The [shoplink 8454]Sony NEX-7[/shoplink] is very likely the most sold mirrorless camera of the moment and the reference for reviewers when testing other cameras. DxOmark (CLick here) just published the full Pentax K-01 test which uses a Sony sensor. The camera gets very close to the NEX-7 in terms of sensor quality but is very distant when it comes to sex appeal 🙂
There will be much more discussion on the next review: A very simple High ISO comparison between the Fuji X PRO 1 and the Sony NEX-7 has been posted by Steve Huff (Click here). Hm, I think they are pretty close with the Fuji having the edge. But I guess in RAW the difference will be even more negligible. At least according to Amazon US ranking (Click here) the NEX-7 beats the Fuji X PRO 1 orders.
Anyway I can imagine a NEX-9 camera positioned above the NEX-7 with larger body like the X PRO 1. I shoot some test video with the NEX-7 is really damn too small sometimes.
P.S.: NEX-7 order search links at [shopcountry 8450].
52 Responses
NEX- 7 does looks cool & sexy!
Andrea, any news on A mount lenses? Is there will be any new CZ lenses coming next week?
no 🙁
-100
-10000000000000
Who in their right mind would buy a Pentax? It’s the worst camera manufacturer on the market! No quality control, archaic flash system and dismal auto focus. Pentax has the worst video capabilities to boot. Pentax is even on record as stating that video is not important. Um… OK!
well…. they do have the best aps-c SLR
That is if crappy LV, unimpressive burst and dog slow flush times, worst video performance and lack of long lenses doesn’t bother you. For example. 😉
Or you want one of the best sensors in a highly customizable weatherproof body with image stabilization for dirt cheap.
Sorry but that is utter crap you are talking, the burstspeed is almost the same as the excellent 7D, i didn;t notice any buffer problems at all, only the first firmware had the buffer size limited.
Only the video performance argument is valid. The Pentax system has wonderful lenses that for example Sony doesnt have, well built prime lenses with superb quality. I love Sony, i have an Nex myself and used it a lot. But the K5 that i have also is an excellent camera, i still like it more than the A77 with its useless 24mp, lesser low light performance and more general sluggishness usability.
Uhh, most camera users have stated time and time again that video isn’t important. It actually took a couple of years before DSLR users finally grudgingly accepted it, along with all the other things.
Who would buy a Pentax? Anyone that likes to keep their equipment 100% backwards compatible, for starters.
Tell that to Canon, Nikon and Sony, Don. Video is important. Maybe the three major camera manufacturers should just listen to you, what do they know?
They know that most photographers never bought their camera to do video originally but do anyway just because it’s there now and cheaper than buying a professional HD video camera?
I could really care less if shows like House are filmed with Canon 5Ds as I would probably do the same thing if I had the same available resources, but I doubt their cinematography team began doing their show thinking that filming using a DSLR was the way to go.
P.S. You forgot to mention Olympus/Panasonic. 🙁
no way pentax! how can dynamic range be so off from k5 of the k01 if it uses the same sensor??
wow pentax looks ugly
The Pentax was actually designed by Mark Newson, who is fairly acclaimed at what he does.
The design is eh, but it’s more about practicality for me and Pentax has had a personal history with me of very slow liveview setups and slow AF (as compared to the NEX’s inaccurate but fast autofocus and video-friendly liveview).
I’m nobody when it comes camera design, but seriously, I can do a much better job than this so called “world famous” designer did with the Pentax K-01. It’s so childish and ugly that he needs to pay Pentax for this job!
As for the Pentax marketing head who approved this design, he needs to go, now, for ruining an otherwise interesting concept: mirror-less camera that works with existing DSLR lens.
If a design is not to your taste, it isnt designed for you, it is that simple. Do you really think Pentax was trying to appeal to professional photographers with the K-01? Pentax have been very very smart with this design – think about this:
Pentax is a fairly niche manufacturer these days, they already have a nice semi-pro DSLR that appeals to the photography enthusiast that prefers Pentax in the K-5. The K-01 on the other hand is designed to get people in the amateur market, but as a smaller brand if they just bring out something that is like everyone else’s cameras they will sell very poorly – why would you buy a Pentax over a Nikon, or Canon or hell even a Sony, Panasonc, Olympus (this is not a dig at Pentax – I like their gear, but in the minds of consumers). So they come out with cameras that are very very different to what everyone else has on the market, cameras that really polarize opinions. Yes the photog ‘armchair experts’ will hate it, but there will be people that just LOVE the design and those people won’t buy ANYTHING else. No it isn’t a huge number of people, but probably much more than those who would have bought a same old same old Pentax camera. Image quality has to be excellent for sure (which the K-01 has), but the biggest thing will be to hook people on an emotional level and it has to appear to be easy to use.
