long lens for Nex 7

[flyingsurfer]

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. 

[Portmixus]

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 A-mount lenses (what you call Alpha) and E-mount lenses (NEX lenses...but the name NEX has been replaced by Alpha...you see the confusion?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

[caisterken]

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?