Gadgetory

I'm Laurie hairnet senior editor for CNET and this is the sony alpha nex-7 this may not be a perfect interchangeable lens camera but the NEX seven comes closer for enthusiasts than almost any I've seen thus far that's why it's earned an editor's choice for this class of camera the NEX seven has almost everything built in flash and OLED EDF a large sensor tilting LCD and relatively serious video features its innovative to dial system takes the predominantly screen based NEX operation and moves a chunk of it back to the hardware controls where enthusiasts want it um while the price is high for a non professional model given the package it doesn't really seem ripoff high in part that's because I really enjoy shooting with the camera partly because it's a perfect size with a comfortable grip it's not so small that it gets overwhelmed by the lenses as the smaller NEX models do but it is small enough to be less conspicuous than a DSLR for street photography the some of the top and back buttons are hard to find by feel when you're looking through the viewfinder overall everything can be customized for the most fluid personal shooting experience possible like some of Panasonic's ILCs the NEX 7's pop-up flash can be tilted back for a bounce or effect unfortunately the fluid experience comes to a dead stop when you have to go into the menu system to change something that you don't use on a regular basis the neatly organized top level of icons bligh the unsorted Anarchy below I swear some of the options move when I'm not looking in part it's because Sony throws everything that doesn't fit into one of the 5 other categories into the setup menu the 24 megapixel resolution of the sensor helps to compensate for the other processing the extra pixels help retain detail in the face of otherwise heavy luminance noise reduction and while it's not super fast all around the camera delivers good to excellent shooting speed overall but more important the EVF refreshes quickly enough to make burst shooting and panning comfortable an excellent camera for advanced photographers that's fun to shoot with the NEX 7's few flaws don't seriously detract from an otherwise winning package I'm Lori Brennan and this is the sony alpha in yet