This is a Guest Post written for SAR by Guiskard (http://guiskard.net). Feel free to share your stories and reviews by contacting me (Andrea) at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com.
—
When I bought the A7r in December last year my decision was based on a couple of key features: Small Body, high resolution plus the possibility to adopt my old nikon lenses. Another aspect was the option to get Zeiss lenses perfectly suiting this camera. Now, almost half a year later I’d like to share my experiences with this blog that helped me a lot in terms of making up my mind if I really should spend money on this particular camera and later when I got it, how to get the most out of it. It’s not supposed to be another review with all the technical details – I think others did already a great job in that term. I’d rather write something about my experiences as a reportage photographer.
Recently I spent some time in India, using the A7r for a couple of features and I didn’t regret it at all. Let’s start with the dimensions. Compared to a DSLR the body is obviously a lot smaller, the Zeiss primes are light and small, too. This means that I could use a slim sling bag for all my gear (i.e A7r, the 35mm Zeiss, 20/50/135mm Nikon legacy lenses, adapter), a bottle of water, one or two books and some food. It’s such a big advantage traveling with just as little luggage as possible. It pays off even more when you are frequently in overcrowded trains or busses. At the same time it is a lot less obvious when you are shooting undercover. The A7r looks much more like an old analogue camera than the professional and very powerful tool that it actually is. To enhance this look I put black ducktape on all the logos and lettering. I got the impression that people were less cautious or didn’t pay that much attention – which was a big plus for me in many situations. If the shutter sound was a bit more discrete, it would have been even better. But the places where I usually shoot have some background noise anyway – so I don’t mind that much.
Nikon 50 mm, 1.8,
More important to me are the lowlight qualities because – again it reduces the weight I have to
carry. I’d rather get that not so fast but small and light lens instead of the heavy and bulky one that might be a stop or even two faster. Besides the whole system is even more compact like this. Up to ISO 3200 the results are very usable and in combination with noise reduction in post processing almost astonishing considering the 36mp sensor (I’ m really curious how the news A7s will behave here). And I don’t want to miss that large sensor anymore! Not only for the narrow depth of field that I really love – which is sometimes almost too difficult to handle, already with the 1.8/50mm – but mainly for the possibility to crop substantially. Again and again I’m totally amazed by the sharpness this camera delivers even if you zoom in like mad. Often things simply happen too fast in front of my camera to be able to think for a long time about composition or how to frame the subject. It’s so good to know that it just doesn’t matter. Sure I have to know which part of the image should be in focus, but for the rest I often do the job in post and still you don’t see it – not even in large sizes.
Being used to optical viewfinders I didn’t really know what to think of this EVF in the beginning. Looking through optics isn’t exactly the same thing as staring on a screen. But again it turned out to be a smart piece of technology. I really like the possibility to display different kind of levels and other information. However, most important to me is the constant brightness no matter what f-stop you choose. Even at night you’ll get a usable viewfinder image to work with. Shooting in bright daylight it’s very useful for briefly checking your results as one doesn’t see anything on the screen on the back of the camera. Another highlight is the the magnifying tool and focus peaking – both very helpful when using legacy glass. However, I must admit that the 35mm is a real always on lens for me.
Quite a lot of users were complaining about the autofocus speed. As I rarely shoot action or birds or something comparably fast – the AF works just fine for me. The only downside is the complicated adjustment of the focus point – I wish that would be easier and quicker to do. Something that really gets on my nerves is the ISO dial. It happened again and again that I touched the wheel with my nose while shooting. OK, you might argue that it’s connected to the size of my nose but whatsoever, it is pretty annoying if you realize that you were using the wrong sensitivity. Usually it’s to high (otherwise I become aware of the slow shutter speed) and eventually the problem emerges only in post when I see noise in the image where it’s not supposed to be. It’s a pain but I’m aware of the issue now and try to be extra careful with my nose.
