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The Sony A7r is in Stock at Adorama (Click here) and on [shoplink 23193 ebay]eBay via Samys (Click here)[/shoplink] and at Samys itself (Click here). And SAR readers told me that also their A7r preorder at Amazon US is shipping! And for the first time Amazon itself has the A7 and A7kit in Stock (Click here).
If you are still not sure if you should buy the A7r or not check out Photographyblog’s new review (Click here)
Sony have seemingly been on a mission in the last few years to really change photography, first with the innovative NEX series, then the full-frame RX1/R compacts, and now the A7R and A7 full-frame mirrorless cameras (not to mention the RX100 premium compact and the recent RX10 super-zoom). The Sony A7R is the most radical of them all, the best realised, and fully deserving of our coveted Essential! award.
I say…get it 🙂
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Many new Rokinon deals:
1) Gold Box deal on the Rokinon 14mm T3.1 E-mount lens at Amazon (Click here).
2) Rokinon 14mm F2.8 (A or E-mount) for $319 at [shoplink 23186 ebay]BuyDig (Click here)[/shoplink].
3) Rokinon 8mm f/3.5 Fisheye (A or E-mount) for $349 at [shoplink 223187 ebay]BigValue (Click here)[/shoplink].
37 Responses
Who at Sony gets the credit? Was this part of Howard Stringer’s vision?
One thing I’ve noticed in the a7 is that they have done things people have been asking them for years, and are EASY to do, but for some reason they never have. After reading some comments about observations of Sony staff during trade shows and interviews, I have a feeling someone pretty high up the chain told the whole staff to be more humble about their products. Someone made it clear that they do not always have the right answer, and they need to be making what the customer wants, not just what Sony wants (or more appropriately, that Sony should want what the customer wants). Given all the management and financial shakeups over the last year, I think this was part of it.
The result is the a7/a7r.
Not perfect, but pretty damn good. Most of the ‘flaws’ are little annoyances of the magnitude you’d find on any camera. Every product will have things to complain about. For instance, the + button to zoom in to an image on previews (which I always do to check focus) is a little too recessed and hard to hit. I’d love to change the controls for the image review mode. But do I really care that much? No. My Canon 6D had far worse issues. In fact, so far, there’s nothing my 6D could do better than the a7R, for me. Might be some features I didn’t care much about that it could do better, but that would be for others to worry about. I love the two auto ISO modes.. one completely open, one you can set upper and lower limits on what ISO it will pick. Great improvement over an NEX-6.
one thing I wish would be done (firmware update) is to allow to set your own minimum shutter speed for the auto-iso mode. I know that you can use S-mode, but it would be great if I could just set a higher limit like 1/100 and let it automatically go higher when it can. The current minimum of 1/60 results in too many blurred shots on the A7R, even with a 35mm lens.
Amazon US delivered the A7r!
Bought an RX10 (mainly for its video quality), but I’m returning it, as it’s more bulky and heavier than I had feared. Ordered the A7R and 35mm Zeiss this morning from Adorama. It’s already listed as “packed” (and so will presumably be shipped today).
I cannot be the only one experiencing this: whenever i take a candid by articulating the screen to be viewed from above and leaving the camera strapped to my neck and ultimately being loser to my body, the eye sensor for the view finder shuts the screen off. This can be very very annoying when taking fast candids and ive missed many shots due to this. the worst is that there is no option to toggle between the viewfinder or monitor. its either “auto” or either evf or monitor.
Other than that, the a7 has been a pure joy and is the best camera ive ever used and i dont have a single other complaint.
check out some shots its taken:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Andrew-Brestansky-Photography/124453267664840
Ill be posting a few iso and lens samples soon.
You can shut off the auto switch to the viewfinder, and have it only do one or the other, or both, and even set up one of the custom buttons to swap if I’m not mistaken. Some people set it up to always have both on, then put the info only display on the back panel and use it just like an old SLR without live view.
Having both on all the time will reduce battery life a lot, however. That’s why they auto switch by default.
Apparently you can’t do ‘both’, just auto switch, viewfinder, or LCD. The custom button setting is to deactivate monitor, so I guess there’s no monitor/viewfinder switch setting like I thought, either. Coulda sworn my NEX had one. Oh well. I was half right!
