Sony Alpha 7S, priced at $2499.99 (body only), is third in the full-frame mirrorless camera family. The 12-megapixel shooter joins the 24-megapixel Alpha 7 and 36-megapixel Alpha 7R ($1,654.95 at Amazon), but its resolution isn't the only differentiating factor.
Although the 7S is capable of reaching ISO 409600 for better image quality, it still has superior capabilities in lower-sensitivities. You will need an external recorder to record 4K video. The Alpha 7S is the ideal choice if you need to shoot in low light. We still recommend the 7R high-resolution model as Editors Choice. The Alpha 7 is recommended for photographers who need quick autofocus and want the highest quality from adapted lenses.
Except for its name badge the Alpha 7S looks almost identical to both 7R and 7R. The body, which houses the full-frame sensor and measures just 3.75x5x1.9inches (HWD), is compact. It weighs in at slightly over 1 pound with no lens. The market doesn't have many full-frame mirrorless cameras to choose from, however the Leica M (Typ240) at Amazon ($4,999.99) is a good choice. Although the Leica measures 3.1 by 5.5 by 1.7 inches, it is slightly smaller than the Alpha 7S.
The integrated OLED electronic seefinder makes the Alpha 7S slightly taller. The Alpha 7S, like the M is protected against moisture and dust. I did not experience inclement weather while using the camera. However, the 7R and 7R were fine in the rain. The lens mount has no gasket, so it's worth taking extra care when using in heavy rain.
To attach lenses to the Alpha 7S, the E-mount is the same as the Alpha 6000 (sold at Dell Technologies for $549.99), which has an APS-C sensor. The APS-C sensor can be physically smaller than the Alpha 7's 35mm full frame image sensor. You can use older lenses to cover NEX models with APS-C image circles. The Alpha 7S will crop the images automatically to fit the APS sensor size once these lenses have been attached. FE is the designation for lenses designed to be used with full-frame Alpha models.
The Alpha 7S image sensor has an optical low pass filter, just like the Alpha 7. This adds a bit of blur to images captured, scrubbing away some very fine detail, but eliminating the risk of color moiré appearing in images and video. Moiré is less of an issue with high-resolution cameras like the Alpha 7R, but the filter is still a requirement for the 7S's 12-megapixel sensor.
Display, Physical Controls and Wi-Fi The A7S gives you access to all shooting controls via an intuitive selection of physical buttons. The rear and front control wheels are located at the top of your camera. They can be accessed by using the handgrip. The top plate houses a standard mode dial, the power switch and shutter release, an EV compensation dial (3 stops in either direction at 1/3-stop increments), and the customizable C1 button—by default it adjusts autofocus pattern, but when the camera is in manual focus mode, it enables quick frame magnification as a focus aid.
The Menu button is located to the left and C2 to its right on the back of the camera. C2 can be customized and used to change the default focus mode. Other controls can be found to the left of the tilting rear LCD. A toggle switch and button give you quick access to manual mode when the camera is in the up position. The bottom also has exposure lock.
To adjust ISO, a flat dial control can be turned to change drive mode or adjust the Live View feed's information. It also allows you to set white balance and adjust live view. It has a button at its centre that can be used to select items from menus.
Eye AF is activated when you shoot, and prioritizes your autofocus system in order to keep an eye on a human. When shooting, the Delete button doubles up as C3. There is no default behavior but you can change it via menu. You have complete control of how your camera works with all rear controls. You can modify any control that you don't use or isn’t right where it should be.
Fn is another control button located on the rear. The Fn button opens an on-screen menu which provides fast access to up 12 functions. It includes drive mode, flash mode with compensation, focus mode and area as well as ISO and the ISO, ISO, the ISO, the metering patterns, white balance, color output and dynamic range optimization settings.
To start video, there is a record button located to the right of the camera. The button is well placed and easy to find. It cannot be disengaged or reprogrammed, but can be activated when the mode dial moves to the video setting.
It is hinged, so that it can be tilted up and down. However, it doesn't have a vari-angle LCD like the Panasonic LumixDMC-GH3 at Amazon ($1,099.99). It also does not support touch input. The LCD measures 3 inches and packs 921k dots of resolution. This makes it impressively sharp. The camera doesn't have a depth-of field preview button. Instead, the Live View feed shows you how the live view changes as the aperture is adjusted to adjust the focal length.
