Ziess Touit 12mm for NEX

[Otispunkmeyer]

I have in my possession for the next couple of weeks a Ziess Touit 12mm for the NEX system. They also do an X-mount version for fuji replete with an aperture ring as well. Optically they appear to be the same, the SONY version just doesn't have the aperture selection ring.

So... If anyone on here is interested in this lens then let me know and after I have used it a bit (will take it along for some pot shots at a wedding tomorrow and then be using it for some shots in Yosemite, Death Valley, Vegas, Grand Canyon) I'll be more than happy to give you a mini review of it.

If anyone has something specific they'd like me to try test out wit the lens then please let me know and I will see what I can do.

st, spelt Zeiss wrong.... AGAIN! fuggin e before i!

[tr7v8]

I'd be interested in the review. I would also be interested in which NEX you have & what you think of it.

[Otispunkmeyer]

tr7v8 said:

I'd be interested in the review. I would also be interested in which NEX you have & what you think of it.

I have the NEX 6 and I'll be honest. I am not 100 % sold on it. The form factor is of course lovely, its nice and light without feeling like you might break it and while the body is plastic, it feels very solid. No flexure, no creaking, just tight. The grip is pretty decent as well. As someone who found the grip on a Canon 400D a bit limited I have to say I don't have any problems holding on to this thing, but it is of course lighter and with the smaller lenses, less weight hanging off the front, so there is less for the hand and wrist to do.

However, it just falls short of having enough buttons to really operate the thing very quickly. There is a mode dial, and it sits on top of a larger diameter dial which will control aperture in Av, shutter speed in Tv etc. In M, it controls the aperture and the jog dial on the back face controls the shutter. That works as well as you can expect it and I think the twin dials of the NEX-7 are better here. In the other modes that rear jog dial does nothing! unless you first press in the direction that you want. I can see why they did it, because it would be all too easy to rotate accidentally and have wildly different exposure compensations for shots, but it is a bit annoying having to first press down, then use the dial to dial in some exposure comp.

There is a dedicated menu button and the functions around the jog dial are pretty fixed as well, but the rest of the buttons can be programmed to what you want. The Auto Exposure Lock is a little more limited, but you can choose between toggle and lock. One will lock it in place, the other you must keep it pressed to keep the exposure locked. There is a func button on the top of the grip just next to the shutter so it is nice to access. This brings up a menu where you have quick access to 6 functions like focus mode, focusing points, metering points, WB, flash comp etc. You can pick out of a long list what to put here and again I sometimes find myself wishing it had just one more slot!

I think one of the biggest omissions is a dedicated AF/MF switch. It is a pain to have to dig through a menu to select this, or have it take up a valuable slot in the quick function menu. You sometimes have to really sit down and think which functions you're going to need the most when out shooting.

On the subject of menus and UI's its typical SONY. ie. pretty awful. I am a big fan of Canons menus which are split nicely into tabs. Here, the main settings menu is just one big list! Playback is split between video and photo. I don't really do video so its not a problem, but you have to come out of the picture viewer then switch to video and then go back in! Daft! UI is pretty snappy in operation, though the playmemories apps are a tad slow and clunky and the WiFi feature definitely feels ill-optimised. Its slow and cumbersome.

what else?... standard flash hot shoe is great! there is a decent pop up flash as well. The 2.4million dot EVF is a joy to use (though beware, I think that thing uses more juice than the rear screen does!). Battery life is mediocre at best. At a wedding I managed to get through 3 batteries in less than a day. Speaking of this wedding, I used the LA-EA2 Lens adapter and Carl Zeiss 24-70mm F/2.8 and let me just say this combination was a really winner for me. The RAW files were beautiful! The lens dwarfed the camera though but you just modify your technique to hold the lens rather than the camera so it wasn't as difficult to wield as you might think. So the camera definitely has the hardware to produce some excellent results, However I believe that the E-mount lenses at the moment just are not able to take full advantage. Noise is handled pretty well, as is the way with CMOS chips the luminance noise can look like film grain. I think ISO 3200 is the most I would like to use in normal use, 6400 is a bit too noisy, but it can still produce a decent shot once treated in LR. In the 100-800 range though it is good, certainly on a par with my old 7D and easily near the top in its class.

