Sony announced its new compact full frame mirrorless camera today, the a7C. It shaves the dimensions of the hugely successful a7 III while retaining most of its innards, but who is this camera for and should you be excited about buying one?
Combined with Sony’s new FE 28-60mm F4-5.6 lens, Sony promises “an experience unlike any other, maximizing portability and versatility without sacrificing any of the power of full frame imaging.” This is certainly a smart-looking and compact camera, effectively trimming the EVF bump from the a7 III and ditching a card slot, and for anyone pondering their first full frame camera, this might be an appealing prospect. However, with the price, the features, the size, and the sensor, where does it fall into the range of mirrorless options currently on the market, and is there a risk that it will become something of a curate’s egg, especially once the a7 IV arrives?
Price
At a time when Canon and Nikon both seem intent on dragging down the cost of an entry-level, full frame camera, some had expected Sony to go the same route with a body that offered a direct competitor to the Z 5, the RP, and whatever Canon is planning that’s allegedly going to be even cheaper.
The Nikon Z 5. Announced at $1,396.95 but likely to become cheaper if it follows the pattern of other Nikon releases.
At eighteen hundred dollars, the a7C is very far from being that camera, and the big difference here might be that Sony has a plethora of crop sensor cameras for those on a budget. Canon’s success with whatever undercuts the RP might change this in the future, but for now, Sony seems happy to protect its line of APS-C cameras.
A question remains: it might be slightly smaller, but what is the biggest incentive to buy this over the a7 III with its dual card slots, especially given that the a7 III is likely going to drop in price, not only as a result of this camera but also the arrival of the a7 IV?
Perfect for Vlogging? Still No
When Sony announced the ZV-1 back in May, the general consensus seemed to be that only people who know little about vlogging would be fooled into believing that its 24-70mm equivalent fixed lens is the perfect tool. 24mm is not wide enough for many, and digital stabilization has the potential to trim that even further.
Panasonic Lumix S 20-60mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens
It’s worth checking out the hands-on video from Tony and Chelsea Northrup to get an idea of how autofocus and stabilization perform. Early impressions are not great.
Too Small to Be a Serious Tool?
One of the complaints about full frame cameras becoming ever smaller is that the lenses immediately undermine the reasons for having a compact body. And certainly, if like Jared Polin, you’re attaching massive prime lenses such as the Sigma 35mm f/1.2, you’d be correct.
However, this ignores the large array of compact primes that are available in the Sony system, with Samyang/Rokinon adding another notable lens to that list only this week. The Samyang 35mm f/1.8 will not offer anywhere near the image quality of the Sigma 35mm f/1.2, but it’s almost a quarter of the price and nearly a fifth of the weight.
The brand new Samyang/Rokinon 35mm f/1.8. It's 7.4 oz (210 g), making it more than just a little bit lighter than the Sigma 35mm f/1.2 which weighs in at more than 38 oz (1090 g).
Sony has a significant advantage over Canon and Nikon here: the choice of full-frame lenses available — especially budget and compact options — is extensive.
Menu
The decision not to implement the same freshly redesigned menu system as the shiny new a7S III is an odd one. As barriers to entry, the menu system is one of the reasons that I might steer newbies to photography away from Sony. Given that the a7C appears to be an ideal entry to the Sony system, it’s bizarre that Sony has chosen to stick with something so widely criticized.
Perhaps there’s something about having lifted so much of the a7 III’s innards that made implementing the new menu hugely impractical. Most likely we will never know.
Autofocus
I think many a7 III owners will have been waiting to see how much this new camera puts their old technology into the shade, especially given how compact the a7C is while still being able to match the a7 III’s ten frames per second burst speed.
Perhaps one point of frustration, however, is Sony’s implementation of autofocus tracking, a feature that is notably lacking from the a7 III, but present in pretty much everything that Sony has released since. Given how much of the a7 III has been included inside the a7C — it's the same sensor with its output being controlled by the exact same processor — it’s probably safe to assume that Sony could deliver this functionality to the a7 III via a firmware upgrade but, for now, chooses not to. Is this a retrospective cripple hammering at play? Let me know in the comments.
Your Thoughts
Is Sony going to sell a ton of these cameras? How will it affect the price of other bodies? And will the a7 IV be a little bit more expensive than predicted as a result? Be sure to give your response in the comments below.
The only real miss is the lack of small lenses to pair with the 7C. As you say, there are plenty of small primes, especially from Samyang - but there aren't any decent, compact slow zooms. Fuji looks more compelling at this price point with the 18-55 and 16-80 kits.
Yawn. It’s not that small - just an A7 with the EVF bump cut off. It’s not that cheap. It’s not any better than the 2 year old models. The kit lens is slow. The EVF is terrible. I don’t see why some people are excited about this. If you have an A7iii there’s no reason to get an A7C, and if you haven’t bought an A7iii by now what’s going to make you buy this?
This combination of features is either a year late (a6600 anyone?), or a year premature (not quite ready for prime time). If they improve this significantly, I may be interested in a mark-ii version in a year or two after I finish cutting my teeth on the APSC line-up.
Sony is starting to show its core weakness in the photography arena. This camera announcement is PR disaster. Now if they put this out for $1299 maybe folks would look differently. I think Sony is a great tech company with lots of fantasitc products, but they still don't quite understand the photography business.
