New A7-A7r-RX10-Touit hands-on reports at PDNshow

October 27, 2013
reviews
74 Comments

The video on top has been posted by ThePhoBlographer. It’s Mark Weir talking about the new A7 camera.

ThePhoBlogrpaher also shared the first impressions about the Zeiss Touit 50mm macro and about the RX10 (article here).

Also dpreview posted a couple of pictures. Also SonyAlphaLab posted a longer article about the Sony stand at the show.

Those of you that speak spanish may read the long and very detailed article at DSLRmagazine (google translation here).

SAR reader Richard sent me his PDN impression review:

Just returned from Photo Expo – Here are some first impressions on the A7r:
It’s a nice compact camera, hefty (but not heavy) for it’s size. I was worried that with the center viewfinder, my nose would end up in the screen (using my right eye), but the body was small enough that my nose was to the side of the body. But, I feel that it will be a pain for left eyed people, with the controls and such in the way. The shutter is very loud. No, THE SHUTTER IS VERY LOUD.
But, I was impressed that I was not able to feel any shake or vibration from the shutter, and I felt confident hand holding it at slow speeds. The viewfinder seemed ok, but not exceptional. The autofocus did seem to jump around quite a bit, and the face detection feature only seemed to get in the way, jumping from face to face. The menu was very hard to navigate – when you tried to use the scroll wheel, sometimes the pressure used to turn it, activated the 4 way navigational click feature. Maybe it was just this particular camera. Of course, I was not familiar with the menu structure, so that didn’t help either. The guy next to me had a couple of Leica M lenses, and they seemed to work fine with his adapter, but of course we were not allowed to take any shots and we could not get a magnified view on the screen. One problem with manual focus – with a Sony FE lens, the magnify activates when you touch the focus ring, and stays on for at least two seconds. Also we couldn’t see how to enable it with the Leica lenses (got an error message on the screen about that feature not being supported with that lens). Maybe there is a way, but we couldn’t figure it out, and the Sony rep didn’t know. All in all, I rate it as a maybe purchase for me – there is a lot to like about the camera, but it’s not perfect. It is frustrating – Sony seems to come out with cameras that are just one or two steps away from being great – the biggest negative for me is the loud shutter.
BTW – spoke to the guy at the RX1 counter – asked when the 36mp sensor was going to get put into it – he said that was a question for someone higher up, but he expects Sony would want to put their best technology into the next RX1, if there is one.“

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Specs and Preorders in US and Canada (Click on store name to see direct preorder page):
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

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