My partner uses the Sony A7s's she swears by them, but only for video.. for stills she uses the Fuji GFX100 and a GFX50 and swears just as much by them. The Fuji's just don't handle video very well, and only in an emergency has she used these Sonys to shoot Stills and the results have really not been good. She's got a lovely large monorail Sinar with several Schneider lenses, but she just hasn't used it in ages, it's a real shame as it just sits there in its box

 

I have tried many of the Sony lenses, including a few of the Zeiss designs. Most were rehashes of Minolta AF, which weren't (IMHO) all that great. Amazes me that Sony bought Minolta, and left the Rokkor and Hexanons behind. The Zeiss collabs were better, but not what I have come to expect from them. I am trying to decide which full-frame mirrorless to go with, recently there are several choices, and now I am leaning towards this SL2S. Hadn't considered Voightlander glass really, but why not since I loved their RF stuff. I will never give up my a6000 though, as I like it when I snap on a 400mm MF Hexanon.

 

The offerings in mirrorless over the last 5 years has been pretty amazing. If you told me in 2018 that I would go mirrorless I would have laughed at you- I was ready to die with my Nikon D series. But since Nikon has decided they no longer want to move the platform further, I no longer want to move further with Nikon.
But do your due diligence and check out the Sony A1, the Nikon Z9 and the SL2. We have all three in my shop (different shooters) and there is love for all of them.

 

Nice image actually. I love that you have your first camera. Anyone that discounts Fuji glass was not paying attention. In particular the EBC stuff shoots exceptionally well on mirrorless.

 

your advice is well-regarded

 

I shot the first A7 when it was released. Great camera, but it had a tendency to get just a little warm in my hand. I understand that they have dealt with that. One of the local pros here uses them almost exclusively on drones, and that is some freaking amazing footage. One of my good friends has just about every XT Fuji ever made, so I have shot them a little too (I like "crop factor" for the extra reach) and, though I haven't tried everything, I must say the IQ possible with their sensor is astounding. The GFX's are new to me and will have to be looked into. I am primarily interested in bodies that adapt legacy glass easily. At my age I have moved into the experimentation and comparison phase.

 

So I wish to give Voigtlander some love. Here is a likely pre-war Bessa folder with a Voigtar 105mm f6.3. I enjoy things that are considerably older than me that are still functional.

 

I think by this point, this camera is older than anyone on the forum

 

I thought I was

 

Early in my vintage camera collecting period

 

Do you remember the times, when you had to buy an additional "hot shoe" and a cable for the flash? My 1st Mamiya, followed by the 500 MSX...

 

I think I have a Vivitar 285HV that would be perfect on that!!

 

A Vivitar 285HV is nothing to sneeze at, there are few flashes currently made that can bring that kind of firepower. I do think a Chinese company purchased the rights and is still producing them. Question" How many feet have you replaced on it (smile).

 

yes, I see the PC connectors on the right side of your lens mount

 

The USB of the 70ies

 

I still have a pair of 285’s (with original feet) I used for weddings, then upgraded to Metz 45 CT potato mashers, but always kept the 285’s as my backups. The auto thyristor was actually pretty accurate when set to auto (on the flash) and did a far better job than any TTL system did at close range.

 

well said!

 

Part of the enjoyment of collecting vintage film lenses and adapting them to a mirrorless camera is that you try out items that are outside of the mainstream. Every once in awhile I would acquire an optic that inexplicably goes off the chart resolution-wise, and in the fun factor. This manual focus Yashica ML 300mm f5.6 that I adapted to an Olympus E-P2 was one of those. Partly because it was so tidy. Compared to my manual focus Nikkor 300mm f4 it feels like a sports car. It was anything but fast, max-aperture of f.5.6, so it didn’t require a large front element. I think that even as long as it was, it scaled well to the smallish micro 4/3 E-P3. As long as you are shooting in the day, there really isn't any reason to think about a tripod. Not that I would characterize it as light, it's actually rather rugged, but it has a great balance. And frankly, though not as fast, it was as all day as sharp as my 300 Nikkor. The only disclaimer would be that an electronic viewfinder (this was before Olympus had genuine focus-peaking) is a must with a lens this long. Trying to zero in on anything by composing on the LCD---bad science.
People are often surprised to learn the prices that Yashica manual focus lenses command...often more than Nikon, Canon, Pentax, etc. It's not really that hard to understand if you have followed the history of Yashica. If the odds for a business to succeed are determined largely by who they partner with, well then Yashica made all the right moves. The list of quality acquisitions and partnerships is impressive: Nicca; Zunow; Tomioka; Contax/Zeiss; and finally mega-industrialist Kyocera. Horses having a pedigree like that win Kentucky Derbys. But all good things pass, and in 2005 the Yashica I was familiar with ceased to be. The sweet vintage glasss is still available though, and the mirrorless movement has certainly brought these quality optics back into the forefront. The "ML" [Multi Layer coatings] lenses were Yashicas premium line, and much of the input for the optical engineering was derived from their close association with Zeiss. Optically Yashica glass is well-regarded, and has provided a less-costly alternative to grateful Contax shooters for years.
I have uploaded three images that I captured with this lens and camera. They are completely unaltered and uncropped jpegs. Everything was taken in full sun with White Balance set to Auto. I have learned that with long lenses or moving subjects, the best manual focusing strategy is to put it in Aperture Priority mode, set the aperture ring anywhere from f5.6 to 11, and let the camera set the shutter speed. With full sun rarely are the shutter speeds less than 1/2500th, and if you shoot wide open they may be 1/4000th. I also turned on the Image Stabilization, but at these speeds it is probably was not necessary. All 3 captures were shot mid-May 2012 and manually focused with ISO set to 800. The goose was about 40+ feet at f8 and 1/2500th; the blackbird was from about 20-25 feet @f11 and 1/60th with light clouds; and the Harrah’s Ranch House was taken from about a half mile plus away, shooting from a hill, f8 and 1/4000th. The Wells Fargo Bank is about a quarter mile behind the "house", and the Bank of America as much as a full mile from where I was shooting. This image really illustrates the effect of the micro4/3 sensor 2X "crop factor", which yields a 600mm equivalent focal length, and the dramatic compression of the depth of field. This lens has an integrated retractable hood, and a locking/rotating tripod collar.

 

Pentax KM:

 

Just picked up this 1969 Nikon F Photomic FTN black paint! Crazy comparing the two only being a 2-3 years apart!