Image courtesy: Yuri Afanasiev
On Mclassic and on Flickr you can see a first image comparison between the Leica M and Sony A7r. This is just a rough comparison but you can easily see how much more detail the A7r resolves. And at first glance it looks like the A7r has a tiny better performance on corners too.
A7r vs A7 High ISO samples at CameraLabs:
In my view I’d say the A7r is the winner here, capturing finer details at the lower sensitivities and only barely falling behind at higher ISOs – an advantage which is effectively eroded if you down-sample the A7r images or print them the same size.
Full Sony A7r review at Fotopolis (google translation here). The camera got the highest ranking because of the “sensational picture quality” and “To sum up, the Sony A7R are currently the best offer on the market photo“.
Also the German site Chip.de (google translation here) ranked the A7r as one of the best camera ever tested while the A7 is the best camera in terms of value for money.
Unwire Hong Kong posted sample images of A7r. In short, they don’t think the AF is fast enough, but the EVF is so good that he feels like viewing through a OVF.
A7 vs other 24MP cameras at Imaging Resource.
Sony A7 review at Clubsnap. Sony A7r test at Clubsnap.
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
Asia:
A7r at Digitalrev.
A7 at Digitalrev, Amazon Cina.
A7 with 28-70mm lens at Digitalrev.
113 Responses
It looks great with the grip.
First Sony produces the smallest FF camera in the world.
Then they attach HUGE grip which is almost the size of the camera itself…
Even with that “huge” grip the camera is still lighter than any FF DSLR out there and is merely a few centimeters taller. And if you compare it with a DSLR with a grip, well then…
Adding the grip makes this camera complete; easier to hold, extra battery life and a look that exudes quality. Well done Sony.
This thing is a winner in the looks department.
+1
Is the A7 a good camera for event/wedding photography ?
I need:
– fast & accurate focusing
– moving target focusing
– good low light performance
I currently have A77, and I’m not impressed with low light performance or accurate focusing. I wonder if I should upgrade to A99 or to A7 ?
I agree with you on the lowlight performance of the A77; gets kinda noisy when the light gets low and you can’t use flash. High ISO performance is not its forte. Not necessarily bad, but not as good as some other cameras (including the older a580). I’ve not really noticed a problem with the focusing, though. Maybe it’s just the type of shooting I do, it hasn’t come up?
Anyway, like you, I, too, am wondering if my next move will be toward the A99 (or its successor) or the A7.
Admin mentioned new announcements in early 2014. One of them could be well suited for event photography.
Keep in mind though that if you can use flash – A77 really does a nice job. A99 (and A7) got a huge disadvantage here – new hotshoe where the only high-power flash is overheating like hell. So for wedding shooting you’d most likely want to take 3 of these and just swap them around. Which is very expensive.
And what makes it even worse – seems like Sony got no plans for replacement any time soon (Sony in general very rarely releases flashes, and asking for a replacement is kinda wishful thinking I’m afraid).
Yeah, that’s a good point about the new Sonys actually having a DISadvantage because of the only high-end flash they offer overheating. I currently shoot with the A77 and A900; will probably stick with those for a while for events and such.
For the last wedding I did I shot all the flash shots with A900+Zeiss 24-70mm and then used the A99 for all the other lenses and any indoor work.
The A77 is excellent for low ISO but simply horrible for high ISO work in my opinion – and in no way reflects the performance of the other Sony cameras at high ISO.
The A99 also offers bucket loads of dynamic range and great colours which I found ideal for the wedding and the same sensor seems to be performing even better in the A7 without the translucent mirror.
@a900andanex5: Thanks for the info. I agree with you about the A77. After about ISO 1600, things start to get fairly grainy. I actually intentionally use that fact when I do nighttime street photography, as that grain (noise) combined with black & white conversion actually adds to the photo. But yeah, at low-light, indoor events where you need the pictures to be sharp, it sucks at high ISO if you can’t use a flash.
