The Worrying Trend of Increasingly Higher Priced Sony Cameras

We see Sony announced the A6500, a camera with features that all A6300 owner wanted in their camera in the first place.  It's almost predictable that the newer models is hundreds of dollars more than the one it replaces.  In the case of the A6500, it's around $400CAD more than the A6300.  The marketing geniuses at Sony does not actually "replace" the current model, but sells them side by side.  The older models become lower spec'ed cameras and the new model becomes the top of the line model with the top of the line price, but that does not take away the fact that it's still a replacement until they sell off the current inventory of older models.  Sure, the A6500 checks all the boxes in the bells and whistles department, but it actually costs $200 more than then full frame Sony A7, and is very closely priced to the Sony A7II.

The prices of new lenses and camera bodies steadily increase with each new announcement, and not just incremental increases either.  For Sony, they seem to want to play the up market game, and price their new products accordingly.  Yes, we know the Sony cameras are increasingly more capable than those models before, and have features that many other camera makers don't have, but how far can they go before they end up being a niche player like Leica?  It won't be long if each new model is $400-$500 more, and in the case of the A7R II, the price is mindblowing $4000 in Canada.

Yes I am whining because I don't have the deep pocket of those who have a lot of disposable income.  I would love to upgrade my A7, but not at these rediculuos new prices.  If a crop sensor A6500 costs close to $1800, I can't imagine how much the A7 III will cost.  My guess would be around $3000.  I upgraded from NEX-5 --> NEX-5N --> NEX-6 --> A7 because each model didn't cost significantly more than the one before, except the A7 but it was in a different product category.

I guess I will continue to enjoy my trusty A7, but one day it will die, and I will likely replace it with something affordble, like a used A7 or A7 II.  I would rather spent the money on lenses, as the A7/A7II are still very capable cameras.

Hooked - Yashinon 4.5cm f1.8 from Lynx-1000 Rangefinder on Sony A7

Wollensak Velostigmat 85mm f3.5 from Ciro-Flex TLR

I picked up this Ciro-Flex TLR at an antique shop a while ago.  This American made 6x6 TLR was cruelly put together, but was built like a tank; very American like.  But there are parts missing; for one thing, the focus mechanism is not working, and the viewfinder is stuck.  I have little interest in TLRs other than the lens that's attached to it, and in this case, the Wollensak 85mm f3.5, which looks really nice, and I like Wollensak lenses.

Ciro-flex with Wollensak 85mm f3.5 lens.

The lens was attached to the camera by a retention ring inside the film chamber.  It was really recessed and non of my spanner wrenches is long enough to reach the ring.  I ended up cutting up a piece of steel cabinet scraper plate, just small enough to get to the retention ring.  It all worked out really well.  These cabinet scrapers were bought at a garage sale and I had the intention to make custom spanner wrenches with them, since many times a standard span wrench could not be used due to space constrains, or length or both.  If I do get around making them into custom spanner wrenches, I will have a write up on it.

The removed lens was put on the converted Vivitar focus helicoid with a couple of filter rings, and I took it out for some test shots.

Mystique bokeh - Wollensak 85mm f3.5 & Sony A7

It turns out images are quite interesting, but I immediately noticed the flare in pretty much all images, even though I had a hood, but obviously not long enough.  Still, I am quite happy with few of the pictures.  The bokeh is quite nice, and of course it looks different depending on how close the lens is from the subject.  Most of the bokeh shots turned out very smooth, which should be good for portrait.

Rust - Wollensak 85mm f3.5 & Sony A7

The lens is relatively sharp, at least at the center, but the edge is only passable even at smaller apertures at infinity.  Perhaps the lens was not mounted properly, or this particular copy isn't the best.  Still, I like how the lens renders the pictures.  It has a nice personality.

Anchor - Wollensak 85mm f3.5 & Sony A7

Perhaps I should machine a more precise adapter to fit this lens on the helicoid and see if it performs better.  I have only used the lens a couple of times, so it's still very early to form conclusions.  But, so far, I like it on the Sony A7.

