Details Created on 03/05/2016 16:11

Today we will analyze the issues of using non-standard lenses on Sony NEX of any version, as well as Sony Alpha a3000, a3500, a5000, a51000, a6000, alpha 7, 7R, 7S.

It is worth noting that the E-mount platform is very versatile in terms of using lenses from third-party platforms. This is explained by one important factor. This factor is called the "flange distance".

In simple terms, this is the distance from the focal plane of the lens to the sensor. The fact is that the longer the flange distance, the more versatile the platform is, since you can compensate for the difference in the thickness of the adapter.

Today we are going to learn how to use Soviet lenses with our Sony NEX. To do this, we need an M42 Adapter - Sony NEX, some Soviet lens (Helios-44, Helios-40, Jupiter-37A, etc.) and 2 minutes to read this article.

The sequence is as follows: take the m42 - NEX adapter, screw the lens into it. it important point, since such a sequence excludes dust and other debris from entering the matrix. Next, we insert the resulting structure into the bayonet. And here, most likely, we are waiting for a slight disappointment: the NEX refuses to release the shutter. The fact is that the electronics of our carcass interrogates the lens, but it is not. Proceeding from this comes a ban on filming. But we just can't be broken.

We climb into the menu.

Inside the menu, we find a section with a pictogram of the suitcase and the inscription "SETTINGS". We come in.

Find the line "Lens release" and select "ON". You can also enable "RF Assist" (manual focus). This can make the shooting process somewhat easier.

Everything! The settings are complete and your camera is completely ready for use with a huge fleet of Soviet lenses.

If you have any questions, ask them in the comments.

| 2016-03-05 13:11:33 | site | site | Articles | images / m42-sony-nex.jpg | The use of Soviet lenses (Helios-44, Helios-40, Jupiter-34A) on mirrorless Sony cameras NEX, A7, A5000 and others with E mount. | m42 nex, m42 sony nex, m42 nex, m42 nex

We have updated our previously written article with information on the latest adapters, including the unique Techart LM-EA7 autofocus helicoid, Comlite AF adapter for Nikon lenses, and Sigma proprietary adapter for Canon lenses. So even if you've already read this article, exciting updates await you!

This test will be very unusual. Over the eight years of our magazine's existence, we have experienced many different devices from tripods to action cameras. But our test has never been devoted to the use of cameras with "non-native" optics. Today we will test how cameras work Sony series Alpha 7 with various lenses mounted via adapters. From different countries a whole box of adapters has already been ordered, and colleagues and familiar photographers have shared their favorite lenses with different mounts. Which ones will autofocus work with? How will the stabilizer behave? Which adapter is worth buying and which one is better to bypass? All this and more - in our big test!

"Native" and "non-native" optics

Sony mirrorless cameras are some of the more unusual cameras on the market. Step by step, they break the established stereotypes. For example, most manufacturers of photographic equipment keep the protocols of interaction between their cameras and lenses in the strictest confidence, fearing competition from manufacturers of alternative optics. Of course, by reverse engineering, most of the secrets were revealed. But the fact remains: the Soniv E mount has become one of the few open to other manufacturers of photographic equipment. Mount specs are available to all major third-party vendors such as Tamron or Sigma, which ensures that third-party optics are fully compatible with Sony mirrorless cameras.

Carl Zeiss not only calculates the lenses for Sony, but also makes its own compatible lenses, such as the Batis, Loxia and Touit series. Therefore, let's agree to consider any E-mount lenses as "native" for these cameras. They will not be included in our review. All test heroes will have different mounts.

Why are adapters needed?

As of this writing, the Sony Alpha system has 21 original lenses released for full frame mirrorless cameras (including two converters). Is it a lot or a little? For two years of the existence of the system - a lot. For most tasks, choosing optics is not difficult. Nevertheless, sometimes there is a need for a certain "exotic". It can be a super telephoto lens, a tilt-shift lens, or high-aperture optics. This is where adapters come out of the shadows ... Can be used as optics from the "older" Sony systems A and from other systems.

