DCfever posted many new full size images samples:
Sony A7 28-70mm samples: http://www.dcfever.com/cameras/viewsamples.php?set=923&picture=9793
Sony A7r with 35mm Zeiss samples: http://www.dcfever.com/cameras/viewsamples.php?set=925
As usual keep in mind that these are shots taken with a preproduction camera. That said let us know what you think about the image samples you have seen so far. You like them?
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Support SonyAlphaRumors: After months of FF mirrorless rumor work I would be glad if you can support my work by making your A7-A7r purchase by using these links below. I will earn a small commission and you don’t pay one single penny more! Thanks!
Specs and Preorders in US and Canada (Click on store name to see direct preorder page):
Dedicated Sony announcement page at Amazon US (Click here).
Sony A7r body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony A7 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
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, FI, SE, PT, WexUK, WexDE.
Sony A7 body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, FI, FR, SE, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, FI, FR, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony RX10 at Sony DE, 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,
63 Responses
Its not the Zeiss, but the Kit-lens 28-70mm 😉
Stopped down not the worst lens in my opinion.
lol sorry! Corrected it 🙂
Those file sizes are insane — I’m not sure I would be ready to crunch and store files at 24mb.
The RAWs will be 50-80mb 🙂
Source: The 3,000 D800 images in my library.
compressed they will be <40mb
I'm betting you're not using compression for your nikon.
No, those are losslessly compressed 14bit RAW.
Sony’s RAW are compressed. Exept around 36 MB of RAW files
Nikon d800 losslessly compressed RAWs come below 40mb. At ISO 100 they are more like around 35 (converted to DNG during import). I’d expect the same from A7R files.
I’ll be ordering the a7 + kit lens & Zeiss 35mm. But I’m going to wait to order until I see some reviews focusing on the video capabilities of this camera. I do a lot of video and this one looks like it fits the bill. Great price, too!
Really hoping that is the case with video, but the few video samples that have been posted so far are quite disappointing (relatively soft picture with a significant amount of moire).
If this has already been posted then i apologize.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmOjXLZWLXg
I am also curious about the video quality – from what’s been posted before it looks a little soft to me, but this youtube video in the link looks pretty good – especially considering the low light environment.
The video looks just like the a99, soft and moire riddled avchd with a disappointingly low bit rate. Just give us 10-bit 4:2:2, it’s been in xdcam’s for years, I’m sure the new processor can easily handle it, Sony just can’t get past protecting its other lines, grrrrr….. I really wish Sony would throw in the towel with avchd and move to prores. But they had a hand in developing avchd and they’re damn stubborn, just can’t admit it sucks and use something more robust. I really want to dump my 5d3 for the A7, it ticks all the boxes except one – video. And that’s 50% of my business.
To be fair the 4:2:2 is available via the hdmi port. Last night a Sony rep at the Australia Launch stated a fix for the moire should be available before launch, it will bring it inline with the rx10 – this was the only comment I didn’t get on card, shame I would love to of held it to them
I hope he’s right. That would be fantastic. My understanding is that the RX-10 doesn’t do line skipping, which is why it seems so much better dealing with moire.
What city was the launch? I hope not Sydney as I would have liked to have gone.
Melbourne Digidirect Store, saved atleast 1200 bucks; $500 for 35mm, $200 battery grip, free $500 Metabones EF to E mark III, free 32 SD card.
I had the a99 and what came out of the HDMI port was no better than what was written to the card, and the IQ was worse than my Nex 5n.
I am going to order pocket camera . Sony had chance and failed . Sorry sony . Fs100 + pocket camera should be good mix .
AVCHD isn’t the reason for moire. It’s happening due to line skipping. FS700 uses AVCHD and takes stunning videos
Yes line skipping is the source of moire. People continually bring up the FS as an example of great avchd, but there’s still banding and lack of shadow detail that you don’t see in a more robust codec. The A7’s video specs are grossly outdated, my Nex 5n shoots better video than the a99, I shot them side by side before returning the a99, I expect this to be no different.
“significant amount of moire”
Well, what did you expect from a AA-filter-less camera? 😉
The A7 does have an antialiasing filter. And it’s the A7’s sample where there was a lot of moire. I believe Sony will fix it before shipping starts.
Was referring to the A7. Thw issue with moire on the video has to do with line skipping.
What type of video work do you do sabunyuma (if you don’t mind me asking?)
I already have, last night at a Sony Event. Ill get my A7, Zeiss 35mm, kit lens, Metabones ef adapter and battery grip on Nov 23rd.