A single card slot, remember when Canon and Nikon got flamed for that? Yet here we are two years later and a camera with a single slot.
Sorry didn't just miss the mark, but took the whole damned wall with it. You'd be better off with a Fuji X-T4 sure it's not full frame but does far more and is also cheaper.
As a Sony user, I see no purpose in this camera. Pickup an a7iii or a7ii if on a budget. For a smaller camera, just use one of their excellent aps-c models.
To me, it seems like they are targeting the lower budget Leica user. It hasn't been released to the public yet..my friend is still waiting for his pre-ordered a7siii. They still have time to add the new menu, better stabilization and autofocus. It seems to me that is all that they need to do. It could still be a success.
Sony and Canon playing cripple hammer footsies.
I don't think this camera will sell well. Sony, wtf were you thinking.
And, lol at folks that continue to complain about big lenses on small bodies. It's still lighter than big lenses on big bodies. And, no, it doesn't feel off balanced. Anyone with any kind of coordination will shift their hand placement for balance. Years and years ago, I used to shoot a 70-200 f2.8 on a Sony NEX-5N. Now, that was a small body.
The a7 line is small enough... smaller isn’t needed! They tried a smaller form and then failed on basic function!
If I want a rangefinder I want the eyepiece to be on the body and not extended outwards. Make it aligned to the body, ideally, include an OVF!
I also want the dial to be about shutter speed and not some funny P,A,M dial that has no logical function to it.
Make the body larger for the OVF/EVF hybrid to be aligned to the body and have a proper dial for exposure compensation, another for shutter (where the current P,M,A thing is), aperture controls on the lens and another dial that I can program to be about ISO.
Take inspiration from Leica or Fuji! Or any other Rangefinder back in Analog days.
It’s not that hard!
For god sakes!
PS this constant focus on tech like IBIS, eye AF is ruining photography... fine add them if you can, just don’t ruin the basics.
PPS: vloggers, videographers should just buy a bigger device like the a7 ... why make everything about vlogging! Video requires more “power”... get a slightly more SLR body type... small handy rangefinders should be about photography first
This is the worst camera Sony introduced in the last 6 years. I'd rather buy the older a7mk3.
I don't really see who this is for. Vloggers don't care about size so much as price and video quality. For FF video, a Nikon Z6 is a better value. For travel, a decent lens will leave you with a larger and heavier system than APS-C, and for most APS-C is plenty good.
Agreed. but Sony is like "Watch this, we'll give them the flippy screen and the millenial vloggers will buy it in droves!" They've missed the point again.
As someone who dabbles in vlogging, all I really want is a cheap wide autofocus lens for my APSC camera, and I'd be good. They have not fulfilled this need. The flippy screen is, at this point, to be expected and not applauded because they should have done that years ago!
Tough crowd! Every comment so far is negative.
Well if you look at the title and read the article, it's very critical. Several YT reviews are not.
Remember when Canon and Nikon owned the market and Sony was a distant third? Then Sony introduced the mirrorless NEX and a6XXX line of cameras and sales rocketed, later the a7 series and sales skyrocketed and Sony camera market share greatly expanded? Today Sony now seriously challenges Nikon and Canon in a way inconceivable 10 years ago. Those NEX and even the early a7 series marginally if barely matched the performance of the big DSLRs, yet sales on those cameras were tremendous. Why?
It was small size and weight with comparable performance. The discussion boards were full of comments by DSLR fans; that the a7 and a6xxx cameras were too small, too light, not pro enough, the mount was too small, lenses were too big, unbalanced, EVF vs OVF, many of the same comments that are made here about the A7C. And yet those little Sony cameras sold like hotcakes. Well I suspect Sony understands that, hence the A7C.
Why would someone buy a A7III when, by no means huge, it is 28% heavier, 34% taller, 20% thicker and $200 more expensive - if you can get comparable performance in a smaller and less expensive body, let alone an even larger Canon or Nikon offering? If you need two card slots, you like big and heavy cameras, you prioritize a large EVF... this is not the camera for you. If you value small size and weight, like a fully articulating screen... then perhaps the a7C is your camera.
I say this as a former Canon user back to the AE-1, I finally got tired of carrying my big heavy Canon DSLR around and other than for work left it home and pretty much gave up on photography. One day I was planning on taking a multi week road trip and wanted something better than my smartphone. I looked closely at everything Canon had, then Nikon and reluctantly settled on a Sony NEX-6. "Reluctantly" because I was never a big fan on Sony's electronics. That camera and the follow on a6000 (along with LightRoom improvements) rekindled my interest in photography outside of work.
I have wanted to move from APS-C to FF but was unwilling to go with the larger body of the a7III (Canon and Nikon are not even a consideration due to their even larger dimensions and weight / performance ratio). So it looks like the a7C is targeted to buyers like me where image quality and DR in the smallest possible form is key. It may not be for everyone, but given the history of Sony's success with small high performance cameras, I would not count this one out.
Good points. If I didn't recently purchase the a6400, I would be looking at this camera. As it is, I have a lot more to learn with my current camera body, so I will probably aim to purchase the mark2 of the a7C if they make one in a few years.