Tested In-Depth: Sony a7 Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera 

honestly I bought the Sony A7 and got the Sony A to E adapter then bought a bunch of Cheap good Minolta A mount lenses and ive been pulling off awesome shots from it

I've owned my Sony A7 with 28-70mm kit lens since 2015 and I love it. This January I purchased the FE 24-240mm zoom (an amazing, sharp lens that is greatly under appreciated) and immediately noticed a play in the lens mount due to the extra weight. As I turned the focus and zoom rings, the mount began to flex clockwise and anticlockwise by about 2-3-degrees, my shots were not straight and the exposure was off. This gradually got worse, as I use manual focus, to assist and fine tune the focus area to get the images as sharp as possible. The plastic mount on this A7 is so thin and small it was gradually flexing, wearing and letting light in, yikes Sony! I ordered the 'Fotodiox Tough E-Mount Light Tight-LT (FOTEMLT) from B&H Photo and installed it using a '00' Philips screwdriver. After mounting the FE 24-240mm zoom onto the Tough E-mount, everything is very solid, with no lens movement of any kind, my images are now straight, more clear and sharper.

A lot of people here seem to be really hating on the white guys style of reviewing but i like it. I think it's deliberate, he poses questions that a beginner/novice would ask regarding a new camera and the Asian guy gives the "expert" answer/answer. Better than reading from a spec sheet. Seems like a more natural exchange, refreshing to see after watching so many, almost, choreographed reviews.

FYI the exposure compensation dial exists because of known limitations of reflective light metering technique used by these built in light meters. They are indexed on the amount of light reflected by 18% gray color so all other colors require compensation.

OMG does he ever stop interrupting????!!!!

P.S. This video is an awesome refresher and update about how cameras work.

Hey Norm, I would love for you to do a video for us camera noobs and do a "this is what everything means and does on the camera" kind of thing. That would be awesome. I have some basic understanding of shutter speed and iso and so forth, but I feel like I would love to have a good and thorough walk through on all of it.

I bought an a7 to replace my 5D MKii and have been super happy with it. It has its annoyances, but overall it is a fairly small camera that takes terrific photos. I don't get those weird "You have a f'in giant camera" looks anymore which makes up for all the downsides. I also love the ability to cheaply put old film lenses on it. The peak focus is great for manually focusing and hey for $23 from amazon I was able to put an old 50 f/1.4 on it. It's definitely not an L lens, but for the price it is amazing.

at first glance i'd said the camera is called Alpha 7 since it is a small letter alpha. it's also marketed at that name, maybe not in the USA though

Dude on the left needs to shut up and let the man talk.

I just got the A7s last week and I am just blown away... had a Nex7 before.

All this talk about image quality makes me wonder why Tested still upload their videos in 720p. They work with high capacity equipment so why not upload in 1080p?

36:35 Can I take my 2000 dollar full frame camera and make it look like a cheap Russian camera using filters? You can absolutely do that. GREAT!

The guy on the left can't shut up!!! my god...

I had the old NEX C3 from 2011 and upgraded to the A7. The A7 is AMAZING. For me it is perfect as it has full frame 24MP sensor and when using the Zeiss 35mm/2.8 it really captures some stunning images. It is expensive but well worth it.

I hate seeing people with something that they are not interested in and know little about but im here saving up, scraping up every bit of money i can to get one of those camera.

Stop all the bitching about the dude on the left. He adds a great balance for those just starting. It was great. Thank you . . . appreciated the questions.

It would be cool to see how does the AUTO ISO behaves with longer lenses, i'm guessing right now that it tends to set the shutter speed to the double of the focal length to be able to use the lowest ISO number possible at all times

the one thing you guys didn't mention is that there is an adapter that will take the sony A mount and allow you to use it on this camera opening up the lens set to a whole slue of full frame lenses from sony.

just how calm you guys are is intoxicating. I know I'm weird :P

I'm happy when In-Depth really means DEEP

The amount of info I learned is amazing, thanks for this video.