Stunning! should I cancel the A7 and go with A7R?
This probably doesn’t apply to you but worth considering is that I’m concerned about the high megapixel’s in the A7R as already with my NEX 7 it showed up the flaws in my technique I have had to correct. Going to a higher megapixel will show up more where I made mistakes and I know it will take me a while to correct my technique again. I think a lot of the samples to date have shown flaws from the photographers they never knew they had until these megapixel monsters exposed them.
Don’t jump up to the 36mp right away unless you’re willing to deal with much larger files, no electronic first curtain shutter, no PDAF, and only 1/160s flash sync.
Actually, I personally REALLY LOVE the results from the 36.4mp sensor (shot a lot with D800) but, I’m still going to go for the 24mp version first because it has usability improvements that are important. Like PDAF, EFCS, and 1/250s shutter. I’d like to eventually have two bodies, one that is 36mp or higher, and the other for more everyday shooting.
I would agree — I am interested to see the reactions when the beast of 36mp becomes a reality. It’s not a point and shooter – it will need to be tripod driven in anything other than 12pm full sun with a min of 1/200.
Looks good to me.
This site cost me a lot of money! I pre-ordered the A7 and the 35 F2.8. Thank you for the links helping me spend all my money. :-).
This thing looks great!!!
(I went with the A7 because I want the low pass filter, PDAF, and smaller picture size. I will be using it as my “all purpose camera” but mostly to document my family with photo and video.)
Hahaha…
My pockets are going to be empty.
Emptied mine last night. Had hands on with both a7 and a7r. You can feel the build difference, teal is just colder.
The AF in the R using the 35mm is much better than other NEX cameras, just not EM-1 good.
Did you try to compare the AF speed on A7 and A7R ?
It’s interesting to me just how overlooked the RX10 has been due to being overshadowed by the A7 & A7r excitement. I only mention this because so many commenters are asking about the video quality of the A7. The RX10 has an amazing feature set for video (selectable smooth vs clicked aperture ring, constant f/2.8 Zeiss 24-200 power zoom, clean 4:2:2 HDM out). But what’s most promising for video is that the full 20MP sensor is captured in real time for 1080p video–NO LINE SKIPPING, I.e. seriously reduced moire and artifacts. So, the video quality should outperform all current alpha cameras, including my beloved A99, as well as the A7, A57/65/77, NEX7/6/5, and all VG video cameras.
The RX10 may be a sleeper hit. It certainly isn’t getting the attention it deserves right now, anyway.
I’ve pre-ordered one and hope Sony starts shipping soon.
+1. Also has a built-in ND filter.
The rx10 video results are outstanding for the price. It looks to be a more professional grade of video camera
Hey Andrea
Curious about the new alpha 8 and 9s. They won’t need the severe offset lenses on the sensor to maintain corner sharpness, but since Sony has the teck anyway, will they use a toned down version in the big alphas? Could be interesting….
What a8’s and a9’s are you talking about?
The noise in some of these pictures looks very bad to me. The guy standing with the sun behind him, the bottles, etc have lots of digital cross-hatched banding. My nex5n does not do this at all. The leica Monochrom does not either that I have noticed. Is it just me noticing this?
After going through my 645d and 6D high ISO files I am finding neither of these cameras have the excessive cross-hatches banding noise either. Is it because I only use raw and these are jpeg?
Sorry. I don’t think I described that properly. It’s not exactly cross-hatch banding. It looks like bacteria under a microscope, some long and others circular strewn across the mid-tones. I prefer the film grain noise look to this strange bacteria. I imagine that when you sharpen these picture the bacteria noise will become more pronounced and distract from the scene, I love huge enlargements otherwise I might not be very concerned.
I think this is consistent with my A850 noise characteristics. But I blame my post processing skills as I’ve seen many great pictures taken with the old camera. The new sensor is supposed to be better, which I believe it is.
Thank you for your comment Justme. I went back after reading it and found 2 pictures of mine that have this exact look. The cause for me was purposely underexposing to prevent blowing the highlights with the sun at my subject’s back. The images did not have bacteria noise prior to pushing the shadows and mid-tones then adding clarity so avoiding underexposure might prevent bacteria noise.
I do not have this problem with night photos because the lenses I use for night photography are f0.95-1.4 and I always sacrifice depth of field for proper exposure and lower ISO or use a tripod.
