Aug 29, 2011, 19:48
It was lost in a flurry of new camera announcements, but the new Sony LA-EA2 lens adapter could be their biggest accomplishment.
http://www.photographyblog.com/news/sony_la-ea2/
http://www.store.sony.ca/webapp/wcs/stor...1666375279
With very few exceptions, most lens adapters are simply mechanical couplings between two different systems. The Panasonic/Olympus adapters for putting 4/3 lenses on m4/3 bodies allows electrical contact (needed for focus and aperture control) and sometimes permits a hacking-cough compatibility with the camera's contrast-detect autofocus system. The new Sony adapter actually includes one of their transmissive mirrors and an entire phase-detect autofocus that makes all of their existing Alpha-mount lenses work exactly the way they do on their current generation of "SLT" cameras.
Not that many people have those lenses, but the idea itself is fascinating.
There are a couple of big companies that are particularly lagging in the new "mirrorless" segment, and surely the need to completely redo their lens mount (for the first time since autofocus for one of them, and not even since before then for the other) must be having a huge chilling effect on their enthusiasm. But imagine if they can build an adapter that includes the legacy functions that their old lenses need without compromising a completely new design. Who knows? Maybe old dogs can learn new tricks.
http://www.photographyblog.com/news/sony_la-ea2/
http://www.store.sony.ca/webapp/wcs/stor...1666375279
With very few exceptions, most lens adapters are simply mechanical couplings between two different systems. The Panasonic/Olympus adapters for putting 4/3 lenses on m4/3 bodies allows electrical contact (needed for focus and aperture control) and sometimes permits a hacking-cough compatibility with the camera's contrast-detect autofocus system. The new Sony adapter actually includes one of their transmissive mirrors and an entire phase-detect autofocus that makes all of their existing Alpha-mount lenses work exactly the way they do on their current generation of "SLT" cameras.
Not that many people have those lenses, but the idea itself is fascinating.
There are a couple of big companies that are particularly lagging in the new "mirrorless" segment, and surely the need to completely redo their lens mount (for the first time since autofocus for one of them, and not even since before then for the other) must be having a huge chilling effect on their enthusiasm. But imagine if they can build an adapter that includes the legacy functions that their old lenses need without compromising a completely new design. Who knows? Maybe old dogs can learn new tricks.
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