An OLED panel similar to that found in the APS-C Alpha NEX-7 has the EVF. It features a resolution of 2,359k dots. Although it's excellent, we prefer the LCD EVF found in the Olympus E-M1 ($1,099.00). OLEDs tend to have a sharper view and give more detail. The LCD gives a natural look to a scene. In very low lighting, the EVF may lag slightly.
It is not as smooth as E-M1 but smoother than EVFs from Sony cameras in previous years. The EVF's eye sensor, which activates it, is too sensitive. This is a problem. In many cases, I wanted to hold the camera to waist level with the LCD facing me. However, I accidentally moved the LCD a bit closer to my body, which caused the LCD to be deactivated. Automatic switching can be disabled via the menu. However, you will need to manually toggle between the EVF and LCD every time you wish to change something.
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Wi-Fi Support and Non-Native Lens Support
Wi-Fi is available on the Alpha 7S. By default it's a pretty simple implementation—it allows for transfer of images to your iOS or Android device via the free Sony PlayMemories Mobile app, available from Apple and Google Play. You can send images to your smartphone by broadcasting an SSID. NFC pairing may be possible if you have NFC support.
Raw photographers will be able use this feature, even if they don't have the Alpha 7S. The Alpha 7S can extract the JPG from the Raw image and then send it to you. You will need to transfer video using the MP4 file format. AVCHD footage must still be transferred via cable or memory cards. Images and video can be transferred to a computer or viewed wirelessly via a compatible HDTV.
This menu system differs from the previous NEX cameras. The menu system is largely text-based and has many options. Once you have the camera set up to your satisfaction, you don't need to waste too much time. It's a good thing Sony gives photographers the ability to control how the menu system functions. The menu is broken down into six sections, Camera Settings, Custom Setting, Wireless, Wireless, Application and Playback.
Scrolling down and left to navigate between them is easy. You can also scroll up or down to find specific settings. You can still use the tile-based NEX menu if you like it. However, this will only display a splash screen that contains large icons representing each submenu. Once you're done, however, the interface remains unchanged.
Sony's PlayMemories App Store offers many programs that can be downloaded in order to expand the capabilities of your camera. Smart Remote Control is included with every Alpha 7S. The app store offers freebies such as Direct Upload which lets you upload images or MP4 videos directly to selected social media networks. Also, Sync to Smartphone ensures that all images from your memory cards are on your smartphone.
Sony continues to increase the number of paid apps available, with prices ranging from $4.99 to $9.99. The 7S's Live View Grading ($9.99), which allows for color grading on-camera, is certain to be a hit with videographers. The Alpha 7S's price tag of $2,500 is a bit steep. Sony doesn't feel the need to make its users pay more for additional features like Lens Compensation ($9.99) which fixes optical defects in their lenses.
Non-Native Lenses
Sony's lens collection is not enough for serious videographers. True manual focus lenses work well with geared manual focus systems. You can use 35mm SLR lenses with your 7S or true cinema lenses. A good mechanical adapter is necessary and appropriate accessories will be required to pull the focus. You will have excellent depth-of-field control with full frame image sensors, particularly when using wide aperture or telephoto glasses.
Leica's M-mount rangefinder lenses are more difficult. These lenses are closer to the sensor and can be difficult for digital bodies. Many lenses that worked well on film will struggle with corners and edges when used in combination with a digital camera. Color shift can be seen on the Alpha 7R, such as Voigtlander’s 15mm Super Wide Heliar Aspherical F/4.5. This tiny lens captures a wide field of vision and is prone to muddy corners.
To see how the rangefinder lenses worked together with the full-frame 12-megapixel image sensor of the 7S, I looked at the available rangefinder lenses. Voigtlander 15mm has a cyan cast around the edges. The same lens is magenta-cast on both the 7R (Typ 244) and Leica M (7R) but it's relatively unaffected by color casts on the Alpha 7.
The corners of the lenses are not sharpened on these digital cameras due to extreme angles of light hitting the sensor. However, if the camera is paired with 35mm film the lens can capture sharp details from edge to end when it's stopped down.
The Alpha 7S doesn't just work with ultra-wide lenses. Leica Elmarit M 28mm f/2.8 ASPH It is not the most efficient at corners with the Leica M. However, it performs well on the 7S at larger apertures. Detail is improved by reducing the aperture to f/5.6, but only at f/8 does it catch up to the M.
The Leica Summilux M 50mm f/1.4 ASPH is a decidedly straight-angle Leica Summilux -M50mm. ($4,194.95 at Amazon) shows a lot of blurriness in the corners at wide apertures with the 7S—it's an excellent performer from edge to edge with the M (Typ 240). It performs well at f/5.6 like the Elmarit. However, you won't need to spend $4,000 for an f/1.4 lens to use it at f/5.6.
