Sanddan4u

I agree. The FE55 represented everything I liked about my Sigma 50 1.4 Art when I had my 6D--great contrast, sharpness, great hood, snappy AF and zeiss-like pop. The deal killer ended up being the S50A's size and heft. The 55 is a fraction of the Sigma's size and weight, and mounted on the A7R, provides a much smaller overall footprint. It was also the same price as the Sigma, which for an f1.8 lens in the 50mm range is expensive. But I have to admit, the lens is outstanding and very reliable. I also use it on my A6000, even for basketball, and the combo really performs.

I agree with this. The LA-EA4 won't allow native AF tracking like you would get with the FE 70-200.

Hey there! Sorry I am just now responding you your post, but my Greentoe bid of $715 was not accepted. They countered with $799, and I raised my bid to $755--no luck. B&H had a "V" condition used A77 for $339 so I snapped it up just in time for the Citrus Bowl. I received the body the day before the game, so I only had a little bit of time to get familiar with it. I also didn't have time to do a firmware update. I'm pretty pleased with the results I got at the game, as well as with the stills I took of several deer on a trip I made to TN immediately after the game. I was very pleased with IQ at low ISO, as it blew the doors off my old 60D there. The AF and tracking was somewhat similar to the 60D in terms of consistency, the 60D does track better IMO. The A77 is a ton of camera for $350 shipped, and I would probably be OK keeping it for Spring Training. But I'm very curious as to how much better the A77ii is, so I'll probably upgrade. Something I am also very curious about is the LA-EA3 adapter, and if it would work better on my A6000/Minolta 200 combo than the LA-EA4 did. I bought the A6000 partly to try it out as a sports shooter, although I'm thrilled with it as a personal camera after two months of pretty heavy use.

​I just put in a bid on Greentoe for an A77ii, pretty low offer so we'll see what happens! I've researched it the Mark I and II and photographers really seem to feel strongly about the Mark II in the same way that Canon sports shooters feel about the 7D vs 7Dii. I used Canon 18MP crop sensors (60D/T4i) to shoot most of the last three Spring Trainings (used a 6D/135L as my second setup this year), and it seemed the original A77 would have been a side-grade. Nothing wrong with that, but for a few hundred more I can get a for-real upgrade. We'll see what happens!

The Minolta 200 2.8 focuses very fast--as fast as most native lenses on most bodies would hope to--on both bodies but won't track worth anything. Any movement by the subject forward or backward and they are OOF. I suspected the problem was that I didn't have a Mark II body. The Canon is sold, long live the 200 2.8ii! I'm not against getting a Mark II body, but selling the LA-EA4 and throwing another $100 in to buy an A77 is way more cost effective for me at this point. The 200 on the A7R really needs to be stabilized, either by in-body stabilization or a monopod, and on the A6000 the adapter seems to make it suffer a major lack of sharpness and saturation. I'm pretty much going to use it for the bowl game and then through Spring Training, and then re-evaluate.

Will the LA-EA4 even track on an A6000? I've been trying to get a Minolta 200 2.8 HS lens to track on that combo for about a week and it won't. That adapter and lens seem marginally better, with much better IQ, on my A7R but still not suitable to use at the bowl game I'm going to on Jan 1. I'm actually considering buying a cheap used A77 to use for sports and just ditching the adapter altogether as I bought the adapter specifically to use with the 200 2.8. The original plan of using the last of my Canon lenses, the EF 200 2.8L ii, with a Metabones IV was a bust as it would take 3-4 seconds to lock AF. Thoughts/input?

Both are great--I sold the 50A to buy the FE55 when I switched from the 6D to A7R. I prefer the FE55 slightly, with saturation, weight and bokeh all marking an improvement over the 50A for me. The contrast of the 50A may be slightly better, but once a lens is that good it really is splitting hairs.

I'm pretty blown away by this set of pics, makes me that much more excited to get the a7r I have coming in the mail!

How is it going with the a7r so far? I just bought one in 9/10 used condition from B&H to pair with my a6000. It is hard to find recent posts on the a7r here, it seems, as the a7rii is the hot body right now. At any rate, I just converted from a Canon 6D setup and I am definitely excited about the move to Sony. I enjoyed my two years with the 6D, but I wanted a lighter setup. Lugging a 6D/S50A around with two toddlers in tow got to be pretty impractical. Also, like you, I am looking forward to milking a ton of detail out of the a7r sensor. Trip to Valley of Fire next week will be a great test!

I saw some of this series on POTN, very nice images! Gotta love that 55 1.8!