At the end of the day, the K-01 will stand out for more users than another me too camera from Pentax and this is what Pentax are going for, rather than compete with everyone else on a technical level.
I just picked up an X100 and I’m seriously impressed. That thing is sharp corner to corner at f2 and the in-camera processing is fantastic. It handles artificial light, funny white balances etc far far better than my a580 or a850 ever did. I just shoot jpeg mode since the in-camera processing would take ages to replicate by processing the raws in lightroom!
The XPro looks great, although very expensive
+1
I have had my X100 for two weeks now and I am VERY impressed with both the device itself and the IQ it produces. Even my friends who are not into photography all comment on how nice those pictures look. Great WB and high ISO – exactly what I bought it for. Funny, some ppl thought it was a Leica. My wife says its pictures look like an M6 with a 35mm 1.4 I rented long time ago. Can’t beat all of that for $1,200 body+dedicated lens
I hate what the X100 does to light sources though. Forget starry nightshots for example. Which is kind of sad since it had such a nice fast and sharp lens.
If you stop it down, you get ok-ish sunstars. But yes I agree it’s the only bad thing really.
+2 my X100 camera is my go-to camera most of the time, I almost can’t believe how much I like to use it! Bugger it’s flaws, when most of the shots it produces are amazing it can’t be flawed, just unexpected 🙂
This is great news for all NEC fans. This new camcorder will create additional pressure on Sony to make more NEX lenses!
Can anyone tell me why Sony launches a great nex7 and does not pair it with a few fast primes at launch but Fuji does? From a business standpoint it would be a profit driver no? Nice glass to go w nice body and sensor would be noticed by lots of ppl and the two parts of the new system would together drive more sales together. Typical of Sony to f up a new product introduction lately.
Damn, one simply has to love the nex 7 for it’s controls and the EVF.
But like every nex7 owner I am desperately missing matching lenses. Why is the big, famouse sony company unable to even keep up whith a small ‘underdog’ like Fuji. The famous 7 still is a ‘HWbenchmark for 2012 mirrorless’ and such a highend hardware has to cope with the optically insufficient Sony SEL Optics. Only one ‘big’ 1k€ Zeiss 24mm, which is hardly available.
Small Fuji just started their x system and already delivers two more good lenses to their 2012 camera than sony???
Furthermore if one checks stevehuff the fuji x1 jpeg definitely kick the nex 7 images in lowlight from 1600 iso – in colorfibrance, lowlight artefacts and crispness ;(
are u sure really use hi ISO in your most daily photograph if you have IS in your camera? mostly i use ISO 100-400 on my old sony a300, i just pump ISO 800-1600 if i had urgent situation, but it’s rarely.
now, sony new generation camera have a good ISO handle, even nex 7 too, so why we worried about that, just take a photo and you will find whatever your camera is good 😀
new camera n lens important to completing a system n give us a guarantee that this system is still a live 😀
Look at Sony past history supplying lenses and supporting even the best cameras it markets.
Sony releses camera bodies(electronics) and not lenses.
As I posted yesterday in Mirorless Rumors, in the Steve Huff’s test readers comments, there is strong lack of good faith every time when people feel their camera is not as good as the last one launched on the market. This war between the Nex-7 and the X-Pro 1 is totally ridiculous. These cameras are so different, different approach of the photography.
The perfect camera doesn’t exist.
I used to teach the technology of the photography in a well known photo school in Europe for many years, and I know that people cannot make the difference, or the link between the pure numbers and on-field results. I saw some photographers just talking about MFT graphs and even never use a lenshood on their lens on the field !
I can say, as a professional photographer for many years and teacher, that the best camera is the one you kick for. If the fact to feel your camera in your hands to make you eager to shoot, inspire you to make better pics, push you outside whatever the weather, then that’s the best camera…
We don’t care about the so-call perfect size debate about the Nex or a X-Pro 1, if it’s fitting with my pocket. I never put any gear (Camera + lens) in a pocket in my life (Who does it ?). A Nex is just terrible in my big paws. I love the X-Pro 1 for the unique reason that I just WANT to make some pics with it. It stimulates my mind and my landscape sight. Ouf …!
A NEX is not too small, your mind set is. Is a cigarette lighter too small, or a compass, a cell phone? No they aren’t, but you wouldn’t expect these things to be bulky in the first place. Get used to the fact that a good camera is small. I never touch my SLR these days, and yes, I’ve grown used to taking my camera in my coat pocket (lenses in the other) and I love it!
