Sony A7 - Nikon, Hasselblad & Canon user VERY impressed

Bryan Pereira · Jan 17, 2014

So as someone who has lectured about photography, a teacher and ofcourse worked as a photographer over the past 30 years Ive had many cameras in my hands, some of my fashion photographer friends use Sony but I never worked with one. A Sony rep gave me one to play with a few weeks back and all I can say is wow!!! image quality aside what a beautifully balanced camara, light and small with no drawbacks in the way it communicates with the photographer. My only concern would be speed and choice of lenses especially for my safari work

Stevepwns · Jan 18, 2014

I am hoping that the upgrade path for the DSLR line is as good. The more I read about the A7 the more hopeful I get about their upgrades coming soon. Im loving my A77 and have thought long and hard about moving to the A99 but I have decided to wait for the next release to move to the full frame. Reading reviews like this is very promising. Now you say, " image quality aside". What do you mean by this? Is the IQ not up to par? Ive read articles that say the A7 has some of the best IQ on the market right now.

Bryan Pereira · Jan 18, 2014

Stevepwns said:
I am hoping that the upgrade path for the DSLR line is as good. The more I read about the A7 the more hopeful I get about their upgrades coming soon. Im loving my A77 and have thought long and hard about moving to the A99 but I have decided to wait for the next release to move to the full frame. Reading reviews like this is very promising. Now you say, " image quality aside". What do you mean by this? Is the IQ not up to par? Ive read articles that say the A7 has some of the best IQ on the market right now.

by image quality aside - I meant I cannot comment personally on it as I havent shot with one, samples I have seen here have been good though as have fashion samples Ive seen

Nervine · Jan 18, 2014

I agree with Steve the more I read about positive reviews the more I get excited about next Alpha releases. I too was going to get the A99 however sticking with the A77 for now

robbins.photo · Jan 18, 2014

exposuretours said:
So as someone who has lectured about photography, a teacher and ofcourse worked as a photographer over the past 30 years Ive had many cameras in my hands, some of my fashion photographer friends use Sony but I never worked with one. A Sony rep gave me one to play with a few weeks back and all I can say is wow!!! image quality aside what a beautifully balanced camara, light and small with no drawbacks in the way it communicates with the photographer. My only concern would be speed and choice of lenses especially for my safari work

Well I'd probably put the EVF at the top of my concern list - even the best EVF lags when shooting burst, and for wildlife photography, this makes the vast majority of cameras with EVF's nearly useless. Granted, I'm not a professional photographer, or a teacher, and the only time I gave a lecture the suicide rate in my local area nearly tripled - but even so I do shoot wildlife on occasion and I have yet to see anything other than a DSLR that can truly handle this task well.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the A7 is a fine camera and for photography where a high burst rate isn't needed I'm sure it performs well - but for sports or wildlife, eh.. DSLR, all the way.

Just my 2 cents worth of course, YMMV.

Kolia · Jan 19, 2014

Robbin, how is the lag impacting you ? Have you tested it with an OLED EVF ?

I've heard your concern numerous times. And I don't see what the problem is really. Once you hit the shutter at your max FPS, what is the difference ?

Between an EVF that is flashing a preview of the shoot you just took and a mirror slapping close and open, showing you an image in between your shots, I don't see one better than the other.

robbins.photo · Jan 19, 2014

Kolia said:
Robbin, how is the lag impacting you ? Have you tested it with an OLED EVF ?

I've heard your concern numerous times. And I don't see what the problem is really. Once you hit the shutter at your max FPS, what is the difference ?

Between an EVF that is flashing a preview of the shoot you just took and a mirror slapping close and open, showing you an image in between your shots, I don't see one better than the other.

Well sadly I don't have the sort of budget that allows me to do hands on testing to every single camera system released in the last few years. I wish that I did of course, but I don't. I have asked the opinions of folks that do own them when I can to find out what there impressions are and they all tell me pretty much the same thing, that there is a noticeable lag when firing in burst mode. An EVF, even the best of them, is basically just a smaller version of the LCD screen on the back, and it takes a bit of time for the image to update between shots.

So I go off that information because it's the best source I have available. If you'd care to purchase one for me and send it my way I'll be more than happy to evaluate it in full, but sorry to say i'm not going to purchase one nor do I really have to in order to be "qualified" to speak on the subject. How does the EVF affect me? Not at all. I no longer own a camera that uses EVF because none of the ones I have used really served me that well, precisely because of the lag I mentioned. That's why I went to DSLR.