Looks like jpeg-compression artefacts to me! May be better with final firmware, but even Olympus cameras (I own E-M5) – lauded for their jpeg engine – create “bacteria” even in a blue and properly exposed sky:-( Shoot raw; be happy:-)
Anders
Thank you for your observation Anders. I am very glad you posted this! I believe you are correct. My strange noise pictures were raw so I researched LR and raw artefacts. This article came up saying LR4 had a problem with artefacts after using shadows, clarity and lens correction: http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/lightroom_4_1_rc2_artefacts_when_using_shadows_clarity_and_image_warp_lens_corrections
I am almost certain that I used LR4.1 to process those pictures. This would also explain why later pictures of mine that I purposefully underexposed and processed the same way did not have bacteria noise. I had already upgraded my LR at that point. Mystery solved! Thank you!
Hi Heidi:-)
The reply button to your last post has disappeared to the right in my browser @ work so I’ll have to respond to your older post instead …
You are welcome – glad I could be of assistance!
BTW, I didn’t know of the LR 4.1 phenomenon so thank you right back;-)
A
As Nikon, A7R is also suffered the problem of enlarging effect. Any kind of blurry, shaky, mis-focus of the images might be getting obvious when enlarging to 100%. Sometimes you need to find out the in-focus point by peeping. That’s why some people thought that the image is worse than 24MP. That’s no other way to avoid the problem except using smaller aperture and faster shutter speed. The user should see it as a MF digital back and bring along the tripod / monopod always. F5.6 might be the best friend for A7R. The sweetest spot of MTF and longer DOF.
Can’t wait for the Zeiss 24-70 F4 samples, or the primes
These kit lens samples just look very bad. That also makes me wonder how many Nex lenses right now can resolve more than 24MP??
I asked Sony Australia where the illusive a7 manual could be found as I wanted to find out a few things.
Their response .
Hi Jim,
My name is Scott, thank you for your email and interest in the A7/r camera.
Unfortunately the manual is not available until the unit is released on the market, however I have passed on your enquiry to our development team to see if it is at all possible to have this released sooner.
I have also provided a link below which will provide some extra information regarding the camera and its features.
http://www.sony.net/Products/di/en-gb/index.html
Thank you again for your email and interest in the A7.
Kind Regards,
Scott
Customer Support Representative
Sony Australia and New Zealand
AU 1300 137669
NZ 0800 766969
Nice concise response from Scott. He has not bee given this info yet. Not a good answer but not him, what he has to say.
Sony Australia then emailed me and asked me to fill in a survey.
http://interact-sony.force.com/Survey/timbasurveys__survey?id=a0Q900000022h8oEAA&cId=0039000000b4WRT&case_id=5009000000EE5IP&wf=yes
Which I did. well sort of. a bit. but!
They ask 1 to 10 questions fine and there are 2 sections to enter text asking how they can attain the 10 rating. But. But, as you tell them. When the window is 30% used, it will not take any more perhaps they don’t real want to know.
The whole thing is directed to kicking the answer guys. When I used the second text box to explain that truncating was not good and it was a Management issue. I got truncated again.
Still no manual. And. And, they want me to buy the camera. Joke. Joke. This is not good management and I will not be buying a camera, or anything else from them.
How do I know that the product is not on a par with the management.
I made a comparison of what your money can buy you:
OMD-EM1 – $1399
12mm f2 – $799
25mm f1.4 – $530
60mm f2.8 Macro – $500
75mm f1.8 – $899
Total: $4130
Sony A7 – $1700
35mm f2.8 – $800
55mm f1.8 – $1000
Total: $3500 (room for accessories or other lenses when released)
Sony A7r – $2300
35mm f2.8 – $800
55mm f1.8 – $1000
Total: $4100
So if you had about $4100 to spend… What would you do??
I really want the A7r, but when I see what my money can buy??? jeez… thats a lot of glass! But then again… I prefer the look of the Sony (Not a big fan of the clunky grip on the EM1) and larger prints and cropping.
Would love to hear some CONSTRUCTIVE criticism about these options. Ready… go!
It’s quite simple actually. The E-M1, especially with these four lenses is a superb versatile set which you could use in almost any situation reliably and the resolution is enough for almost everything.
The A7 or A7r with these two lenses would be more limiting (and not many options for additional lenses) but you get nicer bokeh and more resolution which can be good for commercial work but a lot larger files too.
I have the E-M5 which I’ll keep for street shooting (almost quiet shutter, touch AF, lenses with almost instant AF) and for it’s versatility and I’m planning to get the A7 later for portraits and studio use. Though the E-M5 is great for those two applications as well.
