Sony a7 Full-Frame Mirrorless Digital Camera - Body Only

To start off, I'd just like to mention that I am not a professional photographer. I am a serious hobbyist traveler photographer, mainly photographing my travel adventures as well as photographing my children's precious moments when I'm at home.I must say, this Sony A7 really hits the bulls-eye for my needs. I used to carry a Nikon D600 with a 24-70mm f/2.8G "beast" lens. The complete system was quite cumbersome and heavy but the combination of the full framed Nikon D600 and the 24-70mm lens took absolute stunning shots when I was on the go. When Sony came out with the RX1r, I decided to give it a try and I was truly amazed with the quality of the pictures I was able to take with that camera. The RX1r's ability to take hand held night shots made that camera a real winner for me. Though my main issue with the RX1r was that I was stuck with the 35mm lens. That made the travel photography difficult but as a full frame "point and shoot" camera, the RX1r was as good as it gets. Then the A7 and A7r came out and general apples to apples, it looked as if the A7 was essentially a interchangeable lens version of the Sony RX1 series cameras. Being so happy with the RX1r, I decided to get the A7r paired with the Sony SEL2470Z Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm F4 ZA OSS Lens.The A7r took FANTASTIC photos during good light conditions but my main issue was that it was TERRIBLE in low light. At just an ISO of 1200, you can already see a hint of noise in low light conditions and once you bump that up to 2000+, the photos are generally polluted with noise. At 6400, it's essentially game over. As my home is generally not very well lit, using the A7r to take photos of my children only created photos that were generally not photo album worthy. However, the A7r really shines once you slap on a tripod and take scenery shots or when lighting is good. The imagine quality on the A7r is EXCEPTIONAL and the level of detail is top notch quality. The larger MP capabilities of the A7r are utilized very well. But since I generally shoot in low light and only 20% of my shots are scenic, I returned the A7r and got the A7 instead.Image quality wise, the A7 performs MUCH better in low light conditions over the A7r. There is a significant reduction in noise at ISO 2000 and 3200 shots and at ISO 6400, many of the shots I got were still very good. I generally found that the A7 performed better with portrait shots while the A7r really thrived with landscape shots. The autofocus on the A7r had a tendency to hunt more while the A7 was quicker in focusing, especially in low light conditions. I believe this is mainly due to the fact that the A7 has Phase Detection Auto focus (PDAF), while the A7r does not. Many have complained that the A7 also has a slow autofocus compared to other DSLR cameras on the market but I honestly can't really tell the difference. Compared to the A7r's 36.4 MP, the A7 does have a lower MP at "just" 24.3. Though I honestly, I doubt you'll really tell the difference unless you do some serious cropping or you do photography that really just requires high MPs.Exterior wise, both the A7 and A7r essentially look and feel exactly the same. Though the A7r has more metallic parts, like the dials and apparently the body as well, you generally can not tell the difference between them. Both the A7 and A7r are very nice to hold and shoot with. Both feel very fluid and crisp. The A7r does make a bit more noise when taking shots and the A7 is noticeably more quiet. I know some have complained that the A7 is still noisy when taking shots but I don't find it bothersome and I actually quite like the sound it makes. Coming from the Nikon D600, I did find that I had to get used to the layout of the Sony cameras. The menu system as well as the location of certain commands are not where I was used to them being. Though after a few days with the camera, navigating through the camera became a breeze. My only main complaint would be that the "zoom" button is a bit of a stretch for my fingers and does require for me to preposition my grip on the camera in order to press is properly.Battery life for the A7 and A7r are borderline decent to poor as you generally would get about 350 to 400 shots before you need a battery swap. I purchase a Wasabi battery charger and extra batteries to solve that problem. I also found the Wasabi wall battery charger much better than using Sony's direct to camera charging system. Another drawback I've noticed is that the start up time of the camera is relatively slow compared to the RX1r and significantly slow when compared to the Nikon D600.I never shoot video with my cameras so I'm sorry to say I can't comment on the A7's video capabilities.Overall, the A7 is a fantastic camera. Granted the A7r had a higher MP, the A7 just suited my shooting needs better (low light shots, portraits, running after the kids shots and travelling shots). Furthermore, even when paired with the larger SEL2470Z Vario-Tessar 24-70mm lens over the standard 28-70mm kit lens, the over all size and weight is still a HUGE upgrade over the significantly larger Nikon D600 and heavier the Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G "beast" lens. The A7 really gave me the flexibility to carry the camera almost everywhere, making it perfect for my travel photography, while at the same time giving me the perfect shots that I look for in a camera, making it the perfect go to camera for me. All that's left is to hope Sony comes out with better and a wider range of lenses soon, which according to the news reports out there, they will.PS: If you see a Nikon D600 and a Nikkor 24-70mm lens for sale on eBay anytime soon, there's a good chance it's mine!I hope this review helps!

