Added Sony A7ii to Leica M6 Kit Lens Recommendations

Z

zendaddio

Newbie
Local time
9:47 PM
Joined
Jan 8, 2015
Messages
2
Good morning everyone,

I was hoping for some suggestions from the forum about how to best distribute my lenses now that I have added an A7ii to my bag. I currently use 21/35/90 Leica glass with my M6 but I'm uncertain if I should add a Summilux 50mm to the bag or just buy the Sony FE 28-70mm kit lens and not try sharing lenses between the two bodies.

Any thoughts on how to distribute the love between the A7ii and the M6 would be greatly appreciated.
 
The longer Leica lenses should work just fine on the a7ii. 35 should be good unless you have one of the older, wartime symmetric designs. 21 really depends on the lens-but take caution. some versions of the 21SA have been known to damage the shutter of Sony E-mount cameras, which have a less recessed shutter unit than film Ms.

Using the A7ii will make long or really fast Leica lenses a lot easier to use. The 50mm summilux is no doubt a great addition to both kits. I only use M lenses on the A7 and A7S, and used to have both the pre-a 50lux and the ASPH. Both lenses are brillant on the A7
 
I'll echo Victor's suggestion that the a7II will be fine with the longer M glass, though will caution that depending on how critical you are and the type of subjects you photograph, even a lens like the 50 Lux ASPH will reveal some incompatibly (smeared edge details) with the a7 series compared to a digital Leica M (based on my tests of the a7, a7R and a7S with the Lux ASPH and many other RF lenses, such as here - preliminary results by others indicate the a7II is not significantly different, in this respect). This is primarily a problem when focused at or near infinity and with critical subject content placed off center and is a result of a combination of technical factors: exit pupil distance (angle of the light rays traveling to the sensor) and thickness of the various glass layers over the sensor itself. The more oblique the light rays, the faster the lens and the thicker the sensor toppings, the worse the edge smearing will be. It's why many older and wider rangefinder lenses perform rather poorly on digital cameras. In any case, the 50 Lux ASPH is a fantastic lens and should be fine on the a7II at nearer focusing distances and with central subject content. I'd be loath to forfeit it in favor of the 28-70, which in my brief experience with it, proved to be uninspiring. That said, there's a huge price difference between the two...
 
I would make the A7 a one-lens camera in your case. It could be a Summilux lens rear cover.
 
I have the Sony A7 model. It works well with some of my M-mount lenses—most notably the M-Rokkor 40mm, Nokton 50mm, M-Rokkor 90mm, and Hektor 135mm—and satisfactorily with the Color Skopar 28mm.

For other focal lengths, particularly short ones, I use Leica R SLR lenses: they image with fewer issues. I've uses Elmarit-R 19mm, Elmarit-R 24mm, Summicron-R 35mm, Summilux-R 50mm, Summicron-R 90mm, Elmarit-R 135mm, and Elmar-R 180mm lenses with the A7. They all work very well. My most used lenses on the A7 are the Summilux-R 50mm and Summicron-R 90mm ... just terrific results!

The A7II has the same sensor. I'd test your present lenses with the A7II and see if they work to your satisfaction, and then make decisions as to what else you might need from there.

G
 
zendaddio said:
Good morning everyone,

I currently use 21/35/90 Leica glass
Click to expand...

21mm - not good on the Sonys
the 35mm - I know the 35mm Asph 2.0 cron is no good. I've seen really bad field curvature with this lens (from people who posted images showing how well it worked!) The Lux 35 1.4 is a better but still not as good as it is on a Leica digital M.
90mm - should be fine.

The Voigtlander 35 1.2 is meant to be excellent on the Sonys, as well as the 50 1.5 and Zeiss Planar 50 f2.


First question you should ask yourself is do you want an AF lens? If yes, then you need to get a Sony lens. If no then I would not buy a Lux (as it does not work as well as the price tag would imply on the Sony), but the Voigtlander 35 V2 1.2 (far superior to the other Voigtlander 35mm lenses) or a 50mm lens from either Voigtlander or Zeiss. Several upsides - you could buy the A7II and any of these lenses for much less than the price of a Lux, they are all great lenses, and they will all work great with your M6.
 
I take a share-'plus' approach to my CSC/RF bag, using an A7R and a ZI., and sharing an M-Rokkor 28mm, ZM Sonnar 50/1.5 and Nikkor 105/2.5. I use a Hawks focusing helicoid adapter.

The 'plus' is the Sony FE 55/1.8, and when it comes out and is within my budget, the Sony FE 28/2.0. Sometimes, I just need AF.
 
All the feedback is sincerely appreciated. As someone who does a great deal of travel the M6 has been a wonderful tool and has served me well. The addition of 21mm and 90mm focal lengths seem to give me a great balance of options. The A7ii has been added to provide me some digital versatility that I don't often feel I have with the film M. Low light, image stabilization etc.

So if for example I am packing a kit for a 9 day swing through Asia in March, what would you most likely pack with you. The hope was to take 2 bodies, one digital one film and 2 or 3 lenses max. Seems like there are questions about the wider end of the range and I can live with using my 21mm on the film M only. It seems like 2 bodies and 2 or 3 lenses would be an ideal kit to take with me on this trip.

Thanks again for all the great insight.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top