Photography Gear News

We've been shooting with Sony's Alpha 7 and Alpha 7R over the past few weeks to get insight into how the compact full-frame cameras behave. While the two models are twins, they're by no means identical, with each sibling very quickly showing its own, distinct personality. We'll be publishing more in the coming weeks as we move towards completing our review, but we wanted to share our perspective now that we've had some experience to inform our opinion.

Well, this is a pleasant surprise! Unless you already know this because you've been reading the rumour sites you'll be pleased to learn that Sony has just (Oct, 16, 2013) thrown the camera industry a bit of an aggressive curveball with the introduction of the Alpha 7 and Alpha 7R. An also new and fascinating compact, the RX10 was also introduced today.

I was able to spend a few days in early October with an A7R, and this is a brief hands-on report. The camera was pre-production and I had no raw software available, so I won't be commenting in any detail on image quality. But, given Sony's past excellence in sensor design there's little reason to imagine that it will be anything other than first-rate. It certainly appears to be, based on my informal testing so far.

Six months ago a group of my fellow editorial portrait photographers were emailing each other about what wanted in their dream compact interchangeable lens camera:

“Digital Contax G2 / Minolta CLE”
“I’d like interchangeable lenses”
“Uses my old Leica M glass”
“Full Frame”
“Built-in EVF with live view when shooting video”
“RX1 gets close”

Sony’s newly announced A7R and A7 are the lightest interchangeable lens cameras ever made. They should really hit a sweet spot photographers have been craving...

Sony's new A7 and A7R bring full-frame imaging to the company's mirrorless ILC lineup, using the established E-mount. While they're not quite the 'full-frame NEX' that some loyal Sony users might have been imagining, the 24MP A7 and 36MP A7R are impressive, innovative products that demand to be taken seriously (with a price-point to match). We've had the opportunity to use pre-production samples of both new models, and we've prepared a hands-on first impressions review covering off their key features, operation, and early indications of their performance. Click the links below to read more.