LensisAll, that is very misleading and inaccurate. The F60 overheats quickly but ONLY at Full power. With respect, only a moron is shooting full-power on-camera flash in a wedding setting. While shooting formals, anyone who cares about their light is using external lighting (off-camera) i.e. not the F60. I have photographed over 100 weddings with my F60s and they have never over-heated because in the reception or cocktail hour, you are shooting at 1/8 or 1/16 power. The video light is extremely useful for quick detail shots. The only time my F60 flash has overheated is when using off-camera in 100 degree weather in Turks & Caicos islands- at which point my backup canon external flashes also overheated- the only difference is, instead of completely failing to fire as the Sonys do, the Canons just had a pitifully slow recycle rate. In both cases, we had to let the flash units cool.
I personally would pick A99 over A7 for low-light event shooting, but better than that, would wait for the next FF camera. Its too close to buy the A99 at full price, although I do believe it is a great camera, and has given me images I would never have gotten with any other system thanks to its usability and unique feature set.
I’ve used the HVL60 on many occasions without overheating problems, and my 40 year old Metz 202 works perfectly with the A99 using the external sync connection. Amazing the amount of disinformation propagated by people just regurgitating second and third hand rumors from the internet that lack any ‘hands on’ knowledge.
Good to know, Emph66 – thanks!
Is there a problem using F58 with the adapter??? (If you really think the F60 has a problem.)
And if you take too damn many pictures at a wedding, THIS be your punishment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U
I counted 10 flashes in an many seconds…
there is a place you can send the flash to be fixed for 100.00 I really think sony should be doing this and should make this simple change in all the new batch of the 60m flash.
SURE,
Great for a Wedding –
If you and clients don’t mind missing lots of shots from a once in lifetime event.
If you don’t mind making lots of excuses and lies to your Clients
If you can photograph a wedding in the Dark with Flashes.
Or
if you want to buy five Sony flashes to continually back up the primary flash unit that is overheating and rendered disfuntional.
Go ahead use the Sony platform for a priceless event
Have fun.
Moron.
@e All the issues mentioned are the fault of a bad photographer, no camera will compensate for that. You must be speaking from experience.
+1
I know this comment was pretty blunt so most will ignore it but I do agree 100%.
Funny how trolls always come with a wing man.
Not really trolls. Guy got a point – A7 isn’t a camera made for wedding photographers. No lenses for that, underwhelming AF, issues with EVF in low light – I can’t imagine anyone honestly recommending A7(r) to any wedding photographer. It’s not a camera for that purpose.
He’s one person and comment on his anger thought himself
What a troll
Yes, you are totally right about the anger thing. Never the less – at least partially: he is right.
@LensIsAll- No it is trolling, because the reasons listed are just a laundry list of talking points not backed up by fact, apparently this unique camera was not designed by his manufacture of fanboy choice and that makes him sad. Don’t worry he’ll get over it. And your comment about electronic viewfinders being unsuited for low light are incorrect, if you had the opportunity to use a modern EVF at night you would realize how ridiculous that statement is.
Emph66 – I got A77 and A57, so I’m well aware how unsuitable EVFs are for low-light photography.
Yes – if it’s extreme low light than bit of ‘night vision’ might be an advantage if you suffer from nyctalopia, but I never got any issues with using OVFs in low-light.
Lensisall, if you cannot use your EVF for low-light photography, you are just not equipped to operate a modern EVF camera. Coming from my A900 to A99 was easy. Lowlight focusing and visibility improved greatly. You might want to re-evaluate your eye-sight…
There are still some circumstances where the OVF is better; particularly high contrast backlit situations,the EVF tends to loose shadow detail. Rotating the exposure compensation temporarily will bring up the shadows (just remember to set it back)before firing the shot. Under all other situations I prefer the EVF and I’ve been using OVF’s most of my life. If a choice had to be made to select one or the other it would be the EVF hands down.
If you are such SOny haters, WTF are you doing here? Go find yourself polaroid rumor site,
Better option is to go back to rehab. You clearly need some more treatment, son.
It’s not about hate – it’s about grasping limitations of your equipment.
You must be an incompetent event photographer if you actually see that as a limitation. Throw a Sony, Nikon, or Canon camera in my hand and I’ll get those shots. Hell, I’ll get ’em with my old Sony a330. After all, just about every camera sold today is faster and more capable than the cameras sold 20 years ago, and people managed to photograph weddings just fine with those cameras…
You’re 100% correct, a good photographer knows his equipment and it’s limitations and how to get the results he/her needs to complete a task. Talented photographers have been getting the job don for 100+ years and don’t use excuses for bad performance. As technology improves the task may become easier, but no matter how sophisticated the camera the photographer is the crucial element.
