This video was recorded using two Sony A7R in 1080p50 mode. Lenses used were the Zeiss FE 2.8/35 (long shot) and the Carl Zeiss Planar T* 1.4/85 for Contax (hand-held camera) – both used wide open. from Hacky on Vimeo.

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This is the seocnd part of SAR readers “homemade” legacy lens test :) Feel free to share your reviews and tests by sending links at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com. Thanks!

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Helge:

Helge posted the full test of the wide angle lenses that will work absolutely fine on the A7r at 3D-kraft (Click here). This includes the:
– [shoplink 10509 ebay]Tri Elmar 16-18-21mm (here on eBay)[/shoplink] – [shoplink 21602 ebay]Voigtlander Ultron 21mm f/1.8 ASPH (here on eBay)[/shoplink] – SEL 10-18mm (here at Amazon)

Helge writes:

Those who asserted that the Sony A7R is not suited to be used in combination with Leica (and other range finder) wide angle M lenses propably arrived at a too vague conclusion. In fact it depends on the particular lens design. Lenses with an extremely compact and symmetric design may produce problems with color shift and edge smearing even on the sensor of the A7R with shifted microlenses whereas lenses with a more telecentric design like the Leica WATE perform perfectly fine without color shift and without edge smearing on the A7R.

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Eakchat:

Infinity: A7 + [shoplink 21794 ebay]35mm Summilux ASPH FLE (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eakakeeak/sets/72157637971621114/

Infinity: A7 + [shoplink 21797 ebay]35mm Biogon ZM (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eakakeeak/sets/72157637971932445/

Infinity: A7 + [shoplink 23171 ebay]Nikkor 35/1.4 AI-S (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eakakeeak/sets/72157637973004986/

Falloff: A7 + [shoplink 21794 ebay]35mm Summilux ASPH FLE (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eakakeeak/sets/72157637970103166/

Falloff: A7 + [shoplink 21797 ebay]35mm Biogon ZM (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eakakeeak/sets/72157637969915845/

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Bao:

BTW, I’ve updated the post to include 3 tests,
1. Infinity at night
2. Infinity at day
3. Close up on a white wall

The original post:
http://forum.xitek.com/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=1237149&page=1&ordertype=1#pid50853112

The direct link to orignal images of all three tests on flickr is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23000374@N05/sets/72157637885106276/

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Xexets:

Small nitty gritty test I did with A7R + [shoplink 21797 ebay]Zeiss biogon 35/2 ZM (here on eBay)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 12485 ebay]Planar 50/2 ZM (here on eBay)[/shoplink]

http://xexets.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/a7r-test-with-zeiss-zm-biogon-352-and.html

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Lupico: 

Super-Elmar 21 on the Sony A7 at http://www.lupico.com/cameras/quick-snap-leica-super-elmar-21mm-on-sony-a7/

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Martin:

Sony Alpha7 with [shoplink 10220 ebay]Zeiss C Sonnar 50 1.5 ZM(here on eBay)[/shoplink]

http://martinlux.tumblr.com/post/67837101571/freiburg-november-2013-sony-alpha7-with-zeiss

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Specs and Preorders in Europe:
Sony A7r body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT,  WexUK, WexDE.
Sony A7 body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit Sony  DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony RX10 at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE.
Zeiss 35mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT,
Zeiss 55mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT
Zeiss 24-70mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, SE, PT
Sony G 28-70mm lens at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO.

Specs and Preorders in US and Canada:
Dedicated Sony announcement page at Amazon US (Click here).
Sony A7r body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony RX10 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 24-70mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 35mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 55mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
70-200mm A-mount at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony A-Mount to E-Mount Lens Adapter at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony A to E adapter with mirror at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
A7/A7r leather case at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
A7/A7r vertical grip at Amazon, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony W Series Battery Charger at Amazon, BHphoto.
Sony FA-CS1M Off-Camera Shoe at BHphoto.
Semi-Hard LCD Screen Protector for A7-A7r at Amazon, BHphoto.

Asia:
A7r at Digitalrev.
A7 at Digitalrev, Amazon Cina.
A7 with 28-70mm lens at Digitalrev.

