With great handling, however, come drawbacks.
The Sony A7CR is a high resolution compact mirrorless camera.
Now, when I say compact," this is obviously not a compact cameraa la00s all-in-one compacts.
(Image credit: Peter Wolinski / Future)
This is an interchangeable lens camera, and it isnt even particularly small by those standards.
But is thebest mirrorless camerafor you?
Find out in my full Sony A7CR review.
At least for a 61MP full frame camera.
It has similar dimensions to theSony A7CII($2,198).
As youd expect from a Sony camera, the A7CR is beautifully made and finished, using premium materials.
All dials and buttons feel firm and satisfying to use.
There are just two assignable C buttons, which I found a little limiting in fast-paced situations.
In most scenarios, the autofocus is quick, reliable and accurate.
(Image credit: Peter Wolinski / Future)
It kept hold even as I moved around to introduce glare from the studio lights into her glasses.
With 61MP, theres so much headroom for cropping and large format printing.
Im a particular fan of black and white photography (can you tell from the sample imagery?).
(Image credit: Peter Wolinski / Future)
I still had to underexpose slightly to get the super deep blacks Im used to with Acros in-camera.
Again, though, with that single slot and high resolution sensor, buffers fill pretty quickly.
There were only a few small areas of blown, unrecoverable highlights.
High ISO performance is fairly strong.
Any slower, though, and handheld images started to get blurry from camera shake.
The image below was shot at 15 sec and the writing on the vase was a lot more blurred.
The equally compact full frame Sony A7CII achieved decent results at 1 second and even 2 second shutters.
If youre a hybrid shooter whos serious about video, youll want to look elsewhere.
Itll shoot oversampled (from 6.2K) 4K/60p video in up to 10-bit at 4:2:2.
Theres also a LUT bank for users to apply custom LUTs.
The only recording formats available are Sonys XAVC X/HS compression algorithms for MPEG 4 H.264 or HEVC H.265.
All pretty run of the mill.
Shot using the Sony A7CR’s animal AF detection mode.
Video clips look pretty damn nice.
I shot the clip above in Central Park using S-Log3.
The cameras IBIS works well to keep handheld video relatively stable.
Shot using the A7CR’s human eye AF detection mode.(Image credit: Peter Wolinski / Future)
Nope, I hadnt!
I always took a spare battery but never needed it over a day of shooting.
It performed well enough for me.
Shot using the A7CR’s animal eye AF detection mode.(Image credit: Peter Wolinski / Future)
Is the A7CR really going to be worth the sacrifice just for slightly better portability and handling?
I dont think so.
Images are stunning, the autofocus is as sound as youd expect, and it handles like a dream.
Shot using the A7CR’s animal eye AF detection mode.
Is that worth $3K?
Probably not, but if I could spend another trip with the A7CR, I would.
(Image credit: Peter Wolinski / Future)
(Image credit: Peter Wolinski / Future)
(Image credit: Future / Peter Wolinski)
(Image credit: Future / Peter Wolinski)
ISO25,600 RAW (JPEG Export)(Image credit: Peter Wolinski / Future)
ISO25,600 SOOC JPEG(Image credit: Peter Wolinski / Future)
ISO51,200 RAW (JPEG Export)(Image credit: Peter Wolinski / Future)
ISO51,200 SOOC JPEG(Image credit: Peter Wolinski / Future)
Shot handheld at 1/15 sec.
Shot handheld at 1/5 sec.
