Hi there

Ive just bought a Sony SAL1650 lens along with a LA-EA1 adapter.

When I open up the iris, the lens briefly opens right up (gets really bright) for a brief flash at each turn before adjusting to the new iris setting. Is this normal?

It works fine, adjusts fine, I think I'm just used to 'smooth' internal adjustments. Wanted to check everythings in order

Cheers

Jamie

That's normal. For some reason the Sony adapters have to open the aperture all the way, then stop down to the appropriate setting. Its annoying to get the click and white flash - so you can't open up when recording unless absolutely necessary. I have a Singh-Ray vari ND to make small exposure adjustments while rolling without the need to adjust the aperture. I'm frequently out in the sun, and when clouds roll by things can get wonky really quick.

Now that we're on the subject of the LA-EA1, what is the main difference between the LA-EA1 and LA-EA2? It probably has something to do with the 'Translucent Mirror Technology', but I don't know what it means. :)

The EA2 has a transparent mirror which helps autofocus work a lot faster. It does however mean a little light loss compared to the EA1.

I have an EA2 and I use it with a SONY16-50 and Minolta 28-75 and 70-210. The iris changes in discreet jumps which is noticeable in the footage but not as bad as the EA1 jumping open each time.

The autofocus on the EA2 works well but locks the iris to 3.5 so you would have to change exposure with gain and/ or variable nd's.

On the FS100 you can also use the push to autofocus button on the camera to temporarily enter autofocus but it puts the entire camera into auto. Iris, gain, white balance and shutter speed all go auto while it's active.

If you can do without the iris value on your display and any option of the auto functions (although not perfect) just get a dumb adaptor from ebay with the iris ring on the adaptor. Works pretty well.

M.

Thanks for the explanation Michael.
Too bad the autofocus is locking the iris to 3.5. Makes it difficult to use it on a Steadicam.

I now have a Novoflex adapter to use my Nikon lenses on the FS100, but I would rather have a good ultra wide lens with autofocus and iris for Steadicam use. Not sure the LE-EA2 (or 1) would be good for this purpose. Espcialy because the locked iris with autofocus. Good to know!

Thanks Chris.

The reason I found a LA-EA1 (at $155AU) over the EA2 was after buying the SAL1650 and a Var_ND, there was too much of a jump to the EA2 adapter in price for my budget right now, and I couldnt find enough info to convince me the extra cost would be worth it.

I have a Lightcraft Fader ND that I will use for small aperture changes

Cheers

Jamie

Thanks for the explanation Michael.
Too bad the autofocus is locking the iris to 3.5. Makes it difficult to use it on a Steadicam.

I now have a Novoflex adapter to use my Nikon lenses on the FS100, but I would rather have a good ultra wide lens with autofocus and iris for Steadicam use. Not sure the LE-EA2 (or 1) would be good for this purpose. Espcialy because the locked iris with autofocus. Good to know!

Hi Derran!

I don't own the EA2, but from what I understand it doesn't "lock" the lens at F3.5 for autofocus to work; you can set the lens at any F-stop higher or equal to F3.5 - so with say F8-10 (which is best on a stabilizer) you are good to go!

Piotr

PS. Anyone please correct me if I'm wrong :)

Just to clarify what I've already said, you have no choice. If you enable autofocus the lens goes to 3.5 and will not move.

I stand corrected then - thought it's only limited from one end; bummer :(

Yeah, I checked again with mine and it's a bit of a pain. The push button is fine if you want to let the lens find focus quickly but while it does that the shot will almost be certainly useless as all the settings go auto for a while.

I suppose Sony doesn't want to make it too good otherwise people like me won't spend money on new emount lens when they appear. :)

I stand corrected then - thought it's only limited from one end; bummer :(

Yes this is a real bummer!
I was hoping to get a LA-EA2 with Tokina 11-16mm for Steadicam work, but now it doesn't sound like a good option anymore.