Finally, considering the whole system – ergonomics, built quality and sturdiness, sensor technology, the possibility to adopt a large variety of legacy glass and the quality of the Zeiss lenses – it seems to be a really good package for reportage photographers. I do enjoy the handiness of this camera in combination with the excellent sensor. It delivers great sharpness, offering good lowlight quality and an impressive dynamic range, being unobtrusive at the same time – right now I don’t see any other model to compete with the A7r.
Links: http://guiskard.net
0 Responses
I thought you might want to know, you can lock the ISO dial. It makes it so you have to push a button before adjusting the sensitivity.
I can’t believe after half yr of usage, the author didn’t know how to reassign the ISO dial to a custom button. *FACEPALM*
I put LCD on/off, ISO, focus point select & MF magnifier on those customise buttons
I guess on the net, everyone’s an expert ;p
For travel photography like this its a real shame this cam misses the GPS, else it would have been nearly perfect.
I also am very happy with mine. It brought some joy back to me.
The A7 looks more and more exiting. But i wanna wait a while before i buy one. Because i want to see how the A99 mk II ( when it comes out ) is compared to A7. And offcourse. Se how the A7r is against the A7s
I agree – a few too many issues for me this generation, but I could see me buying an a7rii if they deal with the shutter noise and improve AF performance/usability (they really need to rethink how you select the focus point)
A7 shutter is quite a bit quieter and less shaky. Having used both, i wouldve bought the a7 instead of the a7r if i were to choose again.
Just a note about the AF.
If you want fast AF you have to use the A7 with PDAF enabled and restrict the focusing point to the center area of the frame. The A7 only has PDAF points in the APS-C portion of the frame, and it doesn’t warn you about this! There’s a menu option to mark the area that has PDAF.
By default the camera does a mix of PDAF and CDAF on the entire frame, which is really slow.
Once you restrict the AF point to the PDAF points, AF is quite fast. Faster than my D7000 anyway.
Nice to know, however, the A7r used by the author of the article does not have any PDAF points.
Thanx for the nice subjective view…
when you touch the iso dial with your nose, you must be a left eye shooter…? my nose is fairly big, but i never touched the iso dial with my nose, i am a right eye shooter
I think so too. That’s one of the disadvantages of putting an EVF where it is on the A7 series, particularly for left-eyed shooters – you risk bumping your nose in the controls or your own fingers.
Hello, concerning the ISO setting I would like to know if there is a way to affect the rear dial for ISO settings in place of the rear control wheel?
I am afraid that, to my eyes, not one of these pictures looks sharp. No VR with Nikon lenses…
It is not the VR but the focus. I also find a large number of these shots fuzzy due to misplaced focus. I liked the author’s reportage (words- in his blog) and also the carefree photography which is just fine as well. 🙂
The text here, for SAR, is focused towards the A7R. Strikingly, there are no FE lenses in play at all (EU prices of these FE lenses are 2X those in Japan). Yup, the A7R, works just fine for street, even without those overpriced lenses.
New term…nose noise.
Ahhhh. The Typical Sony users commenting about sharpness, and most are the same that bash Nikon, Canon, Fuji, etc saying use old technology and such.
Sony typical fanfare always focuses on sesnor size, sharpness, ISO, etc and misses the point of photography.
The images are great, they tell a story, have nice composition, and lighting. That’s what this is about, some of the best street photos weren’t so sharp they could cut bread but they had emotion and passion.
I own Sony and Nikon, and can tell you after reading post yesterday from this site where people bashed Thom Hogan, I realize that kids with old Nikon D40 cameras understand photography more than most of the people commenting on this site.
Here it’s more about gear heads who want clean ISO 25000 and most don’t even own the gear they comment on nor will they ever buy it. Apparently everyone here shoots in pitch black and never once have I seen comments or links to lighting techniques or composition.
Go ahead and flame me but those are the facts. Go read the angry comments attacking Thom Hogan from yesterday’s post about the new D800s camera after he added intellect to this site about the Sony sensor.
The guy has more photographic technique and skill in one hand than the forum trolls here have combined.
I agree with most of what you say. Its not just this site, most of the web and forum based photo discussions today centers around gear and (to some degree) fanboyism. Which is just silly, because that is not what photography is about at all. Photography is about creating a compelling image that can (hopefully) in some way move the human soul.
