This is the Sony a7C and while it may not seem like it
at first, this is a very important camera.
Let's get undone!
[offbeat music]
♪ Gerald Undone ♪
♪ He's crazy ♪
What's happening, everybody? I'm Gerald Undone
and I toss coins to the Witcher!
Okay, first up, as usual, some disclosure.
Sony loaned me this camera to conduct this review.
I've had it for a couple of weeks now,
I don't get to keep it, no money changed hands
and Sony does not get creative input
nor do they get to see this video before it's posted.
Now, when I say this is an important camera,
it's not because it has impressive, new specs
or features you haven't seen before, in fact, in many ways
it's nearly identical to the two-year-old a7 III.
What makes it important is how this reduction
in size and amalgamation of features we've seen
on other Sony cameras suggest both a larger potential userbase
and a higher ceiling for future camera capabilities.
Historically, in computer hardware development,
the process was to make something new and powerful,
regardless of size as a first step and then make it smaller,
which then allows you to combine more of those new smaller things
to make a new big, powerful thing
before, once again, making it smaller.
This back and forth is how we get steady advancements
in technology. So, even though a camera like this
might seem kind of boring to a current a7 III owner,
I find it exciting because if they can cram
all the stuff from pretty much every other Sony camera
prior to the a7S III into this tiny body, then what are
they going to be able to do next year with a full sized camera?
And when I saw tiny body, I mean it.
This is the smallest full frame camera on the market
if you don't count the Sigma FP, and I think it's reasonable
to exclude the Sigma FP because that camera doesn't
have a viewfinder or a mechanical shutter.
This camera is about the size of my a6600,
but weighs only 517 grams,
so just over a pound with a battery and a card inserted.
It has a decent grip for its size,
but it's a bit shallower than I'm used to.
And there are definitely some trade offs for having
this reduced size, which we'll get into in a moment,
but a couple of things they got right are keeping
a nice distance between the tripod plate
and the battery door while centring it under the lens
and maintaining a full featured set of inputs and outputs
without needing to hide the card slot in with the battery.
And it also keeps the FZ100 battery from the a7 III,
so you're getting great compatibility
and excellent battery life.
I managed to get three hours of 4K 24p video with autofocus
and stabilisation on a full charge before the battery died.
And, for photos, I still had over 80% battery
remaining after taking 150 shots spread out over a few hours.
You can extend that battery life over USB-C but don't expect
the infinite runtime you get with the a7S III's
power delivery. On this camera, it's more of a trickle charge
merely doubling your run time to about six hours of video,
which is still quite good and probably plenty for most people.
They removed the USB Micro B port, though, which isn't an
issue for me but it's something you should consider if you use
a lot of remotes or accessories that require that port.
It uses the same Micro HDMI port we've seen on the previous
Sony cameras and the card slot is a single UHS-II SD card,
so no backup recording like you get on the a7 III.
For audio, it has both a microphone
and a headphone jack and they're smartly separated
with the microphone flap not blocking the flip-out screen,
two features that are obviously big wins for self-filming.
Now, the screen isn't anything new.
It's pretty much the a7 III screen all over again
with the same limited touch controls and modest size,
but now, it's fully articulating.
But, that means we're not getting the new a7S III
menu system and touch operation, it's the previous UI.
One thing I really appreciate though,
is how they positioned the HDMI port at the bottom
of the IO with the door opening downwards so that it doesn't interfere
too much with your ability to rotate the screen.
You only lose about 30° of swivel instead of
the nearly 180° that I lost on the Panasonic S5.
Also, these doors are much better than the a7 III's
dangling flaps, and despite all these changes,
they've maintained the weather resistance
of their other, recent full frame cameras
instead of being reduced to the weaker resistance you'd find
on Sony's APS-C bodies. So, that's great.
And while we're talking about these ports,
let's have a listen to the audio to see if it sounds
any different than it does on the a7 III.
Okay, so I'm going to start with the a7 III because I have
a lot more experience with that one and know what to
expect from its audio, and I've just got a line coming
out from my regular audio setup
and then coming into the camera here.
And, I'm going to set the level so that--
Check! Check! Check! They land between -12 and -6.
And for me, that is 2, so I have
the audio record level set to 2, which is good.
That should be, you know, minimal pre-amp noise.
Now, let's go ahead and set it up on this camera so we can
see what we're dealing with here and then I will record
on both and then switch back and forth so you can hear it.
Check! Check! Check! Check!
Okay, so, interestingly, on the a7C,
I had to set the audio record level to 8. So, that might
increase the amount of noise that we perceive.
It's interesting that I had to put more gain in this camera.
I guess the pre-amps are less powerful or at
least it's calibrated on its scale to be less powerful
where 8 is similar to 2 over here.
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The audio controls are identical to the a7 III
and the camera's outfitted with the same multi-interface shoe,
so it accepts Sony's audio devices that go in the hot shoe.
It has a new shutter button and on-off switch combo
which I really like. It depresses nicely
with a good degree of travel and the on-off switch
is more challenging to flick than on the a7 III,
which should prevent some of the accidental ons
that happen on those older cameras.