And in film era people shot with manual focus glass and ISO 100 film.
So what?
So it’s ok to shoot a wedding with it.
Yes, having a very powerful flash was an asset in the low ASA film days. Many beautiful wedding albums were created using these now primitive tools.
+1000 HELL YES. I don’t care what camera I’m using, I’ll get the shot. Skills are far more important that hardware. Following the trolls logic it must be impossible to take photos of events in history prior to the digital era.
+100000000000
My friend charges $10,000+ for weddings and I shot one with him where he did 95% of the wedding with an RX1. Learn your camera.
Your brief comment trumps all trolls on this page. Schweet.
Let me guess..you are some Nikon retard pissed off that Nikon cant come up with anything more exciting than some lame retro look camera with nothing innovative after all the hype they did…right?
@e
Get a life! Have some fun!!Trolling won’t do good for you!!!
I guess I’m exposed… I’ve been shooting weddings with the a900 for years and now the a99 for the last year and had absolutely no issues with flash usage or anything else. BTW my commissions usually approach or exceed 5 figures.
wow,I would love to see your work. It is possible to not have the flash overheat depending on how you shoot but when compared to every other flash system it really does suck.
You can click on his name to see his work.
I usually don’t shoot 1/1 flash power continually while I shoot, so the overheating doesn’t affect me. But I’ve seen 2 solutions that work for professional event photographers.
1. F60 battery modification by Southern Photo in Miami, Florida. Costs about $100 with shipping included. Users are reporting that they get up to 50 shots at 1/1 before any overheating. This is well within spec of any top flash.
2. Use an external battery pack. This is a method that I’ve tested and it works well. I couldn’t get the flash to overheat at all even after 50 shots or so.
Very sad but. I agree with most of what you said as much as I love sony. They need to fix this issue right away. I changed the way I shoot because of the problem and although it rarely happens to me now, it always happens at the wrong time. I have however got some nikon sb 28 flash guns and I normally shoot in manual so its not so bad but is a compromise.
I thought i saw some pretty ugly camera’s out there… but this one takes the gold!!!
Heck the worst thing is it’s too small to even hide behind it… Hahaha
There is only one issue with the A7(R) which needs to be considered when thinking about to use for weddings – it has a very loud shutter noise, that might be a disturbing factor to the audience.
That’s quieter than a D800. Please stop with the shutter noise comments pertaining to weddings.
Dibok I can tell you are not a wedding photographer… because seriously the SHUTTER NOISE DISRUPTING A WEDDING EXCUSE??? I mean come on, have you EVER heard of that happening at more than 1 in 10,000 weddings?!? The A900 is loud as F**K and I shot about 150 weddings with mine. D4 and D800 aren’t exactly what I would call discreet- they are used and coveted by wedding and event photographers everywhere! Get a grip, man.
i get self-concious about my shutter noise inside the quick church ceremony. all you can hear is my shutter clicking 🙁
I wouldn’t mind getting a RX1 just for inside the churches shots. 🙂 it’s a lot of money though just for a handful of shots in the albums though.. so something smaller even, and quiet will do the job.. ie: any m4/3 or rx1 type box ?
weddings – must have requirement is TWO CARD SLOTS. – that’s it in a nutshell – no two slots – no good for weddings.
out of all the specs, nothing matters more than having a live backup in-camera of the memory card. no serious wedding snapper would ever risk his/her entire career and reputation by using gear without a backup .. which includes live backup of cards in a dual-slot snapping box.
myself, I’m finished with the weight of pro bodies like my d3’s and the required 35kg’s of glass in bag – all day long.
also, I’d need the next system to at least cover the basics – for this wedding snapper, i’d need my 12-24, 24-70, 70-200, 60mm macro and a tilt-shift 24mm + 85mm. oh and my 105mm macro also.. add two flashes and batteries and all that just equals a very sore shoulder and tired arms..
