Sony Alpha NEX Cameras and E Mount Lenses

It looks like Zeiss is in the Thanksgiving mood. Here are the lowest prices ever for their E-mount lenses, Batis (autofocus) and Loxia (manual focus) lines. Save $300 off on the Batis 135mm f/2.8 Sonnar Save $180 off on the Batis 85mm f/1.8 Sonnar Save $195 off on the Batis 25mm f/2.0 Distagon Save $225 off on the Batis 18mm f/2.8 Distagon Save $210 off on the Loxia 85mm f/2.4 Sonnar Save $140 off on the Loxia 50mm f/2.0 Planar Save $195 off on the Loxia 35mm f/2.0 Biogon Save $225 off on the Loxia 21mm f/2.8 Distagon Thank you for reading and sharing this blog. Amazon links help support this website.

Songstress. Here are some photos from a wedding we invited. All we were equipped with was our trusty Sony NEX-7, a Metabones Speed Booster, and the Contax 50mm Planar - a gem. The Speed booster gave us an effective 55mm lens at f/1.2, necessary for this low light event. Double trouble. The NEX was set to shoot jpeg only in black and white with contrast and sharpness at negative two. This made the post-processing much easier than usual with cropping as the only requirement. Tequila ice bar. Holding court.

Bokeh Battle 85mm Zeiss Otus vs Sony G Master The video above from DigitalRev TV shows the advantage of electronic viewfinders found on Sony cameras. The evf betters optical viewfinders by providing a more accurate way to manual focus lenses. The Sony A7r II provides a magnified view for focusing. It also has focus peaking which highlights portions of the image that are in the focus zone. So getting the shot with the Otus is a much easier task with an EVF. Another advantage shown is that Zeiss only provides autofocus lenses for Sony - the Batis line. The A7r II had no problems locking focus with the 85mm G Master . Canon and Nikon shooters can only use the Otus and Milvus line, which Sony shooters have access to as well. Which do you prefer?

Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 Distagon on the a7r Here is the newest Zeiss lens for the Leica M system. It is a Distagon 1.4/35mm ZM lens - Carl Zeiss' fastest lens for rangefinder cameras. We stopped by the Zeiss booth at Photo Plus and tried it out on the Sony a7r with a close-focus adapter. Voigtlander makes a better version of the adapter but this one works for us. The 35mm Distagon ZM feels like a fine piece of machinery. The aperture from f/1.4 to f/18 have soft click stops. The focus ring is smooth, well damped, and pleasing to use - we prefer it to the Otus' ring . The lens is dense and heavy for such a small size thanks to the all metal construction. The 35mm Distagon ZM is deceptively heavy as the 85mm Otus ZE is deceptively light.

Zeiss Vario-Tessar 16-35mm FE OSS lens Barrel Extension Here are some corner samples of the new Zeiss Vario-Tessar 16-35mm FE OSS lens from mobile01.com . The samples compare the center sharpness against the extreme corner of 16-35mm for the Sony A7 cameras at 16mm and 35mm at all apertures. Check out more Zeiss 16-35mm Vario-Tessar high resolution samples and the full review at mobile01.com . Pre-order the Zeiss Vario-Tessar 16-35mm FE OSS lens for a mid-November ship date.

Jeff Koons: A Retrospective Whitney Museum We discovered that the Jeff Koons exhibit was on its final days at the Whitney Museum. We also learned that the Whitney was closing the doors at the Breuer Building location and was moving downtown towards the Highline. We took the Sony A7r and a Contax 28mm Distagon and tested out GeoTagging - posted earlier . Here are some images from the excursion. Bear and Policeman by Jeff Koons

Mockup of Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 ZM on Sony A7r Carl Zeiss announced their fastest ZM, Leica M mount, lens at Photokina 2014. The new Distagon T* 1,4/35mm ZM is designed for the Leica M digital sensor but we are hopeful that it will work well on the Sony A7 cameras with the appropriate lens adapter. Above is a mockup of what the Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 lens would look on a Sony A7. The Zeiss 35 f/1.4 will provide subject isolation through shallow depth of field. Zeiss 35mm f/1.4 Distagon ZM in Black Below are the lens specs and intro video from Carl Zeiss.

