Sony A7 – The first mirrorless with full frame sensor
2013 will be remembered as the year of a full frame digital, are not only born the first DSLR economic but also the first mirrorless sensor 35mm. The novelty, as often happens these days, is due to Sony, one of the companies that drills for more innovation in recent years, and it involves two models A7 and A7R. The letters that characterized the NEX mirrorless of Japanese brand have been abolished, and now they call at all as alpha.
The two cameras are very similar, almost identical in appearance, but there are some minor technical differences. The Sony A7R is the top of the range, has a more robust body for a greater use of magnesium alloy and a 36MP sensor without low-pass filter, instead of the 24MP that we find in Sony A7. Another difference is in the focus, the Sony A7 hybrid (assisted by the phase one) and only in contrast A7R.
Sony A7 – Basic Features
Sony has managed to create a mirrorless camera with full-frame sensor returning in the size of an Olympus OM-D E-M1, in practice smaller than an entry-level DSLR. The engineering work is certainly admirable, but we are not faced with a showcase project but to a camera that combines awe effect to actual effectiveness. The Sony A7 is a 24MP sensor made at home and able to achieve ISO 25600. The processor is the Bionz X and continuous shooting reaches 5 frames per second. We have a tilting screen, a viewfinder and a well-made accessory shoe.
Not missing the NFC with Wi-Fi, as well as excellent functionality for movies with manual control, uncompressed video output, audio input and output. The property has plastic parts and other magnesium alloy, all well packaged in a weather sealed body. The bayonet is compatible with E-mount NEX, but the former is called FE because it is full frame.
It can be used with the objectives of the crop but was presented together with 3 goals FE: the 28-70 f / 3.5-5.5 OSS kit, a 35 f / 2,8 and a 55 f / 1.8 Both Zeiss. Along with these three were announced on 24-70 f / 4 Zeiss OSS and 70-200 f / 4 Sony G OSS, which is currently not yet available. It is park objectives rather limited, but it is a start.
Sony A7 – Body and Ergonomics
The Sony A7 has a handle large and well shaped, making it comfortable even for those who have medium to large hands. The body is fairly light with its 474 grams (battery included) and can be unbalanced with heavy lenses (including the kit). It is not suitable to use a camera with one hand, but with the classic SLR outlet or second hand under the lens, it is absolutely convenient. The body is well built, with an abundant use of rigid plastic and magnesium alloy. It is also weather sealed to withstand dust and water splashes.
Settings and control. The body of the Sony A7 is full of physical and has three customizable buttons: c1, c2, and c3. The menu ” Settings / p.6 ” on ” Set pers. keys ” you can change the functions of many other buttons, including the four shortcuts on the directional pad. The level of adaptability is very high in order to respond very well to the needs of professionals.
Additionally there are 3 rings of the parameters so that you can control mode Manual shutter speed, aperture and ISO at your fingertips. Apart from these we have a physical wheel for exposure compensation and a large mode dial that includes: P, A, S, M, auto, scenes, landscape, movie and two methods customizable by the user.
It could be argued that there are too many keys for a camera so compact and perhaps the beginning you can have a little difficulty with all those customizations, but the basic approach already offers a rich and effective control.
The three Custom buttons are arranged in positions that are very distant from each other, and each of them can be assigned one of the many functions available in the setting’s menu mentioned above. Menu and C2 are placed above the display, slightly recessed and flat, but sufficiently prominent that they can be operated without too much difficulty.
In addition to the main menu to the overall setting of the camera, there is also a Fn key that provides access to a grid of 10 shooting features, once again customizable by the user. With the basic settings in manual mode the front ring controls the aperture, the rear one time and the vertical sensitivity, while in semi-automatic mode, the two upper nuts control the same parameter, eg. the opening in the mode A, and the rear always remains the ISO. To assist a quick-setting method in the fourth priority is to dial the exposure compensation in view of the top of the camera.
On the back there is also a switch that allows you to assign a dual function for the key contained in it, in order to control the switching between AF / MF or blocking AEL. Combining buttons, dials and switches you get a massive dose of functions that can be set directly without access to the menu, always having on hand shooting parameters, white balance, method of feeding, AF mode, AF point, exposure compensation, etc… . . You have to take a little hand, but one cannot but appreciate the excellent work of Sony on the body of the A7, while the menu is still a little too complex and dispersed.
Sony A7 – Conclusions
The work of Sony’s innovation and engineering is particularly commendable. Without mincing words, it is the company that in recent years are risking more in the photographic field, although perhaps the results are not always satisfactory.
Before the mirror translucent, then the first mirrorless APS-C today and the first camera without mirror with full-frame sensor, on the other offered in two variants: Sony A7 and Sony A7R. We also saw little experiment succeeded, as the QX10 and QX100, but in this case, we are saying that the work has borne fruit. Good but not flawless, with some aspects that should be much improved, but that overall makes the Sony A7 certainly palatable.
There is so much technology, the body and the controls are well-made and the image quality is up to the expectations in relation to the size of the sensor. The fact that it is a mirrorless is an advantage from the point of view of size and for some, it will be the presence of an electronic viewfinder, which now has made great strides, and even offers some advantages over the pentaprism found in DSLR cameras.
The price is competitive, in line with the economic full-frame DSLR from Canon and Nikon, and some areas are better developed, as in the video field, but all is not well managed.
In particular, there are three aspects that could prefer a more traditional route with the same cost, the lack of an optical extended park (there and perhaps even fail in the future bright f/2.8 zoom and fixed cost), the yield of FA does not expectations and the battery, which is definitely a weak point.
All in all, a camera is recommended for those who do not intend to create a large park optic in the short term, in the hope that Sony is going in and produce at full blast targets for the future, but with an eye on flexibility / expandability, when the more traditional full-frame DSLR economic Canon and Nikon seem to offer something more, especially the Canon EOS 6D, which also has GPS, as well as integrated Wi-Fi.
The price of about $1,999 with lens 28-70 f / 3,5-5,6 seems perfectly in line with the offer. The vote would be more accurate to 3.7 but round it up to 4 reward for the audacity to Sony and, more generally, for the good quality / price ratio. The estimates expressed are substantially valid also for the Sony A7R, which is distinguished mainly by the higher resolution of the sensor and the absence of the low-pass filter, making it more suitable for the study and landscape photography.
Our Opinion
PROS : Body compact, rugged and sealed., Excellent image quality., Good electronic viewfinder, wide and quality., Good video capabilities, and output uncompressed audio in / out.
CONS : Autonomy is particularly poor, and charging directly from the camera., Proximity sensor and cannot be disabled too " sensitive " to the activation of the viewfinder., Autofocus is not always accurate and sometimes slow.
- Overall
