First of all, a reminder to catch me as a guest this weekend at Fanboy Expo in Knoxville!

Wait a second, what?? "Tom, I thought you shot micro 4/3rds." Well, long story short, I still do. I've just added the Sony full-frame mirrorless system to my arsenal (I also have the Sony A7 as my backup). Long story short, I've unloaded a bunch of lenses and the Panasonic GH4 to acquire the current hottest talk in mirrorless camera bodies at the moment, the A7RII, and the Sony FE 90mm/2.8 Macro G OSS lens. Some day I intend to blog about my reasons why, and will continue to post my impressions as I gain experience with the new gear.

The 90mm/2.8 macro lens is a little shorter and a little thicker than my Rockstar energy drink.  Definitely heavier! — The 90mm/2.8 macro lens is a little shorter and a little thicker than my Rockstar energy drink. Definitely heavier!

For this entry, I just wanted to post some samples messing around with this combo. In fact, I was mostly curious about two things: the eye-detect feature of the A7RII, and the sharpness/bokeh of this macro lens. And that's all this really is; I don't proclaim this to be a scientific test/comparison. There are plenty of reviewers who do that stuff with boring charts and brick walls, etc. better than I do. All I'm doing is playing and sharing what I got just because...so there! Hopefully it will give you some idea of what to expect anyhow. As I have done in the past (see here and here), my experiences are better illustrated with pretty, scantily-clad Asian girls. I introduce to you Thanh....

The following gallery shows the overall photo, followed by a 100% crop of the eyes to check the A7RII's Eye Detection feature. 90mm, f/2.8 (wide open), ISO 80, 1/200 second. Flash used camera-left:

Here's another set, however the eye detect feature wasn't quite 100% spot on. Not sure if it was just my technique or the camera, I've barely had use with this thing. 90mm, f/2.8 (wide open), ISO 640, 1/200 second. Flash used camera-above right:

By the way, here you can watch the above shoot in a quick behind-the-scenes video I've posted my YouTube channel (subscribe!):

With the high-resolution of the A7RII + no optical low pass filter + the insane sharpness of this lens, moire can and does rear its ugly head (click):

another example of fine fabric moire from a recent shoot (click to see full size)

I know this is a random photo of a cute doggie (french bulldog or boston terrier?), but high resolution has its advantages.  I shot this with an old, adapted Konica 135mm/3.5 lens wide open (manual focus--the focus peaking on the A7x series is … — I know this is a random photo of a cute doggie (french bulldog or boston terrier?), but high resolution has its advantages. I shot this with an old, adapted Konica 135mm/3.5 lens wide open (manual focus--the focus peaking on the A7x series is a joy!). Looking at the file 1:1, it's definitely not the sharpest lens; when downsized from such a high resolution, one can hardly even tell! Another win for the A7RII...

To conclude this entry for shits and giggles, here are some shots of Thanh in natural light with the A7RII, but this time combined with the Sony Sonnar Zeiss 55mm/1.8 lens, shot wide open at ISO 1600, 1/80 second:

My initial impressions:
-Love the high resolution, the noise is surprisingly well controlled even at hi ISOs
-Eye detection feature works very well, I'd say 8-9 out of 10 shots I'm getting exact focus on the eyes (or near eye). I'm inconclusive on whether any of my misses here are my fault.
-Focus with 55mm/1.8 (and 28mm/2.0, which I also own) is impressively fast, even in low light. Totally destroys my A7, and is around MAYBE around par with my micro 4/3rdsOlympus EM5/Panny GH4 (when I owned it). More testing required.
-90mm/2.8 macro lens is sharper than hell at f/2.8. One of the sharpest lenses I've tried. Haven't really stopped it down while playing around with it, I can only imagine that it may sharpen up a bit more as it's stopped down perhaps? Or maybe it's perceived increased sharpness due to increasing depth-of-field.
-90mm/2.8 lens is the slowest to focus out of my FE lenses. It tends to hunt, especially so as light gets low.
-The bokeh out of this lens is nice and acceptable for what I like to shoot--hot chicks. Your tastes may vary.

Thanks for checking this blog out. I'll post more impressions as I get around to them...

**BONUS: Here are more photos from my shoot with Thanh, followed by a behind the scenes video from my YouTube channel: