Sony Alpha 7 Review

BY JIM FISHER

The Alpha 7 ($1,699.99 direct, body only)$1,698.00 at Amazon is one of a pair of new full-frame mirrorless cameras from Sony. Aside from the model badge, it looks the same as its twin, the Alpha 7R£1,258.79 at SlrHut, but the two cameras are quite different internally. The Alpha 7 is built for speed thanks to a 24-megapixel image sensor with on-chip phase detect autofocus sensors and a 5fps burst shooting rate. The camera is impressive and a joy to use, but we give the edge to the 36-megapixel Alpha 7R, which earns our Editors' Choice award for full-frame mirrorless cameras. For an extra $600 you sacrifice just a little bit of speed, but gain a 50 percent increase in image resolution and a images that are critically sharp thanks to a sensor design that omits the low pass filter.

Build

Quite compact when you consider its full-frame image sensor, the Alpha 7 measures just 3.75 by 5 by 1.9 inches (HWD) and weighs about a pound without a lens. The Leica M (Typ 240)$7,250.00 at Amazon, the first full-frame mirrorless camera with Live View, measures 3.1 by 5.5 by 1.7 inches, but is heavier at 1.5 pounds. The Leica gets some of its extra weight from its brass construction and optical viewfinder; the Alpha 7's extra height is due to its built-in OLED EVF. The body itself is sealed against dust and moisture; I had no issues shooting in lighter rain. Lenses don't have an o-ring gasket around the mount, so I'd be a little wary of using the camera in very heavy rain.

The Alpha 7 uses the same E-mount to attach lenses as previous Sony NEX cameras, including the NEX-6$649.99 at Crutchfield.com, which uses an APS-C image sensor. An APS-C sensor is physically smaller than the 35mm full-frame image sensor housed in the Alpha 7's svelte body. It's possible to use older lenses for NEX cameras that only cover an APS-C image circle; the Alpha 7 will automatically crop images to match the APS-C sensor size when these lenses are attached. Lenses designed for the full-frame Alpha 7 and 7R bear an FE designation.

The Alpha 7's 24-mexapixel image sensor is the same physical size as the one found in the Alpha 7R (and Leica M), but it has something that those cameras lack: an optical low pass filter (OLPF). The OLPF is designed to reduce the possibility of color moiré effects in images. These can show up as rainbow patterns when shooting certain textures, notably textiles and feathers. It does this by slightly blurring an image, at the cost of very fine detail. It's easier to reduce moiré via software when working with high resolution images, which is one of the reasons that they've long been omitted from medium format digital cameras. As image sensors have increased in resolution, and modern lens designs in sharpness, more full-frame 35mm and APS-C digital cameras have omitted the filter, the logic being that it's better to address moiré when it does pop up in an image rather than to sap detail from every photo. Whether or not you want a camera with this filter is a matter of personal preference and the subject matter which you deal with. Landscape photographers rarely see it, and don't need the fast burst shooting capability that the Alpha 7 delivers, which will likely push them to the 7R. If you regularly photograph fabrics, birds, or other moiré-inducing objects, you'll want a camera with an OLPF. 

Physical Controls, Display, Wi-Fi

The A7 puts shooting controls at your fingertips via a well-designed selection of physical controls. There are front and rear control wheels, placed at the top of the camera and accessible when holding it using the handgrip. The top plate houses a standard mode dial, the power switch and shutter release, an EV compensation dial (3 stops in either direction at 1/3-stop increments), and the customizable C1 button—by default it adjusts autofocus pattern, but when the camera is in manual focus mode it enables quick frame magnification as a focus aid.

On the rear of the camera you'll find the Menu button to the left of the eyepiece, and the C2 button to its right; C2 is also customizable, and is used to adjust the focus mode by default. The other controls are bunched to the right of the tilting rear LCD; there's a toggle switch and button that give quick access to manual focus mode when placed in the up position, and engages exposure lock in the bottom.

A flat control dial can be spun to adjust the ISO, or pressed in a cardinal direction to adjust the drive mode, change the amount of information displayed over the Live View feed, or to adjust white balance. At its center is a button that is used to select items in menus; when shooting it enables Eye AF, which prioritizes the autofocus system to lock onto a human eye. The delete button doubles as C3 when shooting; there's no default behavior, but you can add one via the menu. All of the rear controls are customizable, giving you near total control over how the camera functions. If a certain control is seldom used, or just isn't the right place, you can adjust it to suit your needs.

The other control button on the rear is the Fn button. It brings up an on-screen menu that provides quick access to up to 12 camera functions. The default lineup includes the drive mode, flash mode and compensation, the focus mode and area, exposure compensation, ISO, the metering pattern, white balance and color output settings, dynamic range optimization settings.

There's a record button to start videos, its located on the right side of the camera; it's actually placed quite well, and is easily accessibly but unlikely to be accidentally pressed; it can't be disabled or reprogrammed, but it can be set only to work when the camera's mode dial is moved to the video setting.

The LCD is hinged so it can tilt up or down, but it's not a vari-angle display like the one found on the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH3Best Price at Amazon, nor does it support touch input. It's 3 inches in size and packs 921k-dot resolution into that space, which is impressively sharp. There's no depth of field preview button on the camera, instead the Live View feed changes to show you the focus, depth of field, and exposure as you adjust the aperture of the lens.