Two new Sony A7/R books have been announced on Amazon.com. BUUUT you will need to wait until March and June for them to be published.
After seeing this post first thing this morning I placed an order for the A7r through Adorama and it has already shipped. I upgraded to 2nd day shipping so I should have it by Friday.
A radical change in photography? Hardly. The day we get a sensor that can record the entire color spectrum at each individual photosite is when we can start saying things like that. This is just another high resolution camera without a mirror…it was bound to happen eventually; by no means is the a7r earth shattering.
Add to that human vision like dynamic range 🙂
Agreed. It’s an awesome camera for ME, in that it does all the things I want.. but, it only does things I expected a camera to do in one nice package. The only thing really that interesting about it is that it puts a bunch of already available high end features into a very compact and cost effective body.
But no, nothing really new.
I’m pretty sure doing something that has never been done is indeed “new.”
The context here is how popular this high-end camera is. That’s what makes it something very different.
As for capturing light at the same “photosite”… I’m surprised at how people who know very little about things can be so demanding. You can do what you’re saying more or less in at least 4 ways currently:
1. Easiest is to use a Foveon sensor.
2. Since there was no mention of minimum required resolution, get a high resolution regular camera and bin/down sample instead of demosacing. More on this:
http://genotypewritings.blogspot.com/2012/04/more-resolution-without-going-foveon.html
3. Take multiple exposures that are offset slightly and use automated software to align and stack them. A similar workflow is practiced by HDR people and astrophotographers.
4. Use a monochrome sensor and any number of colour filters to your liking and stack the images to make an rgb image.
So what you’re talking about isn’t revolutionary by any means.
As someone who does astrophotography, I completely agree on all points. That is why I bought the a7R. Because I can do all of those things. People talk a lot about new high resolution sensors out-resolving your lenses like it’s a bad thing. It’s actually not at all. It lets you do a lot more to beat problems that arise from the sensor sampling the image like it does. The biggest one is downsampling. Reduces noise, reduces moire, reduces all sorts of issues.
A good 36MP sensor can take very nice pictures, even with lenses that only resolve 9MP. It means I can down sample by a factor of 4 and get beautifully low noise images. This actually makes it very nice for astrophotography. Depending on the telescope, often the atmosphere itself limits your resolution quite a bit, but having a higher resolution camera allows you to supersample and use statistical methods to remove noise or even mathematically re-create lost detail (usually done by taking hundreds of images of the exact same object in space). You can’t do that with lower resolution sensors, because the detail truly is gone.
So yes, my cheap little Canon 40mm pancake isn’t an amazing lens on the a7R, and the sensor is probably sharper than the lens will ever be, but that doesn’t mean the extra resolution is wasted.
Hopefully we’ll get a good clear night soon. With any luck, I can get a picture of something interesting with my 560mm F/2.3 lens on the a7R. Show people some truly cosmic pictures.
Looking forward to those pictures!
What’s the flash sync on these?
What’s the word on Sony’s speed lights?
How’s the autofocus and tracking with fast moving objects?
When’s the native lens selection going to include the trinity of 2.8 zooms & a wide angle?
What about an articulating lcd?
These are needs for me.
What do you guys think about such offers? Price is very low…
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Sony-Alpha-A7-24-3MP-Full-Frame-Digital-Camera-Body-Only-D0468-/221315583127?pt=DE_Foto_Camcorder_Digitalkameras&hash=item33876fcc97
And anybody knows how big will be the tax for Germany?
That is about how much it would cost in U.S dollars so if you are in the U.S or canada just get it from a regular shop cause if something goes wrong you will have to pay sony to fix it.
In US prices are low by default so nobody would order from other side of the earth.
But for Europe people it maybe interesting.
So Sony warranty is not global? Cameras from Asia will be repaired only in Asia?
From what I have heard over the years and recently would indicate the only service items under warranty from whatever region you purchased it from. You can always call them and double check.
Photography blog one of the most comical sites out there. I won’t use the word review because it’s insulting to people who do serious reviews. I’ve seen bloggers blow PB away for reviews.
Yeah, my thought exactly… that review is a JOKE. “There’s also very welcome support for the RAW file format, which is really the icing on the cake for serious photographers.” RAW support? That’s REVOLUTIONARY, man.
