Sony LA-EA5 A-mount Lens Adapter for E-mount Cameras

Not going to spend time talking about the benefits of e-mount over a-mount or vice versa. The goal of this adapter is to continue to use Sony/Minolta a-mount lenses on current and future e-mount cameras.What makes this adapter great, is that it is the only Sony adapter the supports SSM & Screw Driven focus lenses AS LONG AS you buy the correct Sony e-mount camera. To date of this review, there are only 3 cameras that will fully work with this adapter, a6600, a7rIV & the a1. Note that at the time of the LA-EA5 release, only the a6600 & a7rIV were compatible and the a1 was added later. (it should also note that the a7siii was released after the LA-EA5 and at the time of this review, still is not supported fully by this adapter.When I say fully supported, I am simply referring to getting auto focus (including Eye-AF) enabled with Screw Driven lenses (SAL135f18z, sal85f14z, sal35f14g, sal100m28,sal16f28,Minolta BeerCan, are just a few to name). If you only own SSM lenses, you can then use virtually any Sony e-mount camera and lose little functionality. It truly is best to pull up the "LA-EA5 : Interchangeable Lens Camera α [E-mount] Compatibility Information" chart and verify for yourself ;)Using this adapter with the a7riv, I can say that my Screw Driven lenses are able to lock on more accurately in good lighting when compared to my a99ii and of course the higher resolution of the a7riv vs my a99ii, the pictures look alot sharper. Using SSM lenses and tracking moving subjects are not hindered by this adapter. I have been able to even use 3rd party lenses, like the Tamron 150-600g2 or my Sigma 15mm Fisheye just fine with this adapter.While I could go into great detail some of the limitations I have seen comparing my a7rIV vs my a99ii, I will stick to what is relevant to adapting lenses. Here is what you lose out of when you make the jump AND use A-mount glass vs e-mount glass;- you cannot use teleconverters. It turns lens into a manual lens, so you cannot AF OR change aperture. If you are big on using teleconverters, you may want to consider buying into e-mount glass- While you get basic AF including AF-C function & Eye-AF (So good!), you lose out of some of the more advanced AF functions in camera. Like, Aperture Drive in AF*, Pre-AF, Eye-Start AF**, & AF in Focus Mag.* Without this feature, if you shoot in silent mode AND not at the lenses widest aperture (ex: shooting at f/5.6 with an f/2.8 lens), you will hear the aperture blades opening and closing during each shoot. Quieter than hearing the shutter but not silent** Eye-Start AF is NOT Eye-AF!!- No Micro Adj. Though so far I haven't seen any issues with my a7riv needing to be calibrated, I do know that using the Tamron 150-600 g2 on my a99ii needed such adjustments.- You may lose out of some performance when adapting. IE: The a1, you can only get 10FPS in AF-C with a-mount vs 30FPS in AF-C with e-mount.I really dont know how you can have a negative review on this adapter. It is designed to do something very specific, help make the jump easier to e-mount cameras if you are a long time a-mount shooter, saving you from not having to invest in new e-mount glass to start using your e-mount camera.Granted, it is a downer that you can't fully use this adapter on any e-mount camera, but it just seems that if you are making the jump from a-mount, the last amount aps-c camera is the a77ii so if one was staying in APS-C world, it makes sense to target the a6600. As with the a99ii, the last full frame a-mount camera. If one was going to jump over to e-mount, the a7rIV would be the logical jump.Sony has been transparent about the LA-EA5's limitations and if people are not willing to do the research prior to purchasing, it is your fault, not Sony's.

I have a few old a-mount lenses and when I purchase the A7S2 several years ago, there weren't a lot of options. the LA-EA3 was reported at the time to not work well with the A7S2, and so I lamented until one day, I was surprised to see the LA-EA4 announced. I grabbed that right quick, and while losing some light was a tiny bit of an issue, and the AF on the LA-EA4 was rather slow, it was okay for what it was. I was never really excited about the LA-EA4, but it got the job done and allowed me to use the a-mount lenses I had...a better-than-nothing kind of situation, and certainly serviceable.Fast forward to today, and I have the A1.A little side bar....My wife uses the A7S2 now, and while she likes the camera body, she only uses the Sony 28-60 because she likes the light weight of the setup. Anything heavier and she just wouldn't take it with her on trips.And so, since my wife wouldn't use the heavier a-mount lenses, and I couldn't see myself using the LA-EA4 with the A1, I genuinely thought my old a-mount lenses were slated for the retirement heap, to be sold on ebay.But then....lo and behold, the LA-EA5 emerges, and i bought it right away. After all, this may be the very last adaptor Sony produces for a-mount lenses, and that could make this a rare item very quickly if it continues to only support the a6600, a7r4, and a1.Well, now it's arrived and what an incredible joy it is to use! Much better than the light losing, slow af of the LA-EA4, and while much much slower than my native GM lenses, there are some old, rather unique lenses that work with a-mount that are just great for photos.Without a doubt, the LA-EA5 is an excellent piece of gear for owners of one of the supported bodies who also own a-mount glass.The adaptor will also continue to breathe life into the used a-mount lens market as well as there are some iconic a-mount lenses that today would cost a fraction of equivalent modern lenses cost, and could be a fraction of the price of even cheaper e-mount lenses.The LA-EA5 breathes new life into my donut bokeh producing mirrored 500mm f8 lens (there's also a little focus breathing, but meh, not a big deal for photos). A type of lens that has a unique look and might not emerge for e-mount lenses, ever, as it was a lens made popular in the 80's and 90's and hasn't been seen much since. That lens alone makes the LA-EA5 a worthy adaptor.Pretty darn happy!

Firstly, know that i'm coming at this from a "stills" perspective--we dont shoot video. Ive tested several lenses with this adapter, and all have worked great. Here are some of lenses that i have that i have confirmed on the adapter:Classic Maxxum Lenses:50/1.770-210/f4("beercan")75-300/f4.5-5.635-80(kit lens)<--junkModern A-mount Lenses:Sigma 150-500/f5-6.3 APOTokina 11-16/f2.8<--Crop sensor lens, works great(but cam needs to be in crop mode)Tamron 90/f2.8 1:1 MacroAll lenses work well and take advantage of all the focus sensors that the a7iv has. Being able to use a lot of my old glass really saves a lot of money in that i don't have to re-buy lenses. Some lenses focus slower than others(beercan) but they all focus faster than on my previous cameras.I also really appreciate that the focus motor "bump" from the previous adapters is gone. The adapter is lower profile, focuses old glass fast, and take advantage of the camera's advanced auto focus system.I have but only two gripes: 1) the built in AF illuminator on the camera does not work when using this adapter, and 2)The camera will not switch to crop mode automatically when an A mount crop lens is attached, it must be set manually. The auto crop mode function only works with native emount lenses.All in all this adapter works as advertised far as i can tell, and im not upset that it doesnt AF in video--i imagine it would be fairly loud on the video doing so, as the motor does make noise.If you have old Maxxum/Sony A-mount glass you want to use with a newer a7 model camera, do it. It works