Zeiss Loxia on Sony A7r and A7s Cameras Here's a quick video from Carl Zeiss about their new line of Loxia lenses especially designed for the Sony A7 family of cameras. Fresh from #photokina : our product video for ZEISS Loxia lenses w/ product manager Christophe Casenave https://t.co/v2d8MZfJT7 #ZEISSphk14 — Carl Zeiss Lens Team (@CarlZeissLenses) September 18, 2014 Product Manager Christophe Casenave talks about the new Loxia Lenses Check out Loxia 2/50mm Planar samples we posted here . Full specs on the Carl Zeiss Loxia 2/35 and 2/50 can be found here . Pre-order the Loxia 35mm Biogon and Loxia 50mm Planar from Adorama.

Sony SEL1635Z Mounted on a Sony A7s from PhotographyBlog The wait is over. People have been hunting for a wide angle lens for the Sony A7 cameras ever since the full frame e-mount cameras were released. Some have been using the Sony 10-18mm at 16-18mm with great results on the Sony A7 bodies. Above is the new Zeiss 16-35mm f/4 Vario Tessar FE ZA OSS Lens or SEL1635Z, announced at Photokina 2014. It is fully compatible with E-mount cameras with autofocus and auto aperture control. The lens is designed for the A7 and will cover the 24x36mm sensor. The SEL1635Z will also work with the Sony a6000 and NEX cameras where it will provide a EFOV of 24mm to 52mm, nice walkaround lens range. Below are specs for the SEL1635Z and samples from Mark Galer who has been using the SEL1635Z on the Sony A7s.

Zeiss Loxia 50mm Planar on Sony A7r Berlin Backstage was lucky enough to test out the new Carl Zeiss Loxia 50mm f/2 Planar lens before the Photokina 2014 official release. Here are a points we extracted from their review titled "Blau trifft Orange," translated blue meets orange. 180° of focus ring movement for gentle, precise focus. Aperture ring can be de-clicked for videographers with a supplied de-click tool. Feels similar to the Zeiss 50mm ZM Planar lens .  The Loxia 2/50 is a massaged ZM Planar design for the Sony A7 series. The f/2.0 maximum aperture keeps the lens small which is a good compromise. The Loxia is a manual aperture lens, not electronic controlled. It provides Exif data to the camera. The lens hood can be mounted in reverse without blocking the focusing ring. Ten aperture blades for buttery soft bokeh. Important points for the reviewer: feel, color, contrast. See the sample images from the Loxia 50mm on the A7r from Berlin Backstage below.

Here are the specs for the upcoming Loxia lenses by Carl Zeiss designed for the Sony A7 family and other E-mount cameras. The first two announced are the Loxia 35mm f/2 Biogon and the 50mm f/2 Planar.  Both lenses share the same physical dimensions and filter ring thread.  They are manual focus lenses with electronic coupling to Sony E-mount cameras. Loxia 2/35 Biogon

Updated Lens Roadmap for E-mount Cameras Macro G Lens and High Speed Prime Zeiss Added to 2014 Release We just noticed that the E-mount lens roadmap has been updated to provide detail to the two upcoming lenses. The roadmap suggests that we will see three more lenses before years end. One will be a Sony G Macro lens - our guess? 100mm f/2.8 macro, similar to the Sony 100mm macro . The other lens will be a Zeiss high speed prime lens - our guess? 24mm f/1.4 maybe more of a wish. This lens could be based on the NEX's 24mm f/1.8 ZA Sonnar or the A-mount Zeiss 24mm f/2 Distagon .

