{"id":2779,"date":"2013-12-23T21:20:44","date_gmt":"2013-12-24T02:20:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=2779"},"modified":"2013-12-24T12:12:37","modified_gmt":"2013-12-24T17:12:37","slug":"review-sony-a7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-sony-a7\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Sony A7"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s here.\u00a0 The long awaited full-frame mirrorless camera.\u00a0 Photographers have been waiting with bated breath for a company to release a full-frame mirrorless camera and Sony has delivered with not one but two new cameras to satisfy those who are looking to reduce size a bit while keeping the ultimate in image quality.\u00a0 The A7 and A7r are very similar bodies, differing predominantly by the sensor used, with the A7 having a 24 megapixel full-frame sensor with phase detection pixels and the A7r featuring a 36 megapixel sensor without phase detection.\u00a0 There are some other small differences, but overall they are remarkably similar.\u00a0 Today I review the A7.\u00a0 Let’s take a look at this camera and see if the wait and the hype have been worth it.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Sony A7 and its big full-frame sensor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you\u2019re not familiar with my reviews, I review from a real world shooting perspective. You won\u2019t find lens charts or resolution numbers here. There are plenty of other sites that cover those. I review products on how they act for me as a photographic tool. I am not a videographer, so my reviews concentrate on the still imaging capabilities of a camera.<\/em><\/p>\n

Body and Ergonomics<\/h3>\n
\"Sony<\/a>
Sony A7 – Front<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The A7 is a solidly constructed, relatively compact mirrorless camera.\u00a0 While larger than something like the NEX-7 or even the Fuji X-E2, it also contains a full-frame sensor and a large viewfinder. The A7 is constructed of magnesium alloy and high-quality plastics and has no flex or wobbles anywhere.\u00a0 The camera is tightly assembled and feels solid and comfortable in the hand. The large grip has a wonderfully sculpted finger indentation as well as a very comfortable formation for your thumb on the back.\u00a0 As one who did not find the NEX-7 grip to be comfortable at all, this was a great relief.\u00a0 The A7 feels wonderful to hold and shoot and is big enough to handle well and small enough to be a worthwhile venture away from a DSLR.<\/p>\n

The camera features dual control dials in easy reach, along with a smattering of buttons across the back and top.\u00a0 Most of these are easy to reach, but I found the C2 button to be frustrating to press, especially since it is used for zooming during playback, and the menu button on the opposite side requires the left hand to operate.\u00a0 Since it’s the only left hand button, it feels quite alone out there, and is somewhat annoying that changing menu options requires both hands.<\/p>\n

Viewfinder and Rear Screen<\/h3>\n
\"The<\/a>
The A7’s tilting rear screen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The A7 features a 2.3 million dot electronic viewfinder (EVF) at a generous 0.71x magnification.\u00a0 As a result, the EVF is large and clear.\u00a0 There is good color and contrast and low lag and noise.\u00a0 The viewfinder refresh can slow down in very dim light with a slower lens, but these situations are relatively infrequent.\u00a0 Overall, it’s probably the second best EVF I’ve used on a camera, next to the tremendous finder in the Olympus OM-D E-M1.\u00a0 The image of the viewfinder can be magnified by tapping on the C1 button twice, and then magnification can be adjusted using a control wheel. This works well, though I wish it didn’t require a double button press.\u00a0 With the image magnified, manually focusing is incredibly easy to perform, even when using very fast lenses.<\/p>\n

The A7 also features a gorgeous tilting rear display.\u00a0 The 3.0″, 1.2 million dot rear LCD can tilt down or up to aid in taking images low to the ground or above your head.\u00a0 It is limited to about a 45 degree angle when tilting down; I’d have preferred a steeper angle here.\u00a0 The screen itself is clear, contrasty and has excellent color, making image review a pleasure and composing with the rear LCD easy.<\/p>\n