Minolta Chyoko 4.5cm f3.5 Rangefinder Lens Conversion Part II

This little lens is a pure joy to use.  The lens barrel is made of brass, so it's very dense and focuses like silk, after I re-lubed the helicoid.  This is one of the things you can not get from modern lenses, aside from Leica and few other exotic and expensive lenses that come out of Germany.  It does not contribute to the quality of images, but it sure makes creating images more pleasurable.

Obviously, a lens with an f3.5 maximum aperture is not a great low light shooter, but it has other desirable attributes that shine over the short comings of the slow-ish maximum aperture.  Bokeh is one of its strong suits, and I adore it.  It has not the smoothest bokeh in all situations, but it's distinctively enjoyable. With highlights, you can see a strong outline on the rings, which to some, is not a good attribute of smooth bokeh, but I like it.  Reminds of the same kind of effects from a Trioplan/Triplet lens.  It's visually bold, as compared to bokeh from a Planar or Sonnar. Your mileage may vary, of course.  You may hate it, or like me, you may like it a lot.

Most very old lenses aren't great when it comes to sharp corners at wide apertures, and this is one of these lenses.  It's by no means very bad, but stopped down to around f11-f16, it's quite respectable.  It won't win any sharpness contests, but definitely usable, especially with a bit of sharpening applied.

The 5-blade aperture gives a more star-like shape when stopping down than other lenses with vanilla 5-blade apertures; the blades are shaped differently, giving the shape a bit more pleasant appeal visually , to me at least.

So, if you overlook the slow maximum aperture, this is actually quite an enjoyable lens to use, and it makes images with nice bokeh.

All images below were taken with the Minolta Chyoko 4.5cm f3.5 & Sony A7:

Minolta Chyoko 4.5cm f3.5 Rangefinder Lens Conversion Part I

I know a lot of people just could not understand why anyone would even bother with a standard lens having an f3.5 maximum aperture.  Today's modern 50mm lens of f1.8 is considered slow.  So yes, why bother?

All I can say is that each lens has its place, and justification for its existence.  f3.5 is slow for low light photography, but there are many places where it can still make wonderful photographs, and you often find the photos they render is not reproducible by modern lenses.  The Minolta Chyoko 4.5cm f3.5 is one slow lens that I really, really like.

Minolta "A" in its original form.  Note the round design.  Very hard to hold and use.

This lens came from the Minolta "A" rangefinder, introduced in 1955 as an entry level rangefinder.  I have never held a more un-ergonomical camera than this one.  I think the design is terrible.  The camera feels like a melon in my hands, but we are only interested in the lens, so it's ergonomics is inconsequential. The lens came out quite easily from the camera with just a few screws from the front of the camera.

Lens is very easy to remove.  in fact, the lens can be removed without touching much of the camera body.

Lens as it came out of the camera.  Note the shutter mechanism at the rear of the lens.  Since we don't need it, it can be easily removed, and the best part of this, is that you don't have to worry about keeping the shutter open like most rangefinders with shutter assembly built into the lens.

The focus mechanism of this lens had very little damping so I decided to disassemble the lens to clean it and re-lube it. To do that, the front group of elements need to be unscrewed, but do be careful when removing it; this lens group is used to secure the aperture mechanism.  I made a mistake of tilting the lens while removing the lens group and the aperture assembly came out of its place.  Took me a long time to put the blades back.

Front lens group removed.  Note the aperture blades are just sitting there without anything else to second it in place.  The lens group is the only thing keeps it secured.  Don't tilt the lens while removing the lens group, otherwise prepare to spend a lot of time trying to put them back.

All the parts of the lens disassembled.  It's quite easy and simple.  Just remove all screws, but don't lose any screws and remember the sequence.

The disassembly of the lens is quite easy by removing the screws.  Be sure to note where the specific screws go and don't lose any.  The only tricky part, is putting the helicoid back.  You DO need to put the parts back at the specific location or the distance scale will not line up.  I usually mark where the parts separate, and this will help later.  Otherwise, you will have a lot of trial and errors and this is not a fun thing to do, believe me.

