Image courtesy: Popphoto
Popphoto (Click here) chose the Sony A7r as camera of the year 2013:
The Sony Alpha 7R represents not only the most substantial refinement of the interchangeable-lens compact (ILC) camera to date, but also a redefinition of the entire concept of the high-end system camera. The camera that best refined or redefined photography in 2013? Unquestionably, it is the diminutive (but full-frame) high-resolution Sony Alpha 7R.
So, is Sony the new Leica? LeicaBoss (Click here) writes:
The reality is that Leica is now a luxury brand, inaccessible to most photographers and impractical for still more. The real Leica Bosses had to find a niche that works for the brand. This focus is simply different than when they started out. The first 35mm cameras and lenses were a revolution and Leica was carrying the flag.
So now Sony is carrying the flag for the original vision of Oskar Barnack – and the release of the A7 and A7r represent a great milestone in this pursuit. BOOM.
Well done Sony! Cannot wait to see what you will bring us in 2014! 🙂
Specs and Preorders in US and Canada:
Dedicated Sony announcement page at Amazon US (Click here).
Sony A7r body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony RX10 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 24-70mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 35mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 55mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
70-200mm A-mount at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony A-Mount to E-Mount Lens Adapter at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony A to E adapter with mirror at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
A7/A7r leather case at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
A7/A7r vertical grip at Amazon, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony W Series Battery Charger at Amazon, BHphoto.
Sony FA-CS1M Off-Camera Shoe at BHphoto.
Semi-Hard LCD Screen Protector for A7-A7r at Amazon, BHphoto.
Specs and Preorders in Europe:
Sony A7r body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE.
Sony A7 body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony RX10 at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE.
Zeiss 35mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT,
Zeiss 55mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT
Zeiss 24-70mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, SE, PT
Sony G 28-70mm lens at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO.
Asia:
A7r at Digitalrev.
A7 at Digitalrev, Amazon Cina.
A7 with 28-70mm lens at Digitalrev.
83 Responses
Did the Leica boss really say “BOOM”, at the end of his statement?
Is he now the Sony Boss?
This only spells disaster for the alpha mount. Keep talking up this e-mount and before you know it…pooof…no more “a” line.
I take that back. I’m such a confused individual…
Go home, Tom, you’re drunk.
He’s not drunk, he cares about his investment in Sony crap that they change every six months. go ahead and buy the a7, in six months it’s gonna be the new Sony oatmeal camera…fisrt of its kind too. Now sony an dLeica can be bbf’s. Rich man products no one buys except the few, which means no profits, more obsolete crap.
Not the Boss of Leica, but Leica Boss, an independent blog.
Interesting nonetheless…, that a Leicaphile, using their logos, etc., would lavish such praise. Must be deserved.
I guess we should wait till Datsun checks in to explain why it’s not invention–nothing new under the sun for him. He seemed to burn out after one day of burning passion…like a predictable, uninventive shooting star.
As it should be. Perfectly deserved.
still thinking between A7 or A7R….
I changed my pre-order a few time. I’m back to the A7 now – and it’s no longer a *pre* order. Should ship tomorrow 🙂
OK, PopPhoto is an American magazine with about a 95% American readership – how can they name a camera that no American (actually nobody in the entire western hemisphere) has as the camera of the year. It would make much more sense in 2014.
+1
Patience, this year is not over
My point is that they ALREADY named it camera of the year and yet not a single soul in the country, continent or hemisphere has one at the time of naming it. that’s like announcing the song or album of the year, before releasing it. It’s just dumb 😉
Well, the camera was announced over a month ago and I’m pretty sure they had the camera before that. The media has had enough time to play with it and run their tests before the rest of the western hemisphere even gets to touch it. If the A7 is not camera of the year then what is in your opinion? The only thing I could think of that comes close is the EM1 but that’s bringing nothing new to the table.
You are right that they have had plenty of time to evaluate the A7 series.. In fact there have been so many reviews on SAR, that everyone is complaining that there have been too many reviews and not enough rumors.
I’d say it is perfectly sufficient that they had the camera themselves. And it wouldn’t make sense for 2014 as it is released now.
Correct. There will be other Sony cameras that will win the award for 2014!
