I am not making this jump to this new camera. I am waiting to see if they come out with one that can use my A-mount lenses. It sounds like Sony is using the 36mp sensor they built for the D800.
Welcome to the future of photography. I strongly suspect this design type will see the demise of the SLR as we know it in, at a rough guess, around 10 years.
This actual camera is very interesting, although certain aspects such as burst speed are a bit disappointing compared to what Sony normally manage. The a7R is very well priced though, undercutting the D800E by $700.
Lenses, on the other hand, are a bit more questionable, at least on paper. The kit lens, a 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6, sounds fairly miserable to put on the front of these, and the 24-70mm f/4 covers a disappointingly small zoom range and has a narrow aperture for a $1200 lens. Of course, if they are optically superb then that's some justification (and they certainly should be optically superior to an equivalently-priced SLR lens, as they have a much simpler design).
I would suggest a bit of caution to those thinking to jump in with both feet to a system like this. While these mirrorless designs have many advantages over SLRs and are almost certain to replace them in the not too distant future, there are a large number of manufacturers trying to get into this market, all using their own lenses and lens mounts. Some of these systems will inevitably fail, and when they do, the resale value of the glass will drop dramatically. While Sony is probably one of the safest bets around at the moment, investing serious money in these systems still does carry some risk.
In anohter form one person was looking at the adapters for these new camera. The A-mount adpater has a mirror in it, that defeats the purpose of a mirrorless camera. He also noted that Sony is planning to release a similar camera for the a-mount in 2014.
Using A-mount lenses defeats most of the purpose of a mirrorless camera anyway. However, there are two A-mount adapters, if you don't want one with the mirror in it, get the LA-EA3.
I'm sure Sony will be bringing out an Alpha camera with the 36 megapixel sensor. I very much doubt it'll be mirrorless though.
I see that neither the a7 or the a7R are shipping yet in the USA, the a7 in December, and no date yet announced for the a7R. You can pre-order both at B&H. Why on earth they would release both so close to each other is a puzzle to me, little difference in features or price to appeal to a different market I would believe. Perhaps it's those techies still in charge at Sony rather than hard headed marketing guys. What techie ever heard of market positioning? :) And as Alexis mentioned @abirkill the array of full frame E-mount lenses seems rather scant.
I wonder what the bigger boys are planning in their compact lines for Full Frame? I see Nikon has just announced the D610, so perhaps nothing for them for a bit, not a Nikon 1 full frame yet I would say. At least the marketing people have some say over there, although I think Nikon marketing is trying to undo the bad press of the QC problems of the D600 release 12 months ago. I can't see much significant difference in the specifications. Something is coming at the 36mp end I'd believe; you can have the D800E at $300 off current list and it has been in the market for over 18 months.
And Canon? The 5D mark iii is looking a little long in the tooth at the moment although it still has a huge faithful customer base.
@frankhymus a7 will be targeted for video and fast motion use (hence having the better autofocus system and better noise performance), a7R will be targeted for landscape/fine art use (hence only having the more accurate but slower contrast-detect AF and higher resolution).
I would expect it will be another 18 months before we see a real replacement for the D800 or 5D3. They'll get some discounts for Christmas this year and then clearout for Christmas next year, when their replacements will have been announced. The Canon replacement should be decent, probably 36-40mp and much higher dynamic range (if they finally move to 180nm), but the Nikon replacement probably won't be as huge a step up in relation -- they've already taken advantage of an improved manufacturing process. They could move to BSI, but there's probably not that much point without a significant resolution bump, and that would hurt dynamic range. Instead expect to see autofocus and framerate improvements. They could release those early in a D810, although it seems unlikely at the moment.
Sony (D800) and Toshiba (D7100) have only relatively recently moved to their 180nm fab, and Canon are still ramping theirs up, so it's not likely we'll see a 180nm fab full-frame sensor from them until late 2014 (which I'd expect/hope/pray would be in the 5D3 replacement). Renasas are still using a 250nm fab, which is probably why Nikon have moved to Toshiba/Sony sensors instead of designing their own Renasas-made sensors, as they used to.
STM have a 110/90nm fab, which is used for the Leica M sensor, and is probably the most promising manufacturer for a significantly improved sensor over the next 3 years or so. Otherwise there won't be anything revolutionary, sensor-wise, for a while, just the usual slight bumps in resolution and slight drops in per-pixel noise levels. Renasas is probably working on a new smaller fab, so might surprise us with something at some point, although there's nothing even being rumoured about that yet, so I'd guess that's still a way off.
Probably one of the most interesting cameras to watch out for in the next few months will be the new Canon EOS-M mirrorless system. This will be crop-frame, but should use the new 70D sensor. The interesting point is that it's believed Canon will also bring out an official speed-booster adapter to allow full-frame SLR lenses to be used on it, with optics that will reduce the image circle to APS-C size. If they can do this with sufficient optical quality and autofocus performance, this could be very interesting, as it effectively increases light gathering ability by a stop -- so a 50mm f/1.4 lens becomes a 50mm f/1.0 lens (in light-gathering terms, not DOF), and a 14mm f/2.8 lens becomes a 14mm f/2.0 lens, etc. -- that's very interesting news for Canon users with a full-frame lens collection.
Speed-booster adapters do exist for other systems (such as to fit Canon lenses onto the Sony NEX range), but this would be the first that's likely to have the required optical quality to not degrade the image significantly, and to provide good autofocus performance.
While it will be an interesting system, I'm a bit worried Canon is betting the farm on mirrorless cameras staying crop-frame, and as Sony are showing, I don't see that happening. Naming their crop-frame mirrorless lens mount EF-M (rather than EF-MS) seemed a little short-sighted, but it's only a marketing issue really.
