Was out Christmas shopping tonight and passed a Sony store.
On a semi whim went in to see the A7 (I have zero interest in the R version).
Anyway, probably drove the Sony counter people nuts, but tried every a mount lens they had in the case and also had zero interest in the current E mount lenses available now.
The upside in this non photographic test was it focused well, as well as most optical dslrs. Even track focused on medium fast moving people.
The camera is the exact size of the olympus em-1 and has the familiar look of full frame 35mm in fall off and lens perspective.
The menu is simple, the camera is small, but unlike the olympus, it feels better with larger lenses in the A mount, where the olympus feels a little awkward with larger lenses.
The other upsize (without shooting a file) is it's obvious that this will produce a higher detailed image than the olympus.
The Sony store said they received 9 body/lens combos in that morning and sold all by noon. (anyone wonder why Sony rushed this to market?)
The other take I have in todays world, it's completely undeniable and if I made Nikons, Canons, Olympus, Phase, etc. etc. this is the one camera that would keep me up at night worrying.
Very unlike a Leica which is a manual focus old world camera box covering electronics and unlike the fuji aps c or olympus micro 43 camera the full frame lenses work like the lenses we're use to without having to think ok a 25 is a 50 and 1.4 is really F4.
At first I couldn't put my finger on it, but I finally realized the camera feels less like it's made by a camera company, more like it was made by a computer company . If the logo said Apple or Samsung it would be a perfect fit.
Great price, great performance, zero romance. Comparatively the olympus em-1,even with all it's electronics, feels like it was made by a camera company. The em-1 has a lot of olympus dna in it, the sony, more computer console.
The switches are functional, feel a little plastic flimsy, almost a little fragile. The viewfinder is very bright, very, very colorful like the Sony 4k TV that was sitting on the counter.
It makes you wish olympus made a full frame camera, but more importantly makes you realize they don't.
Still you have to take it seriously because for $1700 you can't deny a camera that shoots to 2500 iso clean, has a really bright viewfinder, tethers, autofocuses, takes nearly every lens made without a crop factor and shoots at a relatively fast fps.
If was picking props for a movie, the Sony would set on the designer desk in a midtown glass apartment of an architect, where the Olympus would be the prop of a photojournalist.
Bottom line, it's really an amazing camera, even if it has the soul of a smartphone and I don't doubt for a minute it is the future of all cameras.
This is the first camera (except an Iphone) that I've held that felt like there was zero camera company DNA left in it. Kind of like going from an old Apple desktop computer with a 30" matte screen to a new 27" Imac. They kind of do the same thing, but never feel the same.
This is just my take, but Millenials will love it, guys that were raised on film will always feel like they sold out.
I almost bought it that moment, stopped myself and said I might come back.
When i got back to the studio, started pricing out A mount lenses.
IMO
BC