Sunday, October 27, 2013

Sony Alpha A7R

Sony just announced a real nice mirror less digital camera with interchangeable lenses. Best thing is it is a full frame sensor camera with a 36 megapixel sensor. I want a powerhouse in a small package and it is true that dynamite comes in small packages. This will turn the DSLR world on its head. I will be able to use the A-mount lenses and utilize the auto focus functions and I can also put on hundreds of older good glass for manual work. They will offer 3 new lenses from the beginning but I purchased it with only two adaptors to allow me to use my existing glass. Going to pick up some rigging from Jag35 so I can do a few things I was unable to do in the past. Or at least make it easier. It will be on par with all the major Full Frame DSLR cameras including the Blackmagic Cinema camera and the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema camera. It will be a dynamite camera. I am stoked at being able to purchase it and its going to be perfect. I will be able to make a small but very functional package for taking on the road for doing some interviews of guys with electric car builds. It is something that is needed and since most are not doing it themselves I will provide that needed information. Part time of course and all on my dime.

The camera will do uncompressed raw as well as a few other codecs if you want and I can couple it to my Blackmagic Hyperdeck Shuttle 2 for a whopping 480 gigs of storage and either uncompressed or Apple Prores 422 HQ codec from the Shuttle. Photos are raw or jpg. I plan on all raw photos and uncompressed or Apple Prores 422 HQ.

I chose this one over either the Blackmagic Cinema or Pocket Cinema camera and this is a full frame sensor which neither of the Blackmagic  cameras provide. I can utilize the entire industry of 35mm glass that is for a full frame size sensor and utilize many and still have autofocus functionality. Many will be plain manual but that is good as well. This is one kick ass camera. Should have it in my hands by the end of November and I will do a full review.

Pete :)


The XGA OLED Tru-Finder is the camera's very high resolution eye-level electronic viewfinder. It which features OLED improvements and the same 3-lens optical system used in the flagship A99. Sony claims it will display three times the contrast of the A99. High-end features like 100% frame coverage and a wide viewing angle are also provided.

The tiltable 3-inch (1,229k dot resolution) Xtra Fine™ LCD Display makes it easy to photograph over crowds or low to capture pets eye to eye by swinging up approx. 84° and down approx. 45°.Sony says images will be dramatically more visible in bright daylight on this monitor.

Connectivity with smartphones for One-touch sharing/One-touch remote has been simplified with Wi-Fi®/NFC control.  In addition to Wi-Fi support for connecting to smartphones, α7R also supports NFC (near field communication) providing “one touch connection” convenience when transferring images to Android™ smartphones and tablets. (Sorry, no iPhones or iPads...yet.) Users need only touch devices to connect. When using Smart Remote Control — a feature that allows shutter release to be controlled by a smartphone — connection to the smartphone can be established by simply touching compatible devices.

The A7R outputs 14-bit RAW image data which Sony says fully preserves the rich detail generated by the image sensor during the 14-bit A/D conversion process. When developed with Sony’s Image Data Converter RAW development software, these images deliver the superb photographic expression and rich gradation that only 14-bit data can offer.

Video capture is full 1920 x 1080 HD uncompressed clean-screen video in 60p and 60i frame-rates.  Selectable in-camera AVCHD codec frames rates include super-smooth 60p, standard 60i or cinematic 24p. MP4 codec is also available for smaller files for easier upload to the web.

The Sony Alpha A7R will be available body only for $2,299.99.