Configurability and the camera doing what you want are important. We know the E-M1 is very highly configurable. You can down load a manual and see. As well as getting sound (well mostly) comments on line with plenty of samples. The comments from reliable sources are based on the manual.
On the other hand. The Sony seems to be having some conflicts with people not knowing what it is capable of, OK, it take pictures. But how will it be configured. The answer to that is. Ding ding ding. No one knows. I would spend $4100 on something I know about. Do you have $4100 to spend based on info from a marketing guy who wants a new Merc.
I own E-m5 and all those primes you mentioned in the list. The quiet shutter noise and its blazing AF speed make it perfect for my use in theaters, where I can shoot at artists without disturbing them, nor the public.
I work also on the red carpet, I took candids at artists on the street with the great 75mm and as far as Zi know there is no lens around similar to it.
I want(ed) to add a 7r for portraits of artists, but a lot of its festures are still hidden inside a cloud of negative, at least to me, aspects like the loud shutter noise and vibration, add them to the absence of stabilisation and it seems I’ll have a harder time to take photos at dancers in dim light.
I met great photographers Lelli and Masotti, to my surprise they are looking for the E-m1 to use instead of their Canon 5D mark III: this speaks volumes about the quality of the “tiny sensor system”.
Just know the limits of the systems. Both.
Don’t worry about the print size: I have printed photos 1 meter width and hung next to pictures taken with d800.
I’m on your same boat: should I add an E-m1 to work easier?
Should I go with a brand new 7r, still not knowing its real performances and flaws?
Should I go on and saving for a Monochrom to have a completely different approach and fun?
Should I get a 3 months old RX1R and enjoy it?
Personally I’m waiting for Steve Huff full review, then I’ll try a 7r and then decide. : )
“”I own E-m5 and all those primes you mentioned in the list. The quiet shutter noise and its blazing AF speed make it perfect for my use in theaters, where I can shoot at artists without disturbing them, nor the public.”””
I also have a comprehensive mFT set up including the E-M5/GH3 you really need to cherry pick a situation to say its AF is “blazing fast”. Certainly if quiet is important it is a lot quieter than any DSLR
“”I work also on the red carpet, I took candids at artists on the street with the great 75mm and as far as Zi know there is no lens around similar to it.””
That is a bit of an exaggeration the 75mm is a very good lens and I use mine often , however it is not difficult to find 135mm lenses for full frame with better DOF control . On APS the cheap Nikon 85mm F1.8G delivers excellent results at an effective focal length of around 128mm .It may not have the style of the 75mm { if you care about that sort of thing} but it is an excellent performer . On FF it is actually a spectacular performer for the price. It is also weather sealed and comes with a hood lol
http://www.dxomark.com/Lenses/Compare-Camera-Lenses/Compare-lenses/%28lens1%29/823/%28brand%29/Nikkor/%28camera1%29/792/%28lens2%29/823/%28brand2%29/Nikkor/%28camera2%29/865/%28lens3%29/898/%28brand3%29/Olympus/%28camera3%29/0
“”I want(ed) to add a 7r for portraits of artists, but a lot of its festures are still hidden inside a cloud of negative, at least to me, aspects like the loud shutter noise and vibration, add them to the absence of stabilisation and it seems I’ll have a harder time to take photos at dancers in dim light.”””
As I also shoot with the D800 the A7r is also of interest to me though the noise doesn’t bother me. Image stabilisation has no value for moving subjects in low light you need fast lenses and good high ISO.
“””Don’t worry about the print size: I have printed photos 1 meter width and hung next to pictures taken with d800.””””
You are most certainly not looking at the prints very well if you do not see the difference between a mFT and a D800 . I am talking from personal use of both systems. mFT has been very enjoyable and a bit of an eye-opener, I am disappointed that there has been so little move forward on image quality. My E-M5 was only a fraction of a stop better high ISO than my GH2 , the E-M1 from the RAW files available looks to be all but identical to the GH3/E-M5/EP5 etc
http://www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Compare-Camera-Sensors/Compare-cameras-side-by-side/%28appareil1%29/793|0/%28brand%29/Olympus/%28appareil2%29/814|0/%28brand2%29/Nikon/%28appareil3%29/677|0/%28brand3%29/Panasonic
“I’m on your same boat: should I add an E-m1 to work easier?!
