I got a hands-on report made by one of my new sources. He saw the NEX-7 and Zeiss prototypes. The rumor is ranked with SR3 only because what he tested where prorotypes and might be a little bit different. For example I don’t knwo if what he saw was the final Zeiss version. My guess is that he tested a different version of the lens. Anyway, this is his text:
“I can tell you though that the NEX-7 feels good in the hand. I only got to use the camera for about a minute but the EVF is superb. It reminds me of what it’s like looking at an iPhone retina display. You simply can’t see the pixels because they are so small. I didn’t see any rainbow effects and the refresh rate was super fast. There is still a tiny bit of lag when panning but it’s much improved. I tested it inside a somewhat dark restaurant, performance may be better in good lighting. Autofocus with the 24mm is very fast. It seems its almost as fast as the m43rd’s cameras. Maybe just a tiny bit slower but the important thing is that for single autofocus is as fast as anybody would practically need it to be.
About the Zeiss lens: I’m told Sony spent a lot of time and effort trying to not make the lens too big without compromising quality. I haven’t seen image quality first hand but I’m told its typical zeiss quality. Beautiful colors and a high amount of natural contrast.
The Nex-7 is also going to be expensive because it has a customized sensor. Sony, I’m told, has struggled a bit with getting good corners because of the short registration distance. Sony originally planned for the NEX to be marketed at consumers and didn’t realize it would be a hit with enthusiast too. To combat the short registration distance, they put in some micro offset lenses. All lenses will benefit from this, including legacy glass so people will see improved performance with their rangefinder lenses.
The one real surprising news I can share with you is that the 24mm zeiss has a leaf shutter! I was very surprised to find this out but Sony is going to market this as the modern day rangefinder for street photography. I was told they are filming a commercial showing the evolution of the rangefinder into the NEX-7. It will be posted online in the coming months. It won’t be on tv because Sony doesn’t expect the average consumer to buy this camera, they believe the 3 and 5 series is for them.
I was told that the 3million dot evf will make manual focusing a bit better as well.
I had my [shoplink 6075 ebay]X100[/shoplink] with me and I can tell you that the X100 vs NEX-7+24mm Zeiss is going to be a tremendous fight. The NEX is quieter than the X100 because you can hear the servo motor on the X100 while the Zeiss motor is dead silent.
You should tell your readers to hold off on buying the X100. I’m seriously contemplating selling my X100. I still prefer the OVF to the NEX EVF but overallt he NEX seems super impressive. The NEX-7 still has the same tilt screen which is useful for shooting from the hip.”
Support this site: I am having a lot of fun to work on SAR. I don’t use dozens of banners and I don’t get paid by any company to do what I do. All the work you see here is made by me during my free time. If you want to help me to cover the monthly server costs there is an easy way: Click on affiliate links you see on that website like [shopcountry 3028] to buy whatever product you want (it doesn’t have to be a camera) and I will earn a small commission from it. You don’t pay any penny more on the items you buy and at the same time you support SonyAlphaRumors without me having to put 100 banners on my website. Cool or not? Thanks :)
Reminder (SR = Sonyrumor):
SR1=probably fake rumor
SR2=rumor from unknown sources
SR3=50% chance it is correct
SR4=rumor from known sources (60-80% the rumor is correct)
SR5=almost certainly correct!
[/shoplink]