The second case where adapters are vital is the use of unique retro optics. I am sure that every photographer has such a beloved rare lens. Now it can be removed from the shelf and can be safely installed on a Sony mirrorless camera. It is important to note that Sony does not pose any obstacles for the photographer or limit the functionality of the camera when using non-original optics, including providing manual focus assistance and stabilizer operation with the second generation Alpha 7 models. But the most interesting thing is it is automatic focusing with non-autofocus optics, which is possible when using the Techart LM-EA7 adapter. Read about this on the seventh page of our test.

The third case is a transition from another system. With the right lens and adapter, the photographer can rely on the autofocus and built-in stabilizer on some modern lenses with other mounts. This is now possible with Canon EF lenses and some electronic adapters, also called smart adapters. This can be important when moving from a "mirror" system to a new mirrorless system. It may well happen that the photographer does not need to sell out old optics when changing the system, he will be able to use it fully on his mirrorless camera. You can even rent a camera and try the existing fleet of lenses on a Sony camera before taking a crucial step. Agree, a tempting argument!

Where can I buy the right adapter?

Not every adapter can be purchased simply by going to a photo store. Most often, such products are purchased over the Internet. The most popular ones, for example, Metabones, can be found at the major foreign photo equipment sellers www.bhphotovideo.com. However, www.ebay.com and Asian stores like www.aliexpress.com are still the main marketplace for buying adapters. Therefore, for purchases, you will have to get a plastic card and be patient: a parcel to Russia has been going on for more than one week. How exactly the adapter will work with your camera is not so easy to understand before buying. Therefore, we started writing this article.

By the way, if you live in Moscow or another large city, then you can rent the adapter you are interested in from one of the companies engaged in such a service. For example, in Moscow it is www.rentaphoto.com.

Which optics are suitable for Sony mirrorless cameras?

Here is a good time to remember such a parameter of optics as the focal distance. This is the distance from the plane of the mount to the plane of the matrix. For the E mount, this value is 18 mm. Therefore, Sony mirrorless cameras can be equipped with any optics with a flange distance greater than 18 mm. The difference between the flanges is exactly compensated by the adapter. For example, the good old "Zenith" has a flange distance of 45.5 mm, for other DSLRs it can differ literally by a few millimeters. Therefore, any optics from DSLRs can be installed without problems.

There are no difficulties with lenses from rangefinder cameras. Their flange is usually more than 18 mm. For example, the flange of a Leica M is 27.8 mm. Such optics are also installed on Sony cameras via an adapter. There are adapters for all Contax systems: rangefinder Contax G, specular Contax N and medium format Contax 645.

Problems can arise only when trying to use optics from other modern mirrorless systems: their short flange distance will not allow using an adapter. However, it is rather difficult to imagine why this might be needed. After all, at least such lenses do not cover the full frame.

Thus, modern Sony full-frame mirrorless cameras can be a universal “digital back” for almost any lens, providing not only mechanical compatibility, but also in some cases the autofocus and stabilizer of the lens itself. You can always count on camera assistance in focusing.

I have in my hands a stack of adapters for different optics for the Sony E-mount. My friend is going to switch to Sony, more precisely, to buy it as a second camera for video shooting for his Canon and asked - do I have adapters? Adapters were unexpectedly found: 4 - for Canon, 2 - for Nikon. Cheap, expensive and very expensive. I had to try them out.

Why are we talking about adapters at all? As soon as people for some reason are going to switch to Sony, they are faced with the problem of the cost of Sony optics, which is transcendental. Sony has very good optics, but they are not at all budgetary and this is a serious problem. Some people use non-autofocus optics. Others ask - can we adapt the existing fleet of optics of another brand to Sony?
Judging by the number of adapters in my hands - we can. Therefore, it was decided to test in practice whether it is worth doing and how successful the result will be.
Having got acquainted with the principle of operation of adapters, it turned out that they provide much more functionality than I expected. They provide not only the transition from one mount to another, but also provide some functions, often very interesting.
You can take a full-frame lens, put it through an adapter on a cropped matrix, and the adapter, thanks to its lenses, will collect the light beam and "push" it into your crop, ie. your crop will not be 1.5 or 1.7, but actually 1.1. The aperture increases by one stop. Sounds like magic. Unfortunately, the price of such an adapter is also magical - about 60 thousand rubles. My adapters are a little cheaper - up to 36 thousand - also it cannot be said that they are cheap.