In the eight years since Sony got into the interchangeable-lens camera business, Sony has been PopPhoto’s Camera of the Year four times. Last tear they came very very close with the A99. Both this year and at least one previous year TWO Sony cameras were finalists for the award. And there is a darned good chance that they’ll win again next year.
Even more radical: in the last 4 years Sony has won the award 3 times. And as you say, the A99 very nearly made it 4 straight wins. And as PopPhoto readily admits, Sony has competed against itself this year (v. the RX1) and in the past (a77 v. Nex7 no doubt).
hmm not sure what to make out of it but being the camera of the year which is almost over…
It’s been done in the movie industry for years for the Academy Awards. Even though a movie is released in December and only in a limited number of theaters, it qualifies.
the new Leica? is that a compliment? how about “sony is the new minolta”? Leica, after all, have been more about image (that is, the image of the customer, not the actual image) than innovation and good cameras for quite some time now… Minolta on the other hand seem to always have been rather innovative but lacking some crucial element which resulted in them never being able to catch the big two. Sony seem to follow that tradition (but might well break it and end up at the top, it all depends)
Nevertheless, reading a post like that on Leica Boss blog is quite extraordinary.
It’s a complement coming from someone who worships Leica. Just like if a teenage girl called you “as cool as Justin Beiber”, the meaning would be different from a 50-year-old cynic saying the same to you.
“as cool as Justin Bieber”? yeah, that would be a compliment… almost on the level of “as skilled as Yngwie Malmsteen”. 😉
I see what you’re saying though
He is referring to Oscar Barnack’s Leitz and not the Leica of today. In fact Leitz is a lot like today’s Sony, easily being one of the most innovative camera companies up to the 1950s.
Later they relied on build quality and service, which is more like Leica Camera AG of today.
Wish they’d sort out the video quality. Was hoping it’d match the 5D MKIII at the least.
They have it does..
Congrats Sony…
“The reality is that Leica is now a luxury brand, inaccessible to most photographers and impractical for still more.”
And this is “well done!”. I think not. The whole 35mm concept is a profit center for camera makers with overpriced sensors and limited zoom lenses leading to the purchase of overpriced prime lenses. I hope Sony doesn’t completely fall prey to such elitist concepts. I am entirely underwhelmed by the new A7R.
I’ll stay with APS-C cameras and lenses that, thankfully, continue to improve. With just three lenses, I can cover the entire focal range from 15-375mm (35mm equivalent). I spend my time taking pictures, not changing lenses.
Some time later…
The whole APS-C concept is a profit center.
I’ll stay with Micro 4/3 that continue to improve. With just three lenses, I can cover the entire focal range. I spend my time taking pictures, not changing lenses.
Some time later…
The whole Micro 4/3 concept is a profit center.
I’ll stay with Nicon CX that continue to improve. With just three lenses, I can cover the entire focal range. I spend my time taking pictures, not changing lenses.
Some time later…
The whole Nicon CX concept is a profit center.
I’ll stay with Pentax Q 1/2.3″ that continue to improve. With just three lenses, I can cover the entire focal range. I spend my time taking pictures, not changing lenses.
Some time later…
The whole Pentax Q 1/2.3″ concept is a profit center.
I’ll stay with camera in my phone provided for free as present that has instagram app and dont need to improve. With just electronic zoom, I can cover the entire focal range. I spend my time taking pictures of me in bathroom mirror, not changing lenses.
Your point being?
Barnack pioneered a brand new format for still photography.
Sony is using the same format Barnack utilized for his revolution almost a hundred years ago. A format used steadily by many manufacturers ever since Barnack.
This makes Sony a pioneer.
Oh, please.
So Leica Boss calls Sony new Leica without owning Sony, hmm…
Leica- all hype and no substance. Next to the new A7R it looks archaic, oversized and unrefined. Lenses are another story which brings me to my point. Sony needs faster native lenses. Give us this and you’ll have yourself the new Leica- for the common people.
how’s that related to my comment?
No idea- I try to keep it random. Post on!
😀
Haha. I still love Leica – and by no means was this meant to be a hit job.
I also am no a “Sony” guy… preordered the A7r – snagged an A77 as an accessory for the long lenses and macro work – sold all my Canon gear.
I’ll be shooting with a Leica M6, M9 and Vintage iiif.
The main point is that Sony is currently taking the lead when it comes to the pursuit of ultimate image quality in a small package.
