This lens was quite a surprise when it arrived at my doorstep. Very small and light and fits well on the Alpha cameras. It performs quite well on the A7 but I've still to test it on the A7R. To be honest I've been using the A7 more than the A7R because I think I'm getting better results with it. I.e. Better percentage of keepers. I think there's something in the shutter shock theory now coursing the Internet. I'll have to do some more testing on this though when I have the time.

What I'm planning at present is test all my favourite lenses I've using on my Nex-7 on the A7R but I can tell you now, those lenses will not perform as well on the A7R. I've noticed this with the A7 and it really stands to reason, The Alphas are full frame where the Nex is only APS-C. Lenses have to be very good to perform well on the A7R and it may be that I only have a couple of lenses that will pass the test. I'm not going to sell my Nex cameras as I have a few lenses that I just love using on them, especially on the Nex-5N. This camera produces very good image quality, even though many will call it an OLD camera nowadays. It's small and my Voigtländer Skopar lenses fit nicely on it because the lenses are very small indeed.

The reson for posting the above image taken with the Voigtländer Skopar 20 f3.5 SL is to show the quality of the converted image to B&W. I seem to be getting better conversion results using a gradient map with these files, rather than using the Nik SFXII plug-in. The image was taken on a very dark, windy and rainy day; just perfect for this type of image. Hope you like it as much as I do.

When you look at this lens mounted on the A7 it's really not all that big and it handles well, balance wise. However, if you look closely the adapter needed is the same size as this tiny lens and actually doubles the size as a whole. This is one drawback of using legacy lenses on these cameras. The rangefinder lenses are much better in this respect as the adapter is actually quite small and you hardly notice it's there. The size is then reduced and it handles better than the SLR lenses. There are some very good lenses in the SLR arsenal but when you start to put some long lenses on these cameras with the adapter attached then they really become rather long and at low shutter speeds, the problem of shutter shock becomes a real problem; especially with the A7R.

I now have a couple of these E Series lenses and they give outstandingly good image quality on my Nex and M43 cameras. I have yet to test any manual focus lens on the Fujifilm X camera as the 2 native zooms I have for it (the 18-55 kit zoom and the 55-200 tele zoom) are so good I don't feel the need for any more lenses or experimentation.

However, since the new Alpha cameras from Sony have no real native lenses available for them (at the time of this post) I have to experiment somewhat with manual focus lenses. I must admit also, I'm so taken by the pure pleasure I get from using all types of manual lenses, it's actually the reason I purchased the Sony cameras. The problem now of course is finding lenses that behave on these new full frame sensors. 35mm or shorter is going to be a problem with rangefinder lenses and I have a couple of those but we're not restricted to those rangefinder lenses, there are a multitude of SLR lenses that we can use.

I have some Nikon, Olympus and Pentax lenses that were class leading at the time they were manufactured and they perform very well on APS-C or M43 sensors but that doesn't mean the same performance can be achieved on a full frame sensor. I'll be testing quite a number of lenses in the near future to weed out those that don't perform well, and keep those that perform well for my landscaping escapades. I'll let you know how I get on.

I found this lens quite cheap on one of the on-line shops just before Christmas this year. I just couldn't let it go after I tried the Zeiss Planar 50 f2 lens on the A7R. From what I've seen of the images taken so far with this lens it's very good indeed. I think it's a keeper lens and fits nicely with my favoured focal length.

Today, I'll be going out to test a couple of legacy 135mm lenses, weather permitting,  and will probably post some images later today with what I hope to be some nice looking images. Not promising they'll be masterpieces though, it's just to see the lenses signature on what is undoubtedly one of the best sensors ever made. I read on one popular blog about the dynamic range of the A7R sensor and I have to agree, I see no whites blowing out and if they do seem a little bright, I can bring them down quite easily in PP.

This is where things start to get interesting. All the other lenses I've shown so far have been rangefinder lenses which could, theoretically cause problems on the new Alpha cameras, and probably will. SLR lenses on the other hand do not cause this colour cast problem and are the better choice of lenses. I have some excellent Nikon, Olympus, Pentax and a couple of other lenses from other manufacturers and they are very good. Because I prefer shooting with a rather longer focal length I have a few 75mm to 135mm lenses which I have high hopes for. These alpha cameras were purchased because of these old but excellent manual focus lenses. It's only a matter of practice before one becomes pretty proficient at using them with success.