After the helicoid is taken apart, I used Ronsonol lighter fluid on a Q-Tip to clean off the old grease, and re-apply a light grease.  In a future post, I will talk about the different greases I tried and why I ended up with what I am using, which is Slickoleum Light Grease, that I also use for my bicycles chain and other parts.  This grease is light and provides the right amount of damping than the others I have tried.

Once the lens is cleaned and reassembled, the next part is the machine a spacer between the lens and the Pentax focus helicoid, which will act as part of the spacer between the lens and the Sony E-Mount.  With a lathe, this was very easy to do, especially when I decided to just glue the parts together, instead of drilling and tapping screw holds and use screws to hold them.

Simple parts required: on the left is a mount from an M42 2x teleconverter which I cut out.  Middle is the spacer I machined from aluminium.  The M42 mount will be glued to the top of this part. What's not shown is the rough marks I make on the surface to make the glue adhere better.  On the right, of course is the lens.

The other side of the parts. Note the screw holes on the lens.  If I wanted to, I can drill and tap the spacer and screw them together, but I find glue is strong enough.  I am still having trouble getting perfect alignment for screw holes.  I need a drill press, which I don't have, to do this properly. 

This lens has a rather long flange distance.  At first I thought it could be used on my Nikon D810, but no dice; it's still shorter than the very long F-Mount flange.  However, the distance allows the Pentax focus helicoid to be used as part of the space between the lens and the E-Mount, but just barely.

Minolta Chyoko 4.5cm f3.5 mounted on the Pentax Focus Helicoid and then on the Sony A7.  The lens itself has a focus mechanism, and can be used for medium to infinity focus.  For close up, I use the focus helicoid, or a combination of the two, for extremely close up.

In part II, we will take a look at what the lens can do.  You already had a peek from the picture in the last post, showing it's interesting bokeh.  We will explore more next time.

Blog Note

My apologies for the lack of posts lately.  It's not that I don't have anything to write.  In fact, I have written many articles but never published them.  I just find that my interest in the blog is weaning off.  Originally, I planned to do the blog for a year, or two years max, but did way more than that and it surprised me.  True, many of the posts have little or no substance but it was fun for me to write, and the blog kind of drove me to take more pictures and an excuse to acquire more gear :)

Another factor of the slowing down of my blog is the Flickr stream that I now maintain more actively.  It has taken up a lot of my time.  I often find that after processing my pictures, usually in the evening after work, and upload them to Flickr, I no longer feel like doing any more photography related activities for the rest of the evening.

Finally, the lathe project has taken up additional time, but I am very glad I got it.  So far, it has been extremely enjoyable and incredibly satisfying and rewarding.  What used to take me days to do with filter rings and other materials to make a lens work, I can now do it in a few hours, with more precision and better looking. I have learn so much, in a very short time, about lathes in general.  It's so true that reading about sometime and doing it are not the same.  Some things one must do it to learn, to acquire the skills, and to appreciate.  I have already found too many short comings of my micro lathe and started looking at larger lathes that allow me to cut threads, work on larger objects (not just for lenses), and be more efficient.

I do plan to update this blog more frequently, and probably more emphasis will be placed on lens conversion and using those lenses.  Also in the pipeline is doing some video of the lens conversions, but that will take even more time.  We will see what 2017 brings.

Berrilicious -- Minolta Chiyoko 4.5cm f3.5 from Minolta "A" Rangefinder & Sony A7

Rangefinder Lens Conversion - Some Experiments

So far I have done a few rangefinder lens conversions.  Some failures, some success.  On the whole, the later ones tend to be a bit better than early ones, so there is a slight improvement, which is encouraging.

From the very beginning, when I started doing rangefinder lens conversions, I like to preserve as much original parts of the lens as I could, especially the focus mechanism, but some lenses, because of the way they were designed, create a obstacles, and external focus helicoid must be used.  I like these lenses to have its original focus ring because they look aesthetically pleasing.  One of the issues with these lenses is their very long minimum focus distance, often at 0.8 to 1 meter, which makes close up pictures impossible.

