Df vs A7: what to buy?

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Mistake to compare two cameras when one is from Nikon which has dozens of lens choices in zooms and primes and the best flash system available for standard and macro subjects, and the other is a non-Canon camera, the only other company that is close to Nikon.

Even third party lenses are always available for Nikon and Canon cameras and seldom for the others and this includes Sony. Same applies to third party flash from companies like Metz and Quantum.

calson said:

Mistake to compare two cameras when one is from Nikon which has dozens of lens choices in zooms and primes and the best flash system available for standard and macro subjects, and the other is a non-Canon camera, the only other company that is close to Nikon.

Even third party lenses are always available for Nikon and Canon cameras and seldom for the others and this includes Sony. Same applies to third party flash from companies like Metz and Quantum.

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Not to mention that most Nikon shooters already have an investment in a variety of lenses. The Sony may be cheap to get in the door but the range of lenses do not exist yet and no doubt they will be expensive if they have have any pretension to quality that matches the body. So the $1700 bargain may ending up costing a small fortune in the long term.

In my country D800 (body only) is 2730 Euros whereas Df (body only) is 2950 Euros. A Sony A7 (body only) is 1500 Euros.

chooflaki said:

calson said:

Mistake to compare two cameras when one is from Nikon which has dozens of lens choices in zooms and primes and the best flash system available for standard and macro subjects, and the other is a non-Canon camera, the only other company that is close to Nikon.

Even third party lenses are always available for Nikon and Canon cameras and seldom for the others and this includes Sony. Same applies to third party flash from companies like Metz and Quantum.

Click to expand...

Not to mention that most Nikon shooters already have an investment in a variety of lenses. The Sony may be cheap to get in the door but the range of lenses do not exist yet and no doubt they will be expensive if they have have any pretension to quality that matches the body. So the $1700 bargain may ending up costing a small fortune in the long term.

Click to expand...

This is really the point. The Df is a system (lenses and flash) camera whereas the Sony, marvellous though it is technologically, is a camera with a very limited range of slow and expensive lenses. The high cost of current and future lenses may not fall much due to a lack of bulk sales (compared to to Nikon and Canon anyway) and the mount of the Sony precludes glass that is as fast as many of its potential users would like.

Not a bad comparison. They just got a bit hung up on the price of the Df. I expect the Df will sell well to the older crowd like me even at this price point.

Today I got to play around with the A7R with the 55 1.8 CZ lens for a bit in the Sony store in Bangkok. So here are my completely subjective and superficial first impressions :-D

AF: This seems fairly fast. Definitely faster than my Fuji X-E1 but not near as fast as my OM-D E-M5. I can't tell you how accurate it is. My D600 wins on AF speed here.

Viewfinder: Nice and bright. Very clear and sharp. Bigger and better than my E-M5 and vastly superior to the X-E1. The store was brightly lit, so I could not tell if there was any lag or jitter in dim conditions. Certainly no smearing, as expected from a top-notch Sony EVF. Manual AF should be quite easy with the focus peaking.

Body: Had a sharp angular feel reminiscent of film SLRs from the '70s. Quite slim and light with the 55 mounted. Even though the D600 is much heavier, I prefer the feel of the Nikon body.

Shutter sound: In a store with moderate noise level, the shutter was disconcertingly loud. It was "clack-clack" double sound that was not pleasant for me. Much louder than the D600 and certainly way louder than the E-M5 or X-E1. This may bother some people, while others may not mind.

I did not try the video function today as this is something that does not interest me much.

I will probably try it out again and see if they will let me shoot on my SD card.

I am going to wait until I get to handle the Df before deciding one way or another.

Nothing on high ISO performance? Besides - I've shot Nikon cameras for 30 years, so there's no way that I'd change mounts and sell all of my lenses.