The E-M1 looks to be an excellent machine , I would have been interested if it had a higher MP count and a genuine 50ISO .I am at the opposite end of the wants scale form you my main interest are large landscape print production. I had hoped it would have moved forward with regards to image quality.
“Personally I’m waiting for Steve Huff full review, then I’ll try a 7r and then decide. : ) “”
No , harm to Steve he seems a cool guy but his “reviews” are just a little one sided to be considered reviews
@monroe, I understand your point of view, coming from your personal experience, but it does not disprove what I wrote: equivalent field of view (not depth of field) of 150mm is not here, not as zuiko75mm. 85mm on FF is a good lens, really, but it’s not so “long”.
There’s a nice list of fast (I mean from f1.8 and faster) lenses on m43 system, and you have a more useful double depth of field when using them at their widest apertures.
Prints should be looked from the “right” distance, to look at the subject, composition: of course I know that there’s a difference from a D800 and an E-m5 shot, expecially when pixel peeping.
When my portrait of Willem Defoe (actually it was a candid) was chosen as the best portrait of last year Venice Film Festival, many if not all other photographers were surprised that I used that tiny camera. It was printed 1 meter width.
For landscapes (I’m lucky to live in a nice area, next to mountains and 1 hour from Venice) I was hoping for a better resolution camera, thus the choice of 7r, but still I’m quite worried about the lenses: I was planning to use manual lenses, but how they perform is still unknown, and Steve Huff is going to test a bunch of them, from wide angle to 50mm (5 fifties) to see how they perform. You might like him or not, but I prefer his photos than boring charts..
I was having high expectations from the two FF mirrorless, and it’s still too early to preorder one (I’ll do from here Andrea 🙂 ). I need to wait a little more, trying to resist that RX1R occasion 🙂
You don’t say anything about your needs and preferences. The two formats will have their advantages and disadvantages and the respective systems too. Whatever you decide though, you can always resell, so it’s not like you can make a huge mistake.
Comparing a tiny 4/3 sensor to a full frame sensor makes no sense. You are not going to get the dynamic range, you are not going to get the noiselessness (remember that many vendors rate their ‘iso’ differently, so what may be iso 100 on a full frame is actually 160/200 on smaller sensors) and you are not going to get the shutter speeds.
It’s like comparing a fiat 500 abarth to a audi s3 – somewhat similar on the outside, wastly different inside..
Yeah, there is a difference in dynamic range but the E-M1’s and E-M5’s DR is more than enough in 99.8% of cases.
And unless you have to shoot tele zoom lenses in a dim church without flash or similar situation, with a prime lens noise won’t be an issue with either of them.
The A7(r) seems to have nicer highlight rolloff and really pleasant colors, but in real world use it doesn’t offer much above the Olys, and you lose versatility and the nice lens selection.
being an amateur, I don’t care about technical perfection, ultra sharpness and clean noiseless files, but it was a great revelation to me when I got myself the a850 and the 35mm f2. that combination of control over depth of field and wide field of view I just can not achieve with a mft-camera. I use it all the time shooting people in their everyday life. what you win at the tele end you lose in the other. to me, the creative possibility with a full frame sensor is keeping me away from mft, not the “technical superiority”. still, had I been a more skilled photographer, maybe I would have known ways to work around the limitations of smaller sensors, I don’t know.
Chesley these are both great platforms. A friend of mine uses the Olympus platform and he loves it, built in stabilisation in the body (IBIS), smaller less expensive lenses and really in an overall package thats pretty hard to beat. I use Sony and I love the NEX platform, its versatility in using other glass through adapters, focus peaking, the ability to remote control the settings from my Iphone or Ipad, I use that a lot in what I find interesting to capture. But its not full frame and its not high definition to the level of what the Sony 7 series has achieved. So it comes down to what you will be doing with the camera. I usually start with. “what am I doing right now with my camera” and how would I proceed from there. To my mind though the 7r is more of a specialist camera so I wouldn’t consider it unless I had another general camera . If you are looking at comparisons I would make a choice between the 7 and the OMD-EM1. Either way you are going to have a lot of fun 🙂
Reading through the comments, there were some that reminded me of a question that I had.
Why is it that people seem to have problems with the high pixel FF sensors when it comes to blur? I don’t get it because the physical size of a pixel should be the same as in a 16MP APS camera (and even worse for 24MP). Yet you see those discussions only popping up with FF. Why is that?
Can somebody upload these for download somewhere else, as a big zip maybe ?
I am unable to download them, just doesn’t seem to make it across the planet. 🙁