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Another reason to stick with Sony lenses with a99ii

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Marco Cinnirella

Marco Cinnirella

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Apart from the fact that hybrid AF will not work with third party or legacy Minolta lenses, I just discovered you also miss out on the full features of the expanded MFA system on the a99ii, such as the ability to have separate settings for the centre and corners. In fact the manual recommends not using MFA at all with third party lenses as these may be mistakenly recognised as Sony lenses and then the MFA data will be mistakenly also applied to the relevant Sony lens if it is attached.

I'm now pondering switching from my Tamron 24-70 to a Sony 24-70, even though I may have to accept weaker corner performance if the reviews are to be believed.
 
Marco Cinnirella said:
Apart from the fact that hybrid AF will not work with third party or legacy Minolta lenses, I just discovered you also miss out on the full features of the expanded MFA system on the a99ii, such as the ability to have separate settings for the centre and corners. In fact the manual recommends not using MFA at all with third party lenses as these may be mistakenly recognised as Sony lenses and then the MFA data will be mistakenly also applied to the relevant Sony lens if it is attached.

I'm now pondering switching from my Tamron 24-70 to a Sony 24-70, even though I may have to accept weaker corner performance if the reviews are to be believed.
Click to expand...
 
Dan Vincent said:
Marco Cinnirella said:
Apart from the fact that hybrid AF will not work with third party or legacy Minolta lenses, I just discovered you also miss out on the full features of the expanded MFA system on the a99ii, such as the ability to have separate settings for the centre and corners. In fact the manual recommends not using MFA at all with third party lenses as these may be mistakenly recognised as Sony lenses and then the MFA data will be mistakenly also applied to the relevant Sony lens if it is attached.

I'm now pondering switching from my Tamron 24-70 to a Sony 24-70, even though I may have to accept weaker corner performance if the reviews are to be believed.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Seems to me that there are more limitations then benefits, specially if one has a large selection of 3rd party lenses....
 
Marco Cinnirella said:
Dan Vincent said:
Marco Cinnirella said:
Apart from the fact that hybrid AF will not work with third party or legacy Minolta lenses, I just discovered you also miss out on the full features of the expanded MFA system on the a99ii, such as the ability to have separate settings for the centre and corners. In fact the manual recommends not using MFA at all with third party lenses as these may be mistakenly recognised as Sony lenses and then the MFA data will be mistakenly also applied to the relevant Sony lens if it is attached.

I'm now pondering switching from my Tamron 24-70 to a Sony 24-70, even though I may have to accept weaker corner performance if the reviews are to be believed.
Click to expand...
The expanded MFA is for the hybird PDAF points specifically, so this makes sense. If you can't use Hybrid PDAF on a lens, you can't use those corner corrections. This is true for sony lenses that don't support Hybrid PDAF as well.
Click to expand...
Yes, correct
Click to expand...
So it's not really another reason. The reason is still the same: hybrid AF support.

The warning concerning MFA for dedicated PDAF when applied to third party lenses that share IDs with Sony lenses is not new either. That's been the case all along.
 
Last edited:
sybersitizen said:
Marco Cinnirella said:
Dan Vincent said:
Marco Cinnirella said:
Apart from the fact that hybrid AF will not work with third party or legacy Minolta lenses, I just discovered you also miss out on the full features of the expanded MFA system on the a99ii, such as the ability to have separate settings for the centre and corners. In fact the manual recommends not using MFA at all with third party lenses as these may be mistakenly recognised as Sony lenses and then the MFA data will be mistakenly also applied to the relevant Sony lens if it is attached.

I'm now pondering switching from my Tamron 24-70 to a Sony 24-70, even though I may have to accept weaker corner performance if the reviews are to be believed.
Click to expand...
The expanded MFA is for the hybird PDAF points specifically, so this makes sense. If you can't use Hybrid PDAF on a lens, you can't use those corner corrections. This is true for sony lenses that don't support Hybrid PDAF as well.
Click to expand...
Yes, correct
Click to expand...
So it's not really another reason. The reason is still the same: hybrid AF support.

The warning concerning MFA for dedicated PDAF when applied to third party lenses that share IDs with Sony lenses is not new either. That's been the case all along.
Click to expand...
Semantics - I think it is another reason because I imagine that many folks, like me, were not aware that the MFA options on the a99ii are partly linked to hybrid AF points
 
There are tables that show lens IDs so you can check to see if there's a conflict. If you go 3rd party one advantage of going Tamron is that for the later lenses I don't think they have typically haven't reused Sony lens IDs.
 