Tony, my suggestions- go to the gym or invest in an assistant? Do you carry your equipment around with you while you are actually shooting?!? I have heavy bags, but I set it down once I arrive and build my camera… so its not that big of a deal. You may perhaps also consider roller bags, they ease the load considerably. Good glass is heavy. Backup bodies are heavy. 5 flash units are heavy. Backup AAs get heavy. It all adds up. I just hope you aren’t wandering around the church with your entire backpack, because yes, that would kill your shoulders and is entirely unnecessary
haha yeah.. i use a fold up metal trolly with nice big rubber rolling gear on it.. – fits two or three bags stacked high with gear..
but still.. gotta drag that junk about all day haha..
inside church i travel light – just two bodies – one with the 12-24 for UW and other has the flashy with the 24-70 for MCU and 105mm in my pocket.. if i have time to prep and got access up top, then i’ll remote a rig up stairs.. one less body to worry about haha.. couples love those shots and less work for me, i like to be lazy and sit out the back and snap away remotely 🙂
and on locations, i make good use of the best man and his buddies to look after my bags while i’m off snapping the poor sod who just got chined and his lovely bride 🙂
ps: who needs gym when you rep 5kg’s of camera to your face about 800 times in a few hours at weddings lol
I think the A7 will be great for many things… but without fast, native lenses I wouldn’t say it’s great for Weddings… (unless you’re a wiz when it comes to manual focus)
A wiz to manual focus a wedding? I do sports in low light manual focus and I dont consider me near a wiz level.
A great skill to have (and one I need to get better at)
according to reviewers, continuous focus for stills is done better by canikon. I believe a99 is good enough though. the a7(r) is definitely not for you. if I was you I would either wait for upcoming models or get the a99.
The a99 is great for weddings and really love the 60AM flash. Unless you are totally dependent on using the flash at full power all day long in a rapid manner you are fine. Much of my portfolio in the last year has been shot with the a99 if you care to look.
Buy DXO Pro 9 for low light shooting! http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/52426735
I would say that the A7 outshines A77 at focus in low light!
You think?
I think not.
But it certainly outshines it in high ISO performance.
My guess is that the A77 would easily out perform the A7r in focusing speed and tracking. However in the case of the A7 I will reserve comment until real world tests are performed.
TEST Round Up – Please
These are ALL SONY – Planned testers and Paid Reviewers.
Same Old Sony shell game protocol
A bad review will immediately have both
Sony and SAR paid bloggers claiming
They should have waited for GA production level firmware
Sony refuses to release Camer Body samples and new Glass
3rd Party Indpendent reviewers and rankers
DXO and BJP
A Camera solution is only as good as its Weakest Link
NO reviewers show – SONY’S highly propriety and over priced
1) Minimal Glass choices
2) Ridulous Flash Gun lighting Minute
3) Highly proprietary Communication ports –
Both flash mis shoe and even the Flash sync PC port.
3rd Parties just laugh at Sony – BetaMax all over again
Lens PDAF Adapters for Sony A Mount Glass should be FREE
Sony support your Camera user communitiy.
Open up your ports –
Cooperate with 3rd parties
There have been plenty of samples from third party users/reviewers all over the net exhibiting the camera strong point and weak points. It’s up to the individual to determine if this is the right camera for him/her. @e, do you ever have anything constructive to say? Don’t you ever get tired of trolling? SMH
He’s not happy with his overprice df and need something to blame on
eek… a troll…
Cure your brain, please.
http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Sony_Alpha_A7r/Sony_A7r_vs_Canon_EOS_5D_Mark_III_noise.shtml
^ wow… 5D kicks ass as soon as ISO 1600. I was expecting Canon to win that battle, but… ISO 1600? Seriously? Ugh….
Still though for perfect-light conditions A7r easily wins 🙂
Not surprising, really. I think a fairer comparison would have been the 5d3 against the A7 (not the A7r). The pixel density is much greater on the R model (compared to both the A7 and 5d3), so more noise at higher ISOs is to be expected.
I suppose so. Though it looks like A7 doesn’t have as much advantage over A7r as I’d expect. To be honest – I wouldn’t be surprised if A7r shots downscaled would show nearly identical performance to A7.
Compare at same output size, novice.
How is this a surprise? The D800 and D600 sensors perform near identical too when output is displayed or printed at the same size. I don’t know how many times it was said but there is practically no correlation between pixel size or pixel count and noise for a given output size in reality, as long as you’re comparing sensors from a similar design year.