So the man himself 😉
While I love to see more products in the ILC space I must say that the very large lenses have prevented me from investing in this system. It, too, does not help that the lens eco system is small for the time being.
If one keeps the unbelievable progress in the imaging sensor domain in mind then it must be allowed to ask how much white space remains for FF systems. They were a must in order to achieve excellent picture quality only three years ago. This is no longer the case. What my GX7 produces together with a prime lens looks strikingly similar to the results my better half achieves with a state-of-the-art FF system (even pixel peeping does not reveal anything significant).
What I like best about the A7(r) are clearly shape and form factor. This design makes perfect sense. I do wonder why mFT and NEX cams cannot be a bit larger (barring GH3 and OM-D E-M1).
Pop photo are sony fan boy, who is leica boss?
Let c another award for a7
The usual indirect trolling. If it praises the product we hate, then it is written by fanboys.
“who is leica boss” – yep, who is that guy? going through his blog tells me nothing about his alleged ‘love’ for Leica.
If this article came from Thorsten Overgaard (the true Leica diehard)… but it doesn’t 😉
You can get a used M6 for @$1000 and sell it after a year with little or no loss. With a cheap used voigt prime, and a few rolls of film.. how is Leica a luxury brand?
A Sony a7 will depreciate far more and costs far more.
exactly 😉 and you can keep the lenses and use them on pretty much any mirror less camera
Lol, seriously? I can buy an OM1 for 100USD. Heck, I can buy a Contax G for less than 200USD.
Comparing the price of a decade year old camera to new camera is absurd. I would consider $1000 for a camera that old luxurious. Leica lenses on the other hand…
I guess the hint might be in that ‘depreciate’ bit 😉
That bit doesn’t really help his argument about Leica not being a luxury 🙂 And comparing an old film camera to a newly released one is a bit ludicrous in this case. How about counting in all the film that are you going to use too and the costs to develop it, for example?
could do:
– roll of B&W -> £4.30
– developer Ilford ID11 -> £11 for 5l which is £0.85/roll
– stop bath Ilford Ilfostop -> £5 for 500ml which is enough for 150 rolls or £0.01/roll
– fixer Ilford Rapid Fixer -> £7.50 good for 25 rolls = £0.3
all in all one roll would cost you just over £5 😉
@hexx You missed my point, I think. Anyway, now decide on a specific time period. Say 3 years. Say 3000 photos per year. My estimates, but, I believe, quite reasonable. 9000/36*5. That would be 1250 pounds of non-recoverable costs, even if you manage to sell your M6 at the same price (not to mention that the photos aren’t printed or scanned, which woud require additional costs or time). And guess what, that is the price of the A7, which, I am sure, you will be able to sell for more than zero pounds after 3 years 🙂
@ Vlad – no, I didn’t miss your point at all, I’ve put those there just for entertainment really, not to prove any point 🙂 (btw, I do scanning myself so there’s no additional cost)
I hope i am not missing your point again, you say so many brilliant things that I struggle to follow you. So your point is, you are sad and bored so you need to post some crap? Sorry I could not resist 🙂 You really write so much bullcrap.
Yes indeed, the “depreciate” bit means that, if true, you will actually be able to get an A7 for pretty much the same 1000$ you quoted. Or even better, you could acquire a new one for that sum. Besides… should I really say it? You’re comparing a digital camera to a film camera, so, just like comparing apples to oranges… there, I said it 🙁
But seriously, this doesn’t make sense at all, sorry. Leica is expensive, everyone knows it and many accept it since the quality is also at the top… nevertheless, for many people it’s simply not affordable, so what’s the point in trying to disprove that Leica target is different?
you mean @Taran?
Buying a 20-30 year old Leica and a competitor’s lens will not help today’s Leica directly.
Again, they benefit from the used market and the lower-priced RF brands as “gateway drugs” that hopefully get you hooked and instill a little of that Leica lust.
I currently fiddle with the Voigtlander 21mm f/4 while daydreaming of a Leica 21mm Elmarit for 10x the cost.
Zeiss 21mm Biogon might be a good alternative too, cheaper than Leica but more expensive than Voigtlander
Unfortunately, the biogons don’t really translate elegantly to digital. I do think it’s a wonderful lens though.
