NEX 7 Review [Part 3] In Use Review

Am back, had some trouble along the way to writing this but it's something I endeavor to finish. Anyhow, from my experience with the Nex-7 [Pre-Production] unit, its relatively easy to learn how to use it just using the default settings and button layouts though coming from a full bodied aps-c camera system, it can be a little bit confusing at first. What the Nex-7 has achieved though is a simplistic way of portraying camera functions and features so you can easily understand it if you read the displays, after awhile though the default button layout can be easily used without much thought or looking at them.

Standard settings can be used for quick moment to moment snaps so you wont be able to miss out on a moment as the shutter to shot time is pretty quick, faster than my A77 and even if its just contrast detection, it can focus fast with adequate light.

The image above was supposed to have been a picture of the tableau but when my other eye saw the kid shushing her mom, I zoomed out and refocused and was able to get this shot. For street style photographers, the compact size makes it a little bit more unobtrusive and the quick  accurate system helps a lot to get some good shots.

 For travellers, the compact nature of the Nex-7 would allow easy carrying and good automatic controls.

If you play around with the controls and try more settings like aperture priority, you can get really sharp images and good control over a scene.

One of the biggest advantage of the Nex-7 is it has a Sony hotshoe, this allows versatility in the studio using standard Sony compatible radio and flash systems. One caveat though is that the onboard flash is unable to wirelessly trigger flashes [except of course slaves] and would need an F20AM, F43AM or F58AM to be able to command flashes. This might be a firmware issue since its a preproduction model though.

The Nex-7 also has a lot of fun stuff up its sleeve which can also help you get creative shots. The one's I used a lot are those that aren't easy to reproduce after a shot is made. Partial Color is one of them and it makes thing stand out amongst the crowd. You can select from Green, Blue, Red and Yellow.

Another is HDR Painting, which basically merges together 3 images shot in succession with low, standard and high exposures to produce an image with a blended look that's [ideally] evenly exposed in all areas and its kinda hard to duplicate on a computer.

Now the best feature the new SLT's and NEX camera's offer is sweep panorama, yes you cant manually sweep panorama yet [who knows eh?] but even on camera controlled settings sweeping your camera and getting a wide view image is easy, like really easy! But with the Nex-7 its even easier, yeah, hard to top really, the control dial allows you to choose the direction of the panorama with the turn of a dial. Going left, right, up or down, wide or standard, its way easy with the Nex-7. With the A77 you'd have to turn the dial to Sweep Panorama then dive into the menu to choose the direction and length of the panorama, I hope this feature for control gets ported to the slts.

I so obviously love this feature, when using the wide and downward/upward panorama, it allows you to have images similar to those taken with an ultrawide lens, talk about lens savings :D

The last feature that most people want to know about is video, since the preproduction model only has one mode at 1440x1080, its the only one I could test. It works as described, similar to the the A77 video output but what makes this beauty shine is that with the tri-navi system, you can easily control aperture, shutter and even exposure compensation while enjoying full contrast autofocus. There are three samples I tried with no tripod to see how the Nex-7 can deal with my shakey hands.

 

This is a simple panning shot and it seems alright, the optical stabilization seems to be doing its job well.

Here is when you ride a tricycle on a rather bumpy road, if you ever wanted to emulate the Blairwitch project, yes, you can with the Nex-7 hehehe.

Last is a standing still shoot to see how sun and bright white clothes are dealt with by the camera, I'd say pretty good!

In conclusion, the Nex-7 presents itself as a big leap in terms of user controls and image quality over the previous Nex systems. I argue that even if its a 24MP camera with probably smaller pixels for getting image data, Sony was able to put together this beast of a camera and make it work incredibly well. It's low light capture abilities are good that you can have usable pictures even at maximum 16,000 ISO. Its additional features makes it on par with regards to existing gear [like flashes] and usability with the tri-navi control system.

 Now with the good always comes some kind of compromise, though the body feels solid, for bigger hands, it may not feel all that comfortable at first, you'll get used to using it though bu either cramming your fingers in the grip, wag your pinky up in the air or support the base by curling your pinky under it. Another thing that was a bit of trouble, using the flexible spot [local for slt users] you'd need to press the focus type and select the flexible option then move the focus area to where you want it to be when taking stills. To me that's a slight disadvantage in speed and control. Last is the the lack of certain plugs/features like a remote or pc sync plug for studio use.

Other than that, those, the camera is a great thing to use and own and I would heartily recommend it to people who would like a light and easy to use camera for casual to intermediate users as it would help them get the best pictures and video while giving them great spaces to learn and improve. For those already on the advance level of skill and gear, the Nex-7 can present itself as a second camera and a great travel companion and backup camera. With its ability to do video and control it well, it will be a great for those wanting to focus on video but still want a great camera for stills. overall, if I did not have my A77 I might have chosen this instead.