The Tamron is indeed among the best!

Nice shots ...Here's an example of my 500mm F4.5 Sigma adapted to A7RII cranked to 2X in-camera - on the night of the eclipse at a local church parking lot. Depth of field was too great at 220,000 miles, so I re-focused and blended em.

 

I take some picture with the 500f4 and the a7rII and the lea4 (yes not the lea3...) and it works very good. I havn't any picture to show you sorry. But if you want to see my review of the 500f4 on the a99 you can go there: http://www.alphadxd.fr/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=92609&hilit but it is in french...

 

Hi ,

 

I use the tamron adaptall 2 sp 500mm mirror.

 

This was one of the best 500m mirror lenses of its time and is still readily available on the web.

 

Light and transportable.  You'll need a tripod. Focussing has to be precise.

 

The moon photo has obviously been heavily cropped (a7r) and excuse the over processing!!!

In dim light I now even use a Nikon 600mm f4 (first AF-S) manually with the A7s, a joy to use even if I would like AF for BIF.

I'm using an old Pentax Takumar 500f4.5 that I bought on a whim in the early 70's. Works very nicely, much better than any mirror I've ever tried, including Minolta's. Huge, though!

I have a Russian Rubinar 500mm F8 mirror lens which I bought new, 18 years ago for 30€. Recently, bought also an M42 adapter to use it with my α7 camera and realised that gives a very good IQ for the paid price. Only my hands (which are not so steady) doesn't do justice to it.

Here the test of Minolta MD 500mm F8 reflex lens on Sony A7II
Main idea - very nice lens

On 9/23/2015 at 11:30 PM, xya said:

I use the Tamron 500mm F8 mirror lens. Easy to focus manually, but will need a tripod. short (122mm including the adapter), lightweight (655 gr.) and said to be one of the better mirror lenses.

How close does it focus? And image quality at closest distance? Thanks!

On 9/19/2015 at 8:40 PM, wildlightphoto said:

I decided on the Canon FD 500mm f/4.5 L

 

 

 

 

 

It's working out pretty well for me  

Certainly lovely pictures! That pheasant you call ring neck looks to me like the male Copper pheasant.