Let's try to describe two typical scenarios for using adapters.

First, we want to save money. For example, you buy a first generation Sony a7S, put a cheap fifty kopecks from Zenit or FED through an adapter, and you can shoot, adding to the cost of the camera, only 5-6 thousand rubles. From the point of view of economy, this is essential.

The second scenario - you already have a fleet of optics, for example, Canon. You want to buy a Sony and use your optics. And this is where a bunch of nuances begin. My adapters support focusing functions, incl. and tracking, and even inclusion optical stabilization in a Canon lens. But only in photo mode. Unfortunately, in movie mode, tracking AF is not supported on Canon optics, unlike Sony's native optics, which focuses superbly when shooting video. But you won't get this convenience with Canon optics.
Further, when you buy autofocus adapters, autofocus will work efficiently only on Sony cameras with phase focusing, there are only four such cameras today: a6300, a6500, a7RII and a7II. On them, the focusing speed will be the same as on Canon cameras. On other Sony cameras (a7S, a7SII, a7R…) - you can assume that you have no autofocusing.
And these are not all reservations. All adapters work very differently with each individual lens. And choosing an adapter for yourself can be a serious and difficult task. The adapter is a complex device, and its firmware supports certain lenses. The firmware should be updated regularly, which is also an extra hassle.
And if you have optics, for example, for Canon, but released third party manufacturers(Tokina, Sigma, Tamron ...)? Will she work for Sony? It will be, but also with nuances. My Tamron has a built-in stabilizer. So, the stabilizer refused to work on the most expensive adapter Metabones, but it worked on the adapter from Sigma! And who could have known about this, and where could one read about it? It turns out that you need to come with a camera and your optics to the store and select the optimal adapter.
By the way, Sony recommends using its cameras with the recommended adapters. A Sony engineer, at the time, said that when they were preparing their adapter from the A to E mount, they had to do a great job until they tested all possible optics on their adapters and were not convinced that they worked flawlessly in all modes, including .h. and when filming. Therefore, in the case of working with multi-bayonet lenses from Sony and Minolta, it is probably worth purchasing a native Sony adapter in order to get full operation of optics in all modes.
On the other hand, if for some reason you still need to install third-party optics on Sony, adapters will allow you to do this, but try to be very careful when choosing them.

Sony LA-EA4 is a dedicated adapter for attaching ‘A-type’ lenses to ‘E’ mount cameras. Using this adapter (adapter), you can attach any Sony A-mount or Minolta A-mount lens to Sony NEX or Sony ILCE cameras, including full-format Sony a7, a7r, a7s.

I would like to point out that Sony produces as many as 4 different adapters from the ‘A’ mount to the ‘E’ mount:

1. LA-EA1 - Suitable for APS-C cameras only and does not support non-motorized lenses.
2. LA-EA2 - Suitable for APS-C cameras only and supports non-motorized lenses.
3. LA-EA3 - Suitable for full frame and crop cameras, but does not support non-motorized lenses.
4. LA-EA4 - Suitable for full-frame and crop cameras, and also supports non-motorized lenses. This adapter is presented in this note.

All adapters have a diaphragm control mechanism. It is desirable to use focusing lenses (SAM and SSD lenses) with adapters LA-EA1 and LA-EA3. In addition, the LA-EA1 and LA-EA3 do not have a phase focusing sensor, which allows them to work only due to the focusing system of the camera itself.

Ultimately, the LA-EA4 is the most advanced adapter that fits anything and everything.

Adapter Sony LA-EA4 with SAL16F28 lens and Sony A7 camera

In a sense, the LA-EA4 is a real godsend for camera users that only have contrast focusing. With such an adapter, the focusing speed increases significantly.