Sony A7 with Pentax Full-frame Glass

Appendix: Construction and Handling

The Alpha 7A is of sturdy construction with the body made of part metal and part plastic. The buttons have a nice, tactile feel and the mode and EV compensation dials have click-stops with just the right level of resistance. They won't accidentally get knocked off their settings.

The SD card door is hinged and also feels sturdy.

The battery door in the bottom is sufficiently far away from the tripod mount that the battery can be changed without removing the camera from the tripod.

The body is weather sealed.

The LCD monitor tilts which comes in handy for macro work close to the ground.

The camera is quite small for a full frame camera; it is not even as wide as a Pentax APS-C DLSR. We find, though, that compactness has taken priority over handling. The grip is simply too small. Already with a medium sized lens mounted you'll be asking for a larger grip to hold on to for stability and comfort.

Due to the small size of the camera your trigger finger doesn't naturally fall on top of the shutter button. With that said, the shutter button is excellent with a very smooth operation helping prevent camera shake.

The grip is too small for comfort and balance

The electronic viewfinder (EVF) has a good resolution but a limited dynamic range. This means that in strong light areas in the shade becomes black in the viewfinder and are of no help when composing the image. It helps some to crank up the brightness of the viewfinder all the way to its maximum value of +2, but the EVF still is no match for an optical finder.

The Alpha 7 has an electronically controlled focal plane shutter as has any DSLR. The shutter is wide open when you exchange lenses which allows dust to get onto the sensor. It would have been better if the shutter would close whenever the camera is powered of. Also, while we would have thought that a mirrorless camera like the Alpha 7 would be less noisy than, say, a Pentax K-3, this is not the case. The shutter is quite loud. When the shutter button is triggered the shutter first closes, then open to expose the image, closes again, for finally to open and allow for live view to resume. 

Operation 

The camera is somewhat slow to start up, but otherwise fast in operation in most cases. Occasionally even in single shot mode one has to wait for the image to be processed and saved before the next image can be taken. It would appear to us that Sony could improve on this and allow the camera to multi-task.

Play back of images is fast.

The movie mode is well-designed with direct access to video recording. Just press the red button and recording starts. There is no switch to flip to toggle between still shooting and movie mode.

We find the menu system somewhat disorganized and it takes some getting used to. In the hurry in the field it can be somewhat painful to find the various settings.

There is no shortage of buttons and dials. There are three e-dials (front and rear e-dial, and a dial surrounding the four-way controller). Add to that the separate dial for EV adjustment and the exposure mode dial! Three of the push buttons are customizable.

Even with all the customization options one cannot set the camera to solely use the viewfinder for shooting and the LCD monitor for menus and play back. It would have been a nice power-saving feature had it been possible. As it is now the LCD screen lights up with live view as soon as the eye is removed from the viewfinder unless the LCD monitor is turned off which relegates menu use and play back to be done through the viewfinder.

All in all, the Sony 7A has a wealth of settings and customization, but even so ergonomics and operation leave some room for improvement.

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