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Lens adaptor for canon lenses in 2018. Sony A7III

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George Zip

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I am a canon shooter. I shoot weddings and portraiture mainly.

I have the 5d4 as my main camera and a 7dII as my backup and second camera.

I have been wanting another full frame camera so I can have 24-70 on one arm and 70-200 on the other. The 7d2’s crop factor is killing me and the low light performance is not great.

I would buy a 6dii if it had two card slots but it hasn’t. I don’t want to cough up for another 5d4 and the 5diii seems like a step backwards.

A7III looks awesome and frankly blows away the canon 6dII. Also I have been intrigued with the EVH and being able to see exposure while shooting plus that eye AF looks really cool.

The usual dilemma is glass. I really do want to change as I love my canon glass.

To explain how I shoot for paid work... it’s really simple, I use single shot and do not use tracking. I generally only shoot through the view finder and hardly ever use the dual pixel AF and touch screen. ( I do use tracking and touch focus for personal stuff, but that’s not a consideration as I would only need one camera. )

The lenses I use mainly are 35 1.4L v1, 50 1.2L, 85 1.8, 16-35 2.8 IIL, 24-70 2.8 IIL, 70-200 2.8IIL and the 100mm 2.8 L macro.

Now... before you guys jump on me and tell me to look up the 10 billion posts re: adaptors, I have looked and not seeing anything current in 2018.

So my question is, how are you guys finding the adaptors, what’s the best one at this point in time ( it seems to be the metabones ) and what are the pitfalls or gotyas considering how I shoot.

For me personally for paid work the two things that matter to me is good to excellent focus speed, focus accuracy and IQ.

Your advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.
 
I see that people recommend Sigma MC-11 and Metabones adapters. Commlite adapters might be problematic.

Regards

Z.A.P
 
George Zip said:
I am a canon shooter. I shoot weddings and portraiture mainly.

I have the 5d4 as my main camera and a 7dII as my backup and second camera.

I have been wanting another full frame camera so I can have 24-70 on one arm and 70-200 on the other. The 7d2’s crop factor is killing me and the low light performance is not great.

I would buy a 6dii if it had two card slots but it hasn’t. I don’t want to cough up for another 5d4 and the 5diii seems like a step backwards.

A7III looks awesome and frankly blows away the canon 6dII. Also I have been intrigued with the EVH and being able to see exposure while shooting plus that eye AF looks really cool.

The usual dilemma is glass. I really do want to change as I love my canon glass.

To explain how I shoot for paid work... it’s really simple, I use single shot and do not use tracking. I generally only shoot through the view finder and hardly ever use the dual pixel AF and touch screen. ( I do use tracking and touch focus for personal stuff, but that’s not a consideration as I would only need one camera. )

The lenses I use mainly are 35 1.4L v1, 50 1.2L, 85 1.8, 16-35 2.8 IIL, 24-70 2.8 IIL, 70-200 2.8IIL and the 100mm 2.8 L macro.

Now... before you guys jump on me and tell me to look up the 10 billion posts re: adaptors, I have looked and not seeing anything current in 2018.

So my question is, how are you guys finding the adaptors, what’s the best one at this point in time ( it seems to be the metabones ) and what are the pitfalls or gotyas considering how I shoot.

For me personally for paid work the two things that matter to me is good to excellent focus speed, focus accuracy and IQ.

Your advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
I will likely be buying the A7 iii in the very near future. It's not yet announced in our country, and usually the price is U$200-300 above SRP when newly announced. So, I am talking months ahead.

I do have some canon lenses - 50 stm, 85 f1.8 usm, 70-200 f2.8L IS, tamron 17-50 f2.8-4 di, 18-135 stm, 10-22. All work well with the a6300 and a5100. It should work just fine with the faster and better AF of the a7 iii.

I would say, stick with the MB or MC-11 as they have more compatibility and less issues vs other adapters. The MB though is a bit expensive. IF you can, why not bring your lenses in the store and test the adapters.

What you will find is that the AF is pretty good. It's not native lens fast, but very good and good enough in many situations. It should give you time to consider the Sony without committing fully except for the body.
 
the a7iii isn't out yet, so comments wrt it's performance with adapters would be based on speculation.

the best solution is to rent the camera and adapters when it becomes available, and judge everything for yourself.
 
Yes, I certainly agree with dan, the best way is to test your lenses on a camera/Adapter combo.

It is 'probably' safe to say that performance will be similar to the A7RIII on adapted lenses.

Here is an interesting video with one Canon/Sony shooter on the A7RIII. I don't think that I would base a $2000+ plus expense on this... but it is encouraging that you will probably have acceptable results.

David
 
Thanks. Renting in Australia is not quite as simple as renting in the US.

i understand that the best thing would be to test... I guess I should have asked how are people finding it with current cameras.