I love it when Tested talks CameraNerd.

Great review. I have recently got one myself and have been getting to know it. However, there was one mistake in your review. While I shared your frustration about ISO being accidentally changed by the dial, the function of this can be changed. Personally, I have completely disabled this function since it is easy to unknowingly engage it. As a matter of fact,one of the things I love about the camera is how much both the buttons and screen function can be reprogrammed to suite myself. Also, while I agree about the lack of lenses, and losing some functionality if you use an adapter for a non Sony lens, but with the focus peaking feature, using a manual focus lenses on this camera is awesome and so easy to use. I really do think it is a game changer. Maybe not for the more causal consumer, but for those who want greater control over their shots, it can't be beat. In addition to being so small. I already take this with me anywhere and everywhere in a way that I never could with my old Nikon, which was similar in size and weight to the Canon 6d.

With Lower light situations the view finder can become quite laggy... but having the ability to see the actual photo through the finder is great!

Great video guys! Can tell for sure that Norm is passionate about photography.

I think that if you do a good review video as you do, you are able configure your camera manually. So why in the world are you reviewing the auto mode??? People who are gonna buy a pro camera like the a7 are probably also able to configure the settings properly, so I don't get it. but yeah, I like the video and keep up your good work!

Wrong information on the ISO function not being able to be configured to another button and disable on the d-pad. It can. I have.

If you shoot auto iso and aperature mode where you set aperature to wide open, can you use exposure compensation to adjust shutter speed above the 1/60th the camera defaults to?

People keep forgetting that it does charge with micro USB and that brings one amazing feature. Get a 15 dollar chargeable pack (i have one at 3000mah). And when my a7 gets to about 30% i just take a nice break and let it charge back up. It's not the best solution but i stopped having a battery problem. There are options.

25:25 I have that Yashica in the bottom of the frame.

I recently sold my Canon 5D Mark IV since retiring. It was just too expensive of a toy to lie around for youtube and facebook photos/videos. I'm considering buying an A7 and was wondering how the Sony glass compares to the Canon glass. I've had off brand lenses like Sigma and Tamron and I thought they sucked. I don't want to spend $1500 or more on a lens for it and was wondering about image quality in the $500 range.

Correction: because you are using full-frame, you do not have more depth of field than an APS, you have shallower (less) DoF, for the same aperture number.

Nice video,i also use the A7 to make my videos, most of them are underwater. It work great

Correction: In full manual mode, you CAN choose whether the front dial is shutter or aperture. You have to dive into the menu a bit, but it's there. Also, the RX1 is $2,800, not $2,000, and the LA-EA4 adapter for Sony Alpha lenses gives you full autofocus.

Thanks for another great review, Norm. very informative.

With my NEX 5n, I would leave with 3 fully charged batteries for a day of shooting, one in the camera and two in the bag. Using Leica R and M lenses on the NEX 5n, would love to do the same with an A7 and keep the original view angle of full frame.

love when the bearded guy at the end says old and bulky and the dude in glasses says no not old but bulky

the rx1 is closer to 3k in price, but I always felt that the a7 series was perfect for nex users wanting to upgrade to full frame. Or a great addition to someone who already has a full frame body and a decent collection of lenses. since almost all lenses can be adapted to the e-mount.

You actually can reassign the rear dial such that it not changes the ISO.

Actually.. I have to comment on the A7 operation on 1/60 with auto iso. I currently do not know any EF lenses, so I am using adapter with 3rd party lenses. One practice I've found working is that when I believe 1/60 with properly light, I'll use Av mode with AutoISO and camera will do the magic since I already picked an aperture on my lens. The workaround to overcome the 1/60s is to switch to Tv mode. While you are at Tv mode, 3rd party lens through adapter you are still able to control aperture setting, but now you are free to use AutoISO with any shutter speed. If you believe you are comfortable with 1/80s, just set to 1/80s, AutoIso will automatically bump up the ISO to compensate. :)

When talking about viewfinders you neglected that mirrorless can do live view which shows you a preview of the actual image captured. To me that's more valuable than seeing what is actually there, because cameras can't capture the same light with infinite clarity like your eyes can. There will be noise in a dark photo and seeing your exposure, to me, is important

stopped watching the video because the interruptions were too annoying

I will wait for the Fujifilm X-T1 test. Thanks.