On the down side, the rear screen is not touch sensitive, and it’s a feature that the A7 could use, as moving focus points is more difficult than I’d prefer with the buttons.\u00a0 The menu system also seems like it could use a touch interface well, with clearly denoted tabs that beg to be touched. The A7 screen also seems to lack an oleophobic coating, as fingerprints and smears are extremely visible.<\/p>\n

Continue: Operation and Performance<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Operation and Menus<\/h3>\n
\"A7<\/a>
A7 – Top Controls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Sony A7 has a bevy of direct controls that make operating the camera straightforward and easy during shooting. The front of the camera features a dial that sits on top of the grip and it has a matching command dial on the rear of the camera which can easily be operated by the thumb. Taking a page out of the ‘retro’ camp, the A7 also features a dedicated exposure compensation dial that conveniently sits on the right of the top plate. Because of the dedicated EC dial, the front and rear dials control the same parameter in aperture priority and shutter priority modes, and they control shutter speed and aperture independently in manual mode.<\/p>\n

The back of the camera features a function button that brings up a quick menu to access common options, a four way dial that can also be used to select options (the default is to select ISO), and a smattering of other buttons. The rear four way dial is much stiffer than the one on the NEX-7, which prevents accidental selection of ISO. Overall, the controls are well placed and easy to access with the exception of the C2 button, which sits above a ridge and is difficult to press, and the menu button, which is oddly placed on the left side of the camera. I don’t like the positioning of those two buttons, but overall, I quite liked the controls of the A7.<\/p>\n

\"A7<\/a>
A7 – Rear Controls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There are a few odd quirks with regards to operation, however. The C1 button is used to select focus points by default, which requires you to press the button, then directionally move the point around with the four-way buttons. I would occasionally move the dial, inadvertantly changing ISO, when moving the focus points around. In manual focus mode, the C1 button reveals an enlarging rectangle. Tap the button again to magnify the view. It worked fine, but is a button press too many to magnify.<\/p>\n

Sony does offer plenty of customizability, though. \u00a0The C1, C2 and C3 (trash) button can all be custom set to whatever function you wish. \u00a0In a first for me, however, I actually preferred the functions that are assigned by default, so I felt no need to change from the basic setup.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The quick menu accessed through the Fn button<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The menu system features tabs and multiple pages within those tabs. There’s a lot of options to cover, but the menus are well organized and easy to navigate. As I mentioned earlier, the tabs really look like they would work well with the missing touch interface.<\/p>\n

In all, the A7 is a camera that provides a lot of direct control. While there are some quirks to operation, the camera as a whole is great to use.<\/p>\n

One quirk I encountered on several occasions was a bug in the image review capabilities. \u00a0Every once in a while, the camera would throw an “unable to enlarge” error at me, and I would be unable to check critical focus on an image. \u00a0Turning the camera off and then on again would usually correct the problem, but a few times it took two to three reboots before I could review an image. \u00a0I’m sure this will be fixed in a future firmware update, but it was frustrating.<\/p>\n

Performance and Autofocus<\/h3>\n
\"The<\/a>
The Sony A7’s View during focusing. The area marked is the area of the sensor with phase detection capabilities<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Sony A7 takes a while to boot, especially with a new memory card, but otherwise is a generally responsive camera. \u00a0There is a little bit of shutter lag, but the camera works very quickly shot to shot, clears the buffer quickly and is otherwise very nice to work with. \u00a0 I didn’t find myself waiting on the A7, and that’s a good thing. \u00a0The camera features a 1\/8000s top shutter speed and can rattle off 5 frames per second in burst mode, though this is without focus tracking. \u00a0With tracking enabled, it’s a much more pedestrian 2.5 frames per second.<\/p>\n

I only had one native lens to test on the A7, and that was the Zeiss 35mm f\/2.8 Sonnar. \u00a0With this lens, autofocus was very quick and very accurate. \u00a0In most any lighting situation, it locked on quickly and surely. \u00a0In the dimmest of light, the camera slows down a little and can hunt a bit, but this is the case for almost all camera systems. \u00a0Overall, I found the focus to be very good.<\/p>\n

