Gadgetory

hi I'm Laurie Brennan and this is the sony alpha ILC e7r more informally referred to as the a7r there's tons to like about this camera it's got a 36 megapixel full-frame anti-aliasing filter free sensor which delivers sharp images that have a nicely broad dynamic range JPEGs are quite usable up through ISO 1600 and if you shoot RAW you can push it as high as ISO 6400 really some of the best image quality I've seen in this class I mean the video looks pretty good without the artifacts I've come to expect from sensors like this it's also very well designed with a sturdy magnesium alloy body a relatively large bright contrast to EVF and a bright tilting LCD the controls are reasonably customizable with all the frequently needed settings at or near the surface I do wish some of the buttons were more pronounced and I dislike the feel and location of the movie record button but they're more than made up for by controls like the auto manual focus override toggle placement of the SD card slot on the side rather than the battery compartment USB charging and an exposure compensation dial plus a grip sufficiently large for shooting with heavy a mount lenses and other amenities I've got few complaints about the feature set to while I wish it had a built-in flash that's frequently excluded from full-frame models in addition to the electronic viewfinder and tilting LCD it supports Wi-Fi with NFC along with apps from Sony's proprietary app store the remote shooting app is still pretty basic though so what's not to like the performance because it uses Sony's rather sad contrast autofocus system it's kind of sluggish and frequently has trouble obtaining a focus lock like most of Sony's ilcs it takes a relatively long time to power up and because of the high resolution images there's some lag before you can make changes after shooting and the battery life is pretty poor for a camera in its price class I really like the camera despite its poor performance but it does make for some profanity filled intervals if you want terrific photo quality and a great shooting experience in a compact model and you're willing to carry a spare battery and you don't mind the occasional sluggishness the a7r makes the grade I'm Laurie brunnen from CNET and this is the sony alpha il Cee 7/5