Sony NEX 7

VictorChen

The sizzling item from Sony, the long anticipated and much delayed newest camera from Sony; NEX 7, has finally landed in Hong Kong. And I believe today is the first day of distribution, but guess what? According to Sony, the quota has been fulled, which means no one knows exactly when the camera will be readily available to the general market.

NEX 7's specification has been released for quite some time, so I'm not going to repeat myself here. Of all the E mount lenses, the Zeiss 24mm f1.8 attracts my attention the most, after the crop factor, this lens becomes a 35mm focal length of the 135 format, which in my personal preference,  is the best width for street and general photography. I'd just picked up the camera and the lens, so I haven't had the time to do an extensive play, but in all honesty, it is the first impression that matters the most.

Here is a little comparison of the latest NEX 7 and the previous NEX 5



My first impressions of NEX 7 and the 24mm f1.8 are:

Pros:
1. Both the camera and the lens are very well built
2. 24.3 Mega Pixel packed in a tiny body is no joke, though in all practical sense the pixel count matters the most when you're doing printing
3. start up time is fast
4. the screen can be tilted upward perpendicular to your eyes, this helps a lot when doing a waist level shooting
5. the Zeiss 24/1.8 does a 0.16m close up, I love this.
6. the overall function buttons are very similar to the larger DLSRs



Cons:
1. The cost for this set up can get you a DSLR, though I can't say the DSLR would fare any better
2. the Zeiss 24/1.8 is huge, but luckily it does rest comfortably in the palm and balances well with the NEX 7 body
3. the flash hotshoe is not compatible to my Nikon SB800
4. the build-in flash is not my cup of tea

Conclusion, so far I'm loving this camera, maybe because it's a new toy for me, or maybe this is a power house build within a compact size camera which really impresses me. Either way, Sony is definitely doing something right in a market dominated mostly by Canon and Nikon.


Wide open at f1.8




Wide open at f1.8, with closest distance possible