Due to the wider angle focal length, I didn’t have the ability to really stress the continuous AF system, though what I did test came out beautifully. \u00a0The phase detection pixels that are present in the center of the sensor do a good job of maintaining accurate continuous autofocus. \u00a0If it weren’t for the relatively slow burst rates, the A7 might do a very nice job for sporting, provided the continuous autofocus works as well with longer lenses. \u00a0 From what I was able to test, however, the A7 has autofocus that will satisfy all but the most demanding photographers.<\/p>\n

Continue: Key Features<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Wi-Fi<\/h3>\n

\"a7_wifi\"<\/a>Like most every camera of any consequence released in 2013, the A7 features built-in WiFi capabilities. \u00a0It’s a feature I never would have really thought I needed last year, but over the course of this year has become something that I would require in any new camera purchase. \u00a0I just can’t see myself owning any new camera without it.<\/p>\n

Sony packed in the usual functionality: image transfer, remote control and geotagging capabilities are all present. \u00a0The feature I tend to use most on WiFi enabled cameras is image transfer, and Sony makes it a relatively smooth process. \u00a0During image review, just press the center button and a menu pops up to send it to a mobile device. \u00a0You can then connect to the camera’s WiFi network and transfer the image using Sony’s app. \u00a0While the app is a little sparse, it works fine.<\/p>\n

Sony doesn’t have adjustable RAW conversion on the camera (at least that I was able to locate), but it does automatically create a JPEG of your RAW file when transferring to a smartphone. \u00a0This is nice and removes a step that many other makers require you to perform before shooting an image to your phone.<\/p>\n

The remote control works just fine, though there weren’t a whole lot of adjustments that could be made. \u00a0By that, I mean essentially no adjustments can be made. \u00a0Moving the focus point was challenging as well, which seemed unnecessarily difficult. \u00a0 Now, I should mention, that there is an update to the built-in remote app that adds many of these features, but it requires connection to the Sony camera app store and a manual update.<\/p>\n

Speaking of that, the ability for Sony to add future functionality via camera apps is a great thing, and relatively unique in the industry. \u00a0In the time I had the camera, there were few options for apps, but this should grow over time.<\/p>\n

Focus Peaking<\/h3>\n

Like the NEX series beforehand, the A7 features focus peaking to aid in manually focusing. \u00a0 This overlays a color of your choice on the highest contrast areas of an image, therefore showing you what parts of the image are in focus. \u00a0The A7’s focus peaking is very visible, but unfortunately, I found it to be rather imprecise. \u00a0To aid in visibility, it seems Sony sets the threshold for the peaking outline to be a little too lax. \u00a0As a result, when focusing with very fast lenses, the focus point isn’t precisely outlined. \u00a0Many times I thought I was dead on in focus only to review the images later and find the focus point slightly ahead of or behind where I wanted it. \u00a0While the peaking on the Fuji X series isn’t nearly as easy to see as that on the NEX, I’ve found it much more precise in practice. \u00a0When using lenses such as my Rokinon 85mm f\/1.4 or Canon FL 55mm f\/1.2, I eventually just turned off peaking and used the native display of the EVF.<\/p>\n

Exposure Warning Zebra<\/h3>\n
\"The<\/a>
The A7’s Zebra Highlight Warning<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The A7 has a lot of features, and I won’t cover all of them here, but one that I hadn’t seen before that I found extremely useful was the ‘Zebra’ setting, which overlays a diagonal striped pattern in areas that are overexposed. \u00a0Many other cameras have exposure warning highlights. \u00a0For instance, Olympus has red and blue highlights for over and under-exposure, but this is the first time I’ve seen it as a zebra stripe, and it works extremely well. \u00a0The overexposed areas simply jump out at you when composing, and you can easily dial back exposure to make sure you don’t lose detail in critical areas.<\/p>\n