There's a slight error here in that you can customise the selection wheel and stop changing the ISO by mistake. Custom key setting > Control Wheel > Choose ISO, WB, Style, Effect or None. Otherwise good review. Thanks.

I find the battery life on the NEX-6 (same batt) a bit poor also. However, using an old manual lens + lens adapter has cured this. I think the AF and OIS built into the lenses is a real power draw.

27:40 my advice to you is, NEVER use Auto-Iso.. Start with the lowest ISO and as you lose daylight, or in this case go indoors, start increasing the ISO to a value that allows you to use a decent shutter speed, 1/80 and up, specially if your lens does not have Image Stabilization.

Can you use it in North Korea?

24:30 about compression. Sony are the only cameras that don't offer lossless Raw files. Raw files are compressed with lossy compression and are small than from others companies. Nevertheless the lossy compression of raw files is slightly destructive.

You can swap the function for the dials in manual mode.

Still worth buying second hand?

Menus are still perfectible! I've hated Sony menus for a over a decade now, and they aren't much better. Pity, because I love the format of the camera.

You can get it refurbished or used for like 800 or 900, pretty good I think

Wrong !!! The mirror does not reflects the light to the viewfinder of a (D)SLR. The light has been reflected to the ( matted) screen. The image is already visible; left and right are reversed. The pentaprisma brings the image to the viewfinder ( reversed a second time). In the viewfinder the image is visible. Lost of image because of moving mirror? Forget it.

You can actually swap functions between the front and rear dials.

Watching this in 2019 is really interesting to see how much the A7 has changed/improved. I have the A7 MkIII and pretty everything is better. Yet the menu system is still terrible.

Norm. You can change that wheel to something else. I did the same thing and ran into the same issue I changed it out to another function.

Hmm for the limitation of floor shutter speed in auto-iso mode, why not shoot in M with auto-iso instead and manually set the shutter speed?

07:00 Sony NEX is pocketable only with pancake lens.

thanks for the great explanations on this technology.

Nice cutting mat ;)

i think that u also have to pay attention to what ur focusing at at an F stop 2.8... the focus is soo narrow that some stuff might be out of focus.

For the benefit of anyone considering this, I'm going to repeat what everyone said here: The dials ARE programmable. You can change any dials to ISO, shutter speed and aperture.

Also, can you turn off the LCD and use it only for playback?

Set it to manual with auto iso and use the EC dial for iso (brightness).

love my nex5n .... even though it was originally bought to go flying with on my hex copter

Awesome review...great interaction by both reviewers! super like! :)

Thanks, very helpful, you have to listen to get information, I'm looking forward to next video, what's a good camera that takes large fps pictures?

Sony A7 III or Fuji X100F as my first proper camera?

I wish you guys would do the Blackmagic camera :/

are u doin a review of the a7s?

I will first stay with DSLR but if I had the money, I wouldn't mind having this camera too. I've been out walking with the family and just didn't feel like hauling my big ass DSLR and this is where the Sony would come in handy.

The guy with the beard could have done everything by himself. He tells the other person how to answer his questions. That is interesting to watch

it would be less annoying if the the other guy would stop interrupting.

