Some thoughts on the Sony a7R
Some thoughts on the Sony a7R after the first week. Few pluses and few minuses of the camera:
+ great dynamic range
+ 36 mega-pixels are great for landscape photos
+ good color on automatic white balance
+ fast start
+ very nice, high-res display
+ custom buttons
+ 14 times zoom in live view (great for manual focus)
+ focus peak
+ great shutter sound (one hears it so many times, would be horrible if it was bad :))
– weak battery life
– takes long to charge the battery (but only if it’s empty)
– no external battery charger delivered with the camera
– the screen gets dirty very quickly (haven’t noticed it to this amount on other cameras)
– screen stays on during long exposures (it’s black, but still on) which just uses battery
– low screen refresh rate when in dark situations (makes manual focusing harder)
– camera randomly restarts and returns to some previously used settings (average once per hour of shooting)
– very few settings for exposure bracketing, and no possibility to take all with a self timer
– no time indication on the screen when doing a bulb exposure (the screen is on though)
– stupid placement of the menu and shutter buttons (especially don’t understand the shutter button placement)
– very slow auto-focus (but could only test it with canon lenses)
Will do a bigger article/review after more usage.
Blue hour city
I didn’t get any nice fireworks shots on Saturday, but I took few city shots with the a7r while I was there. I actually don’t remember ever having green trees in my blue hour shots from here. The Sony gives quite different colors than the Canon.
Nice shot, congrats!
I gave a very, very short try in a shop with the A7R, mainly to have a few NEF files to play with at home to see what is the fuss about the dynamic range. Even with a Sony native lens (35mm f/2 if I remember correctly) it was sooooo long to focus, almost unusable. Shop lights are not the best, but come on it’s 2015, it shouldn’t be an issue for a camera of this range.
I manage to manual focus and indeed, the pictures are quite awesome. I also really like the electronic viewfinder. But this autofocus thing as killed all the buzz for me. It makes this camera very good for stills, but useless for anything moving. I can’t wait to test the A7II to see how it was improved.
For me it’s a little easier. I manually focus 99% of my images. For that it works quite alright. The viewfinder is not so great for me, as I liked to compose using the viewfinder, which is not such a huge bonus when it’s electronic.
OK, I see.
I really liked the possibility to display the electronic level directly in the viewfinder, for example. For you focusing manually, focus peaking in the viewfinder could be a plus too.
Yes. .the electronic level is a great help. Really a step up to the 3-axis bubble level I used before. And the focus peak is nice, but its a mixed bag, as it’s sometimes in the way when I focus manually. I need to see the edges, that it covers.
Good Review Miroslav – the battery issue was one of my main concerns – and the need of a new lens, now I can use adaptors instead.
And I wonder if they will release a A7R II eventually….
Not a review yet :) Have to use it more to be able to give a better judgment. These are only my first thoughts. Will do more later.
And btw. I just ordered a third battery. During my shootings, I got down to 50-60% in about a 1.5 to 2 hours, which is not that bad actually, but if I take into account how few photos I took, it isn’t that good also.
And I think they will. Probably in the next few months :)