What’s also nice is you can select at what level the striping occurs. \u00a0I set it for 100%+, since I just wanted to know when the sensor was clipping, but you can set it as low as 70%. \u00a0It’s worth noting that these settings are for the current JPEG output, and mildly blown highlights are easily recovered in the RAW file. \u00a0Once I used it, I never turned it off.<\/p>\n

Continue: Image Quality<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Image Quality: Dynamic Range and Color<\/h3>\n
\"Winter<\/a>
Winter Sunset – Sony A7 with Zeiss FE 35mm f\/2.8 @ f\/4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For most people interested in a full-frame mirrorless camera, this is the section they are most concerned with: Image Quality. \u00a0The A7 and its brother have the only full-frame sensors in the mirrorless segment (unless you count Leica’s rangefinders), and they really should pack a punch. \u00a0The good news? \u00a0For the most part, the A7 truly does excel.<\/p>\n

The dynamic range of the A7 is absolutely spectacular. \u00a0RAW files have incredible latitude in both the highlights and shadows, and I never found a scene that couldn’t fit in the range of the camera. \u00a0It’s probably about a stop better than the Fuji X-E2 in this department. \u00a0One of the great things about such good dynamic range is the tonal rolloff is very unique and rather beautiful. \u00a0There’s just a certain look to the images that are really stunning in this regard.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, in the color department, I can’t be quite as positive. \u00a0I found the A7 to generally produce overly warm results with a sort of yellow\/green tint to them right out of camera. \u00a0This can be corrected when tweaking in RAW, but the colors out of camera aren’t as true to life as many other cameras I’ve used. In particular, the automatic white balance was, in my opinion, quite poor. \u00a0Indoor images with AWB were exceptionally warm and greenish. Again, this can be corrected in RAW. \u00a0If you put in the time to do custom white balance, or can properly correct color casts in RAW development, the results can be stunning, but they take a little work to get just right.<\/p>\n

Image Quality: Noise<\/h3>\n

I’ll cut to the chase: The RAW files out of the A7 are brilliant. \u00a0They are great in Lightroom and even better in Capture One Pro 7, but in all regards, the A7 has very good noise control, yielding high detail low noise images all the way through ISO 6400, with ISO 12,800 and 25,600 even usable for smaller prints and web use. \u00a0There is a small magenta shift at the highest ISOs, but overall, there’s nothing to complain about here. \u00a0The Sony A7 maintains very high detail at all ISO settings in the RAW files. \u00a0Basically, I found that for the most part, I could just shoot with whatever ISO suited the scene and simply not worry about final image quality.<\/p>\n

Base ISO files are exceptionally clean as well. \u00a0However, this great noise performance changes with regards to JPEG, which I’ll discuss below.<\/p>\n

JPEG Image Quality<\/h3>\n
\"Sony<\/a>
Sony A7 @ ISO 1600, JPEG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perhaps I’m just spoiled by the excellent JPEG performance from Fuji and Olympus, but all that wonderful image quality in RAW falls apart with the JPEGs. \u00a0The JPEGs out of the A7 are among the worst I’ve seen in the past several years for a large sensor camera. \u00a0Well, I should be more clear: low ISO JPEGs are just fine. \u00a0There’s a little too much compression for my taste, but overall, detail is well preserved and there are few artifacts.<\/p>\n

This changes completely at high ISO, though. \u00a0High ISO JPEGs from the A7 are frankly dreadful. \u00a0If you leave noise reduction on, the result at ISO 1600 and higher is a smeary, low detail mess. \u00a0If you turn off noise reduction, the JPEGs have so many artifacts that it is reminscent of what I saw on JPEGs from my Canon Digital Rebel. \u00a0The Original Canon Digital Rebel…you know that 6 megapixel camera from 2004? \u00a0Yes, that camera. \u00a0I don’t know what Sony is doing with the JPEG engine, but they need to fix it and fix it fast.<\/p>\n

