long lens for Nex 7

flyingsurfer — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 15:18:43 GMT

I have a nex 7 and the largest lens I have is the E55-210 and feel that it is sometimes too short, so the question is.

Can I put an Alpha 400mm lens on that camera or should i be looking at replacing it with a a7. Ideally I wanted to keep the nex as I like using the small camera and the quality of the pictures are good.

Re: long lens for Nex 7

Portmixus — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 19:30:39 GMT

Hi flyingsurfer!

That's an good question

Very short answer: You can use an Alpha lens on your camera with an adapter.

Detailed answer:

Be aware that all lenses are now called Alpha lenses. Alpha lenses are divided into 2 groups. A-mount lenses (what you call Alpha) and E-mount lenses (NEX lenses...but the name NEX has been replaced by Alpha...you see the confusion? )

An E-mount lens fits your camera directly, an A-mount lens can be fully used if you buy a Sony LA-EA adapter. It gives the lens all the necessary electric coupling and mechanical coupling for the aperture. These days, you have 2 types of LA-EA adapters. LA-EA3 and LA-EA4. The LA-EA3 does not allow autofocus (AF) on all lenses, but it does on SAM and SSM lenses. Even if you buy an SSM lens and use it on the LA-EA3, AF is soooooooooo sloooooooooooooooow that you can forget about it. If you want fast AF, you need the more expensive LA-EA4 adapter which features an SLT mirror as used in all modern A-mount cameras.

To make things even more complicated, there is an important difference between the NEX7 and the newer A7. An A7-camera has a "Full-Frame" sensor, meaning that the area of the sensor is more than twice as large as opposed to the NEX7. This has an important implication: you (most likely) have "APS-C" lenses for your NEX7, meaning that the lens is smaller to let light pass through the lens and just enough to lighten up the APS-C sized sensor of your NEX7. If you buy an A7, the lenses you have will work in crop mode, meaning that only half of the area of the Full-Frame sensor of the A7 will be used, thereby throwing away more than half of the pixels.

To make a long story short: if you plan to move to an A7, keep in mind that you'l have to buy new lenses to make the most out of the Full-Frame sensor. If you already have one or more "FE" lenses (the inscription is on the lens), you already have Full-Frame compatible lenses.

If you want to buy a good telelens, the Sony 70-400mm G2 SSM is the lens to go probably. It's an A-mount lens so to use it with AF, you also need an LA-EA4 adapter. You have no stabilisation on this lens nor in your body. If you want stabilisation, you'll have to buy an A-mount camera (they all have sensorstabilisation) or the only E-mount camera sofar with sensorstabilisation is the Sony A7II.

Hope that was clear for you!

Cheers

Re: long lens for Nex 7

caisterken — Tue, 02 Feb 2016 12:00:52 GMT

Can't answer for the NEX7 but I have the A6000 with the same lens mount & have just purchased the 55-300 SAM lens together with an LA EA4 adapter. First impressions are very good but not yet fully tested.

When will SONY respond to this widely held need?

topic long lens for Nex 7 in Alpha & NEX interchangeable lens cameras

long lens for Nex 7

Re: long lens for Nex 7

Re: long lens for Nex 7