Karl Scharf said:
Seems to me that there are more limitations then benefits, specially if one has a large selection of 3rd party lenses....
Click to expand...
I'm in the same boat as Karl, having a large collection of Tamrons and Sigmas. I think my 70-300G1 is the only FF lens that can take advantage of OSPDAF so I've pretty much written off using the nice wide focus area except in limited circumstances.

Also continuous Eye AF is great! But will work for me only in the small dedicated PDAF focusing region.

The AF Limiter is a nice feature for my wildlife shooting but it doesn't work with my Tamron 150-600mm on the A77ii so probably won't work on the A99ii.

I'll get a 0.7 stop in noise improvement compared to my A850 and 1.2 stops compared to my A77ii . That's a big plus but is it enough?

I haven't written off the A99ii (or a used A99) but I'm not getting a lot for $3200.

--
Lance H
 
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steelhead3 said:
Lance, my T 150/600 on the 77II works fine with the range limiter. Do you have the "C" button mapped to something else?
Click to expand...
Range limiter is mapped to "C" on my A77ii. Works just fine with all my Sony lenses, and even my new Tamron 24-70. When I mount my 150-600, the range limiter is totally ignored by the lens no matter what settings I enter.
 
lehill said:
steelhead3 said:
Lance, my T 150/600 on the 77II works fine with the range limiter. Do you have the "C" button mapped to something else?
Click to expand...
Range limiter is mapped to "C" on my A77ii. Works just fine with all my Sony lenses, and even my new Tamron 24-70. When I mount my 150-600, the range limiter is totally ignored by the lens no matter what settings I enter.
Click to expand...
I'm wondering if that lens is a rare exception. The range limiter works with my Bigma on the A-68. The A-68 thinks the Bigma is the 300mm f2.8 though.

Does the Tamron 150-600mm share an ID with a Sony/Minolta lens?
 
Ed at Ridersite said:
lehill said:
steelhead3 said:
Lance, my T 150/600 on the 77II works fine with the range limiter. Do you have the "C" button mapped to something else?
Click to expand...
Range limiter is mapped to "C" on my A77ii. Works just fine with all my Sony lenses, and even my new Tamron 24-70. When I mount my 150-600, the range limiter is totally ignored by the lens no matter what settings I enter.
Click to expand...
I'm wondering if that lens is a rare exception. The range limiter works with my Bigma on the A-68. The A-68 thinks the Bigma is the 300mm f2.8 though.

Does the Tamron 150-600mm share an ID with a Sony/Minolta lens?
Click to expand...
According to this link, the Tamron SP 150-600mm F5-6.3 Di USD has LensID = 214 which is not shared with any other lens.
 
Same with my Sigma 500 f4.5. You can set with the c button (a77ii) but it does not do anything. Works great with my Sony lens.


flatwater
 
flatwater said:
Same with my Sigma 500 f4.5. You can set with the c button (a77ii) but it does not do anything. Works great with my Sony lens.

flatwater
Click to expand...
The focus range limiter on the A77ii definitely does work with my Sigma 500mm f4.5 EX DG. I just put the lens on the camera to confirm that I wasn't imagining it.
 
steelhead3 said:
Lance, my T 150/600 on the 77II works fine with the range limiter. Do you have the "C" button mapped to something else?
Click to expand...
I no longer have the lens, but my recollection is the same as your observation - it works.
 
This is "Another reason not to buy A99II and leave Sony A mount"

If this A99II AF ability is so good,

I need reasonably price long prime lens, 300 2.8 and 500 f4 as well as 120-300 2.8
 
craig66 said:
flatwater said:
Same with my Sigma 500 f4.5. You can set with the c button (a77ii) but it does not do anything. Works great with my Sony lens.

flatwater
Click to expand...
The focus range limiter on the A77ii definitely does work with my Sigma 500mm f4.5 EX DG. I just put the lens on the camera to confirm that I wasn't imagining it.
Click to expand...
Sorry, my statement was not correct. Mine does work partially, I only get a couple of the many increments I get on my Sony lens. When shooting flying birds I often cannot block out the background due the long distance between increments. Many places that I shoot I can block out the background with my 70-400ssmii but not with the Sigma 500mm.
flatwater
 
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