Take the image on the right. \u00a0It’s an ISO 1600 JPEG (which the A7 should handle with ease). \u00a0First off, you’ll see the not so great color I alluded to above, but let’s look closer. \u00a0Below is a 100% crop of this image. \u00a0I can’t believe this is ISO 1600 on a 2013 full-frame sensor. \u00a0That’s terrible. \u00a0The amount of noise itself isn’t THAT bad, but it’s the artifacts and squiggles. For comparison, I’ve put crops from the Fuji X-E1 at ISO 1600 in JPEG as well as a crop at ISO 1600 from that aformentioned Digital Rebel (though not the same subject, obviously).<\/p>\n

\"ISO<\/a>
ISO 1600 JPEGs, 100% crops, Sony A7, Fuji X-E1, Canon Digital Rebel (click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Video<\/h3>\n

As I mentioned in my intro disclaimer, I am not a videographer. \u00a0I don’t generally shoot a lot of video and when I do, it tends to be with my phone. \u00a0I just don’t really work with it enough to pass critical judgement. \u00a0The A7’s video looked high quality as do most modern cameras in video mode. \u00a0I did find the A7 to focus well and utilize the half press shutter button to reacquire focus with ease.<\/p>\n

Use with Adapted Lenses<\/h3>\n
\"Sony<\/a>
Sony A7 with Rokinon 85mm f\/1.4 @ f\/1.4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the A7 is the first full frame sensor mirrorless camera around, the possibility to use a slew of old SLR lenses and rangefinder lenses is extremely exciting. \u00a0Finally, these lenses can all be used with their native fields of view. I unfortunately do not own any Leica M glass, and my one rangefinder lens (the Zeiss Contax G 90mm Sonnar) requires a rather expensive and hard to ship adapter to operate properly. \u00a0As a result, I was restricted to using SLR lenses on the A7. \u00a0That said, for the most part, they all worked rather well. \u00a0I have a ton of Canon FD lenses, and a few other manual focus lenses in other mounts. \u00a0I tried out the Canon FD 35mm f\/2, 50mm f\/1.4, 85mm f\/1.8 and 135mm f\/2, along with a Vivitar FD 28mm f\/2.8, a Canon FL 55mm f\/1.2, and my Konica lenses: the 40mm f\/1.8, 50mm f\/1.7 and 57mm f\/1.2.<\/p>\n

Overall, these lenses worked extremely well. \u00a0The Vivitar 28mm was great through most of the range, though the corners were dreadful. \u00a0Having nothing to compare it against, however, I can’t tell whether it was because of the lens or the camera. I’m betting on the lens. \u00a0Most of the lenses were excellent on the A7, with the Canon FD 50mm f\/1.4 and 135mm f\/2 being especially good. \u00a0I also used the Rokinon 85mm f\/1.4, and that lens simply sings on the A7. \u00a0If you enjoy manual focus and want a small camera to use with the smaller manual focus SLR lenses, it’s a great option. \u00a0From what I’ve seen, rangefinder lenses, while even more suited to the small size, are more of a mixed bag. \u00a0Some appear to work extremely well, while others, especially wide angles, tend to suffer from smearing and color shift at the edges. However, due to the currently very small native lens lineup, adapting is one way to have a complete system right away.<\/p>\n

Other Items of Note<\/h3>\n

There are two other things I want to quickly mention. \u00a0First, you may have heard about the loudness of the A7 and A7r shutter mechanism, and I can confirm: It is quite loud. \u00a0This is not a stealth camera, and if you are shooting in a quiet location, the sound from the shutter will echo throughout. \u00a0It is by far the loudest shutter mechanism I’ve used on a mirrorless camera, and is even louder than many DSLR shutters.<\/p>\n

Second, battery life is a little disappointing. \u00a0It’s to be somewhat expected given the large sensor that needs to be driven perpetually in live view, and the small size, but it’s something to watch out for. \u00a0If you buy an A7 or A7r, budget for a few extra batteries.<\/p>\n

Continue: Conclusion and Image Samples<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

Pros<\/h4>\n