16 mm Zeiss Hologon on A7s sony

The 16 mm f 8.0 Contax g Zeiss lens is a legendary super wide angle lens and trials to fit and use this lens on the A7, A7r have been unsuccessful where the posterior element is recessed far back and thus interfering with the movement of the mechanical shutter.  I have purchased the contax g lenses to use on my A7s with the autofocus adapter from Techart and it worked fine except for the Hologon 16 mm that would not attach to the adapter due to bulky rear element. I found an alternative manual focus adapter from fotodiox that could fit the lens with a smaller focus ring that does not cover any part of the focusing mechanism of the lens. I decided to try the electronic shutter feature that is unique to the A7s completely disabling the mechanical shutter. It worked fine and now I will work on the vignetting and chromatic aberrations. as the in camera application for lens correction fires the mechanical shutter by default.

So I conclude that unlike all reports on the internet with A7,A7r that the Hologon was not useable, the A7s works fine with the Hologon 16  mm with the electronic shutter

Cool. It  looks impressive on the A7S, too.

Can you post a shot or two taken with it?

I went out side and did some test shots. I will need a lot of work on the chromatic aberrations so these are some B&W samples for now

iso 200 1/60 sec f8 no graduated nd attached vignette corrected

iso 400 1/60 f 16 graduated nd attached vignette correction

iso 125 1/60 f 16 graduated nd filter attached minimum vignette correction

khaledgawdat wrote:

The 16 mm f 8.0 Contax g Zeiss lens is a legendary super wide angle lens and trials to fit and use this lens on the A7, A7r have been unsuccessful where the posterior element is recessed far back and thus interfering with the movement of the mechanical shutter. I have purchased the contax g lenses to use on my A7s with the autofocus adapter from Techart and it worked fine except for the Hologon 16 mm that would not attach to the adapter due to bulky rear element. I found an alternative manual focus adapter from fotodiox that could fit the lens with a smaller focus ring that does not cover any part of the focusing mechanism of the lens. I decided to try the electronic shutter feature that is unique to the A7s completely disabling the mechanical shutter. It worked fine and now I will work on the vignetting and chromatic aberrations. as the in camera application for lens correction fires the mechanical shutter by default.

So I conclude that unlike all reports on the internet with A7,A7r that the Hologon was not useable, the A7s works fine with the Hologon 16 mm with the electronic shutter

You brave soul! I am planning to get this lens as a complement to my ZM 15, small, light and zero distortion at f/8. You're the second one shooting this on the A7s. Can you take a few diagonal infinity shots so I can assess the smearing? Would be much appreciated.

Thanks to your report I bought a Fotodiox adaptor for my Sony A7s and my various Contax G lenses. Unfortunately the Hologon 8 / 16 does not reach infinity. The range the photos are sharp is between 0.2 to 0.7 meters.

Comparing the Fotodiox with the Techart GA3 adaptor the Fotodiox adaptor is 0.3 mm thicker! Unfortunately due to the bulky rear element of the Hologon it is not possible to mount the Techart GA3 so I have no experience with the Hologon and the Techart GA3. According to my measurements, the lens should be approx. 0.5 mm closer to the sensor of the camera the show a sharp picture.

Do you have any solution for the Problem?

guggi wrote:

Thanks to your report I bought a Fotodiox adaptor for my Sony A7s and my various Contax G lenses. Unfortunately the Hologon 8 / 16 does not reach infinity. The range the photos are sharp is between 0.2 to 0.7 meters.

Comparing the Fotodiox with the Techart GA3 adaptor the Fotodiox adaptor is 0.3 mm thicker! Unfortunately due to the bulky rear element of the Hologon it is not possible to mount the Techart GA3 so I have no experience with the Hologon and the Techart GA3. According to my measurements, the lens should be approx. 0.5 mm closer to the sensor of the camera the show a sharp picture.

Do you have any solution for the Problem?

Exchange for a new Fotodiox is the only solution I can think of. If you like the lens enough, you can always send it to DAG (Don Goldberg) to convert it to M-mount. Otherwise, good luck!