The buttons and dials that it does have are refined,
well-sized and nice to use, including this large AF-ON
button which is very pleasing to depress and which now activates
the real time tracking feature that is missing on the a7 III.
This body is missing custom buttons though,
and only has two dials instead of three.
So, adjusting exposure is very similar
to the smaller APS-C bodies.
So, you'll have to rely entirely on the Quick Menu
function button to access your favourite
settings because there's no customs buttons like C1 or C2.
I honestly thought I was going to hate using
this camera for that reason, but I did get comfortable
using the function menu after just about a day.
The only thing I didn't get used to or come to enjoy
is this viewfinder. It is terrible.
Not only is it dated in its resolution and speed,
but it doesn't have a proper eye-piece,
just this rubberised edge which is uncomfortable
and doesn't give shade from ambient light.
It's not a pleasant experience to use, but surprisingly,
it does have a diopter wheel for adjustment.
As I tested this camera more and more, I started to feel like
it was a step back for photography,
but a step forward for video compared to the a7 III.
The a7C definitely benefits from the latest autofocus system
with Real-time AF and Animal Eye AF,
but the worse viewfinder,
lack of dual card slots,
fewer buttons and dials
and the shallower grip make this
a worse photography experience in my opinion.
And since it uses the layout from the APS-C bodies
instead of its full frame counterparts,
that means no joystick and instead
all of the work is loaded onto this wheel on the back.
I've gotten used to this from my A660,
but I definitely prefer the a7 III's layout more.
Also, when it comes to the shutter, while it does have
the Silent Shooting option using the electronic shutter,
you don't have control over the electronic front curtain
when in mechanical mode, which for me resulted in
the electronic front curtain always being on.
This produces less shutter shock because you only feel
half of the full actuation, but this causes issues
with third party flashes like those from Godox that don't fire
reliably when electronic front curtain is enabled.
On the a7 III, you can turn this off and go full mechanical,
but you can't seem to on this camera.
So, consider that if you use Godox or similar flashes.
Also, this shutter caps out at 1/4000th of a second
versus the 1/8000th you get on the a7 III.
Now, we do get some of the improvements we've seen on
the a7 III's successors though, like a better illuminated focus
selection instead of that hard to see grey box
and the inclusion of auto white balance lock.
And, it's also inherited some of the new additions we saw on
the a7S III, like the new mode dial layout for faster switching
between photo and video, the ability to control
the file naming and structure so not all your video files
are named C0001.
And, when setting a custom white balance you can
move the box around to refine your target better
just like we saw on the a7S III.
And the white balance reading is more accurate on the a7C
compared to the a7 III which complements this camera's
improved colours, but we'll talk more about colour in a moment.
However, you still can't set a custom white balance
while in one of the memory recall modes.
But, perhaps the best thing it inherited from the a7S III
is the new video autofocus adjustments
with the ability to choose between seven steps
of transition speed and five steps of responsiveness.
And, it also has the new transition curves
with the ramped toe and knee to give a more organic focus pull.
The over and under exposure range for face detection is
the same as the a7 III which is about four stops over
and six stops under, but the a7C performs better in that range.
Firstly, it uses eye detection in video
instead of just face, and it doesn't seem to get
lost as easy as the a7 III when underexposed.
I was shooting four to five stops underexposed
with a bright light behind the subject in S-Log2
and it kept focus the entire time where the a7 III struggled.
So, this camera is definitely up there as one of
Sony's best autofocus systems.
And unlike the a7 III, it doesn't have any
of the weird HDMI quirks where connecting a monitor
disables face detection, at least not in 24p.
In 30p, it performs like the ZV-1,
where it crops in and you get this wide autofocus box
instead of face detection.
But, that's only when recording internally
and monitoring over HDMI simultaneously.
If you record only externally, you keep eye detection in 30p,
but again, neither is an issue in 24p,
and neither screen goes black when you start recording
like it does on the a7 III.
So, some serious improvements and quirk reduction here.
It does still have that same issue
that plagues even the a7S III though,
which is that when you enable your onscreen display
and menus over HDMI, the camera LCD turns off.
This probably won't affect a large number of users
but it's something I hope Sony continues to work on
because it would be nice to see fixed in future cameras.
Perhaps the biggest improvement in recording video
over the a7 III, however, is the fact
that this camera has no record limits.
So you don't need an external recorder to bypass
any 30 minute limit or to even see yourself now.
So, that's great if you want a tiny setup
for long form content.
And overheating doesn't appear to be a problem for those
long recording sessions either despite this tiny body.
I put the Auto Power Off Temp to high and then let it record
for six hours in a 24°C environment, which is 75°F,
and it didn't even give me an overheating warning.
So, that's great, but your mileage
will probably vary in hotter environments.
So, those are a lot of the differences and improvements
over the a7 III but unfortunately, the reason why
I'm comparing it to the a7 III so much is because the sensor
and image performance are, for better or worse, the same.
That means you're getting the same 24 megapixel still images
and the same supersampled 6K into 4K video
which is the good part, because those Sony images are rich,
sharp and detailed, but it also means
you're still stuck with 8-bit video with 4:2:0 subsampling,
internally and limited to 4K 24 or 4K 30 with a slight crop.
