Official Sony A7 or A7r discussion thread

[cwaikong]

has anyone tried making the Spot AF area smaller for more accuracy?

as for me, i used the Zeiss 35mm F2.8 in poor lighting conditions and i still managed to get my focus right.

While a smaller AF area can focus more accurately, my personal experience under low light that there are times where it cannot achieve AF that easily. Using medium sized AF area seems to improve the hit rate of getting AF under low light, but you have to balance it with the accuracy of the AF.

 

[Red Dawn]

The camera has many good points but I disagree that the AF can be called fast and accurate. It's AF is just not that reliable compared to other cameras i hv used and sometime fails to lock in good indoor light. Dun take my disagreement as expectation not met. Different cameras just have different characteristics. And the AF accuracy and speed is just not its strongest feature.

I'll have to agree with this assessment albeit only for the kit lens as I don't own the 35mm and the Sony showroom at Wisma where I tried the 35 is so bright that I can shoot at ISO 200, so it's not really a test in low light.

I'll have to say that even then it focuses slower than the OMD-EM5 under the same conditions.

Kit lens is poor in low light, that's for sure - when I use the word "poor" I'm referring more to the reliability of the AF. The speed being slower is understandable, but the reliability of the AF is highy questionable even with a reduced sized AF point. I've taken to using my M mount lenses exclusively in low light / indoors. I can MF them faster and more reliably than the AF...

All experiences with the A7..... (no idea about the A7r)

 

[ricleo]

i hope the kit lens AF performance is something that can be updated via firmware.

the funny thing is. I am using the 10-18 aps-c lens on the A7, and the AF performance is much better than what i recalled from the 28-70 during sony's handson session at TCC.

I'll have to agree with this assessment albeit only for the kit lens as I don't own the 35mm and the Sony showroom at Wisma where I tried the 35 is so bright that I can shoot at ISO 200, so it's not really a test in low light.

I'll have to say that even then it focuses slower than the OMD-EM5 under the same conditions.

Kit lens is poor in low light, that's for sure - when I use the word "poor" I'm referring more to the reliability of the AF. The speed being slower is understandable, but the reliability of the AF is highy questionable even with a reduced sized AF point. I've taken to using my M mount lenses exclusively in low light / indoors. I can MF them faster and more reliably than the AF...

All experiences with the A7..... (no idea about the A7r)

 

[ageha]

i hope the kit lens AF performance is something that can be updated via firmware.

the funny thing is. I am using the 10-18 aps-c lens on the A7, and the AF performance is much better than what i recalled from the 28-70 during sony's handson session at TCC.

Using APS-C crop?

 

[Oly5050]

has anyone tried making the Spot AF area smaller for more accuracy?

as for me, i used the Zeiss 35mm F2.8 in poor lighting conditions and i still managed to get my focus right.

I did. Smaller spot appear to make it more difficult for the canera. So I hv compromised on medium spot.

 

[ricleo]

Using APS-C crop?

No crop. Full frame coverage btw 12mm-16m

 

[intosite]

The A7's paint seems to be quite soft. Have wore through some corners to what seems to be silver bottom from just 1 holiday trip.
Never had the problem with my Nex 7 which has been through much more and brought up on a hike to Kota Kinabalu.

 

[Oly5050]

The A7's paint seems to be quite soft. Have wore through some corners to what seems to be silver bottom from just 1 holiday trip.
Never had the problem with my Nex 7 which has been through much more and brought up on a hike to Kota Kinabalu.

That's beat!

 

[cowmera]

best is to test it if you have the opportunity. initially, i read that the AF was not fast enough until i tested it myself before buying it.

personally, i like it and find its AF silent, fast and accurate for me on the A7. the construction is decent, doesnt feel "cheapo" to me ;p & also no complains about the details and sharpness so far. for day to day, i have no issue with just using the kit lens.

i just posted some kit lens shots in the image sharing thread http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1338082&page=15 & a few more on my flickr, feel free to check them out.

cheers & take care!

Thanks for sharing!