Even at 1600 the 7r has much more detail, and at the lower ISO’s it makes the 5DM3 look like a point and shoot by comparison.
o_o You either are joking or you messed up sides. You see – left is A7r and right is 5D mk3. Not the other way around.
Are we looking at the same pictures? Look at the detail (vertical ridges) on the left side of the center leaf; it’s visible on the 7r all the way up to ISO 1600 and It’s gone on the 5DM3 by ISO 200! The resolution is not even in the same league, and the 5DM3 is a great camera. The Sony sensor beats the Canon by a country mile. If these images were bigger the results would be even more embarrassing for the Canon. Sorry but that’s the way it is.
To be honest I’m disappointed with these (unimproved d800) Sony sensors.
Don’t forget being able to shoot at high iso with less noise should be one of the major advantages of a FF camera. Sadly these sony sensors are the opposite, who cares about base ISO? (you cannot convince me you guys are shooting in perfect light and/or carry tripods with you all the time) All current and previous generation cameras can shoot great pictures at base ISO. Like it or not, Canon was and still is the high ISO king.
Like it or not, a well processed D800 or A7R Raw ISO 12800 file can easily match or exceed an equivalent (same physical exposure) 5DmkIII file in terms of noise/details performance.
These ISO kings some people talk about, are the last straws of Canon sensor fanboys, and irrelevant straws in practise, see my example above.
and you nikon fanboys are so fixated on staring at charts, you’ve become blind to all the noise. (not you sony users, cos you never had a proper sensor before)
arguing about those sensors is ridiculous. they are all unbelievably incredibly great. they are like science fiction but not fiction. I would be happy to use any if those sensors for the rest of my life and never change.
@reprazent:
Thanks for proving my point. If you were able to read properly, you’d know I was talking about processed Raw files. Not the ooc, non normalized jpegs you were staring at, not objective measurements presented in charts.
I have experience with Nikon too and feel no particular love for their current cameras, but it’s clear why you are here now and how much recent experience you have outside Canon.
@reprazent
LOL
Son, I am afraid you will be pained, but 5d3, just like any canon camera, performs worse than D800E at least up to ISO12800 (and has no chance against D4 in any ISO).
Here are examples, both taken at ISO12800 and processed with DxO Optics Pro with their excellent Prime NR, D800E’s shot was downsampled to the resolution of 5d3’s one.
Canon 5d3: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12196364/E5D3hSLI012800NR0.jpg
Nikon D800E: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/12196364/D800EhSLI12800.jpg
You can ask, sure, why comparing at not native resolutions? The explanation is simple:
1) At first, there’s no way to compare (comparison is mathematical procedure) at different resolutions. Downsampling/upsampling to similar resolution is the only way
2) The fact D800E taken at ISO12800 downsampled to 5760×3840 favorably compares to 5d3 one at similar ISO and similar resolution means D800E’s images can be better at least than ones of 5d3 for the given sensitivity level. Simple.
You see, Nikon here is slightly better or equal in noise handling while maintaining noticeably higher resolution.
Who’s talking about high ISO noise performance AFTER post processing? I’m talking about the raw files coming out of the camera.
I have been shooting both Nikon and Canon cameras for years. I don’t have brand preference, unlike you fanboys. The canon FF sensors deliver much cleaner pictures from ISO 1600 and onwards, this has been the case since the 5D2 days. I’ve shot with both A7 and A7R, the noise performance from ISO1600 is just disappointing. You must see the raw files yourself, the level of(chroma)noise is astonishing.
who’s talking about lifting shadows and banding? that’s a totally different issue.
For the record, I own – and professionally shoot with – both the 5Diii and the D3s. The D3s wins hands down in terms of high ISO performance. Push the shadows on the 5Diii and you’ll see bad chroma noise and banding. So the same on the Nikon and you get smooth noise. The D600 and D800 are similar.
You obviously have no idea what you’re talking about.