The lens has been converted with an M42 mount.  When mated to the adapter on the left, infinity can be attained.  When mated to the adapter on the right, close focus is possible but no infinity focus.

As you can see, the two adapters have different thicknesses.  On the left, is about 3 mm thick for close focus, on the right is about 1 mm thick, for infinity focus.

Lens with normal adapter which will focus to infinity with minimum focus distance of about 1 meter.

In the past, the only way to get close up shots for non-lens-interchangeable rangefinders is to use close-up lenses.  This, however, changes the optical characteristics of the lens.  Since I am removing the lens from the camera, essentially making it an interchangeable lens, other close-up methods can be used, in this case, extension tubes.  So I have been experimenting with the idea of adding extension tubes.  Most commercial extension tubes have a minimum of 10mm, which is too thick for my taste.  I like to have some background characters in my pictures to show off the bokeh of the lens, so I don't really do super close-up, which usually renders the background to complete blur without any character.  This means I have to make my own extension tubes.

Sample close-up picture at about 0.5 meter.

For my latest conversion, a 4.5cm f2.8 lens from the Yashica J rangefinder, the lens has an M42 mount at the rear, which will screw onto a thin M42 to E-Mount adapter and will achieve infinity focus, but will have a long minimum focus distance of about a meter.  In order to get closer focus, I initially created a 5 mm extension tube, but found it to be too close so I created an adapter from an E-Mount reversing ring and an M42 ring, with a thickness of about 3 mm, which I find is a good balance between close focus and leaving enough background details.  This two adapter method is not as elegant or as practical as being able to focus from close up to infinity in a single lens, but I think it's a compromise I can live with.

I think this will be the direction I would like to take for new lens conversions.  We will see how it goes.

Empire Sandy - Yashinon 4.5cm f2.8 @f11 & Sony 7.

Nikon Is Anti-Legacy Lens

If you have a Nikon film camera with manual focus lenses, and you have just upgraded to one of Nikon's entry level DSLRs, you may find that the lenses you have do not work well with your new DSLR.  It simply won't meter and you can not set the focal length of the lens.  But, if you own a pro or semi-pro Nikon body, this is not a problem at all.  You can use any manual focus lenses, as long as you can mount it, and it will meter and stop-down if you set the lens data in the camera.

The inability to use legacy lenses on some of Nikon's DSLRs baffles me.  None of other camera makers does this.  On any Canon, Sony, Olympus, etc., one can use Aperture priority or manual mode and the camera will give you the correct exposure.  The mirrorless camera does  this better than the Canon as the meter always seems to overexpose as you stop down, but at least it's not crippled and you just need to dial in the proper compensation.

I was recently given a Nikon 1 V1 with a 1 inch sensor, in exchange for some work I did.  I thought I could finally use some of my c-mount lenses that have small image circle and are not fully usable on the M4/3 or APS-C cameras.  Upon some research, I found that the V1 (and probably all the Nikon 1 cameras) would only work in manual mode without any metering for manual focus lenses.  Every time I take a picture, I will have to set/check exposure. WTF?  And this camera has no live histogram!

On the other hand, the D810 works well with legacy lenses.  Why Nikon cripples basic features on some of their cameras that are available in all other brands' cameras is a mystery to me.

Pop Crew - Emil Busch Glaukar-Anastigmat 13.5cm f4.5 & Nikon D810

The New Canon EOS-M5

The original Canon EOS-M, introduced 4 years ago, was sort of a laughing stock among mirrorless cameras, especially when it comes to auto focus speed.  If you haven't watched the "Mirrorless Party" video, or its sequel, done by The Camera Store, you will get a good chuckle out of it.  You may not know it, but this is the 5th iteration of the M line.  We had the original M, M2, M3, M10, and now M5.  Why the fourth model was M10, only the genius of Canon marketing knows, but the M5 is back in the proper place, as far as model number goes.