I have no idea what Nikon are doing in the mirrorless segment -- they seem to have fallen asleep at the switch even more than Canon, and that's an achievement. Hopefully they are working on something a bit more impressive than the 1-series, but Sony are a real threat to come out on top in the major market shift that's starting to happen, leaving Canon and Nikon scrabbling for the scraps in second place.
@abirkill Sure agree that Sony should do exceptionally in the mirror-less space. Perhaps Panasonic, but their marketing is worse than Sony, driven by techies in the most senior positions and the mid level product managers.
Personally, while I very much like and admire the Nikon DSLRs, their Nikon 1 line is very weak I think. I feel that it is an interim offering to be in that market, but it can't be the end product to fill this space.
Thanks for your view of the vendors and particularly their manufacturing capability.
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This actual camera is very interesting, although certain aspects such as burst speed are a bit disappointing compared to what Sony normally manage. The a7R is very well priced though, undercutting the D800E by $700.
Lenses, on the other hand, are a bit more questionable, at least on paper. The kit lens, a 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6, sounds fairly miserable to put on the front of these, and the 24-70mm f/4 covers a disappointingly small zoom range and has a narrow aperture for a $1200 lens. Of course, if they are optically superb then that's some justification (and they certainly should be optically superior to an equivalently-priced SLR lens, as they have a much simpler design).
I would suggest a bit of caution to those thinking to jump in with both feet to a system like this. While these mirrorless designs have many advantages over SLRs and are almost certain to replace them in the not too distant future, there are a large number of manufacturers trying to get into this market, all using their own lenses and lens mounts. Some of these systems will inevitably fail, and when they do, the resale value of the glass will drop dramatically. While Sony is probably one of the safest bets around at the moment, investing serious money in these systems still does carry some risk.
I'm sure Sony will be bringing out an Alpha camera with the 36 megapixel sensor. I very much doubt it'll be mirrorless though.
I wonder what the bigger boys are planning in their compact lines for Full Frame? I see Nikon has just announced the D610, so perhaps nothing for them for a bit, not a Nikon 1 full frame yet I would say. At least the marketing people have some say over there, although I think Nikon marketing is trying to undo the bad press of the QC problems of the D600 release 12 months ago. I can't see much significant difference in the specifications. Something is coming at the 36mp end I'd believe; you can have the D800E at $300 off current list and it has been in the market for over 18 months.
And Canon? The 5D mark iii is looking a little long in the tooth at the moment although it still has a huge faithful customer base.
I would expect it will be another 18 months before we see a real replacement for the D800 or 5D3. They'll get some discounts for Christmas this year and then clearout for Christmas next year, when their replacements will have been announced. The Canon replacement should be decent, probably 36-40mp and much higher dynamic range (if they finally move to 180nm), but the Nikon replacement probably won't be as huge a step up in relation -- they've already taken advantage of an improved manufacturing process. They could move to BSI, but there's probably not that much point without a significant resolution bump, and that would hurt dynamic range. Instead expect to see autofocus and framerate improvements. They could release those early in a D810, although it seems unlikely at the moment.
Sony (D800) and Toshiba (D7100) have only relatively recently moved to their 180nm fab, and Canon are still ramping theirs up, so it's not likely we'll see a 180nm fab full-frame sensor from them until late 2014 (which I'd expect/hope/pray would be in the 5D3 replacement). Renasas are still using a 250nm fab, which is probably why Nikon have moved to Toshiba/Sony sensors instead of designing their own Renasas-made sensors, as they used to.
STM have a 110/90nm fab, which is used for the Leica M sensor, and is probably the most promising manufacturer for a significantly improved sensor over the next 3 years or so. Otherwise there won't be anything revolutionary, sensor-wise, for a while, just the usual slight bumps in resolution and slight drops in per-pixel noise levels. Renasas is probably working on a new smaller fab, so might surprise us with something at some point, although there's nothing even being rumoured about that yet, so I'd guess that's still a way off.
Probably one of the most interesting cameras to watch out for in the next few months will be the new Canon EOS-M mirrorless system. This will be crop-frame, but should use the new 70D sensor. The interesting point is that it's believed Canon will also bring out an official speed-booster adapter to allow full-frame SLR lenses to be used on it, with optics that will reduce the image circle to APS-C size. If they can do this with sufficient optical quality and autofocus performance, this could be very interesting, as it effectively increases light gathering ability by a stop -- so a 50mm f/1.4 lens becomes a 50mm f/1.0 lens (in light-gathering terms, not DOF), and a 14mm f/2.8 lens becomes a 14mm f/2.0 lens, etc. -- that's very interesting news for Canon users with a full-frame lens collection.
Speed-booster adapters do exist for other systems (such as to fit Canon lenses onto the Sony NEX range), but this would be the first that's likely to have the required optical quality to not degrade the image significantly, and to provide good autofocus performance.
While it will be an interesting system, I'm a bit worried Canon is betting the farm on mirrorless cameras staying crop-frame, and as Sony are showing, I don't see that happening. Naming their crop-frame mirrorless lens mount EF-M (rather than EF-MS) seemed a little short-sighted, but it's only a marketing issue really.
I have no idea what Nikon are doing in the mirrorless segment -- they seem to have fallen asleep at the switch even more than Canon, and that's an achievement. Hopefully they are working on something a bit more impressive than the 1-series, but Sony are a real threat to come out on top in the major market shift that's starting to happen, leaving Canon and Nikon scrabbling for the scraps in second place.
Personally, while I very much like and admire the Nikon DSLRs, their Nikon 1 line is very weak I think. I feel that it is an interim offering to be in that market, but it can't be the end product to fill this space.
Thanks for your view of the vendors and particularly their manufacturing capability.