Hybrid AF system uses phase detection and contrast detection for AF however, the lenses do need to have firmware updates to use this. Unfortunately, the Zeiss Touits, not being SONY lenses, don't have the ability to work with the Phase detection system, so its contrast only and there is a definite difference in the focusing speed. Phase detection enabled lenses do one big fast move and then 1-2 little ones to hit focus, the contrast only ones hunt back and forth. Focus is generally pretty accurate in both cases though.

One thing I will say about the AF system is don't expect much for tracking. I don't care what they say, tracking objects moving toward or away (especially toward) at a decent lick and you'll probably find things to be out of focus. This is doubly true if you then try to use the 10 fps burst mode (which is really really fast! but if using RAW the buffer is done by 12 shots anyway)... you might get one good one. I have found pre or manual focus to be a better bet. Panning is another mixed bag as well, again I find pre-focus using single shot AF to be better and selecting an aperture to give you decent DoF. In continuous AF the thing never seems to lock focus, you can here the lens motors constantly shifting the elements about and it even with objects moving across your FoV you'll find shots going in and out of focus.

There is more but i'll keep it brief. So in short:

• Its a lovely compact, APSC sensored camera to travel with and it is capable of some great IQ.
• Its not at all a labour to carry it all day. I have a Joby Sling and can walk around all day with it on with no fatigue.
• It annoyingly could do with a few more physical buttons and quick function slots in the QF menu.
• The EVF is rather good. Sharp, vibrant and you can have all the info you want though it is a little hard to see what your Dept of field is like.
• The hybrid AF system is fast, but I wouldn't say its particularly accurate in some situations like object tracking, but for still life and landscapes its great. Also MF assist is on offer as is focus peaking which I find really useful to have on all the time so I know whats in focus, not just trusting what the green box says when focus is achieved.
• Battery life is mediocre at best IMO.
• The menu system is horrible
• Standard hot shoe is great
• 10 fps burst is a neat party trick but sometimes the buffer size limits its usefulness, especially shooting RAW
• plenty of the more consumery things to play with like smile and face detection and all the different scene modes
• The apps and app store is a nice idea, but they do feel sluggish and some are a bit half baked. Others seemingly offer functionality that should have been there in the first place as well.
• you can remote shoot using the iOS/Android app but it feels a little sparse and basic, like it was an intern project. It is getting better though and they are updating the apps.
• Lens selection on E-mount has some decent choices, but its not really as fleshed out as the micro 4/3 system is.

On that last point the good thing is that there are plenty of adapters for the NEX system. You can therefore mount just about anything to them. Leica, Voigtlaender, Nikon, Canon you name it. Obviously you get either no or limited support for things like electronic aperture control, focusing and the like, but you just have to venture into full manual.

On the other hand, the problem I see with these cameras is that its great having the large sensor, but you cant escape physics when it comes to designing the lenses. Big sensor, you still for the most part need physically big lenses if you want large apertures and sharp optics. This must be why only the standard primes come with low apertures, everything else is f/4 or more because otherwise they'd look oversize for the body. THey have tried to mask this by giving you OIS in lens, but thats not going to fix the DoF you want, or if you really need that fast shutter to freeze action without having to stoop to ISO 6400.

This is surely to be a problem on their new A7's as well which are full frame! and guess what, all the big launch lenses are f/4 as the fastest aperture. This is where I feel Micro 4/3 has it down. The smaller, squarer sensor lends itself better to shrinking the lenses.

All that being said it does suit me 95% of the time. When I had a big DSLR I rarely used it, it was heavy and cumbersome and I only got it out if I knew there was something worthwhile to shoot. Now I like to keep the 35 mm on the NEX and I can just sling it over my shoulder every time I leave the house so I am taking a lot more photos now and forcing myself to just take one lens really helps you think about how to shoot things. If there is no rush I can just about deal with the crummy menus and getting the settings right. If I am a bit more rushed then thats when I wish there just a few more customisable buttons or menu options.

Its a great camera and I am glad I moved to the mirror less domain. But I not 100% sure they can really replace the full functionality of a good DSLR just yet. Very tempted to jump ship once more and go for an Olympus OM-D EM-1 but the new SONY A7 also looks like it will answer my prayers.

Sorry if this is too long. Hope it is useful though. Any more questions, just ask.

[Otispunkmeyer]

btw, from a few prelim shots using the Touit 12mm, it appears to be pretty "crisp" especially round the center of frame. Looking forward to using it in the US!