What a delight, this Sony A7 is a photographers dream. Sony is way out front with this. Small, light, compact, tough as nails, brilliant design. The viewfinder is excellent, and I can't wait to see how they improve it in the coming years. The back LCD is the best and brightest I have ever used making back shooting in the sun a real possibility, perfect for astrophotography. The focus peaking is amazing, manual lenses come to life in real environments. Auto lenses get it done, with speed focus and aperture changes instant.I have nothing to complain about really, as usual the menus are good but not great, a few features I use a lot are hidden, and there could always be more programmable keys. Also the inability to cross use the special features like the in camera exposure stacking and HDR with timer is a little annoying. Would like to see less restrictions but I suppose that is what the will put in the next version with more memory. Write speeds on Long Exposure are about equal to the exposure time so the buffer is limited. Continuous shooting is machine gun speeds, I can rip off 10 shots and be back shooting in 2 seconds.Ok, now back to what is great, everything else. Full frame is amazing, with good glass it is mind boggling. And good glass that is manual focus is all over Amazon from Minlota's Rokkor series of the 70's, Quntaray, tamron, Sigma and Leica. Go look find the cheap adapters and see what you have been missing. Sony makes an adapter for it's alpha lenses and that even switches the focus to phase focusing for better results. I haven't bothered with that yet because the chinese adapters are so cheap and work so well even some of the automatic canon stuff will work on this.This is so much easier to carry than a DSLR, and yet the pictures are fantastic, huge, detailed, color rich. The only limitations are your lenses so start saving up. Rented an OTUS lens..my goodness I never knew such imaging was possible. Added Nikon lenses and now a canon EF from Tamron Vi VC with the Commlite addaptor, I will let you know about that auto lens adapter soon.The Kit lens (14-70mm) is actually a blast and I picked that up used as well, no regrets. There are faster sports cameras, but this thing with OSS can really grab anything short of a bullet so don't listen to the detractors. For the price it can do anything. Go buy a Nikon D4 if you are shooting the Olympics for NBC, otherwise use this and get there with twice the lenses because of the lighter weight.I bought an external Sony charger and Sony batteries, they get over 1000 shots RAW+JPG per charge. Buy Sony folks, don't go cheap on this. I do shut off the camera between shots so I get better life than some.Get a fast big memory card for this. I love the internal charging of the battery, it uses a standard Android car charger plug! I use a 64GB Sony class 14 card and am happy, though a faster card never hurts for long exposure work.CONS: Lack of built in stabilization on the sensor and Sony's slow roll out of lenses are both annoying, that being said this is one of the best cameras ever made, a game changer, and the results with good glass are ASTOUNDING. Pro quality, and I have sold stock photos already. 6000x4000 people, for under $2k.I shoot in Shutter Priority or Aperture priority with manual lenses, the AUTO feature is great with the kit lens but obviously defaults to goofy settings on manual lenses. You need to know how to use an SLR to get the results from this. A remote trigger works with my Android phone and hopefully Sony will build it into the Smartwatch 2 at some point. the buttons and dials all work very well, I think the exposure dial is almost perfect, though my Fuji x series does spoil me.You cannot find a better camera if you are looking for an all weather portable pro shooter. Well the A7R is better in some ways at least for tripod work but not for day to day shooting.Low light capabilities of this sensor are unreal. Video is great but huge files and not quite what the most serious pros are looking for in video frame rates perhaps. Still, it works great with a manual lens and puts out Bluray quality. Great headphones jacks and mic jacks!Ergonomics are spot on. Connectors rock solid. Manual programming hot buttons easy to setup. Getting out of zoom in play mode is annoying, but you will figure it out. Most menu items are well placed.So much love for Sony, such a stellar piece of equipment. Run and buy one, collect good glass. Profit.