Thnks for the link :)
 
At one time, I adapted a lot of Canon glass on my A7RII's using the MC-11 and MBIV adapters (early adopters, such as myself, didn't have a lot of Sony lenses to select from). After finally selling my 5DSR bodies, I have converted most all of my Canon lenses to native Sony FE mount. My holdout is the wonderful Canon 35mm f1.4 II. You can look at my equipment list to see what I now shoot.

I assume that the A7III will perform with adapted glass as well as my A7RII's did, and my A7RIII's currently do; however, you might need to wait for Metabones and Sigma to release firmware updates to accommodate the camera. On the other hand, it might work well without any updates. There is no way of knowing, for certain, right now. When I acquired my A9, some adapted lenses did not work well until new firmware was released.

There is a reason I moved to native mount lenses. While AF-S with Canon lenses can work extremely well, AF-C lags behind in focus performance. With some lenses is does not even work. Some lenses, like the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 II work well on central focus point, while not so well on outlying points... particularly at the long end. With some lenses, low-light focus can be less than desirable. For shorter focal lengths, the MC-11 can work best (although, no Eye Focus) and for longer FL's, the MBIV can work best. In any case you will need the MBIV to retain Eye Focus. Firmware updates can, and do, change the whole adaptation landscape.

I now shoot A7RIII's/A9, where adapted glass works better than with the A7RII, so I would expect the A7III to perform similarly. Eye Focus even works with the MBIV adapter. Again, AF-C performance lags.

IMHO, you should only move to the A7III if you plan to convert your Canon glass to native Sony mount lenses, within a year, or so. Otherwise, you might just find good used 5D3 for a reasonable price, as your backup camera. :) If you shoot moving subjects, or in really low light, this might be a necessity.

--
Jeff
Florida, USA
http://www.gr8photography.com
 
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Jeff2013 said:
At one time, I adapted a lot of Canon glass on my A7RII's using the MC-11 and MBIV adapters (early adopters, such as myself, didn't have a lot of Sony lenses to select from). After finally selling my 5DSR bodies, I have converted most all of my Canon lenses to native Sony FE mount. My holdout is the wonderful Canon 35mm f1.4 II. You can look at my equipment list to see what I now shoot.

I assume that the A7III will perform with adapted glass as well as my A7RII's did, and my A7RIII's currently do; however, you might need to wait for Metabones and Sigma to release firmware updates to accommodate the camera. On the other hand, it might work well without any updates. There is no way of knowing, for certain, right now. When I acquired my A9, some adapted lenses did not work well until new firmware was released.

There is a reason I moved to native mount lenses. While AF-S with Canon lenses can work extremely well, AF-C lags behind in focus performance. With some lenses is does not even work. Some lenses, like the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 II work well on central focus point, while not so well on outlying points... particularly at the long end. With some lenses, low-light focus can be less than desirable. For shorter focal lengths, the MC-11 can work best (although, no Eye Focus) and for longer FL's, the MBIV can work best. In any case you will need the MBIV to retain Eye Focus. Firmware updates can, and do, change the whole adaptation landscape.

I now shoot A7RIII's/A9, where adapted glass works better than with the A7RII, so I would expect the A7III to perform similarly. Eye Focus even works with the MBIV adapter. Again, AF-C performance lags.

YIMHO, you should only move to the A7III if you plan to convert your Canon glass to native Sony mount lenses, within a year, or so. Otherwise, you might just find good used 5D3 for a reasonable price, as your backup camera. :) If you shoot moving subjects, or in really low light, this might be a necessity.

--
Jeff
Florida, USA
http://www.gr8photography.com
Click to expand...
Thanks for your outstanding comments. I see too many variables for pro work. It’s not worth the risk.

I might just stick with Canon. Truth be known I can’t imagine a new camera will get me better pictures for how I shoot.

That new Sony looks like it would make life just a little easier. That eye af looks amazing and very desirable for someone like me who shoots pretty much people exclusively. t’s a pity that canon is not as innovative or generous as Sony spec wise in regards to new release camera bodies.

Thanks man
 
The Camera Store just did a review on this today:

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheCameraStoreTV

I'm using the A7R III / Metabones V / 50 L. The 50 L works very well - i use it more than the native sony glass i purchased- and the eye auto focus is a game-changer.
 
BarnabyR said:
The Camera Store just did a review on this today:

https://www.youtube.com/user/TheCameraStoreTV
Click to expand...
thx for posting that... my take on it:

sigma glass on mc-11 rocked, which is a good sign for these upcoming e-mount sigma lenses.

canon glass on mc-11 not so much, canon glass on mb was better.

m4/3 adapters pretty much a total fail.

i'm not sure that the reviewer understood that with the a7 models, you can only get true af-c on the "LO" camera framerate setting... the a9 is the only camera that gives you 10fps with continuous af on adapters.

so if you are sitting on a bunch of canon glass, it's probably worth it to spend more for an a9, depending on what you are doing.

--
dan
 
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Metabones will AF any and everything. Just stick to AF-S or AF-C + single shot. Really no reason to get anything else.
 
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