Carl Zeiss 32mm Touit Lens on Sony A7r Here are a bevy of autofocus lenses made for the Sony NEX system mounted on the new Sony A7r . The red boxes show a 1:1 or square aspect ratio and a 16:9 aspect ratio. The lenses have rear baffles which were not removed. Most of the prime lenses can provide a square image with a little bit of vignetting. 16:9 images show heavy vignetting, maybe we can extract a 2.35:1 Cinemascope / Panavision image with the A7r's 36 megapixels to play with. Carl Zeiss 12mm Touit Lens on Sony A7r Sony 16mm Pancake with Ultra Wide Adapter on Sony A7r Sony 16mm Pancake Lens on Sony A7r Sigma 19mm Lens on Sony A7r Sigma 30mm Lens on Sony A7r Sony 55-210mm OSS Lens @55mm on Sony A7r Sony 55-210mm OSS Lens @98mmLens on Sony A7r Sony 55-210mm OSS Lens @210mm Lens on Sony A7r

Sony a6000 with Zeiss 16-70mm f/4 Lens SONY a6000 11 fps AF-C indoor by Alin Popescu Check out Mr. Popescu achieved with the new Sony a6000 and continuous autofocus (AF-C) at 11 frames per second. We are amazed that the rear LCD had very minor black out. This camera is hard to resist.

Zeiss 24-70mm FE ZA with the A7r Zeiss 24-70mm AF Speed Test SLR Club posted a video of the autofocus speed of the new Zeiss 24-70mm f/4 ZA FE Vario-Tessar lens . This lens is made for the new Sony A7 cameras and covers its full frame sensor. This lens will also work on NEX aps-c cameras and will have an equivalent fov of 36-105mm. We are wondering how this lens compares to the Zeiss 16-70mm E ZA lens which is for the aps-c sensor. Both lenses share the common features. They have image stabilization, maximum aperture of f/4, and are dubbed Vario-Tessar by Zeiss. Zeiss 24-70mm FE ZA Pre-order from Amazon Ships early February

We thoroughly enjoyed the Zeiss Touit 12mm f/2.8 Distagon on a recent trip. We spent a few days in Cape May, NJ with the Touit 12mm glued onto the NEX-7. We are still learning this ultra wide angle lens, at 18mm efov on the NEX, most everything will be in frame. We are somewhat addicted to the NEX-7's level feature which helps minimize converging vertical lines with such a wide lens. We also depended on the NEX-7's autofocus mode while using focus-recompose to frame. Here are a few shots from the trip. They are all RAW converted shots.

Sony A7 Hybrid Autofocus It may not be obvious to us but the hybrid autofocus, phase + contrast detection, of the Sony A7 is faster than the contrast detect only focus. The A7r does not have hybrid autofocus, more from this previous post . Sony A7 Contrast Detect Only Autofocus Sony A7 with a Zeiss Vario-Tessar 24-70mm OSS Autofocus Lens

Zeiss 35mm Sonnar FE on a NEX-7 Here are some samples we were able to take at PhotoPlus Expo. We tried the three new Zeiss lenses which are the 35mm f/2.8 Sonnar FE, the 55mm f/1.8 Sonnar FE, and the 50mm f/2.8 Makro Touit. The Zeiss FE lenses were located in the Sony exhibit alongside the new Sony A7 cameras . Both the 35mm and the 55mm Sonnar FE felt at home on the Sony NEX-7. They were neither heavy nor enormous on the NEX. The Sonnar FE samples were taken using autofocus. Click on them and they are 100% crops from RAW files from the NEX-7. We didn't have enough time with the lenses but the results are excellent. Zeiss 35mm Sonnar FE on a NEX-7 Zeiss 55mm Sonnar FE NEX-7 Sample The Zeiss Touit 50mm Macro Planar was stationed at the Carl Zeiss exhibit. We were lucky enough to speak with Dr. Pollman, Zeiss Program Manager, about the new Touit 50mm Macro. He stated that this is their first 50mm macro which can provide a 1 to 1 magnification. The shots below are ...