A few months ago Sony released a camera that many consider a game changer, it’s less evolutionary and more revolutionary with a few serious leaps made resulting in Sony setting the bar at a new level. What they did was put a full frame sensor into a compact body, Ok well this isn’t the first time it’s been done, it was done with the RX1 & RX1R but this time it’s different because the A7R sensor and image quality rivals full sized professional DSLR’s like Nikons image beast the D800E. 36 megapixels with no anti aliasing filter into a semi compact body is really unheard of.
Full Frame means the camera has a sensor that is 35mm (35.8 x 23.9) and that translates into more picture in the frame. Many other cameras are what’s called APS-C which is a smaller sensor and provides a crop or zoom on the image in the range of 1.3–2.0. For certain professionals the D800E is the gold standard in resolution & image quality and it should be noted that Sony actually manufactures and sells that sensor to Nikon, and Sony has just crammed it into compact body. That said it’s really not fun lugging around a heavy camera and a bunch of lenses, my DSLR and it’s collection of lenses are now collecting dust thanks to Sony.
This isn’t like the other reviews you will see online for the A7R as I am simply an amateur not even near a pro photographer or camera blogger and I don’t claim to be anything other than a gear geek and photo enthusiast for the last 2 years. This camera is mostly used for Travel & Food, I’ve owned it since release. I also picked up a good amount of lenses & accessories in a relatively short period. I dove right into this system and picked up the new Zeiss FE 35mm 2.8 – Voigtlander 50/1.5 nokton – Voigtlander 21/1.8 ultron – Voightlander close focus adapter for Lieca M lenses and the Metabones III adapter so that I could use my Canon L glass with the A7R.
With this camera I have tested several canon lenses like the 24-105L, 50 1.2L, 100 2.8L IS II on the A7R. The metabones III adapter allowed me to keep autofocus and utilize focus peaking as well, It did slow down the speed of the autofocus but I’d still rather have it than not. I decided to go with Voightlander Lieca M mount lenses for 2 reasons, they would challenge me and reward me and that they did. This is my first dive into manual focus photography, I’ve played around with manual focus on occasion but never exclusively. I could have easily gone with the new FE 50 1.8by Ziess to retain auto focus and still get stupidly amazing image quality but I read some of the reviews online written by Steve huff and how adamant he was about the image quality and center sharpness wide open using the 50/1.5 nokton then saw it mentioned again in Phillip Blooms A7R video review where he gave the lens some love, after that I had to have it. The Voightlander 50 Nokton has a more creamy classic look where the sony 50 which I have messed with was a sharper more modern feel. The lenses just look cool too the Nokton is small and retro looking it’s heavy and extremely well built. I took this camera to paris and a every Leica shooter I bumped into was intrigued by the combo of Lieca + Sony. I also picked up the leather ONA Bowery bag their smallest model and it’s the perfect size for the A7R, all 3 lenses & a few batteries fit with room to spare.
So let’s talk about performance, Again I’m not a pro so if you wanna pixil peak and nit pick my review get lost, this is my take on the Camera and no one elses… I don’t use a tripod and I don’t setup shots much, when I see something cool I shoot it and don’t have to get all fancy with it. That said In my opinion it’s image quality is on par with the D800 & D800E as well as it’s dynamic range, and sharpness. I’ve had a little time with both Nikons (800&800E) on previous occasions that friends have owned. Of course the Sony’s small size gives it a big advantage I don’t think I could ever consider the D800E again unless I was a photographer professionally. Before the A7R I was on the verge of selling my MKIII and L glass and making the Jump to Nikon. In favor of the D800’s vs the A7R the focus would find it’s target much faster & more accurately. I guess I’m at a disadvantage using manual lenses but even with the FE35mm and AF the A7R isn’t exactly focus friendly. This camera is far perfect, In the very beginning I struggled a little, I also had more bad shots than usual and noticed several issues that I hope they resolve with a firmware update. The first major issue that myself and some others are reporting is with the camera’s auto focus capabilities, it just wants to focus on the background at times instead of the subject for no rhyme or reason. So I use face detection and that helped but still. Most of the time I manual focus with this camera as I can rely on my own skills over the cameras AF. It does have focus peaking features which provide visual aid, I set mine on high with a contrasting color and usually look for that color peaking in the eye of my subject. Even doing that I got a handful of images that would focus heavily on something next to the eye like hair and the eyes would not be in perfect focus, for this the focus magnification helps a lot in nailing focus on your subject.
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Another issue is the shorter than normal battery life which I’ve read some complain about but this has not been an issue for me as I always toss a few extra batteries in the bag just in case, who only brings one battery anyway and I refuse to put a big battery grip on this camera for Travel for me it defeats the purpose of small form factor. The shutter sound is also a sticking point for some. It does seem lethargic and clanky but I got used it. It’s nothing bad just different.
There is a major lack of native lenses at the moment actually only 3, the 35 2.8, 50 1.8, and 24-70 F4. The 35 & 50 are awesome lenses on the expensive side and I do wish the 35 was f2 and the 24-70 was F2.8 but I’ve also seen f2 lenses that don’t create such gorgeous bokeh in some situations.The 35 and the 50 FE lenses produces some pretty amazing results, they are lighter than my voigtlanders but also bigger. Below a chart that shows sony’s ambitious plans to release a complete line up of lenses by 2015. But lets be honest here despite the lack of FE lenses the ability to use legacy lenses and put all sorts of adapters all which were available around launch trumps that argument. It’s been a blessing for me actually as if there was a full line up of lenses I may not have looked at Voigtlander.
The competition: For me it was about sharpness & dynamic range, I was satisfied with the 5D MKIII until I handled a friends D800 with a 50 1.4 against my canon 50 1.2. I liked the Nikon better as the color and sharpness were obviously superior. Around that time the A7R was getting a lot of buzz and nearing release and once I learned the sensor was very similar to the D800E sensor I jumped at it. That said today there are many cameras worth considering that may even surpass the A7R depending on what your looking for. I noted below cameras smaller than the full size DSLR’s like the D800E or Canon 5D MkIII
– Nikon DF
– Olympus OM-D E-M1
– Leica M240
– Sony A7 (non R)
– Sony RX1R
– Fuji X-T1
– Fuji X-E2
The above are all stellar in their own way most out now or soon to release and each has it’s own pro’s and con’s. There is no perfect camera, the main defining factor for me was size and I didn’t even know I wanted a smallish camera at the time as I was simply looking for absolute power and stumbled on comfort. Now when I walk by someone with a large DSLR I’m thankful that’s not me anymore.