My A7 album on Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/8539414@N07/sets/72157641534772013/
The reason I left Canon a few years ago and moved to Sony was for most of the same reasons as Guiskard. My photography involves the use of old film era lenses almost exclusively. I shoot with almost nothing today except for Yashica ML lenses in the CY mount. When the NEX 7 came it I immediately recognized it as a superior platform for my style of photography then the Canon gear I was using at the time.
First and foremost I am an artist whose only successful medium of expressing myself has been photography. The image creation process is something I find very enjoyable and I am very pleased with what I have created over the years. The tool I use to do this is only important insofar as it helps me create my vision without getting in the way.
Since I use old lenses the move to a NEX 7 when it came out was a no brainer. It was superior in every way to my 5D and 40D. I gave the NEX a try and all my Canon gear was gone in a month. Since then I have created many wonderful images with that little camera. It was given new life when the Metabones Speedbooster came out. Again, the Speedbooster was a tool that helped me create my vision. It basically turned my little NEX 7 into a full frame 24mp digital back for every lens ever made.
My NEX 7 album can be seen here. https://www.flickr.com/photos/8539414@N07/sets/72157629936411965/
When the A7 came out, it was natural to add that to my existing photographic arsenal. It uses the same battery and charger as my NEX 7 and the two cameras compliment each other perfectly. The cleaner high ISO capabilities of the A7 were very welcomed over the NEX. It allows for more creative options in challenging lighting situations. As to light, I use natural light only for my photography since I follow a ‘travel light’ philosophy. So you wont hear me going on about different lighting techniques and such. 🙂
But all this talk about gear is, as I said, second to the actual image creation process. The cameras are simply tools, necessary evils an artists needs to make the image. I very much enjoy my Sony cameras from many standpoints…artistically, aesthetically, etc. But if someone where to come out with a better camera FOR ME to use to create the images I love then I would have no problem jumping ship. But the fact is that right here, right now, Sony is building some of the best equipment available for photographic artist in the world, hands down.
But again tho, I know where your coming from. I wish more people in theses types of threads would link images to back up whatever bull crap they are spouting about specs and camera capabilities. I dont give a crap about what you know about cameras or what you think your camera can do. Show me your photographs. 🙂
The very first customization almost everybody makes with this camera is to take ISO off of the dial – problem solved. Similarly, place the AF point selection activation on a button then it’s a two click operation to move AF point rather than a trip to the menus.
I was interested in getting (or at least finding out about) the A7r. Someone sent me to this site. The author of the article speaks to the size of the camera and the fact that it’s good for street photography. However, the images shown here are neither sharp nor very interesting–therefore not a good promo for Sony, in my view. I’ll look further. I am still interested in the Sony system.
Roland, for page after page of incredible imagery from the a7 series I suggest you go here. You will find some of the best of what is being created on the a7 today.
http://www.getdpi.com/forum/sony/50257-fun-sony-a7-a7r-series.html
As to sharpness, Im not sure what is not pleasing or acceptable from the images in the original post. What I see is the photographer using a narrow DOF. I shoot wide open myself much of the time and it is very necessary in this type of photography to be mindful of your focal point and composition. I think sharpness is very much overplayed in todays internet photography. I spend a lot of time looking through old photography books from the film era and there is page after page of beautiful imagery that, if posted to modern forums, would be blasted for being ‘not sharp’. That doesnt mean the image isnt beautiful and print worthy. It just means that there are many armchair photographers who latch onto ‘sharpness’ as a Holy Grail that they can actually judge a photograph on by pixel peeping at 200% and then judge it unworthy in ‘their’ esteemed opinion. At the same time they can make no valued artistic comment on composition, lighting, emotion or any true measure of a photos worth.
Remember, there is no Pulitzer Prize for sharpness. 🙂
Actually if you view the original full resolution files on photobucket other than the feet shot they are all sharp. The problem is when reduced on the websites in size the photos no longer look sharp.
You are joking, right? Regardless of the size, the plane of focus stays the same.
What do you shoot with? If that works, stick with it. 🙂