I have spent the weekend researching the excellent advice given on the other thread but now I am confused. I am thinking of buying a mirror less lens camera but I would like a viewfinder and screen. I would also like to be able to use my lenses that are EF S mount that I use on my Canon 600D currently but I am confused about lens adapters. I was thinking that the Sony a6000 looked ideal but then it looks like I would have to spend about £350 on a suitable lens adapter. Is this right? Is there a cheaper way of getting what I want with the possibility of using my current lenses? I hope I have explained myself clearly. I currently have a Canon kit lens 18 - 55mm, a Tamron 70 - 300mm and a Sigma prime 105mm.
hi Jan... a lot of the mirror-less systems have electronic viewfinders that you can buy as an extra... my sony nex7 came with one - one of the reasons i went with this compact system over other options...
i've never really investigated the adapters... one thing to bear in mind is that once you start adding big heavy lenses, it starts to take away from the portability of the system...
@northy Thank you! I did wonder about that. The reason I am buying a smaller camera is to keep it portable and have it on me 24/7 and I guess if I wanted to play with the lenses I would just use with Canon body. I think I am trying to cover all the options before I decide. Really appreciate your support.
Hi Jan, I'll answer your question in your other thread here, as it seems to be about the same :)
You can adapt most SLR lenses to most mirrorless cameras, which includes Canon lenses to Sony cameras. However, while this is certainly fun to play around with, and can be useful in some situations (for example, getting a wider lens selection on the full-frame Sony A7), I'd recommend using lenses designed for the camera if it's a lens that you're going to use a lot.
Adapted lenses will focus a lot more slowly than a lens designed for the system, and can have other issues such as a loss of sharpness, or increased chromatic aberrations, particularly in the corners of the frame. Also, SLR lenses are typically bigger and heavier than mirrorless counterparts, especially at the wide angle end, because they require a more complex design.
If you want a smaller system that can share your Canon lenses, the best choice is the Canon 100D (known as the SL1 in the US), which retains full compatibility with your Canon lenses. The downside is that it's not that much smaller than your 600D:
You might need to think about what you really want and need from a more portable system. If it's for occasional use when the Canon is too big and bulky, do you really need all the same lenses, or can you make do with a kit lens on the smaller camera? Remember that if you have a few lenses, the camera actually adds very little to the weight or size of the gear you have -- the Sony NEX range is tiny, but if you're carrying around a Sony NEX, a Canon adapter, and 3 Canon lenses, have you really actually saved anything meaningful in size and weight? If you want a camera that does everything and takes up very little space, you may instead have to consider a small-sensor superzoom, and live with the loss of image quality compared to your Canon.
With regards to adapters, at the most basic level an adapter is just a spacer, so you can physically fit and use Canon lenses on a Sony NEX with something like this adapter, which costs less than £10.
However, that has no electronic linkage, so you have no control over the aperture (you can only shoot wide-open, or with a different fixed aperture with a bit of difficulty), you have to manually focus (reasonably easy on the NEX with the focus peaking enabled), and you don't have power to any IS system the lens may have. Such adapters also can sometimes not be perfectly parallel (so the lens sits at a microscopic skew compared to the sensor), which will result in sharpness issues when pixel-peeping.
For a high-quality adapter that has good autofocus performance, aperture control, passes power to the IS systems, and is manufactured to within a high tolerance, you are looking at something like the Metabones adapter, which is around £320.
deep breath... GO with it! seriously... i still love my canon, and i still use it a lot... but when i'm going walkabout now, i take the sony, and that's it... it wasn't easy... i had a huge sense of "omg - i am going to end up missing THE shot"... but really - if i did, it was because i was messing with settings - not because i had the wrong lens, or didn't have a tripod...
the key thing is to learn the camera... how high can you go with iso? the nex7 has 24 megapixels - i've had some pretty good results at higher iso, and some of those shots would not have worked with a tripod because the subject was moving...
also, figure out what works best for an anywhere tripod (the canon sits level anywhere, the sony not so much, but a bit of folded up paper helps steady it), how to shoot using the timer - and there you go - no need for tripod or remote...
at the end of the day, you're travelling to have fun, right? unless you're travelling specifically for photography, i am willing to bet you can make do just as well with a compact system...
