SONY A7CR CAMERA REVIEW – A WEEK IN LISBON

SONY A7CR CAMERA REVIEW – A WEEK IN LISBON

Introduction

My search for the perfect everyday carry camera for personal projects and travel inevitably led me to the Sony compact full-frame range of cameras. Having looked at both the Sony A7 C II and Sony A7CR, I eventually opted for the latter as it would give me the option to crop extensively if needed (and I’ve got used to the luxury of shooting with relatively high MP on my Sony A1s).  In hindsight, having not needed to crop much (because I was carrying a 50mm lens already) I’d probably swap sensor readout speed and low-light performance over resolution and should therefore maybe have selected the A7 C II, but that’s a story for another day.

Having found the fixed relatively wide 28mm lens options of the Leica Q3 and Ricoh GR III a little limiting when travelling, and certainly not delivering me the capability to take the odd vaguely flattering portrait, I turned towards an interchangeable lens camera for this trip.

I use solely prime lenses for my work and wanted to get away from carrying an array of lenses when travelling.  I’m one of those people who likes to leave nothing to chance so when given an interchangeable lens option I tend to take way more gear than I need and end up using only half the lenses that I’m carrying.  With this in-mind, I opted to purchase the relatively new Sony 24-50mm f/2.8 G zoom lens which has been well reviewed since launch. It was this pairing that I used exclusively on the trip to Lisbon and therefore for all of the images shared below.  I figured that the 24mm end would allow me to shoot in Lisbon’s narrow streets while the 50mm end would make for a handy street portrait option.

As this is a camera review of the Sony A7CR, I won’t go into the capabilities of the Sony 24-50 f/2.8 G lens.  But, before I move onto the camera, here are a few thoughts on that lens.

Sony FE 24-50 f/2.8 G lens – having used the Sony 24-50 mm f/2.8 lens for both travel and at weddings, I found it a wonderfully light-weight and compact zoom that covers my most-used focal lengths (24/35/50). The lens is sharp from wide open but there is quite a lot of distortion (easy to correct of course), I found the colours less pleasing than my G-Master lenses when shot alongside them at weddings and the AF noticeably slower in low-light.  I guess there’s a reason that this lens gets the ‘G’ rather than ‘G-Master’ designation but I thought I’d just share those points.  Using this lens on its own for travel was great, using it alongside G-Master lenses in work where colour matching and fast AF are hugely beneficial I found it less fun to use.  Finally, I never adapted to the fact that this lens has a ‘reverse zoom’ – if you’re researching this lens, you’ve no doubt already clocked the fact that it’s a 50mm when retracted and you ‘zoom’ out to 24mm.  My brain just never got used to this and I found myself faffing way too often as I tried to quickly frame a shot.

Right, so now onto the Sony A7CR camera itself.