My mind too small ? You seems to have read only the last paragraph of my comment… No, I’m very open mind, Just I think that too many people should see gears for what they really are, and accept that some features on paper are really not relevant on the field. You have to admit that the debate of the size of camera often is ridiculous. We are not talking about and Eos 1, but an Nex-7 or X-Pro 1 that are in the average of same size. When someone says that the X-Pro 1 is bulky, it’s just ridiculous. What I said, and that you seems not to have understand is that Nex cameras are to small for my big paws, I just was telling relatively to my hand size and the fact a X-Pro 1 with 3 lenses will take the same volume in the bag than a Nex-7 with its own lenses too… I’m not smoker, then I don’t know about the lighter, but the blackberry I own is, yes, definitively a really boring small stuff (always for my big paws), just it’s hi-tech because it’s size reduced to minimum… I’m not satisfayed by minimum.
Now, to answer to Clyde, no, no, and no, the perfect camera doesn’t exist. If your ideal camera is the OM-1, mine could be an Alpa 12 SWC. Different point of view means impossible to satisfy everyone… There is not perfection in this world…
“The perfect camera doesn’t exist.”
Sure it does. I just can’t make up my mind which is more perfect… The Olympus OM-1 or Maxxum 9xi.
Fuji x100 is close to perfect in 2012
The perfect camera is the one that works best for you and what you think photography is.
Now, if the fanboyz on the site would just stop trying to tell others that what they want in a camera is wrong…., stupid or just not needed!
How Pentax managed to use an improved version of the 16MP sensor and make it worse than they had previously achieved with the K5 is truly beyond me.
(OTOH, the Nex 5N scored only 77 points using the same sensor, so…)
And for those bashing Pentax (as a whole): isn’t it funny that the ones who used to be underdogs (Sony users) now feel confident to pick on Pentax?
Where’s all that respect that so many Sony users have been asking for?
😛
Good one there..
i dont really get people bashing pentax. they do cracking entry level dslr and have just about the best apsc dslr on the market.
I’m about to buy the NEX-7 (still waiting for my preorder) but what I’d really like to see is a 7N with GPS and SteadyShot inside.
Knowing Sony, expect to see the NEX7n announced the day after your NEX7 arrives.
At DXO, you can check the new K-01 against the k5, and the K-01 is worse than the K5, despite they share the same sensor.
Newson’s interview on LetsGoDigital states that his design inspiration came simply from what he would like to buy as a consumer… not functionality, not ergonomics, not use-ability…
Looks like he set out to design something that looked different from the competition. In that, he succeeded in accomplishing his goal.
He defines the K-01 as “Semi-Professional”.
nothing beats the nex-7 in it’s class
“A very simple High ISO comparison between the Fuji X PRO 1 and the Sony NEX-7 has been posted by Steve Huff (Click here). Hm, I think they are pretty close with the Fuji having the edge. But I guess in RAW the difference will be even more negligible.”…..Funny/blind/FanBoy!…;)
Of course the NEX-7 has more orders on Amazon than the Fuji X PRO 1 – they actually have the NEX-7 in stock.
Both give impressive results. Amazing how far digital photography has come. The higher ISO pictures appear to show that Fuji has raised the bar a little again. But I’m okay with my Sony – saving up for a better lens, though.
at high iso Fuji is at least 2-3 stop better then Nex7…..you can’t really compare mushy nex file with super clean iso 3200 fuji file.
i like pentax but the k01 is uglier than the crap i took yesterday.
Are my eyes playing tricks on me? The snapshot of DXO has the Nex7 sensor looks like a 43 aspect ratio next to the K-01 LOL!!!
After this Pentax we’re gonna see photographic sensor in a toilet too. Couple of buttons, and a new fashionable photographic tool is ready. But hey!! It will be once again soooo different!!
I second with Jim’s comment. It’s been few months since I had X100, and it has been only pleasing experiences. I kept my NEX-3/18200 for an occasion that requires zoom, but that’s rare. For everyday use, especially for silent street photos, X100 has been superb. I do not regret purchasing it. Now, XPro is a different story as it’s an interchangeable system, which requires a continuous investment for lenses. With X100, I plan to wait awhile to upgrade from my NEX-3. Thanks Fuji.
Andrea, if you can get Sony to listen to you and make that NEX-9 a bit bigger than the NEX-7, can you ask them to use Mamiya 7 lenses and make me really happy ? 😉
Cheers
I own the pentax K-01, and I really love the image quality, I think that so called ugly camera you guys mentioned before, had better performance in lowlight than pentax K5 or any NEX series today. See the dxomark score for low-light iso performance.