 

The first 200 Zeiss 5mm FE lenses went on sale on December 4th in Korea. For some unknown reason Sony picked up Korea as the one country that ships the new stuff first. As I told you the lenses were sold out in 2 minutes. Before to switch over to two new lens reviews note that the lens is set to ship…

…on December 10 already at Sonystore Canada.
…on December 22 in US at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto and SonyStore US.
…on December 20 in [shoplink 23246 ebay]Japan (source eBay sellers)[/shoplink].
…and late January only in Europe according to Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT.

The new Zeiss FE reviews:

The Korean site SLRclub (Click here) posted the full lens review. As usual google translation tool doesn’t work but you can see plenty of great image samples and also many clear to understand tests like for example this one:

The tests show a top quality performance of the lens with the only visible limit the a bit high vignetting at wider aperture.

Photographyblog also posted the full Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 lens review and writes:

Offering fast and reliable auto-focusing, intuitive manual focusing and the usual Carl Zeiss levels of build quality that’s weather-tight too, this prime lens is a perfect partner to the flagship A7R camera, helping to extract bags of detail from its 36 megapixel full-frame sensor. Highly recommended if you’re about to invest in the fledgling 35mm full-frame E-mount system.

I have that lens already on my preorder list. But it’s pity we Europeans have to wait that much longer to get our lens :(

And here are again the preorder links:
USA/Canada: Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonyStore US and Sonystore Canada.
Europe: Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT

Chris Niccolls really explained in the best possible way the many flaws and very few positives of the Sony QX cameras. I think Sony should give him the 2014-2015 prototypes for testing so that Sony has time to adjust the flaws before they release them. So please Sony, send him the new A1, A79, A9, A77 and what else you have in your engineers office :)

 

So how does the A7 compare with the A99 and Nikon D610? DxO (Click here) writes:

Unsurprisingly perhaps, compared with the Nikon D610 and the firm’s SLT A99, both using a similar full-frame 24-Mpix CMOS sensor, the results are very close. Color depth between the three is similar and the A7 sits between the two with regard to the dynamic range, just +0.2 Ev separates the Nikon. However, it’s the low light performance that divides the two Sony models. While the A7 has a + ½ stop advantage over the SLT-based A99, the Nikon has a +1/3 stop over the A7, presumably on account of the latter model’s modified sensor.

And Photogrpaphyblog (Click here) posted the full A7 review:

After shooting with both the A7 and the A7R side-by-side, we’d be hard-pushed to choose between them, as both are remarkable cameras in their own right. On paper at least the A7 should offer faster auto-focusing and less noise at high ISOs than the A7R, but in reality there’s not a big enough difference between the two cameras in either regard. Instead we’d choose the A7 instead of the A7R because it’s significantly cheaper, it produces more manageable file sizes, has a higher flash sync speed, slightly faster burst shooting and a quieter shutter release.

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Specs and Preorders in US and Canada:
Dedicated Sony announcement page at Amazon US (Click here).
Sony A7r body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony RX10 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 24-70mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 35mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 55mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
70-200mm A-mount at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony A-Mount to E-Mount Lens Adapter at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony A to E adapter with mirror at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
A7/A7r leather case at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
A7/A7r vertical grip at Amazon, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony W Series Battery Charger at Amazon, BHphoto.
Sony FA-CS1M Off-Camera Shoe at BHphoto.
Semi-Hard LCD Screen Protector for A7-A7r at Amazon, BHphoto.

Specs and Preorders in Europe:
Sony A7r body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT,  WexUK, WexDE.
Sony A7 body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit Sony  DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony RX10 at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE.
Zeiss 35mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT,
Zeiss 55mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT
Zeiss 24-70mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, SE, PT
Sony G 28-70mm lens at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO.

Asia:
A7r at Digitalrev.
A7 at Digitalrev, Amazon Cina.
A7 with 28-70mm lens at Digitalrev.

DigitalCameraWorld posted the full A7-A7r review and says:

We had very high hopes for Sony’s innovative mirror less full-frame camera, and, for the most part, we haven’t been disappointed. Images are superb, with excellent colours and great detail reproduction – the A7R particularly of course.