It's using the same codecs with the same bitrates
and has the same pretty terrible rolling shutter performance.
And those are, of course, the biggest disappointments
because the two major flaws with the a7 III in my opinion
are the rolling shutter and the 8-bit colour
and that's also true with this camera.
The image stabilisation is pretty similar too,
which can actually be considered an impressive feat
that they achieved almost the same level of stabilisation
as the a7 III but in this much smaller body.
I'm told they had to completely redesign the system
and in my tests for photography,
I was able to get pretty similar results.
I could get down to about 1/8th of a second shutter speed,
at 70 mm on both cameras.
But in video, I did find the a7C to be a bit
more shaky than the a7 III when walking with them.
I was walking with both cameras on a rig using the same
unstabilised lens on both, and while the results
are close, the a7C does look worse.
So, while I'm again impressed at what they've been able
to shrink down, I'm not overly impressed
by the video stabilisation in a vacuum.
But that seems reasonable because the a7 III didn't
have that impressive stabilisation itself.
This is definitely a step back after seeing what
the a7S III is capable of,
and because the sensor is the same,
we're seeing pretty much the same dynamic range.
The a7C is tuned a bit differently.
And it actually scored about a third of a stop better
on my Xyla 21 test.
Thanks again to DSC Labs for providing that chart and thanks
to Imatest for providing the noise analysis software.
When comparing practical examples,
the dynamic range seems effectively the same and neither
pulls ahead in the highlights, but when closely evaluating
the noise, especially in a situation
where the shadows were lifted, the a7C does seem
to have slightly less noise and cleaner shadows.
So, I imagine that's how it scored better than the a7 III,
by having a third of a stop better signal and noise ratio.
But the ISO range is also different.
On the a7 III, S-Log2 starts at ISO 800
but it starts at ISO 500 on the a7C.
But, when comparing the ISO range, it's important
to realize that the a7C's ISO 500 isn't darker
than the a7 III's ISO 800.
I often hear people say that some new camera
has a lower base ISO, so that'll be helpful
for exposing outdoors in bright sunlight.
That's not how it works.
Between these two cameras, if your shutter speed
and aperture are the same, ISO 500 on the a7C
will expose very similarly to ISO 800 on the a7 III.
So, what you're actually getting is a shifting
of the entire ISO range which has two advantages.
First off, this means the a7C will change
to its second native ISO sooner than the a7 III because yes,
even though Sony doesn't really advertise this,
the a7 III has a second native ISO at around 5000 in S-Log2.
Well, since everything on the a7C is shifted
2/3rds of a stop lower,
you'll hit your second native ISO at 3200 instead.
And at certain ISOs, this can create a noticeable
noise advantage for the a7C.
And it also means that when both of these cameras cap out,
at ISO 51,200, the a7C will be 2/3rds of a stop brighter
at that ISO. But, to put it simply,
expect to see anywhere from 1/3rd to 2/3rds of a stop
better noise performance at certain ISOs,
but outside of that, mostly similar dynamic range.
There is something else I noticed, though, while moving
through the ISO range, the issue where the a7 III
shadows tend to get really magenta at high ISOs
has been mostly remedied on this camera.
And I find that in many ISOs, it retains a more natural look,
but it would seem that they accomplished this
by shifting to green instead, which itself can creep
into the shot at higher ISOs.
But, when compared, I'd rather have the green as I find
it keeps the shot looking more believable and natural
than the magenta and that goes
for colour accuracy in general too.
The a7C has more vibrant skin tones
and a much more accurate blue range
creating a final image that is much more technically correct.
I can't tell you which camera you'll like better,
but I can say the a7C does noticeably better
on the vectorscope and requires fewer corrections
right out of camera.
And I personally prefer the skin tones
on the new camera over the a7 III.
I think that's pretty much it.
For everything else, if I didn't mention it,
assume it's the same as the a7 III - same zebras,
same focus peaking, same Clear Image Zoom,
same menus, same slow motion modes and so on.
It really is just a smaller a7 III with a flip screen,
but like I said in the beginning, that's enough
to have me interested. And, to be fair,
ignoring some of the ergonomic inconveniences,
in many ways it's a better camera than the a7 III
while taking up a smaller footprint,
with fewer quirks and fewer restrictions.
And I'm told it's going to be $200 cheaper than the a7 III
which would automatically suggest that it's a good value
if you think the a7 III is a good value.
And, back in 2018, I called the a7 III
the best value camera I'd ever seen.
And there's no doubt in my mind that if this camera
came out in 2018, we probably would have
called off our search for the perfect camera.
But, it's 2020, and we've seen the a7S III,
so it's harder to be excited about 2018's perfect camera.
And while this camera will likely
bring more customers to Sony that want
a smaller, full frame body, and also satisfy
current Sony shooters that need a second body with fewer quirks,
I'm more excited about what this camera suggests for the future.
But that’s going to be it for me.
I hope you found this video entertaining,
or at least helpful. And if you did,
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Alright... I'm done!