 

[ricleo]

Show's that you are using the camera and not babying it like some of us here haha....which is good!

in anycase i find that black paint on magnesium alloy tends to be like that, expecially in areas with straght line/sharp corners. Had the same problem with the previous black OMD/EM5 too.

The A7's paint seems to be quite soft. Have wore through some corners to what seems to be silver bottom from just 1 holiday trip.
Never had the problem with my Nex 7 which has been through much more and brought up on a hike to Kota Kinabalu.

 

[ageha]

The A7's paint seems to be quite soft. Have wore through some corners to what seems to be silver bottom from just 1 holiday trip.
Never had the problem with my Nex 7 which has been through much more and brought up on a hike to Kota Kinabalu.

Just cover it with more tape, doesn't make a difference anymore.

 

[intosite]

Just cover it with more tape, doesn't make a difference anymore.

Yup. Planning to. The other corner's safe cause i taped it up anticipating my strap lug rubbing (using one sided strap), but left this side out cause i didnt think it would wear so fast.

 

[ageha]

Yup. Planning to. The other corner's safe cause i taped it up anticipating my strap lug rubbing (using one sided strap), but left this side out cause i didnt think it would wear so fast.

That's the benefit of cheap polycarbonate, no paint job needed which wears off.

 

[LangLee]

The A7's paint seems to be quite soft. Have wore through some corners to what seems to be silver bottom from just 1 holiday trip.
Never had the problem with my Nex 7 which has been through much more and brought up on a hike to Kota Kinabalu.

Now we know why the price is relatively lower than DSLR despite having better specs. They cut corners on the paint job
:-( My old black film camera body got scraped & it revealed another layer of black paint.

 

[ricleo]

Yup. Planning to. The other corner's safe cause i taped it up anticipating my strap lug rubbing (using one sided strap), but left this side out cause i didnt think it would wear so fast.

Be careful with gaffer. It may be so stickg that your paint job gets pulled out by the tape on removal

 

[intosite]

Be careful with gaffer. It may be so stickg that your paint job gets pulled out by the tape on removal

lol. Never had that problem. And usually I use it till the gaffers start to drop out and i have to replace them.

 

[ageha]

Now we know why the price is relatively lower than DSLR despite having better specs. They cut corners on the paint job
:-( My old black film camera body got scraped & it revealed another layer of black paint.

Well, the paint job on a regular DSLR is a textured powder coating which is more robust. I don't think it has anything to do with the price, it's more a matter of design.

 

[m3vapour]

The A7's paint seems to be quite soft. Have wore through some corners to what seems to be silver bottom from just 1 holiday trip.
Never had the problem with my Nex 7 which has been through much more and brought up on a hike to Kota Kinabalu.

Never had this problem with my previous few nex bodies. think i better watch out the jacket zippers while its on the neck strap.

 

[intosite]

From what i can tell, the A7 i have looks powder coated. But anyway, no issue for me, i'll just take a black paint marker and color over when it gets worse.

Just received my Aki-Asahi leatherette sheet and done cutting. Will paste it when i get back and have alcohol to clean the surface.

For those who wanna DIY,
here's the template i made (print, cut the "reversed" template, spray mount/glue it and attached to the reverse side of your leatherette/vinyl, and cut away)
The template has the portion for the 2 side doors and strip for the bare portion on the right side grip. Note: the side door panels have not been tested to see if it'll prevent them from opening fully, if it doesn't, just need to trim the width a little.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwSL1MgJjs7XbkZ0R1EwRWc2Q29NdTg3VDBTVnVoLVEtek5Z/edit?usp=sharing

 

[intosite]

yup, neither have i had paint problems with my Nex 3 and Nex 7.

Though I've used my Nex 7 till the rubber grip totally peeled off, They were just using what looks like double sided tape. I just contact glue it back together.

On a side note, i realised, i have 2 3rd party batteries. One that worked on the Nex 3 but doesn't work on the Nex 7 (Nex 7 says incompatible after a few seconds). And the other works on both the Nex 3 & Nex 7(newer batt).

The newer batt refuses to work on the A7. The older one that only works on the Nex 3, works fine on the A7.