UGLY!!! the only role of sonuy is this! http://i.imgur.com/QK49xpQ.jpg
that’s an old joke my friend, the joke nowdays is on canikon mirrorless systems ahah
canikon dont need mirrorless with big sensor, you fool! canon have lenses XD
not now, but eventually even canikon will go full mirroless, its all a matter of time, EVF’s are getting better and better, they already surpass OVF in some ways (and lose in others), and when AF on mirroless cameras catch with SLR’s (they are getting better and close to SLR’s performance) the good old SLR’s systems will start to die, and Sony has a good advantage over everybody in terms of cameras and specially fullframe lens (10 in 2014 and 15 in 2015), so enjoy while it last 😉
Apparently it is troll day today. The more Sony makes awesome cameras, the worse it will be here.
Good thing they shrunk the camera down to a smaller size. Makes ALL the difference in the world!
I predict the future – Kai, from DigitalRev, won’t like the a7(R). He will find a reason to hate it.
… and will like the DF
…will also probably find it revolutionary. I think the same will happen with Ken Rockwell.
But his review will be hilarious non-the-less.
well, Lok from digitalrev said this:
“Seeing the Nikon DF is like watching a midlife crisis dad trying to be cool on his kids’ Facebook wall”
It’s interesting to read the back and forth comments. I have a D3S and a hacked GH1 but I need a primary/backup camera and the A7R looks to be a flexible choice. I have some M glass from an M7 I used to own. I am not married to a single system. The merit of a system is what draws me. At this point, I may pick up the A7R and some adaptors and maybe a native FE mount later. The A7R and the D3S would compliment each other I believe. Who knows what I would keep or not because only actual use would tell. The D3S fps and deep buffer are plenty for my use except for certain action sequences like bull riding events which can go on for several seconds. Ironically, the Sony XQD card in the D4 makes a difference here. The A7R price is very reasonable (vs. M240)and the 24-70 and 70-200 f/4’s would make decent event lenses. There are pros and cons for each system, but two powerful systems in combination affords many options.
Is there an award for sexiest camera of the year?
Could anybody explain me what’s so special about new JPEG engine?
What I could see so far was a rather aggressive sharpening at small scales. True, it is smart–it sharpens edges more and tries to follow the texture but it is quite visible and rather strong nevertheless. On the other hand, it works great on print so maybe majority, ie not pixel-peepers, will be satisfied.
It uses a very small radius and halos are practically invisible, even at the very high default levels. On top of that, moire and stairstepping is extremely well suppressed , even on the A7R (just look at the moire in the Raw files). This (and horrible smudging in earthy tones and darker greens, even at base ISO) is where Canon could learn a few lessons for example.
Only some of the artifacts and repeating NR patterns in “flat” surfaces at higher ISO’s still need some work. But it’s still an improvement over previous engines in this regard with better detail retention.
I had a chance to play today with A7r. This EVF is good but very very far from the comfort of an OVF.
The AF is not as fast as the DSLR I use or tested.
The menu and the rest of general ergonomics are excellent.
i havent tested one yet, but that’s exactly what i expect, the AF may be good, but DSLR’s are still one step ahead, maybe in one or more generations and SLR’s will be in big troubles
That’s why A7 should have removable or at least upgradeable EVF.
Absolutely: EVF, sensor and processor should all be upgradeable. Barring that, all top competitors are ultimately disposable.
Have you priced a used (once upon a time, $8,000) 1ds II lately?
Grr… need an A-mount version now! C’mon next spring!
+1
Ligrtroom 5.3 release candidate now support sony A7 and A7R + lens 28-70
Impatient to see the results (download ongoing)
It seems the A7r suffers from vignetting. The lens was quite wide, 28mm, so I wonder if it is less pronounced with 35mm+ lenses.
Dunno, I did lots of weddings with a Mamiya C330 and got paid good money. Compared to the Sony, the Mamiya had:
Extremely slow autofocus
Terrible flash, had to go third party
Very limited lens selection
No third party support
Terrible compensation
Extremely dim viewfinder in low light, almost impossible to see
Zero AF points
No zoom lenses
Very poor battery life
Card fills up very quickly- only 12 shots, and it takes minutes to replace
I bet in the 70s something like 75% of weddings were shot with these Mamiyas. What idiots those guys were.
Extremely unresponsive light meter
Very limited ISO settings, 100-160
Very poor high-ISO capability
Why didn”t they make this grip in the same ways as the a99 grip? Then you could have three batteries available for use. 🙁