@abirkill@northy Thank you both. You talk a lot of sense. I will stick with a mirror less and not worry about mixing lenses. Did you get chance to look at the Iink in the other thread Alexis. Is that the right lense? I will order it tomorrow if that is right. Thank you again.
@macromover Sorry, I missed that link. Yes, that comes with the power zoom kit lens, the same as I have on the A5000.
Just to make sure you're aware, that company appears to be based in Hong Kong, so I don't believe Sony will honour the warranty in the UK, as it will be a grey import. They appear to offer their own warranty, but that is of course dependant on them still being around in six months time.
Obviously you need to make the choice you are happy with, but that company doesn't seem to have many reviews and doesn't have what looks like a very professional website. If I was buying a grey import, I'd buy it from somewhere like DigitalRev, which have been around for ages and are known to have good customer service:
@abirkill Thanks again Alexis. I did wonder about the website and hoped you would comment. They do have a UK branch for distribution but I will go with the website you suggest. Just been reading your profile and I am honoured to have your time and advice. Thanks again and hopefully that is me sorted.
Love, love my Sony alpha 6000. I got an adapter for my nikon lenses but then it makes the camera heavy and defeats some of the reason I bought that camera. I have since invested in some dedicated lenses for that camera. I am not an expert but did a lot of research before purchasing a mirrorless camera. Love the lightness and the fact that it has a viewfinder that automatically comes on when I put it to my eye. Otherwise I use the back.
I never have owned a dslr, but have recently upgraded to a csc from my compact. No advice as you seem to be covered other than to say I hope you enjoy it, I have found my csc a pleasure to use and don't feel I am missing not being a dslr user.
Just to echo what some others have said: I bought a mirrorless camera for those times I didn't want the weight of my DSLR, and I specifically bought one which I could use with my lenses, so bought an expensive adaptor. I almost never use it and wish I'd saved the money. As others have said, when you want to go lightweight you don't want to add to the camera weight with adaptor and heavy lenses. And the focusing is slow and not very accurate either. Having said that, I'm glad I've got the smaller camera and use it quite a lot as a second camera. The electronic viewfinder is definitely worth getting in my opinion, but as a camera it's much more limited than my DSLR, which I always choose if I go out to take photos, as opposed to having a camera in my bag in case I see anything I want to take shots of while aim out and about.
@northy@abirkill@libertylady@newbank@dolphin Really excited, I bought the Sony Alpha a6000 today. I was tempted to buy and extra Sony lens as part of a discount buy but I resisted. I will get the camera and zoom lens that comes with it and then have a play before buying any thing else. I would be interested in what other equipment, lenses people have if they own a Sony mirror less. Thank you again for all your support. I know I will probably use my "second" camera just as Molly had said and I want to say an extra big thank you to Alexis for so much great advice. Can't wait to play now!
congrats! you will grow to love it :) i take it that the a6000 is sort of the next generation from the nex series?
anyway, in addition to the kit lens i have a tamron 17-200 as well as the sony zeiss 16-70... the 17-200 is a tiny bit on the heavy side, but the flexibility in terms of reach is awesome... the one down side is that it is not a fast lens... at 200mm it's a minimum (maximum?) of f/6.3...
the zeiss is f/4 throughout and is suh-weeet :) i took it with me to Europe and it served me very well...
i own a circular polarizer for the zeiss but i am not in love with it... way more vignetting at the wide end than i think there should be...
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i've never really investigated the adapters... one thing to bear in mind is that once you start adding big heavy lenses, it starts to take away from the portability of the system...
