Woody Campbell
Workshop Member
It's the Sony Nex-7. Go ahead, flame me.
If you own Leica glass this thing rocks. IQ is equivalent to the M9 but maybe a little more DR. Manual focus works just fine, once you've spent a couple of weeks with it and learn it. I'm slightly astigmatic so the Leica rangefinder spot is tough for me in poor light - I have fewer issues with the Sony.
The camera is light and of very high build quality. The Novoflex and Voigtlander adapters are excellent.
The Nex-7 has several stops more of high ISO performance.
It's very demanding of technique because with 24 megs of resolution the slightest camera movement or mis-focus show up.
You can't see beyond the edge of the frame, but on the other hand framing is accurate. And you can actually see what long lenses are seeing.
Once you master it focus may be more accurate than the M9 because you don't have to worry about mating the lens to the rangefinder (on the Nex-7 I found that the infinity focus on my 24mm lux was quite a bit off) or for that matter focus shift.
The negatives are well documented. Sony needs a firmware update to address the issues that MR identified in his informal review (he did a good job of identifying the needs of shooters using legacy manual focus glass). The viewfinder is dim on the beach or on a ski slope. Classic design wides need work in post to eliminate magenta casts. It would be nice if there were more Nex-7s - the body is marked "Made in Thailand" and the recent flooding has clearly disrupted the supply chain. I paid a premium for mine on eBay but it still costs a lot less than a Leica.
Of course Fuji has announced its own "mirrorless" interchangeable lens camera with a hybrid viewfinder.
This is good news and bad news for Leica. The good news is that the Nex-7 (and presumably the Fuji) is a universal platform for manual focus lenses, including Leica lenses. The bad news is that it will be very hard for Leica to keep pace in terms of camera design with companies like Sony and Fuji who have the capacity to design and fabricate their own chips.
So I'm sleeping much better now as a Leica owner than I did a few years ago. Leica's futures as a lens manufacturer is assured as a result of very robust demand, and I'm assured of a way forward with my Leica lenses that doesn't rely Leica to develop a new M camera body.
Now if only Sony could shoehorn a 24 x 36 sensor into the Nex form factor . . .
If you own Leica glass this thing rocks. IQ is equivalent to the M9 but maybe a little more DR. Manual focus works just fine, once you've spent a couple of weeks with it and learn it. I'm slightly astigmatic so the Leica rangefinder spot is tough for me in poor light - I have fewer issues with the Sony.
The camera is light and of very high build quality. The Novoflex and Voigtlander adapters are excellent.
The Nex-7 has several stops more of high ISO performance.
It's very demanding of technique because with 24 megs of resolution the slightest camera movement or mis-focus show up.
You can't see beyond the edge of the frame, but on the other hand framing is accurate. And you can actually see what long lenses are seeing.
Once you master it focus may be more accurate than the M9 because you don't have to worry about mating the lens to the rangefinder (on the Nex-7 I found that the infinity focus on my 24mm lux was quite a bit off) or for that matter focus shift.
The negatives are well documented. Sony needs a firmware update to address the issues that MR identified in his informal review (he did a good job of identifying the needs of shooters using legacy manual focus glass). The viewfinder is dim on the beach or on a ski slope. Classic design wides need work in post to eliminate magenta casts. It would be nice if there were more Nex-7s - the body is marked "Made in Thailand" and the recent flooding has clearly disrupted the supply chain. I paid a premium for mine on eBay but it still costs a lot less than a Leica.
Of course Fuji has announced its own "mirrorless" interchangeable lens camera with a hybrid viewfinder.
This is good news and bad news for Leica. The good news is that the Nex-7 (and presumably the Fuji) is a universal platform for manual focus lenses, including Leica lenses. The bad news is that it will be very hard for Leica to keep pace in terms of camera design with companies like Sony and Fuji who have the capacity to design and fabricate their own chips.
So I'm sleeping much better now as a Leica owner than I did a few years ago. Leica's futures as a lens manufacturer is assured as a result of very robust demand, and I'm assured of a way forward with my Leica lenses that doesn't rely Leica to develop a new M camera body.
Now if only Sony could shoehorn a 24 x 36 sensor into the Nex form factor . . .