Not to mention half the article is a rehash of official press materials: “The Clear Image Zoom function effectively digitally doubles the zoom range of the attached lens, using Sony’s new Pixel Super Resolution Technology to increase the magnification.” Seriously, you’re going to regurgitate this marketing bull without even questioning it?
Icing on the cake? How about ‘absolutely required and expected for even mildly serious photographers’?
right because all photo’s before this camera suck and should be burned. :-/
I was talking about the notion that RAW support in a camera is simply icing on the cake for a serious photographer. Not a requirement, just icing.
So tell me what’s the other ILC camera besides the A7R that’s FF, small and compact, besides the luxury-priced Leica? Of course this is a revolution. Canikon didn’t want to give the consumers this when they could. Sony made that leap.
it’s not a revolution.
The introduction of film on a roll was a revolution.
The introduction of the SLR was a revolution.
TTL was a revolution.
The introduction of AF was a revolution.
The introduction of digital cameras was a revolution
The introduction of IS and AS was a revolution
The introduction of mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras was a revolution
What is revolutionary about the A7? its popularity in so many different camps is due to it being a very good design but it really isn’t revolutionary. It doesn’t have to be. It’s like when canon came out with the EOS system. It wasn’t revolutionary, it was just a very good implementation of existing technologies and this was enough to make the system as popular as it became. Same is true for the A7.
some people are too fond of using superlatives while others are too fond of spreading what these people say without questioning it.
Perhaps you could consider the A7 is revolutionary as it finally brings Digital 35mm in the size of a 35mm Film SLR.
It’s certainly the most interesting camera to come out of Sony since the a55. My next body will be an ff a-mount, but I could see me ending up with an ff e-mount at some point down the road (assuming the lenses I need are there).
ah, but that is only partially true. have a look at the eos 1V (or the F5 or F6). The SLR cameras grew pretty large for some reason (handling reasons probably, the larger cameras were more comfortable than the smaller cameras, especially if you had to use gloves). The larger DSLR cameras are about the same size as their film era counterpart (check the 1D review on dpreview, the 1D is slightly thicker but also slightly narrower and lower compared to the 1V HS).
Either way, I wouldn’t call it recolutionary. But certainly an interesting evolution allowed by the mirrorless revolution. It certainly makes the 35mm format slightly more accessible to the casual photographer due to its price point.
Your points are true. I should have put the qualifier being that it is a digital revolution. Canikon had all those years of DSLR dominance to put the FF sensor into a smaller, compact and reasonably priced body yet they did not. The A7 will push the other manufacturers to squeeze FF sensors into A7-esqued bodies after years of nobody trying that.
I’ll compare it to the tablet. The tablet has been around since the 70s yet it was Apple who popularised it to the mainstream with the iPad. Add to that the implementation of the finger touchscreen. Microsoft had all that tech yet did not set the world on fire. Now the iPad is part of our culture.
The A7 is that trigger for small-formed, FF bodies. It will push the market towards that direction and people will respond with their wallets.
ROTFLMAO! I had been baffled by the reviewer’s glowing praise for the A7R’s “icing on the cake” features: RAW support and an eye sensor on the EVF. “The icing on the viewing cake is the clever built-in eye sensor, which automatically switches on the viewfinder when you look into it…”
Setting aside the idiocy of suggesting RAW support is a lovely bonus feature on a $2300 camera in 2013, I started wondering whether any of Sony’s SLT cameras *didn’t* have an eye-level sensor, and stumbled on this same site’s review of 2010’s A33… HE SAID THE EXACT SAME THING, *VERBATIM*, in that release!
What’s more, Google the phrase “www.photography.com icing on the viewing cake” (without quotes) and you’ll get a list of 12 other Photography Blog “reviews” that use this exact same phrase!
This guy is beyond a hack… I’d only be mildly surprised if he turned out to be a bot that digests spec sheets and generates reviews from a preset list of canned phrases corresponding to those specs!
The correct phrase to Google is, of course:
http://www.photographyblog.com icing on the viewing cake
Andrea, we *really* need some way to edit posts!
FML. Omit the “http://” — Google the following phrase without quotes:
http://www.photographyblog.com icing on the viewing cake
This is awesome. SAR is adding “http://” to my link. Google it without that and you’ll see what I saw. How’s that editing function coming, Andrea? (wink)