 "Hands-on with the brand new Sony Alpha 7, Alpha 7R and Cybershot RX10")
Having announced its flagship mirrorless inter-changeable lens cameras in New Delhi yesterday, Sony India had hands-on session of these cameras for journalists in Mumbai today. We got to try out the Alpha 7, Alpha 7R and Cyber-shot RX10. Here are out first impressions.
Alpha 7 and Alpha 7R
Sony Alpha 7R drops the anti-aliasing filter and houses a 36.4MP Exmor CMOS sensor
Both these cameras look identical on first glance, but they are different internally. While the Alpha 7 has a 24.3MP sensor, the Alpha 7R has a 36.4MP sensor. The Alpha 7R lacks an optical low-pass filter and has a sturdier metallic build. For full-frame cameras, the Alpha 7 and Alpha 7R are quite light and compact in nature with the bodies weighing under 500 grams. The build quality feels great on both the cameras, with a good palm grip. The top portion of the cameras has a lot of dials – mode dial, exposure dial and two control dials. Apart from the dials, you also have custom buttons C1, C2 and C3 which can be programmed by you to help you access your most commonly used functions with just a click. All this leads to a good handling experience.
The shutter sound on the Alpha 7R was comparitively louder than that on the Alpha 7. Composing images using the XGA OLED electronic viewfinder is a joy and the presence of the two control dials on the top, allow you to makes adjustments without moving your eye away from the EVF. Both cameras sport a 3-inch tilting LCD screen on the rear. The movie record button though is situated on extreme right hand side which is quite unconventional.
Sony Cyber-shot RX10
A great looking camera with stellar specs
The RX series has got a shot in the arm with the RX10 which has the Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* 8.8-73.3mm (24-200mm equivalent) lens which offers an 8.3x optical zoom with a constant aperture of f/2.8 throughout the range. The RX10 has the same sensor as was seen in the RX100II - 1-inch 20.2MP Exmor R ensor. Thanks to its optical zoom range, the RX10 is bulkier at close to 800 grams. It borrows the exposure dial from the Alpha 7 cameras. We quite liked the fact that the lens has 35mm equivalent focal length markings for popular focal lengths such as 24mm, 35mm, 50mm all the way to 200mm. There is a dedicated manual aperture control ring which eases changing the aperture while shooting videos for instance. It sports a 3-inch tilting LCD screen on the rear.
Check out the sample images below. These are just for reference and we will share more sample images when we review the Alpha 7, 7R and the RX10.
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While the Alpha 7 and 7R are expected to hit the Indian markets by December end, the Sony Cybershot RX10 should be available in the second week of December.
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