[Christine Tham]

In a possibly vain attempt to curb myself from preordering the A7r I am going to list the negatives I can think of:

1. No pink Hello Kitty option. Not even a gold option to match my iPhone 5s.
2. the cont AF is slow - probably not usable
3. The microlenses are tuned to the E mount registration distance - probably issues with non-native lenses. There's report of colour shifting and vignetting on a Zeiss 21mm M mount Biogon.
4. Relatively short battery life.
5. A9 is coming next year - maybe
6. Means I have to upgrade to Lightroom 5 - that will kill me for sure ...

OK I am running out. Anything you can think of? A lot of people are criticising the look. I think it looks okay.

[JinDesu]

It's weathersealed, so therefore you can only use it in bad weather.

[jogiba]

It has no adjustable angled OLED EVF like my full frame Sony NEX-VG900.

[scratchpaddy]

Think of all the other things you could do with $2,300... or, how much will it cost in Australia?

[todd]

FPS is low..

[Rondec]

I think cost, lack of optical viewfinder, poor ergonomics with larger lenses, and abysmal battery life are decent reasons, at least for me. But I am looking for full frame SLR from Ricoh in the spring and have to save for that...

[Winder]

All manual controls would force you to slow down and actually think about things. No more spray and pray. That would ruin modern photography.

[ducdao]

It's not a Pentax FF...

[twophase]

not exactly a point to help you hating, but very encouraging post from asahi man on dpreview ( Re: What will the Sony A7 Full Frame do to the K-3: Pentax SLR Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review ):

Anastigmat wrote:
Full frame and only $400 more than the K-3. Sony shatters the lie that a full frame body must be a behemoth.



Asahi man:
For 400$ i will get a new flash,there is no optical finder,low frame rate,if flash system like NEX 7,than lower compare to K-3,AF prediction should be faster in K-3,cause of the AF Type and module,body to small to handle 300+converter or 560mm,same with other bigs comming up next (CP+)...
I see only a little bit bigger sensor,thats all.
Don´t need
And try the resolution between NIKON D7100 and D 600....not a big deal...
With K-3 i get the better camera,better flashsystem,better finder and better lenssystem.
More @ CP+


I´m looking forward CP+ already! Hope his hints are sincere - I wish Pentax to be successful.

[Miguel]

Sony has been following the same approach with cameras that Samsung has been deploying with smartphones. Build too many feature-rich products and see what sticks to the wall. If it doesn't sell, then try something else. While that may work with phones--which are fashion to many--camera platforms to me should imply endurance.

Let's see Sony's commitment to this platform in three years. Maybe by then I'll be interested.

M

[azimuthal]

I think cost, lack of optical viewfinder, poor ergonomics with larger lenses, and abysmal battery life are decent reasons, at least for me. But I am looking for full frame SLR from Ricoh in the spring and have to save for that...

This is a very intelligent money-saving strategy, come spring you will wait til fall, come fall you will wait til spring...

not exactly a point to help you hating, but very encouraging post from asahi man on dpreview ( Re: What will the Sony A7 Full Frame do to the K-3: Pentax SLR Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review ):
Asahi man:
For 400$ i will get a new flash,there is no optical finder,low frame rate,if flash system like NEX 7,than lower compare to K-3,AF prediction should be faster in K-3,cause of the AF Type and module,body to small to handle 300+converter or 560mm,same with other bigs comming up next (CP+)...
I see only a little bit bigger sensor,thats all.
Don´t need
And try the resolution between NIKON D7100 and D 600....not a big deal...
With K-3 i get the better camera,better flashsystem,better finder and better lenssystem.
More @ CP+


I´m looking forward CP+ already! Hope his hints are sincere - I wish Pentax to be successful.

Is it not slightly ironic that you could use these same reasons to justify using nikon over pentax?

Here are my reasons for disliking the a7/r
a) Sony is actually delivering on rumors, really kills the dream...
b) General lack of lenses, no conservative budget primes, no 1.4 primes, f4 zooms? Lenses are overpriced like pentax lenses. Lacking third party lens support.
c) I don't really understand this microlens stuff or the consequences of them.

I think it would be really cool if voigtlander could make their rangefinder lenses in this mount, I would be thrilled to use the voigtlander 35 1.2 on the a7r without an adapter. At least Sony has a partnership with a company that has experience making rangefinder lenses.
I kind of wish I could buy this camera and just permanently convert the mount to a tight tolerance leica m mount, to avoid any kind of adapter issues.

[Big G]

abysmal battery life

If it's the same as the NEX7 battery, then one of those lasted a week for me in NYC.

Yeah. A week. SCREW THAT RUBBISH BATTERY LIFE.

[Rondec]

If it's the same as the NEX7 battery, then one of those lasted a week for me in NYC.

Yeah. A week. SCREW THAT RUBBISH BATTERY LIFE.

370 photos. That's bad battery life. And I assume that it will have higher needs than the Nex 7. Anyway, I'm not the market for this camera, but I'm fine if other folks want it. I just like traditional SLR shape and form factor. And I like optical viewfinders that are big and bright. I know, I know, that makes a freak, but it's what I want from Ricoh/Pentax, some day...

[azimuthal]

Sony has been following the same approach with cameras that Samsung has been deploying with smartphones. Build too many feature-rich products and see what sticks to the wall. If it doesn't sell, then try something else. While that may work with phones--which are fashion to many--camera platforms to me should imply endurance.

Let's see Sony's commitment to this platform in three years. Maybe by then I'll be interested.

M

You might be right here, and I don't think this is necessarily a bad plan, if nothing else it is smart business strategy. How well this system sells will determine whether it gets additional support. I think it is appealing to users of all systems and will sell well but I could be wrong.

As far as building too many random questionably desirable products, take a look at Pentax.
"I want a compact camera with a tiny sensor but I want to be able to change the lenses"
meet the pentax Q
"I want a mirrorless camera that is about the same size as a dslr and doesn't take advantage of any of the benefits of mirrorless cameras"
meet the pentax K-01

Sony made an excellent, arguably overpriced, compact camera with a full frame sensor, and some other expensive compact cameras with larger than typical sensors. They made a weird video camera/dslr that only one person in the world bought (jogiba). They also made nex cameras that sold really well. They have come out with a lot of really desirable products despite not being in the photography business for very long. I have a huge deal of respect for their attempts at innovation and amazing sensors. I have more faith that sony will be around in 10 years than some of the other camera makers who might not be willing to take risks.

If Sony's plan is to make the ideal digital camera through refinement and trial and error judged by their consumer bases wallet, I can get on board (with my wallet).

[Big G]

370 photos. That's bad battery life. And I assume that it will have higher needs than the Nex 7. Anyway, I'm not the market for this camera, but I'm fine if other folks want it. I just like traditional SLR shape and form factor. And I like optical viewfinders that are big and bright. I know, I know, that makes a freak, but it's what I want from Ricoh/Pentax, some day...

So if I took an image a day, that's over a years worth of battery?

Your post is invalid conjecture - it entirely depends on your requirements as a photographer. If you're on holiday and took 30 pictures a day, that's still over 10 days off a single charge. The battery on my EOS 7D lasts about twice as long as the NEX-7, but that's still a large number of photographs (not to mention the lack of EVF) and I never think "oh jeez, the NEX-7 battery is rubbish".

Lets get real, the battery life is perfectly fine unless you're rifling off 200+ images a day. Any self respecting photographer that does that will always carry a spare battery anyway. It is grossly unfair to tout it as "abysmal" because that's just not true.