Sony Alpha 7R review – Lens compatibility
Although the Alpha 7R is compatible with all existing Sony E-mount lenses, these lenses are designed for APS-C-sized sensors and have a smaller imaging circle. As such, the Alpha 7R will automatically crop the image to a lower 16-million-pixel resolution when they are used, in much the same way that APS-C-format DSLR lenses are cropped when used on a full-frame model.
With such a short back-focus distance, theoretically nearly all 35mm SLR lenses can be fitted to and used on the camera via an appropriate mount adapter.
During my test I used a standard third-party E-mount adapter by SRB Griturn (www.srb-griturn.co.uk) to use a manual-focus Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens on the Alpha 7R and found that it worked very well. With focus peaking and manual focus area magnification, it was possible to manually focus this old lens quite quickly.
Another option is to use a Metabones Canon-mount Smart Adapter, which has electronic communication between the camera and lens to allow the Alpha 7R to autofocus with Canon lenses. I tried the adapter with a Canon EF 24mm f/2.8 lens and found that the lens did indeed autofocus, although it was quite slow.
Those with Sony A-mount lenses for Alpha DSLR and SLT cameras can also use these via the LA-EA3 and LA-EA4 adapters. The adapters maintain autofocus with the lenses, and the LA-EA4 also has a built-in phase-detection SLT mirror system so the speed on autofocus is roughly the same as when using a Sony SLT model.
Image: Petit Piton, St Lucia, shot with the Canon EF 24mm f/2.8 lens and a Metabones adapter. The pull-up image shows just how sharp corner definition can be
