Rich's Tongfamily (Richtong.net add-on)

OK, going on a trip and I just have to try the new Sony A7r. The A7 is probably really the right one for me for general use, but the A7r as a landscape (auto focus is slow and it doesn’t have phase detection so can’t take videos) product it is pretty superb apparently. And with lens rentals.com, I can try some incredibly expensive lenses (although the one I really want to try the 70-200 F/4 is still in preorder). But still, here the native FE mounts that are available (and yes I’ll bring a tripod):

• Sony FE 55mm ZA Sonnar F/1.8 (DxoMark, PCMag). SLRGear says this is incredibly sharp and most sharp at F/5.6. And on a camera like this, it is the perfect available light product. They use DxO Analyze and there is a measurement called blur index (as usual, it is not clear what it means!). But this lense is in the 10/10 for most of the plots. I don’t understand DxOMark, but it shows 29MP effective (wow!) and best at F/1.8 not f/5.6). As a comparison, the Zeiss Distagon on a Nikon D800 is also 29MP effective at DxoMark. PC Mag is also not clear but reports center as 3700 lw/ph at F/5.6 but doesn’t say what the edge is
• Sony FE 35mm ZA Sonnar F/2.8 (DxoMark, PCMag). Photoreview.com.au shows that with the a7 (24mp), it was getting 3155 lw/ph but doesn’t say if this is only at center (this is an effective 15MP which is pretty good) at F/3.5 iso 100. So probably the a7r is going to be a little better. I don’t really know how to evaluate DxO any more, but the lense does well there. a 22MP effective on the A7r. It kind mirrors the same ratio as Photoreview.com.au 15/24 is about 22/36MP. It reports the best performance at f/2.8 not f/3.5. PCMag doesn’t really say what their test criteria is but reports peak focus at f/8 of 3527 lw/ph and 3355 at f/2.8 center (2200 at edge)
• Sony FE 28-70 F/3.5-5.6. This is a consumer/kit lense, so image quality is lower. A new site ERPhotoreview does MFT testing. It shows 28mm max resolution at f/8 with 2430 at 28mm, 2200 partway and 1620 edge so not too great or 18MP equivalent by his weighting (50% loss), but 43mm at f/5.6 is 2430 center, 2410 partway and 1700 edge or 19.6MP weighted. While at 70mm at f/11 is 2430 center, 2170 partway and 1900 edge or 18.4mp with heavy center weighting on an a7. These are seem way too high given it is a 24MP camera.
• Sony FE