Gadgetory

I'm dan Seifert with The Verge and these are the sony a7 and a7 are cameras at seventeen hundred dollars and twenty three hundred dollars respectively these are sony's most expensive and advanced interchangeable lens mirrorless cameras yet the a7 and a7 are are significant for one reason they are the first interchangeable lens mirrorless cameras with full-frame 35 millimeter sensors they are the smallest lightest and most portable full-frame cameras on the market all other mirrorless cameras have smaller sensors that are not as good in low light or other difficult shooting situations and they can't match the image quality of a full-frame DSLR as the adage goes the best camera is the one that you have with you and it's a lot easier to have a smaller camera with you more often for many that means a smartphone but smartphones don't offer anywhere near the image quality of a proper camera Sony's managed to make two cameras that aren't a chore to lug around and can hold their own in nearly any photo situation both cameras clearly come from Sony's NEX line of mirrorless cameras only they are slightly bigger and have a few more dials and switches on them they are also similar in appearance to the RX one fixed lens camera physically there aren't really any noticeable differences between the a7 and the a7 our save for the tiny badge on the upper right of the camera both have 3-inch tiltable displays high resolution electronic viewfinders that look absolutely great sizable rubbery grips and enough buttons and dials to satisfy even the most demanding photographer both cameras are also solid and well made and feel worth their price tags inside is where the two models differ as the a7 has a 24 megapixel sensor and the a7r has a 36 megapixels chip the a7 also has a faster autofocus and continuous shooting speed but other than that the two cameras are almost identical they also feature built-in Wi-Fi and NFC for pairing to an Android or iOS smartphone and can shoot 1080p video at 24 or 60 frames per second shooting with the two cameras is almost the same as well neither camera is particularly quiet which is disappointing that the a7 ARS shutter is significantly louder and just doesn't sound nice likewise the a7 s autofocus is faster in practice the neither camera is particularly quick when it comes to focusing and I notice that the cameras tended to miss focus a bit more than proper DSLRs also the a7 s 5 frames per second continuous shooting is passable but it's not going to impress any sports photographers the a7 s can be shot in a variety of full automatic modes but they're really designed to let you the photographer take control and make just about focusing and exposure but the output from these cameras is quite remarkable both models capture an immense amount of detail with a7r taking the edge due to its higher megapixel count both cameras also shoot incredibly well in low light and at high ISOs with a slight nod to the a7 like we saw with the RX one the a7 and a7 are can hold their own with any other full-frame camera up to ISO 6400 and higher ISOs are even usable in most situations there are some ugly JPEG processing artifacts a few pixel peep on the images but they're not visible most of the time and aren't an issue if you shoot RAW I'm partial to the $1700 87 because there's enough resolution for my needs and I can put the money save towards other lenses and accessories it can be purchased with an optional 28 to 75 millimeter zoom lens for an additional 300 dollars the lens is not particularly bright and it's pretty slow to focus in dim light but if you're considering the camera at all you should probably pick it up just for its versatility both cameras shoot well with the zoom lens but they really come alive with a fast prime such as the 35 millimeter f28 or a 55 millimeter F one point eight autofocus is much quicker and the image quality from a prime lens is almost always better than with a zoom lens the a7 s aren't perfect and they do succumb to the some of the trappings of other mirrorless cameras namely poor battery life I tapped it out after only a few hundred shots slow autofocus and limited lens selection but you can't ignore the incredible image quality they offer that has been previously reserved for much larger and more expensive cameras and can't really be touched by any other compact mirrorless camera on the market with the a7 s Sony's managed to defy expectations when it comes to the laws of physics and what you can expect from a compact camera it's clear that Sony thinks this is the future of photography and there's a good chance that in a few years the big bulky DSLRs of today will be mere relics of the past and limited to very specific specialties it's a taste of tomorrow's photography that you can get today