Sony Alpha NEX-7 review

It’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally beginning to see compact cameras that are every bit as good as digital SLRs. The journey started with Panasonic and Olympus’ Micro Four Thirds system, followed by rival compact system cameras from Samsung, Sony, Pentax and Nikon. However, we’ve yet to see one that excels across the board.

Sony is leaving nothing to chance with the NEX-7. Not content to reuse the stunning 16-megapixel sensor from the NEX-C3 and 5N, it has fitted the NEX-7 with a 24-megapixel sensor – the highest currently available in the APS-C sensor format. Its electronic viewfinder is as good as they come, with a 2,359kpixel resolution providing a big, sharp picture that outperforms many SLRs’ optical viewfinders.

Frustratingly, it isn’t possible to enable Auto Review (for inspecting shots directly after capture) on the screen but not in the viewfinder, but we do like how the viewfinder and screen can be set to show different information. The camera’s screen is good too: a 3in wide aspect LCD with a sharp 921.6kpixel resolution, with the only disappointment that it isn’t a touchscreen, a feature that comes in handy for adjusting the autofocus point.

Otherwise, the NEX-7’s controls are extremely impressive. With two dials on the top plate and another on the back of the camera, there’s direct access to shutter speed, aperture and ISO speed. This has a profound effect to the fluidity and control, allowing you to concentrate on the photo rather than the camera.

There’s more, too. In priority and program modes, the dials are reassigned to exposure compensation and program shift as necessary. A button next to the shutter release cycles the dials through a range of other customisable functions. And, with more customisable buttons on the back of the camera, it’s possible to put all photographic settings within easy reach, from flash compensation to white balance adjustment.

The NEX-7 comes top of the class for image quality – at least as far as its sensor is concerned. Higher-resolution sensors usually capture more detail at the expense of more noise, but this one excelled for both detail and noise in low-light tests. The 16-megapixel NEX-C3 delivered slightly cleaner photos at ISO 6400 and above, but the NEX-7 wasn’t far behind, and well ahead of other brands of compact system camera.

At lower ISO speeds, the NEX-7’s huge resolution delivered on its promises to capture stunningly detailed shots. Automatic settings gave dependably good results, and while we’d have liked some customisation of the Auto ISO mode, most users will be happy to adjust settings manually. It’s well worth reducing the noise reduction strength, or shooting RAW, to maintain subtler textures.

The video mode is outstanding, with crisp details, flattering colours and the lowest noise of any stills or video camera we’ve seen. The manual controls for photos work seamlessly for videos, too, and AVCHD encoding at 25p, 50i or 50p, plus a microphone socket, make this a prime candidate for serious use.

Performance was generally excellent, with nippy shot-to-shot times of around half a second in single drive mode. Burst shooting was at 10fps and lasted for 17 JPEGs or 13 RAW exposures before slowing to the speed of the card. Enabling lens distortion correction meant the slowdown came earlier, at 13 JPEGs. It also meant photos took a little longer to appear on the screen after capture.

These are minor drawbacks, though. Autofocus speed was harder to forgive. It was reasonably fast in bright light, but not as fast as Panasonic’s G Series cameras. It fell way behind in low light, taking anything from 0.5 to two seconds to lock onto subjects.

The kit lens lets the side down too. It’s the same 18-55mm unit that comes with the cheaper NEX cameras, and it really shows. It has bog-standard specifications and struggles to maintain sharp focus across the frame at wide apertures. It’s great for video capture with silent autofocusing, and although it isn’t a bad lens for a £500 camera, it feels out of place on this one.

We’d recommend replacing it with a superior lens, but even here there’s a snag: a comparatively narrow range of lenses and, in some cases, truly painful pricing. There are now four prime lenses at 16mm, 24mm, 30mm (macro) and 50mm, plus a 55-210mm telephoto and an 18-200mm in the E-mount range, but the Micro Four Thirds system is well ahead with 26 lenses. Of these, the 24mm f/1.8 (for us, the most interesting one in the range) is particularly exorbitant at around £840. The similarly specified (and extremely sharp) Panasonic 20mm f/1.7 for Micro Four Thirds cameras costs £264.

The NEX-7 sets a high watermark for compact system cameras, but you’d have to be either obscenely rich or stubbornly uncompromising to warrant spending this much on it. The Panasonic Lumix GX1 and Sony NEX-5N aren’t far behind for overall quality and cost around half as much. And even stubbornly uncompromising people may be unwilling to put up with the pedestrian autofocus performance, the mediocre kit lens and the comparative lack of lens choice.

We must admit to being smitten by the NEX-7, but we’d wait for a few months to see what happens to the price – and to see what other cameras turn up – before flexing the credit card.

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