Tested Please review Sony a6000! 😭

I love Tested and much, much more so than other tech reviewers, but this review clearly demonstrates why general tech sites, channels and publications SHOULD NOT review cameras without an actual camera expert. Will clearly doesn't know a lot about cameras (which is fine because his questions tried to bring the review back to people who aren't camera nerds), but Norm, who is otherwise an incredibly knowledgeable and nuanced tech reviewer, just doesn't have the knowledge or ability to convey concepts about cameras adequately to non-photographers. For the next camera review you guys do, EVEN IF IT IS FOR A SMARTPHONE CAMERA, might be best to bring in some help. I recommend seeking out Chris Nichols, Tony and Chelsea Northrup, Matt Granger, Kaiman Wong or any other popular camera gear reviewer on RU-vid. They really do a great job talking about cameras accurately and precisely but in a way that anyone can understand.

boy how misleading is this dont even under exposure compensation....

Is this a good buy in 2018, for 800 bucks ?

You can set the iso-wheel to something else, such as to turn it off .....

30:40 Battery is exhausted by LCD and standby. I prefer bracketing and I have shot 600 photos in a short time with one battery. I disabled auto review, only JPEG and selected 1 minute auto power off.

best review you guys done there. thanks!

What happens if the a7 falls down from a half a meter altitude

This is why you shoot in manual. And you should be able to hand hold 1/60 if your into photography enough to buy a FF camera.

This beautiful man was on Greg Millers show at Kinda Funny.

Fantastic video. Thanks guys.

When did tested turn into an infomercal? Liston to the launguage they use... They're now an advertising PR company...

so in the not too distant future I wanna go ff camera as well,long time sony fan I'm leaning towards the a-99,is the difference between it and the a7 negligible?

Is worth it in 2018 ? i think yes ... you ?

I had to stop watching this. The host (white guy) just wouldn't shut up. Sorry, this review won't help me determine whether or not to buy this camera.

Exposure compensation dial is for you to under expose so you can fix it later in your computer!, come on guys, brush up on basics please!

23:10 The lowest native ISO of the camera is 100. The ISO 50 is expanded and offers inferior quality. It is only good during daylight with 1/8000 shutter speed in the case of big apertures and shallow depth of field like f/1.8

so you can do exposure compensation even in M mode? I asked because in Canon you can only do that in AV or TV.

Just when I thought no one used two-curtain shutters anymore...

You are incorrect on at least one point. The wheel ISO function CAN be turned off, and I've done that on my A7. I do feel that this capability was there from the first firmware version, but not 100 percent certain... Yes, the jabber man can't shut up ;-)

Nice camera I use my Cannon Rebel Something but now maybye theres an upgrade in store

i'm hesitating between this an a GH4 for shooting video, any recommendations?

Can't auto-ISO be enabled along with aperature priority? Or isn't it possible to set ISO range then select aperature priority? This review is my first time to view a Tested review and quite honestly it is superbly well done being both highly detailed with the product being honestly portrayed - I'm subscribed and a fan. However, if you allow me this humble critique: 1. Will's questions are incisive and relevant but often pull Norm away from an important thread or Will starts an important thread and it's never quite finished for a variety of reasons. Upshot it gets a bit distracting and confusing with uncoordinated crosstalk, lack of linear focus on the topic, and random jumps around the subject. Suggestion please coordinate and prepare before a review session so both sides are familiar with the product (particularly Will) and Norm (providing Will with your own notes or moderately detailed bullet point list of items you'll be covering). 2. Norm (and Will too, but namely Norm) please please please stop sluring your speech. It is common GenX speech pathology to fail to articulate words coherently - remember you are broadcasters now. I suggest a speech therapist (there on online solutions) or broadcasting courses where you can learn to articulate. Thans for great review and please the my critique in the positive spirit they were given!

I would like to see one of these "pentagram mirrors".

a bit misleading - the A7 is Full Frame so lenses are large - he is only showing a 35mm or 50mm prime - Sony has few zooms for it - and they are about the same size as Full Frame DSLR lenses - so Micro Four Thirds is really the sweet spot of size - so lenses will be a huge issue with the a7/r/s

What if u transfer photos from the iphone do it support RAW?