Steady Shot blocked!

[NEAudio]

I have 5 Canon EF mount lenses which I use on my a7RM2 by means of a Sigma MC11 mount adapter.  The adapter is plainly marked "for compatible lenses only." which is their way of dodging  complaints.

Of the 5 lenses, 3 turn off Steady Shot and 2 allow it to operate. My Rocky Nook textbook on the camera tells me that the work-around for thus problem is to turn the Steady Shot to "Manual" and then select a lens focal length for it. Can't do this is the Steady Shot menu is greyed out and unavailable with these 3 lenses.

Any ideas out there for a  "workaround?" I'm going to sell the Canon 16-35 F4 (one of the 3 that block Steady Shot) and get a native lens if I can't find a way to have Steady Shot.

 

 

[Lescatalpas]

The Canon 16-35 f4 has stabilization in the lens. In that case the in body "steady shot" is only partly used and partly overruled. You cannot then switch it on or off, except on the lens itself. That's how it works with native( Sony) lenses. But hé, sell your canon stuff, your converter , and go to lenses built for your cam and your problems will be solved.

[NEAudio]

5 hours ago, Lescatalpas said:

The Canon 16-35 f4 has stabilization in the lens. In that case the in body "steady shot" is only partly used and partly overruled. You cannot then switch it on or off, except on the lens itself. That's how it works with native( Sony) lenses. But hé, sell your canon stuff, your converter , and go to lenses built for your cam and your problems will be solved.

Thanks very much for your prompt,thoughtful and patriotic response, Lescatalpas. Your reasoning sounds good but is not. Just to be sure that other readers aren't misled by your comment let me add that  both of the lenses which do work correctly with the mount adapter also have image stabilization in the lens and it has no effect on the bodies' Steady Shot availability. 

[Lescatalpas]

Hardly patriotic. I am not brand-loyal at all. I try to go for the best I can afford. I am only stating a fact, you have a Sony camera, use Sony lenses, it simply works best. All other solutions have some sort of compromise. 

[NEAudio]

11 minutes ago, Lescatalpas said:

Hardly patriotic. I am not brand-loyal at all. I try to go for the best I can afford. I am only stating a fact, you have a Sony camera, use Sony lenses, it simply works best. All other solutions have some sort of compromise. 

Well you sure sound brand-loyal. But  I certainly agree with you; the extra cost for the Sony glass would eliminate the problem, of course. The purpose of the post is to find other ways around the problem, as a challenge. Sometimes the Forum guys (and gals) know more about Sony equipment than the Tech Support people seem to. I was hoping for some little trick that would fix the problem with equipment that I already own. And one of the huge advantages of mirrorless cameras is, of course, their easy adaptability to other system lenses. I've got  8 Nikon AI lenses--totally manual--some of which are first class, optically. They get used, from time to time, particularly a 55mm f3.5 macro and the well-known "Lester Dine" dental lens,  105mm  f2.5. And so forth. Use what you have--you know, the Yankee motto! 

[sixzeiss]

On 8/4/2018 at 3:39 PM, NEAudio said:

I have 5 Canon EF mount lenses which I use on my a7RM2 by means of a Sigma MC11 mount adapter.  The adapter is plainly marked "for compatible lenses only." which is their way of dodging  complaints.

 

Now thats not really fair is it. Perhaps they support the lenses they can, and technical or commercial factors prevent them from supporting other lenses.

 

I have an MC-11 adapter which I use with a Zeiss lens ... so it is not supported, and I read the instructions, the LED on the side of the adapter doe's not turn on or blink, which confirms the lens is not supported. The Adapter is able to adjust the Aperture of the lens, which confirms that some communications are taking place anyway.

In my case it seems that Steady Shot works anyway, which means the Lens Metadata is received by the camera. If that does not work, then I can set menu item:

SteadyShot Settings -> SteadyShot Adjust to Manual

... and then select the desired focal length. No so helpful for a zoom lens.

 

I suggest taking a photo and then checking if the Lens focal length is included in the meta data. And also check the behaviour of the lens aperture (it should close when taking the photo).

If none of that helps, investigate the "Shoot without Lens attached" menu item, that is what Leica users set when using a dumb adapter with Steadyshot.

 

[NEAudio]

3 hours ago, sixzeiss said:

Now thats not really fair is it. Perhaps they support the lenses they can, and technical or commercial factors prevent them from supporting other lenses.

 

I have an MC-11 adapter which I use with a Zeiss lens ... so it is not supported, and I read the instructions, the LED on the side of the adapter doe's not turn on or blink, which confirms the lens is not supported. The Adapter is able to adjust the Aperture of the lens, which confirms that some communications are taking place anyway.

In my case it seems that Steady Shot works anyway, which means the Lens Metadata is received by the camera. If that does not work, then I can set menu item:

SteadyShot Settings -> SteadyShot Adjust to Manual

... and then select the desired focal length. No so helpful for a zoom lens.

 

I suggest taking a photo and then checking if the Lens focal length is included in the meta data. And also check the behaviour of the lens aperture (it should close when taking the photo).

If none of that helps, investigate the "Shoot without Lens attached" menu item, that is what Leica users set when using a dumb adapter with Steadyshot.

 

Thanks very much for your response, sixzeiss; this is what I expected!

I haven't actually gotten to uploading an image file and examining it in my photoeditor (which would show focal length). The 3 "bad" lenses autofocus well and autoexpose which means diaphragm control. The only problem I see is that there's no Steady Shot from the body--if I check the menus  with these lenses attached the Steady Shot On Off item is greyed out which means I cannot turn ON Steady Shot and thus  select Manual and then a focal length. Sony is quite poor in this sort of stuff; obviously doesn't use an experienced photog to guide development of menus and interlocking issues. 

My manual Nikon lenses get the full Steady Shot treatment which  I very much appreciate and expect. Helps a great deal! So why not for these three lenses as well? 

I am going to check the MC11 firmware and possibly change it to "latest' in hopes that this will clear the problem. It seems to me that there is some interconnection thru the contacts which is telling the camera to turn off the Steady Shot, although I cannot think of any useful purpose this would serve. Why not leave Steady Shot  on all the time and simplify the menu by a line or so?

 

 

[thefsb]

On 8/7/2018 at 6:31 AM, NEAudio said:

Well you sure sound brand-loyal.

There's no loyalty involved in accepting the statement that adapted (electronic) lenses don't work as well as native.

 

[thefsb]

On 8/7/2018 at 7:58 PM, NEAudio said:

The only problem I see is that there's no Steady Shot from the body--if I check the menus  with these lenses attached the Steady Shot On Off item is greyed out which means I cannot turn ON Steady Shot and thus  select Manual and then a focal length. Sony is quite poor in this sort of stuff; obviously doesn't use an experienced photog to guide development of menus and interlocking issues.

It's daft to expect Sony to invest any R&D to provide features useful only to optimize the image stabilization performance of adapted 3rd party lenses with 4th party adapters. So they aren't "poor at this", they don't do it at all for perfectly obvious reasons.