Can 5 axis image stabilization be engaged with non system lenses for A7II and A7rII?

Question

Many people use/will use their excellent non system manual focus non system macro lenses on the A7II and undoubtedly on the soon to be released A7RII. Stabilization in the X/Y planes is very very important for macro. Sony on the A7II only stablizes the X/Y planes for lenses that report the focus distance as best I can tell. Perhaps the lens compensation app or another can be modified so this data can be manually inputted or even change the firmware to allow this and thus stabilize all 5 axes. Focal length will need to be inputted of course as well. Perhaps there is another way around this that I have missed. Thanks for any comments.

Answer 1

Thank you for taking the time to answer.  I have done more digging in reviews and recalled sony's announcments which implied on 3 axis IS is available w/o a lens that reports focsing distance. Not my favorite source, but review from PCMag: "If you're using a non-native lens, or even a native manual focus lens like the Zeiss Loxia 2/50, it's stabilized along three axes—yaw, pitch, and roll. There's a technical reason for that. In order to compensate along the x and y axes, the camera needs to know the distance to the subject, which requires electronic communication of the focal distance from the lens to the body. To compensate for the other three axes, the only data that needs to be transmitted is the focal length of the lens. Even if you're using a purely mechanical Leica lensit can be stabilized—you're able to manually enter the focal length via a menu. The only real downside to this is that the A7 II does not add that focal length to the recorded EXIF data, so if you like to track which lens a shot is captured with, you'll need to take notes." http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2475439,00.asp A friend informed me that on his A7II he must mount a non OSS Sony lens first to have any image stabilization with any of his totally manual lenses--seems the camera saves the settings of the last lens attached.  Turning the cam off doesn't reset this--very odd---seems to be a bug in the firmware.  I hope the A7rII is different. This whole issue is quite confusing.  Appreciate any additonal clarification.