I had zero interest in the previous M cameras, simply because none of them had built-in view finder, electronic or optical, and the feature set was pretty spartan with a lackluster sensor to boot.  I care not much the lenses, as I would be using manual focus lenses most of the time anyway, but it is always nice to have the option of auto focus lenses, especially primes.  The M line has no fast primes, except the 22mm f2, which I heard is actually quite a nice lens and is affordable.  Canon has many low cost and excellent primes for the EF line, and those can be used with an adapter that supports full AF operations, but then again, mounting those on the M with an adapter would make it look bulky.

One of the aspects of this camera that slightly interests me, is the improved sensor.  The dual pixel AF should speed up the focus speed  considerably compared to previous M bodies, but I would not expect it to be even comparable to the newest mirrorless cameras from Fuji, Olympus, Panasonic, or Sony.  If the sensor in the 5D Mark IV is any indication, the one used on the M5 should have similar performances in terms of noise and dynamic range, which is definitely a step up from previous Canon sensors.

The downside?  It's not full frame.  I am not a full frame snob.  I still have the APS-C NEX-6, two M4/3 cameras, and now a Nikon 1 V1 with a one-inch sensor, but I have gotten so used to the look of full frame sensor that I use it most of the time.  I wish Canon would produce a full frame Mirrorless using current sensor technology.

So yeah, I won't be getting the M5, but it's getting interesting.  The build is definitely more robust than previous Ms and hopefully, this one will become the entry level model, and a more upscale, full frame M1 [note the missing 1 in the M line, reserved for the top of the line model :)] is in the works.

Blossom - Canon 35mm f3.5 from Prima Point & Shoot & Sony A7.

A Single Leaf

I was held captive for 10 minutes this morning by a single leaf that fell on the ground.  The yellow leaf, detached from the tree, seemingly smiling under the golden morning sun ray, hit me with such force that I had to stop, put away my bike, looked at it for a moment and then took out my camera.  I never question the power of nature to affect the emotion of human beings with its beauty.  In this case, one lone leaf left me awestruck.  Spent the next 10 minutes photographing this leaf in various positions.  Below is one of the frames.

One Lone Leaf - Meyer-Optik Trioplan 50mm f2.9 & Sony A7

Minolta Rokkor-QF 40mm f1.8 Conversion Part Deux

I first converted this lens with filter ring and glue, as I wrote in this post with more pictures here.  It was a relatively easy conversion so I decided to redo it with the lathe, to hopefully make it look and work better.

Most of the conversion work was already done so this second conversion was pretty quick. I just needed to machine the spacer with the required thickness for infinity focus, drill and tap holes on the lens board and the newly machined spacer to attach them together, and then do the same for the E-Mount adapter, which was original a Rollei to E-Mount adapter with a missing lens release pin, and I decided to to use it as the mount.

The part at the right is the spacer I machined.  The left part goes inside the spacer.

I am quite happy with this particular conversion.  The lens fit together very well with no play and wiggles, except at the mount if you really twist it hard.  I did messed up the spacing of the mount and it's not perfectly centered, and this has the effect of off-setting the aperture index mark slightly.  Not a big deal but I could have done much better.  When I get more adapters, I will redo it, or, my next exercise, make my own E-Mount!  Another small problem is the focusing is not as smooth as I would like, probably because the focus guide hole is a bit tight.  Hopefully I can tweak it and make it feel a bit smoother.

Home made drill bit sleeve for the collet.

For this project, I used the milling attachment that came as part of my lathe.  It was used to mill the path for the focus guide to go through, and also used to hold the parts for drilling, as I don't have a drill press.  There is also a set of collets that came with my lathe but none fit the tiny drill bits, so I made a sleeve from the shaft of a Dremel bit.  A hole was drilled with the same drill bit that this sleeve will hold.  Once the hole was drilled, I cut a slit on one side of the shaft, thinking that should be good enough and it should give and clam on the drill bit when put on the collet.  But because it was made of hard steel, the sleeve didn't clam on the drill bit at all, so I had to cut more slits on the other side and is now working like a charm.

All done.  Looks pretty good, eh?  You can see the aperture index mark is off to one side.

This has been a good exercise for me.  This gives me more confidence that I could do more complex conversions later on.  Below are pictures I took after the new conversion, with the Sony A7.