Sony’s slimmest and lightest full-frame mirrorless digicam, the Sony A7C, has the heart of a Sony A7 III however in a physique that extra intently resembles its A6XXX collection APS-C mirrorless cameras. The Sony A7 III was already a fairly standard full-frame digicam and one which I appreciated very a lot too once I reviewed it.
The Sony A7C is designed to supply customers improved monitoring and eye autofocus, plus a completely articulating touchscreen, in an excellent smaller footprint. It’s time to check this digicam and see if it is any good.
Sony A7C design
The Sony A7C is impressively small contemplating it has a full-frame sensor and 5-axis stabilisation on the within. It’s not as compact as Sony’s APS-C cameras nevertheless it’s shut sufficient. The Sigma fp (Review) remains to be the smallest full-frame digicam I’ve examined, though it did not have sensor stabilisation. The A7C has a beefy handgrip, giving it an excellent in-hand really feel. Compared to the Sony A7 III, the Sony A7C’s digital viewfinder (EVF) has been moved to the again, on the left, thereby providing you with a flat prime. The mode and publicity compensation dials have related positions on the highest as on the A7 III, however a number of the customisable perform buttons and the handgrip dial are lacking.
The Sony A7C has a comparatively small footprint for a full-frame mirrorless digicam
The physique is constructed from a single piece of magnesium alloy, which supplies it superb rigidity and sturdiness. The Sony A7C presents good bodily connectivity, and you will find the headphone, microphone, USB Type-C, and Micro-HDMI ports, and a single SDXC card slot below flaps on the left facet. Unlike the Sony A7 III, the A7C has a flip-out touchscreen which might be articulated 180 levels to face you, which could possibly be useful for vlogging.
While this touchscreen is an enormous enchancment, the A7C sadly nonetheless makes use of Sony’s old-style menu system, as seen on the A7 III, and never the up to date one we received with the Sony A7S III. Touch enter can be restricted to simply choosing a spotlight level, both by tapping it immediately or utilizing it as a touchpad when the EVF is lively. Most of the on-screen menus nonetheless require you to make use of the rear buttons and jog dial for interplay.
Battery lifetime of the Sony A7C is superb because of the high-capacity battery pack
In India, the Sony A7C body-only worth is Rs. 1,67,990, however you can too purchase it with a 28-60mm package lens for Rs. 1,96,990. Sony despatched me the latter for this assessment. This lens has an aperture vary of f/4 to f/5.6 and it’s collapsible, which retains the general footprint of the digicam comparatively compact for storage or journey.
Sony A7C specs
The Sony A7C makes use of a 24-megapixel full-frame sensor with 693 on-sensor PDAF factors and 425 distinction detection AF factors. The BionzX picture processor is able to capturing as much as 10fps burst pictures with AF/AE monitoring, real-time monitoring focus with the devoted AF-On button, and real-time Eye AF for people and animals. The digicam has a local ISO vary of 100 – 51,200, which is expandable.
The A7C additionally has related video capabilities because the A7 III. It can shoot at as much as 4K 30fps, and there is a devoted S&Q mode for slow-motion movies of as much as 120fps (1080p). Advanced image profiles comparable to 8-bit S-Log2, S-Log3, and HLG are supported.
The Sony A7C has a completely articulating rear LCD
The 2.35-million dot decision EVF produces a crisp picture, and the framerate might be bumped as much as 120fps for smoother monitoring of your topic. I want Sony had supplied a correct eye-cup across the EVF which might cowl the consumer’s eye utterly. Also, the magnification of the EVF is decrease than earlier than as a result of smaller dimension, at simply 0.59x in comparison with 0.78x on the A7 III, which makes the scale of the viewfinder look smaller than normal. There’s built-in dual-band Wi-Fi which can be utilized for syncing with the Imaging Edge app in your telephone.
The menu system of the Sony A7C is just about precisely what we have seen on different Sony mirrorless cameras such because the A7 III. It takes a little bit of getting used to, nevertheless it’s feature-rich and practical when you get the grasp of it.
Sony A7C efficiency and battery life
Performance of the Sony A7C was fairly stable within the time I spent utilizing it. The low weight of simply 509g (physique solely) makes it simple to hold round and shoot, particularly one-handed. The package lens is serviceable, however its zoom vary is not nice and I observed some focus searching in low-light conditions as a result of slim aperture. You might simply keep away from these points with higher lenses, however that may additionally improve the scale and weight of the A7C, which defeats its goal.
The digicam’s ISO efficiency was very spectacular, as you possibly can see from the picture beneath. There’s barely any seen loss intimately even at ISO 1,600, in comparison with ISO 100. Images proceed to be very usable even at ISO 12,800, with only a gentle loss intimately past that. At the best native ISO of 51,200, the picture is not as sharp however noise is dealt with very effectively. Expanding the ISO is not really helpful except you completely want it, since this introduces seen chroma noise.
Sony A7C ISO check
Thanks to the stable excessive ISO efficiency and the 5-axis stabilisation, you possibly can seize handsome low-light photographs with minimal blurring even when you do not have very regular fingers. Colours are retained effectively, noise is at a minimal, and particulars are superb. The package lens additionally produces a really pleasing pure depth with close-up topics.
With sufficient mild in the course of the day, the Sony A7C captures some excellent-looking panorama and close-up pictures. Colours are wealthy and pure, and JPEGs pack in loads of element. The autofocus system works just about flawlessly each single time. Faces are mechanically detected and prioritised, and I discovered the attention AF to work very effectively too.
Sony A7C digicam pattern (ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/320s, 60mm)
Sony A7C digicam pattern (ISO 640, f/4.5, 1/40s, 34mm)
Sony A7C digicam pattern (ISO 2,000, f/4.5, 1/40s, 35mm)
Sony A7C digicam pattern (ISO 12,800, f/5.6, 1/5s, 60mm)
Video efficiency was equally passable. 4K movies pack in glorious particulars and you may simply faucet the show to tug focus between topics. The Sony A7C is superb with monitoring objects too, and would not let go even when your topic briefly drops out of the body. I examined the A7C as I might use any digicam for product shoots and items to digicam, and the expertise was nothing however nice. One factor I observed was that should you’re utilizing exterior energy via the Type-C port when capturing, the plug makes it unimaginable to rotate the show. This problem might have been prevented with higher placement of the charging port.
Battery life was additionally spectacular. The Sony A7C makes use of the identical NP-FZ100 battery because the A7 III, however guarantees barely higher battery lifetime of 740 pictures per cost (CIPA score). In my expertise, it is truly attainable to hit that quantity and go a bit past too, relying on the facility saving choices you will have set, and whether or not you will have Wi-Fi on or off.
The Sony A7C delivers superb nonetheless and video efficiency for its dimension
Verdict
The physique of the Sony A7C is priced precisely the identical (on the time of this assessment) as that of the A7 III, at Rs. 1,67,990 on Sony India’s web site, which makes it a no brainer to choose this digicam over its older sibling. The A7C presents just about the identical options because the A7 III, however with improved autofocus and a rotating show, all in a extra compact physique. If you go for the package lens bundle, the A7C is relatively dearer on Sony’s web site, however each these cameras normally promote for much less on different web sites and offline, so it is only a matter of discovering an excellent deal.
As good because the efficiency is, there are few issues to remember. The touchscreen nonetheless has restricted performance, the magnification of the EVF is on the decrease facet (regardless that the standard is nice), and I believe Sony might have chosen a brighter package lens given the premium it prices for the bundle.
Overall, the Sony A7C remains to be a fantastic digicam for stills and video which presents all the advantages of a full-frame sensor in a compact and lightweight physique.