Hopefully with the release of the FS700 and other NEX cameras, lens manufacturers are busy making a few more E-mount lenses. In particular Ultra Wide Lenses. Now we only have two options. The very expensive Zunow lens (around $4000) and the very cheap 16mm pancake lens with ultra wide converter, where you can't use a ND filter on. So unless I'm missing something, there aren't a lot of options!

Yes this is a real bummer!
I was hoping to get a LA-EA2 with Tokina 11-16mm for Steadicam work, but now it doesn't sound like a good option anymore.


Why not? Do you need AF on a steadicam? I never use AF and I'm by no means any sort of an expert. At moderate apertures - like f5.6-8 there's a nice balance between the size of the focal plane and the OOF background. Besides won't the AF relentlessly hunt with constant motion?

There are other options for UWA's with the Metabones adapter and Canon lenses. The Metabones is about $100 more than the LAEA2 and it opens up a lot of glass and IS.

It's not so much the AF, but more the auto iris. It's really difficult to change iris when your camera is on a stabilizer and when you're walking around, lighting conditions change all the time. Auto iris is not ideal but does help a lot. So, the Metabones adapter you're talking about might be interesting.

why not just use a Zeiss 24mm 1.8 on a steadicam?
I don't have the vest and arm for my glidecam HD 2000, so i stick with the 16mm pancake to keep the weight low, and it still do very well

It's not so much the AF, but more the auto iris. It's really difficult to change iris when your camera is on a stabilizer and when you're walking around, lighting conditions change all the time. Auto iris is not ideal but does help a lot. So, the Metabones adapter you're talking about might be interesting.

What about auto ISO?

What about auto ISO?

Hush :) Most of us FS100 users use it in auto mode sometimes, but few are ready to admit :)

Hush :) Most of us FS100 users use it in auto mode sometimes, but few are ready to admit :)

Haha, I'm ready to admit I've tried it when using the Tokina lens and Novoflex adapter on the Steadicam, but somehow it doesn't feel right. :)

Well, I guess that while making their decision on ND filtering NOT to be built-in the FS100 camera, Sony's engineers assumed two things:

- many of FS100 users would be coming from the DSLR market
- most of non-NEX lenses to be used with the FS100 would be photo lenses

Now - in still photography, ISO (gain) just like shutter speed are as good exposure-controlling tools as the aperture and external ND filters are. It's only video which - especially when made with the elusive "cinematic look" in mind - requires constant (manually set) shutter speed, and (to a lesser degree) ISO/gain. The reason being obvious: when making 24-60 frames per seconds, and for a huge number of seconds in a row, we should make the "look" of all those consecutive frames as consistent as only possible, as well as the cadence (or movement sensation) pretty constant.

But, let's face it: with the FS100 camera which is virtually noise-free even at high gain/ISO settings, fixed gain within a take is not such an important factor any more. And as for the shutter speed, well...this is even more embarrassing to admit than auto-ISO, but many of us do compensate for the lack of internal ND-filtering with the shutter speed varying considerably from scene to scene, or even used in auto mode :)

And I must tell you that - as much a pixel-peeping measurebator as I am - I found I can get away with it more often than not... Of course, in a fully controlled environment I will always go with the 180 deg shutter as per the book, using the arsenal of my matte box/screwed-on fixed or variable types of ND filters. Similarly, I'll use lighting to avoid using gain at all...

But in run&gun, or stabilizer, kind of shooting? Yes - I do admit: it often happens that I'm using the ISO and/or shutter speed in auto mode! So far, none of my clients ever noticed :)

PS. I'd add that even in some controlled circumstances, e.g. when I'm after those "beauty shots" with shallow DOF, I'd open up and fix the aperture rather than anything else!

The ISO levels on the FS are so clean throughout most of the range, I don't have any problem using auto ISO and a vari-ND filter to control exposure as much as aperture. Unless going for a specific look I usually don't mess with the shutter speed. I shoot 30 & 60p because I haven't been able to get 24p looking smooth enough on the FS, it also helps to lower the exposure a bit when shooting at large apertures since the base ISO is so stinkin' high on the FS.