Sony A7r is the camera of the year at Soundimagesplus:

It’s the best image quality I’ve ever used and it gives me the closest representation of how I see the world in my photographs. And I don’t have to put in lots of Photoshop hours to achieve that. The Sony engineers could have bespoke designed this cameras output for me, it’s just what I wanted.

There is also a new review at Tobinators:
Nikon Df vs Sony A7 – Zero Noise Reduction and Low Light (Steve Huff).
A7r, the first hour (Outbackphoto).
Sony A7r prueba de campo at Quesabesde.
Reminder: Full interactive documentation available for download (Sony US).

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Specs and Preorders in US and Canada:
Dedicated Sony announcement page at Amazon US (Click here).
Sony A7r body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony RX10 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 24-70mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 35mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 55mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
70-200mm A-mount at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony A-Mount to E-Mount Lens Adapter at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony A to E adapter with mirror at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
A7/A7r leather case at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
A7/A7r vertical grip at Amazon, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony W Series Battery Charger at Amazon, BHphoto.
Sony FA-CS1M Off-Camera Shoe at BHphoto.
Semi-Hard LCD Screen Protector for A7-A7r at Amazon, BHphoto.

Specs and Preorders in Europe:
Sony A7r body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT,  WexUK, WexDE.
Sony A7 body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit Sony  DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony RX10 at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE.
Zeiss 35mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT,
Zeiss 55mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT
Zeiss 24-70mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, SE, PT
Sony G 28-70mm lens at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO.

Asia:
A7r at Digitalrev.
A7 at Digitalrev, Amazon Cina.
A7 with 28-70mm lens at Digitalrev.

Image courtesy: Siammirrorless.

Many SAR readers were so kind to share their legacy lens test. Here is a first part of the mails I got. More articles will follow soon! Feel free to send me your tests at sonyalpharumors@gmail.com. Thanks!

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Martin Stelbrink (M and R mount lens test):

I have made a number of sample shots with the Sony A7R and legacy lenses. I have posted them with full resolution on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinstelbrink/sets/72157638008570035/

What may be interesting to your readers is that Cornerfix (at least for me) has issues with A7R calibration shots, but the Lightroom Flat File Correction Plug-in works beautifully.

Set description:
A test of Sony Alpha 7R (A7R) with the following legacy lenses. I have posted the first ones of the country road both as original camera jpg and RAW processed in Lightroom (flat file corrected for the wide angle ones of 35mm or less). I did NOT get Cornerfix to work on the files. It created green edges, when correcting the magenta ones. The same calibration shots worked on Adobe Lightroom Flat File Correction Plugin, though.

M-Mount lenses:

[shoplink 10507 ebay]Voigtländer Cosina Heliar 12mm f5.6 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
Surprisingly usable, if colour is flat file corrected. Not more “smear” than on film. But on the first shot you may be shocked at the amount of color casting.

[shoplink 10331 ebay]Zeiss Biogon 25mm f2.8 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
Significant corner / edge smear at open aperture. When stopped down it is usable, if colour is flat file corrected. The center piece is insanely sharp. It also could be used in a cropped mode, e.g. as a 35mm (the resolution of the A7R is more than enough)

[shoplink 22603 ebay]Leica Summicron 35mm f2.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
A wonderful pairing for the A7R, but also needs some flat file correction for colour (but no real smearing on the edges apart from the “character” of this 50+ year old lens)

[shoplink 22846 ebay]Voigtländer Cosina Nokton 50mm f1.1 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
Great lens on this camera, no issues (apart from the tiny shadow of the lens hood on a full frame sensor)

[shoplink 12505 ebay]Voigtländer Cosina Heliar 75mm f1.8 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
Wonderful lens for this camera!

[shoplink 17311 ebay]Leica Elmar-C 90mm f4.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
I found no issues that I put down to the camera, but it shows that this is a 40+ year old lens that was never one of Leica’s “top notch” lenses (significant vignetting). This lens is much nicer on the Nex-7, where I will probably use it as the standard lens, when I take the Nex-7 as my second body next to the A7R.

