Sony A7R II: Game changer?

I had to crawl out from under my rock to comment on this! There are reports that the new Sony A7R II will autofocus just as well with Canon EF lenses and a Metabones adapter as it will with native lenses. If this is true it's simply amazing, I know a LOT of people who love Sony bodies but stick with Canon because of the lenses and this could finally change all that. I'm not yet 100% convinced because in the past the Canon lens/Metabones combination hasn't yielded impressive results even with the Sony bodies that have phase detect pixels but there's a lot of talk of thing different this time.

Even if this isn't true the camera looks amazing, easily the best mirrorless camera yet made, at least on paper! If the autofocus situation turns out to be true this could be the turning point, the beginning of the end for DSLRs!

I certainly won't be able to afford one but maybe if I'm lucky and this turns out to be true then the technology that made it possible will trickle down into the APS-C bodies, if not I guess I'll have to pick an A7R II up in about 5 years when it's finally in my price range!


Update:

As Rishi at dpreview just pointed out to me, the A7R II gives phase detect when using the Sony LA-E3 adapter and A mount DSLR lenses. That's the adapter that DOESN'T have a mirror inside and until not hasn't allowed you to use the on sensor phase detect with Sony lenses. Something has been done differently with this new body to allow the LA-E3 to work with the on sensor phase detect.

Because the Metabones adapter basically mimics the protocol the of the LA-E3 it means that Canon lenses will also be able to use the on sensor phase detect pixels! This is MASSIVE news and is likely to shake things up in a serious way! Canon users will now have access to what is undeniably a superior sensor architecture and without a penalty in focus performance!

Fingers crossed that this is as amazing a development as it appears to be!

Sony to release an NEX camera that will autofocus with ANY lens!?? This could be a game changer!

I had to make a post about this! Andrea at Sonyalpharumours has hinted that Sony are working on a camera that will enable users to achieve autofocus with Canon and Nikon lenses! This is an amazing revelation, this kind of cross format compatibility from an original manufacturer would be unique, adapters to use the lenses from other brands are usually the work of third party manufacturers and poorly implemented!

But there's more! And this is the really exciting part, Andrea hinted that autofocus may be achieved by SHIFTING THE SENSOR forwards and backwards! If this turns out to be true it will be a complete game changer and revolution for the users of manual focus legacy lenses, you could turn any lens into an autofocus lens! Imagine using old lecia primes with AF! Or M42, Pentax K, Canon FD, Contax/Yashica and even those weird and wonderful C-mount lenses!

It remains unclear if this is actually how the camera is going to work but if it turns out to be true it will be a very exciting piece of technology, even if you have to manually get a lens nearly in focus and then let the camera do the fine tuning by moving the sensor it would still be revolutionary!

I can barely wait to find out more!