Now if you don't fire in burst mode much then this particular drawback probably wouldn't be meaningful to you either and as a result not really something you'd need to worry about when evaluating if a camera with EVF is the best choice for you. But just because a camera is the best choice for you, doesn't mean it's the best choice for everyone.

Kolia · Jan 20, 2014

Not sure why you felt the need to take such a defensive a tone.

Like I said, I've heard the comment you made a few times and never received a satisfying explanation as to why that would be perceived as a limitation. So far, it has always been something that the person heard about and is repeating.

Anybody can walk into a store, pick up a camera and strife a few dozen shoots.

From my experience, burst mode with my a65 is just as easy to use as any other DSLR. In so far as tracking a subject anyways.

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Overread · Jan 20, 2014

Have they fixed the issue with the Electronic Viewfinder? I've heard of people shooting sony cameras and when they are in dimmer lighting conditions the viewfinder image becomes intolerably dark to use; even though with a normal mirror setup the viewfinder is still plenty bright enough to see clearly. Studio shooters seem to have the most trouble; though for wildlife this would translate to any early morning or evening shooting.

Lenses is another factor; though Sony seems ok for high priced options its more breadth of market options that is a concern - if you've already hardened to the idea of spending a few grand on long glass you might be ok (though from memory I can't recall if sony makes anything much longer than 300mm in high quality glass so you might have to use some older minolta mount options or 3rd party like Sigma).

Kolia · Jan 20, 2014

Yes, the issue with the early EVF going dark in low light or studio application has been fixed.

The image is brighter than ambient when it is dark. It does eventually start to lag as it's boosting its signal in very dark situations. So chasing bats at night would be a challenge !

It is definitely something that needs to be considered and experienced with when deciding on a camera system.

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robbins.photo · Jan 20, 2014

Kolia said:
Not sure why you felt the need to take such a defensive a tone.

I didn't intend to have a "tone" there defensive or otherwise.

Like I said, I've heard the comment you made a few times and never received a satisfying explanation as to why that would be perceived as a limitation. So far, it has always been something that the person heard about and is repeating.
Anybody can walk into a store, pick up a camera and strife a few dozen shoots.

Ok, allow me to be more specific. I've actually owned and used 3 different cameras from 2 different manufactures that were equipped with EVF. They all suffered from this exact same issue. I've inquired with other people who own various other models with EVF, and even though many of them were unaware of it because they didn't normally shoot in burst mode, when they took the time to test the camera they also found that it had this same issue. This isn't something that was just made up or pulled off a website somewhere, this is based off both experience with EVF systems myself as well as information gathered from others with various models of EVF.

That doesn't mean to say that EVF is totally useless in all respects, merely that from the models I've tested and heard about it is not a good choice if you are using your camera to capture longer action sequences which often occurs when your doing sports or wildlife shooting. As EVF systems improve I'm sure this is something they will probably address if possible - but until they do it is a limitation that folks should be aware of before deciding on which camera will suit their needs best. For many kinds of photography this limitation wouldn't come into play at all and as such it might not be a consideration for some, but it does come into play for some kinds of photography so it is something that people need to be aware of, and there is nothing defensive in that.

As to walking into a store, we only have one that is closer than a 200 mile drive that is an actual camera store and even they don't stock Sony, it would be something you would have to special order. They have a few varieties of Nikon or Canon on hand but they don't have Sony or Pentax on the shelf at all, so walking into a store and testing the equipment that way simply isn't an option.

Kolia · Jan 20, 2014

Tracking a moving subject is not an issue with my EVF equipped a65. I assume any higher grade Sony camera will do just as well.

robbins.photo · Jan 20, 2014

Kolia said:
Tracking a moving subject is not an issue with my EVF equipped a65. I assume any higher grade Sony camera will do just as well.

Well, happy you find it adequate I guess.

Kolia · Jan 20, 2014

Yes. Happy enough to tell people that it is not necessarily an issue. As an owner and a user that is.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience with other manufacturers EVF.

robbins.photo · Jan 20, 2014

Kolia said:
Yes. Happy enough to tell people that it is not necessarily an issue. As an owner and a user that is.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience with other manufacturers EVF.

Well actually one of them was a Sony. And I've had that same experience with pretty much every EVF I've ever worked with, plus the two I've owned. Haven't found one yet that will update with enough speed to match a DSLR - for the first two or three shots the really high end ones come close, but after that the lag got pretty noticeable pretty quick. But like I said, if your happy with it, great.