You can adapt most SLR lenses to most mirrorless cameras, which includes Canon lenses to Sony cameras. However, while this is certainly fun to play around with, and can be useful in some situations (for example, getting a wider lens selection on the full-frame Sony A7), I'd recommend using lenses designed for the camera if it's a lens that you're going to use a lot.
Adapted lenses will focus a lot more slowly than a lens designed for the system, and can have other issues such as a loss of sharpness, or increased chromatic aberrations, particularly in the corners of the frame. Also, SLR lenses are typically bigger and heavier than mirrorless counterparts, especially at the wide angle end, because they require a more complex design.
If you want a smaller system that can share your Canon lenses, the best choice is the Canon 100D (known as the SL1 in the US), which retains full compatibility with your Canon lenses. The downside is that it's not that much smaller than your 600D:
You might need to think about what you really want and need from a more portable system. If it's for occasional use when the Canon is too big and bulky, do you really need all the same lenses, or can you make do with a kit lens on the smaller camera? Remember that if you have a few lenses, the camera actually adds very little to the weight or size of the gear you have -- the Sony NEX range is tiny, but if you're carrying around a Sony NEX, a Canon adapter, and 3 Canon lenses, have you really actually saved anything meaningful in size and weight? If you want a camera that does everything and takes up very little space, you may instead have to consider a small-sensor superzoom, and live with the loss of image quality compared to your Canon.
With regards to adapters, at the most basic level an adapter is just a spacer, so you can physically fit and use Canon lenses on a Sony NEX with something like this adapter, which costs less than £10.
However, that has no electronic linkage, so you have no control over the aperture (you can only shoot wide-open, or with a different fixed aperture with a bit of difficulty), you have to manually focus (reasonably easy on the NEX with the focus peaking enabled), and you don't have power to any IS system the lens may have. Such adapters also can sometimes not be perfectly parallel (so the lens sits at a microscopic skew compared to the sensor), which will result in sharpness issues when pixel-peeping.
For a high-quality adapter that has good autofocus performance, aperture control, passes power to the IS systems, and is manufactured to within a high tolerance, you are looking at something like the Metabones adapter, which is around £320.
the key thing is to learn the camera... how high can you go with iso? the nex7 has 24 megapixels - i've had some pretty good results at higher iso, and some of those shots would not have worked with a tripod because the subject was moving...
also, figure out what works best for an anywhere tripod (the canon sits level anywhere, the sony not so much, but a bit of folded up paper helps steady it), how to shoot using the timer - and there you go - no need for tripod or remote...
at the end of the day, you're travelling to have fun, right? unless you're travelling specifically for photography, i am willing to bet you can make do just as well with a compact system...
Just to make sure you're aware, that company appears to be based in Hong Kong, so I don't believe Sony will honour the warranty in the UK, as it will be a grey import. They appear to offer their own warranty, but that is of course dependant on them still being around in six months time.
Obviously you need to make the choice you are happy with, but that company doesn't seem to have many reviews and doesn't have what looks like a very professional website. If I was buying a grey import, I'd buy it from somewhere like DigitalRev, which have been around for ages and are known to have good customer service:
Expeditelectronics reviews: https://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/expeditelectronics.com
DigitalRev reviews: https://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/www.digitalrev.com
It's also (very very slightly) cheaper from DigitalRev:
http://www.digitalrev.com/product/sony-alpha-a6000-with-selp1650/MTEwMzI1OQ_A_A
(Also the correct lens, for the record)
anyway, in addition to the kit lens i have a tamron 17-200 as well as the sony zeiss 16-70... the 17-200 is a tiny bit on the heavy side, but the flexibility in terms of reach is awesome... the one down side is that it is not a fast lens... at 200mm it's a minimum (maximum?) of f/6.3...
the zeiss is f/4 throughout and is suh-weeet :) i took it with me to Europe and it served me very well...
i own a circular polarizer for the zeiss but i am not in love with it... way more vignetting at the wide end than i think there should be...