Hint for you: Cosina (Voigtlander) body. 😉
I can buy folding Kodak 620 for 20$! Once you try medium format all that 35mm leica and other shit will look like crap for you! And only for 20$! And lens come included! Yay!
…mmm, a week ago I sold my M9P body to buy the A7R, but kept the 50mm summicron …looked through it today, and have printed out 100 asa raw files at 1 metre wide….I definitely made the right decision!
I own Leica M240, and I’ve been saving few years to get the camera and three Leica lenses. I enjoy using the camera, it’s on me all the time, and what these lenses deliver still suprises me. I had 5DIII and some L glass before (had to sell it to fund the Leica), and it was great, but at the end I will never look back.
Noone who hasn’t been using Leica, and I’m not talking about having it in his hands cannot make judgement about it, period. For me, this is the best system ever.
On the other hand, I’m really glad Sony came up with something that could be used as an alternative. It might reduce the Leica body price a bit, but this is still something I hope about. As long as Leica is able to produce less cameras than they can deliver my hope is useless 🙂
Give me my LF A7R. FF no longer excites me. 35mm- whats that? Your dead to me.
+1 😉 😉 😉
Hey guys… i just picked up my A7 from 17th street photo, they have several in stock but their stock is very limited.
http://www.17photo.com/SearchResult.aspx?KeyWord=sony+a7
i got my a7 but don;t have a lens yet, running to BH to get the 35mm.
This hexx guy is such a bore ,he just comes here to boast LEICA!!! what a troll!!!
really? and you’re the only one entitled to have an opinion?
Couple of points, POP photo brown nose just about anything out there, well every camera gets an award, not taking away the A7 series potential nice cameras..but so what? Awards given away like DPR do mean nothing at all. There are very few sites/publications that go good reviews anymore which is a real shame for buyers.
Secondly, Leica ALWAYS WAS a luxury brand it has never been a mainstream company even decades ago. Nothing changed here at all.
So Leica is not “now a luxury brand” it was never anything but a high end maker/expensive brand which most people didn’t buy/can’t afford. What are LeicaBoss smoking? Where have they been for 40 years?
There’s a difference between “expensive” and “luxury”. Leica started out with costly but not lifestyle/luxury products.
They had the only 35mm system for a while, and were a mainstream camera system for a longer while. Watchmakers tools are expensive, too… but are not luxury items.
agreed. Leica was always expensive but their price increases are now far outstripping any rate of inflation anywhere in the world and they continue to make one-off models that sell for $$$. IMHO those are two signs of a luxury brand. Canon’s 1D or Nikon’s D4 are almost as expensive as an M camera but you don’t see gold plate one offs of those models being sold at auction.
Leica was not a mainstream brand due to their prices decades ago, but they were NOT a luxury brand. You did not buy the camera for the red dot. They were much superior cameras compared to others and much better made, and so they were appropriately priced. Middle class consumers that wanted the high quality was able to pay for it.
Today, Leica cameras are more expensive than other cameras, yet they are not of better quality. You can argue that certain parts of the current M cameras are better but not enough to justify 4X-5X the price. It is priced outside the affordability of the average consumer that’s willing to pay more for quality. Consumers can get better quality by paying less. When that happens, you become a luxury brand.
Leica has always been a luxury brand. When I was starting out in photography, just purchasing an M-series rangefinder (Nobody came close to charging the same price for an equivalent feature rangefinder.) would require an outlay equal to a Minolta body and at least 3-4 Rokkor lenses. They charge 4-5X the price for an item when it can provide maybe 5% better performance, if that because Leica has been able to successfully link its name to the highest quality and they charge the premium a prestige name permits. When someone purchases something like a 50/1.4 normal lens that would cost about $100-$200 from Canon or Nikon while Leica charges 10-20x that amount, its no longer about photography, it’s about “Look at me, I’m great, I can afford Leica lenses!”
Purchasing an item that costs far more than the mainstream competing products is by definition a luxury.
And that $200 50mm f1.4 would be softer at f4 than the 50mm Summilux ASPH is at f1.4.
Guess how much a Zeiss Master Prime T1.3 Standard would set you back?
