Kiril Karaatanasov
Senior Member
I was at a gathering of our local sony forum today. A Sony rep came to show us their new stuff and left the things for the day so we can enjoy. Very few people were interested in NEX as most are Alpha DSLR shooters and there was plenty of Alpha stuff.
So I got to play with the NEX-7. My summary this is an outstanding camera in every way. It is unbelievably good!
Ergonomics are out of this world - this feel much better than A700 (D300, Canon 5D etc DSLRs). Tri-navi is deed of evil genius. You have all iso, exposure and program shift or aperture under your thumb.
The EVF is not as good as people say. It is quite good but not anywhere as good as OVF. On the positive side you can frame with it quite successfully and is please to do so. There is zero (!!!) lag in almost any light, there is no unpleasant effects of any kind. Color look nice tons of functions including the menu and image review work in the EVF as well as the screen. The thing with it is that there is a bit of flicker, the expose sometimes is not right and you do not see quite well. Overall though comfort of shooting with the EVF is about as good as I can imagine - fantastic. I was using it predominantly today despite loving the articulating screen.
Size of the NEX-7 has been concern to me. Well it is a concern it is about 1 cm larger in both height and breadth from NEX-5. The NEX-7 still fits my jacket pocket wiht the Zeiss 24/1.8 or the Macro 30/3.5. Putting the EVF, falsh support and extreme ergonomics against this sacrifice of space...well the sacrifice is worth it.
Flash support works as expected with my Pixel Pawn or combination of HVL-F20AM and F58AM wireless works perfect. I can confirm there is option to switch off exposure mimicry in liveView and NEX-7 becomes the ultimate studio camera.
Let's go back to ergonomics - menu is largely similar to NEX-5. The thing is there are few more buttons and all of them are programmable + the tri-navi is programmable + white balance and few other setting have received uber cool user interfaces. It is just pleasure turning all the knobs.
The lenses I tried the 16mm + fish, 24/1.8 and 30/3.5. Botht he zeiss and Macro 30 are out of this world in terms of IQ.
Put on NEX-5 the 24/1.8 is unbelievably sharp. We were wondering if we have to decide which to buy first NEX-7 or Zeiss 24/1.8...may be the Zeiss will give you more. This lens is outlandinsh - focus speed is 0 (instant) no lag what so ever - point and shoot - Zero lag - NEX-7 has this electronic first curtain and combined wiht the superb focusing of the Zeiss it is much faster then A77 + 85/2.8 for example - like 5 times of more. Focus tracking amazingly works with the Zeiss and NEX-7 - and it works quite good! Sony have done miracles. Sharpness is Zeiss-ish - superb.
The macro 30/3.5 is extremely sharp from 3.5 on wards. The focus speed is notable lower ont he 30/3.5 - possibly because of the macro focusing range...One hting that I think I observed is that sharpness at infinity of the macro lens is not as good as the zeiss....I need a raw converter to comment on this more though.
The very nice thing about both the macro and the zeiss is that they are unbelievably sharp at max apertures. So Sony wins 5 stars on lenses.
Here is Zeiss picture with NEX-5 on max aperture https://picasaweb.google.com/108932183055258509379/Nex5?authkey=Gv1sRgCKmhgb3zg4HVZQ#5661187317857583330
Panoramas 2d and 3d work as on nex-5 not much difference.
Well I am very very happy wiht this NEX-7 and am looking to buy one and a Zeiss 24/1.8 for sure. Which will I buy first or both together is something I have to ponder over in the next couple of weeks until NEX-7 makes it to a store near me.
So I got to play with the NEX-7. My summary this is an outstanding camera in every way. It is unbelievably good!
Ergonomics are out of this world - this feel much better than A700 (D300, Canon 5D etc DSLRs). Tri-navi is deed of evil genius. You have all iso, exposure and program shift or aperture under your thumb.
The EVF is not as good as people say. It is quite good but not anywhere as good as OVF. On the positive side you can frame with it quite successfully and is please to do so. There is zero (!!!) lag in almost any light, there is no unpleasant effects of any kind. Color look nice tons of functions including the menu and image review work in the EVF as well as the screen. The thing with it is that there is a bit of flicker, the expose sometimes is not right and you do not see quite well. Overall though comfort of shooting with the EVF is about as good as I can imagine - fantastic. I was using it predominantly today despite loving the articulating screen.
Size of the NEX-7 has been concern to me. Well it is a concern it is about 1 cm larger in both height and breadth from NEX-5. The NEX-7 still fits my jacket pocket wiht the Zeiss 24/1.8 or the Macro 30/3.5. Putting the EVF, falsh support and extreme ergonomics against this sacrifice of space...well the sacrifice is worth it.
Flash support works as expected with my Pixel Pawn or combination of HVL-F20AM and F58AM wireless works perfect. I can confirm there is option to switch off exposure mimicry in liveView and NEX-7 becomes the ultimate studio camera.
Let's go back to ergonomics - menu is largely similar to NEX-5. The thing is there are few more buttons and all of them are programmable + the tri-navi is programmable + white balance and few other setting have received uber cool user interfaces. It is just pleasure turning all the knobs.
The lenses I tried the 16mm + fish, 24/1.8 and 30/3.5. Botht he zeiss and Macro 30 are out of this world in terms of IQ.
Put on NEX-5 the 24/1.8 is unbelievably sharp. We were wondering if we have to decide which to buy first NEX-7 or Zeiss 24/1.8...may be the Zeiss will give you more. This lens is outlandinsh - focus speed is 0 (instant) no lag what so ever - point and shoot - Zero lag - NEX-7 has this electronic first curtain and combined wiht the superb focusing of the Zeiss it is much faster then A77 + 85/2.8 for example - like 5 times of more. Focus tracking amazingly works with the Zeiss and NEX-7 - and it works quite good! Sony have done miracles. Sharpness is Zeiss-ish - superb.
The macro 30/3.5 is extremely sharp from 3.5 on wards. The focus speed is notable lower ont he 30/3.5 - possibly because of the macro focusing range...One hting that I think I observed is that sharpness at infinity of the macro lens is not as good as the zeiss....I need a raw converter to comment on this more though.
The very nice thing about both the macro and the zeiss is that they are unbelievably sharp at max apertures. So Sony wins 5 stars on lenses.
Here is Zeiss picture with NEX-5 on max aperture https://picasaweb.google.com/108932183055258509379/Nex5?authkey=Gv1sRgCKmhgb3zg4HVZQ#5661187317857583330
Panoramas 2d and 3d work as on nex-5 not much difference.
Well I am very very happy wiht this NEX-7 and am looking to buy one and a Zeiss 24/1.8 for sure. Which will I buy first or both together is something I have to ponder over in the next couple of weeks until NEX-7 makes it to a store near me.
