SONY a7

I went to a local camera store to get some photo paper yesterday, and I saw SONY a7 there.

I held it in my hand, and it was so light that I had to open a battery case to see if the battery was inside.  My 6D felt like a brick compared to a7.

The camera body was rather ugly, I thought.  It looked like as if SONY designers were tying to create another retro style Leica wannabe camera by sticking a view finder on an old black Sony Walkman laying around in their storage room.

Apart from its stylish issue, I felt that the electric view finder on a7 was terrible too. We were comparing it against the electric view finder on a new OM-D, and although I am not a fan of EVF in general, we all agreed that Olympus's view finder was much clearer and pleasant to look through.

It was hard to see details on a7's EVF because of aliasing especially on objects with straight lines.  I also noticed that the view finder image got frozen when I was using focus lock and re-framing. The time lag was quite annoying.

I love the view finder of my 6D.  It is a simple clean without having distracting over-lay info. I fell in love with this view finder, and that was a main reason for me to get 6D.  It is particularly marvelous for portraits with 85mm. People really stand out, and the view finder is very clear that I can see their subtle facial expressions. When they smile, they do look beautiful.  I don't think I can get the same feeling from looking through a7's or any electric viewfinder.

Lastly, the camera body is only useful with a good selection of lenses which SONY lacks right now.  Even for wide angle prime lenses alone, Canon has 8 lenses for users to choose. SONY only has one 35mm f/2.8 which is apparently good but very expensive for f/2.8 prime (I can almost buy my old 24mm f2/8, 50mm f/2.5, and 85mm f/1.8 put together for the price of Sony's 35mm).

Well, we played with the camera for while, and I left shop smiling with my Canon 6D hanging around my neck, I should say.

この前、カメラ屋でソニーの新型機を見せてもらいました。

軽さには驚きでした。僕の６Dの重さの半分位に感じました。ただ、 ファインダーを覗いて、テンションが一気に急降下。やっぱり電子ビューファインダーは好きになれませんでした。ただ単にフレーミングの道具だけと考えれば電子式でも光学ビューファインダーでも良いのでしょうが、ファインダーを覗いた時の、「綺麗だな」とか「良い絵だな」とかいう感覚が、どうも電子ビューファインダーからは感じられません。

それから、カメラのデザインですが、なんだか黒いウォークマンにグリップとペンタ部分を貼付けた感じでした。従来の一眼レフと比べて、ミラーボックスが無い分、ミラーレス・カメラは、デザインの面で余裕がある筈。わざわざ持ち易いとは言いがたい四角いレトロスタイルにする理由が分かりません。

 最後に、カメラのボティーは、レンズあっての物。キャノンのボディーなら広角単焦点レンズだけでも色々と選べますが、ソニーは、３５mmが一つ、しかも、これが結構な値段。僕の２４mm、５０mmマクロ、そして、２００ドルで買った中古の８５mmを合わせた値段と同じ位です。

３０分程遊ばしてもらいましたが、正直良いなあと感じたのは、軽さだけでした。