[shoplink 23124 ebay]Leica Tele-Elmar 135mm f4.0 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
Brilliant sharpness from corner to corner. Wonderful lens for the A7R

R-Mount lenses:

[shoplink 23125 ebay]Leica Apo-Macro-Elmarit-R 100mm f2.8 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
There is no limitation to use this wonderful classic. Sharp as hell, but also the tiniest DoF, which is very hard to focus in Macro mode. Well, but that is the same on the old Leica R… :-)

[shoplink 23126 ebay]Leica Apo-Telyt-R 180mm f3.4 (here on eBay)[/shoplink]:
Also no limitation on this nice old tele lens.

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Sean (M, OM and FD mount lens test):

I did a corners test of the A7R + [shoplink 21602 ebay]Voigtlander 21mm f/1.8 Ultron (here on eBay)[/shoplink] recently and the results(with 100% crops) can be found at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55528252@N02/10994380866/
I’ve also done corner tests with the [shoplink 23128 ebay]OM24mm f/2.8(here on eBay)[/shoplink], [shoplink 23129 ebay]FD50L (here on eBay)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 23130 ebay]FD85L (here on eBay)[/shoplink] on my flickr page which also contains additional samples:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55528252@N02/

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Hakan (M-mount):

Here are a few high ISO shots from A7R and [shoplink 21603 ebay]Summilux 21mm (here on eBay)[/shoplink] http://www.flickr.com/photos/72049239@N05/11011908443/in/set-72157637973525726/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/72049239@N05/11011601186/in/set-72157637973525726/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/72049239@N05/10991649335/in/set-72157637973525726/

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 Andrew (M and Ai mount):

I did some A7r vs M9 tests with some M-mount lens. I want to look at A7r’s vignetting, color shifting, corner smearing and sharpness comparing directly to M9. I turned on M9’s lens corrention because that is what I’ll use in real life. It’s all about the final images I get out of camera.

I hope this is also useful for others.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrew_xjy/11025143804/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrew_xjy/11025142444/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrew_xjy/11025140944/in/photostream/

Lenses tested were
[shoplink 21602 ebay]Voigtlander 21mm f1.8 (here on eBay)[/shoplink] [shoplink 22603 ebay]Leica Summicron 35mm f2 ASPH (here on eBay)[/shoplink] [shoplink 20202 ebay]Leica Summilux 50mm ASPH (here on eBay)[/shoplink] [shoplink 8842 ebay]Nikon 28mm f2.8 ais (here on eBay)[/shoplink] [shoplink 23131 ebay]Nikon Micro 60mm f2.8D (here on eBay)[/shoplink]

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Yuri (M42-mount):

Sony A7 + [shoplink 23133 ebay]Super-Takumar 50/1.4(here on eBay)[/shoplink]. Samples at Yuri.

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Specs and Preorders in Europe:
Sony A7r body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT,  WexUK, WexDE.
Sony A7 body at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit Sony  DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, Amazon FR.
Sony RX10 at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT, WexUK, WexDE.
Zeiss 35mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT,
Zeiss 55mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT
Zeiss 24-70mm at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, SE, PT
Sony G 28-70mm lens at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO.

Specs and Preorders in US and Canada:
Dedicated Sony announcement page at Amazon US (Click here).
Sony A7r body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 body at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit lens at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS. TheCameraStore Canada.
Sony RX10 at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 24-70mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 35mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Zeiss 55mm at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
70-200mm A-mount at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony A-Mount to E-Mount Lens Adapter at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
Sony A to E adapter with mirror at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto.
A7/A7r leather case at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
A7/A7r vertical grip at Amazon, BHphoto, SonystoreUS.
Sony W Series Battery Charger at Amazon, BHphoto.
Sony FA-CS1M Off-Camera Shoe at BHphoto.
Semi-Hard LCD Screen Protector for A7-A7r at Amazon, BHphoto.

Asia:
A7r at Digitalrev.
A7 at Digitalrev, Amazon Cina.
A7 with 28-70mm lens at Digitalrev.