Pros

• Size & Weight – for the image quality (61 MP full-frame sensor) this camera is insanely light and compact. It’s not really easily pocketable when you add on a lens but it’s an extremely easy carry, even with a Smallrig grip extension (that I decided to add for my little finger to rest on and allow for easy single-handed shooting).  For me, this camera is the sweet-spot in terms of dimensions although I do think the styling is a little dull compared with ‘rangefinder-style’ cameras from other brands such as Fuji and Leica. I’ve seen quite a few people ‘pimp’ their Sony A7 CR cameras and lenses a little to try to add some ‘retro’ vibes but I’m not convinced it works when the base camera is quite so plain.  All this is subjective though, Sony have smashed it in terms of portability.
• Sensor – IQ & Colours – as you’d expect from a Sony 61 MP sensor, that is likely shared with the Leica Q3 and Sony A7 RV, IQ is exemplary.  I’m used to the 50MP images from my Sony A1 cameras and the detail in the images from this so compact camera blew me away – you can crop for days! Most significantly to me though were the colours.  Although it’s a subjective area, and Sony do seem to receive the worst reviews online in terms of ‘colour science’, I’ve found their colours to improve with every generation of camera and the A7 CR is no exception. I preferred editing the Sony A7 CR files to my slightly older Sony A1 files – clearly not a night and day difference but a difference nonetheless.  It’s made me wonder how much better the A7 RV and now Sony A1 MK II files are compared to my Sony A1.  There also seems to be plenty of dynamic range in the files with the camera metering being pretty much spot on when shooting in all conditions.
• AF – Sony are widely regarded as having class-leading AF (although Canon and Nikon have made huge strides in this area in recent years) and the AI processing unit supported AF on the Sony A7 CR works like a dream; I’d even go as far as to say that body/face/eye detection works better than my considerably more expensive Sony A1s. It’s hard to imagine AF getting much better than this – my only grip is that you do have select what your subject is when shooting but with the launch of the Sony A1 MK II (and already an option in other brands) the camera can detect the nature of the subject you’re shooting (car, plane, bird, human etc) and automatically track if for you.  I really wish Sony would bring that to other slightly older cameras via a firmware update.
• Lens Selection – with Sony early to the mirrorless game and allowing third parties to develop lenses for the E-Mount for many years now, there is an unbeatable and seemingly endless choice of lenses for the Sony A7 CR camera.  It’s something that I’ve grown to take for granted being a Sony shooter for the last 8 years but having tried out the Nikon Z system recently (more on that in a later review), I’m reminded how lucky we are to have so much choice.  Beyond being able to use my existing G-Master lenses on this camera (and therefore able to take it to weddings as a third back-up body) there are a huge number of very interesting, compact and affordable lenses well-suited to the size and style of the Sony A7 CR.  Although I settled on the 24-50 G lens, the lightweight and more affordable G series of prime lenses are pretty much made for the compact A7 line and the slightly more retro-inspired but beautifully built Sigma ‘i’ or Contemporary range are an equally great option for Sony A7 CR owners.
• Menu System – yep, someone likes the Sony menu system!  Rather like colours, I think criticism of Sony’s menu system is a bit dated as they’ve improve vastly since my first entry into the Sony system with the original A9 in 2016.  Having used modern Fuji, Ricoh, Nikon and Leica cameras in the past year, I can honestly say that only Leica can claim to have a better interface.  Again, this is subjective but I genuinely cannot see a vast difference in usability between the other brands. So, as someone very familiar with the Sony menus, I’m listing it as a ‘pro’!

Cons

• EVF – as someone who wears glasses and is used to the outstanding EVF on the Sony A1, I found the EVF on the Sony A7 CR to be frustrating to use.  It’s better than having no-EVF of course and handy in bright light but I found myself using the rear screen more often than not.
• Articulated Screen – talking of rear screen, I’m really not a fan of fully articulated screens that will only tilt once sticking out to the side of the camera.  As someone who shoots almost exclusively stills, I much prefer a purely tilt screen or a screen that can tilt and/or articulate (like the one on the Sony A7 RV, Sony A9 MK III or Sony A1 MK II).  This is of course highly subjective so I’ll leave it there.
• Lack of Joystick – I so wish this camera had a joystick – I really think at this price-point a joystick is not too much to ask and there’s got to be space for one if Fuji can include one on their X100 line.  It would make using the incredible AF and navigating menus just that bit faster.
• Lack of Custom Buttons – I guess it’s a function of size and the fact that this camera is I guess not aimed at ‘pros’ but I found myself running out of buttons in order to add easy and quick access to functionality that I like to use regularly.  There is the standard Sony Function Menu of course but nothing beats a custom button in terms of making swift setting changes with the eye to the camera during shooting.
• Shutter – aside from the fake shutter sound being horrible, I found the lack of a full mechanical shutter a little frustrating.  On bright days in full sun I occasionally had to switch to full electronic shutter in order to get a shutter speed high enough for a correct exposure at my preferred aperture and with this comes rolling shutter distortion with moving subjects.  You can usually work around this by stopping down but it’s easy to forget in the moment and it’s not something I’ve had to worry about previously with the stacked sensor on the Sony A1.

Summary

To round up, the Sony A7 CR camera is an incredibly compact and capable high-resolution camera with blazing fast AF and great colours.  Backed up by a great selection of lenses and great battery life, it’s a truly compelling package for everyday use, travelling or as a back-up camera for a working ‘pro’. Hopefully the images below will deliver an idea of what this camera and lens combination is capable of and will help you if you’re considering taking the plunge on a Sony A7 CR.  Most of my frustrations with the Sony A7 CR were ergonomic ones and are therefore a little subjective.  That said, it’s always worth visiting a local camera store or taking out a rental before making a decision.  It might not be long enough to make a decision but it might tip the balance one way or another.

Finally, as I mentioned at the outset, the slightly cheaper A7 C II might actually be the more rounded camera for most users, particularly if you don’t need the ‘cropability’ that comes with the 61 MP sensor of the CR. It would certainly be worthy of investigation before spending big on the A7 CR.

Thanks as always for reading and again, feel free to drop any polite comments or questions below!

Andy