There are many manual lenses above 28mm which work quite well on modern cameras like the Alpha 7 but not that many wide angle lenses perform good enough on modern cameras.
The Canon nFD 2.8/24 is one of the sharpest, affordable wide angle lenses and I think it can be a good solution for budget-oriented Sony Alpha 7 users.
A German version of this review can be found on phillipreeve.de.
I am certainly not the first to report that the original Sony a7 has a problem with it’s mount which is loosening over time but so far I haven’t seen an illustration of how this problem can affect image quality.
My Sony a7 arrived on Nov 20. 2013 so it is very close to two years old now. Until now I had noticed that the mount had gotten a little more play over time but it wasn’t a real problem to me.
But now a point is reached were it has become a real issue for me. If I mount a lens like my FE 4/16-35 and pit the camera on a tripod I can see a gap between lens-mount and camera-mount! And the lens also has some rotational play.
Yes it does!
Classic 50mm lenses are rather small, affordable and not very good wide open. The new Zeiss Milvus 1.4/50 is very big, very expensive and very good from f/1.4.
For this review I used the Milvus on my Sony a7.
All images in this review are processed from raw unless I mention otherwise. I did nothing fancy, just a little contrast and some sharpening.
Disclosure: This copy was loaned from Zeiss at no charge.
A fast 35mm lens which is very sharp, has nice bokeh and is also small? This sounds too good to be true but the Voigtländer Ultron 1.7/35 VM is all that. Of course there is are also a few issues but all in all it’s a pretty great lens.
Continue reading Review: Voigtlander Ultron 1.7/35mm – punches way above its weight
The Pentax SMC 4/100 Macro is a small and affordable macro lens from the 70’s. In this review I check if it can still deliver on today’s 24 Megapixel Sony a7.
f/5.6