Softer? How much so? You could probably see a bit of a difference in a real close-up examination and in a lens resolution test but in a practical A-B test at a normal observation distance I doubt there would be any apparent difference. Only a person who has seen a lot of Leica images would be significantly more accurate in picking out a Leica image. I probably couldn’t tell. That said, in fairness, I haven’t actually seen an image from one of the top line Leica lenses so I’m willing to change my mind if the evidence is there.
Leica= waste of money.
The post is driving a lot of hits into that site.
Leica-Boss isn’t known to be a Rockwell-like site so I will take his assessment more seriously.
That being said: There is still a over-reaching conclusion about what “Leica’ means. What is the ethos of Leica? Is Leica today what Leica was yesterday?
To this argument, we need some history digging and some soul searching.
* When all was equal (film days) the only thing that really mattered to IQ (sharpness, bokeh, colour, contrast) was the lens and nothing else. Unarguably, those who used Nikon lenses from the 70s had the same image quality of the 70s with their F5 if they used the same lenses. The only difference was the colour you had from the film you used or the grain from the latest advancements in film manufacturing.
In those days, Leica was truly worth it’s salt. Lenses were (and still are) excellent and produced great images with astonishing feel and colour. You did pay the price but it was worth it. Then, Contax jumped in and although they had a temperamental body (the G1/G2 had a picky AF) the 35mm, 45mm, 21mm and 16mm lenses were the stuff of legend (especially the 45mm and 16mm) but Leica’s value did not diminish because other things were on its favour (rangefinder accuracy, different magnification of VF, mechanical shutter speeds – before m7 – and so on)
* Now there are many more factors to consider in a camera. That is a fact. The sensor is one, the sensor AND lens combo is another, the imaging engine, the speed of writing to a card, the compatible cards (some M9s did not like some cards) and so on…
On the face of relying on other factors beyond the lens alone (or the experience of using a rangefinder) Leica today realized that it had heritage appeal since all its “competitors” modernized way beyond Leica engineers could afford to, they almost went bankrupt.
(read the translation from Der Spiegel)
http://photo.net/leica-rangefinders-forum/00BFYs
So the new owners came in, with cash, to modernize Leica. But the plan was not to make Leica a “modern” camera per se. The plan was to keep Leica – Leica, because of its heritage and the experience of using a Leica (this also saved them the pain of modernizing lenses, changing mounts, etc) but also to exploit the heritage. Leica Hermes? Leica Titanium? Leica anything? These are not moves characteristic with a company aiming to innovate…these are moves of a company that knows it has sex appeal and that to keep this sex appeal it must still hand make its products, in Germany, with new tech, at whatever the cost to keep it floating alike. How many times you hear “…but its not made like a Leica” or “…it doesn’t yet feel like a Leica”? I admit, the do feel nice, but not $5K nicer than an RX1.
The thing accidentally posted before I could finish.
Today, Sony understands that a successful camera must have an excellent front and back and its not looking to bring any heritage forwards (none of that retro styling hipsters think keeps their photography “pure”) Sony’s got Zeiss’ back and that partnership, they both knew (since the first Zeiss for Sony lenses) is about to pay off now.
Leica took too long to understand the digital age. They appeared to be to Panasonic what Zeiss was to Sony. Sadly enough, Panasonic was betting on a format that took a bit too long to catch up with mainstream appeal (tech wouldn’t allow it for a while) and Sony wanted badly to resuscitate Minolta’s appeal under its own brand and, unarguably, had the hardest road to walk on living on the shadow of Canikon, frown upon by many for not being “pro” enough, or cheap enough.
Now who’s got the attention?
Yes, but as of now Leica is fairly competent in the digital game.
People bash the M8, but it is, after all, a camera from 2007. Back in then the M8 was the smallest interchangeable camera around, and stayed this way until the 2010 NEX-3.
The M9 was the smallest FF ILC, and had very decent output, comparable to the 5dmk2 and Nikon D700. This was in 2009, of course. And the M type 240 can compete in terms of output quality with any FF body except the D800E/A7r. Of course it’s a $7,000 camera, but you do get vastly superior build quality in the package.
The Hassy Lunar is a “luxury”. Leica M is just a “premium” alternative choice.
and what many forget is the fact that Leica was the first to introduce FF mirror less with live view (meaning you can adapt other lenses)
You know what that means? That means Leica will be jacking up its retarded prices for the stupidest of the stupidest.