It's the Alpha 7 that is best suited to your Leica lens needs. Although it isn't as great as the Typ 240, it's still very affordable.
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Performance and conclusions
The Alpha 7S starts and shoots in 1.7 seconds, focuses and fires in 0.05-second in bright light, and does the same in about 0.8-second in very dim light. In Speed Priority mode, which locks focus and exposure, the 7S shoots at 5fps. It can keep that pace for 22 Raw+JPG, 25 Raw, or 52 JPG images before slowing down.
Those figures are almost identical to the performance delivered by the Alpha 7, although the 7S is capable of focusing in very, very low light—as low as -4 EV. The Alpha 7 is limited to metering and focus to 0 EV—that's a four-stop difference.
The unique feature that sets the Alpha 7 apart is continuous autofocus. Alpha 7S has a contrast detection autofocus system. It is accurate but only allows for 2.5fps when tracking a subject. It managed 1.7fps when continuous focus was enabled in our lab tests. Continuous focus mode allows the Alpha 7 to capture a lot more footage thanks to its on-sensor phase detector for tracking objects.
It can shoot at speeds up to 5fps. The Alpha 7 offers more versatility if you want to shoot fast-moving action. However, the 7S has one advantage that the Alpha 7 does not have: an entirely silent electronic shutter option. It eliminates any noise from the image capture process when enabled through the camera menu.
Although the Alpha 7S can be purchased as a body, I ran an Imatestsharpness testing to determine how much detail is lost compared to the Alpha 7R's 36-megapixel resolution. The Carl Zeiss Sonnar F* FE 55mm ZA was my choice for this test. It showed amazing sharpness when paired up with the Alpha 7R, which produced 3,000 lines at f/1.8 and 3,300 lines between f/2.8 and f/4. There were also 3,700 lines between f/5.6 and f/8. With numbers such as these, you can make large prints.
When paired with an Alpha 7S, the Sonnar scored a centre-weighted score of 1,979 lines at F/1.8. This score continues to f/8. This score is better than 1,800 lines per image height. However, it still provides enough detail to make a 13x19 inch print at 300dpi. If you plan to expand your image to 24x36 inches, then you will need to extract as much resolution from the original image as possible. If you are only posting images to the Web, 12 megapixels will be sufficient.
The high ISO shooting is where the Alpha 7S excels over its sibling models. The Alpha 7S can set it to ISO 409600 which is four stops more than that of the Alpha 7 and 7R. According to Imatest, the Alpha 7S is capable of capturing JPG images at a resolution of JPG image with less than 1.5 percent through ISO 6400 and just 1.6% at ISO 12800. This is not as impressive as the Alpha 7's test results, which kept JPG noise below 1.5 percent at ISO 25600.
However, it tells only a part of the story. The Alpha 7S's ISO 204800 output is comparable to the Alpha 7's ISO 25600 JPG output. Close inspection of images taken with a calibrated NEC MultiSyncPA271W ($999.00 Amazon). Neither camera can produce great JPGs at these settings. However, the Alpha 7S produces decent JPGs at ISO 102400 and ISO 51200. The slide show below shows the crops taken from each ISO's ISO testing sequence.
All JPG test results are taken with the standard noise reduction settings disabled. You can set the 7S to either Low or Off to reduce noise. If you want to make the best of your camera's capabilities, the Raw option is available.
When ISO is increased, Raw images tend to be more grainy than JPGs. However, I would not hesitate to shoot raw images at ISO 1024400 if necessary. ISO 204800 can make detail very difficult, so ISO 409600 should be used only as an emergency setting, regardless of what format you use or how much noise reduction you set.
The 7S's 12-megapixel sensor can capture 4K video at a resolution that matches 4K video when it is cropped in a 16/9 ratio. It can't, however. To unlock this capability you will need to use an external recorder such as the Atomos Shogun ($1,995).
The camera cannot output 8-bit 4x2:2 4K video at either 24fps or 30fps through its micro HDMI port. We didn't have access to a 4K recorder so can't speak for the quality of 4K footage that the Alpha 7S produces.
The camera can record 1080p footage. The camera can capture footage in AVCHD and XAVC S formats, as well as MP4 in Full HD. You can set bitrates and frames rates to your liking, however XAVC S will give you the highest quality. It is possible to record at 24p, 30p or 60p at 50Mbps.
You can also record in 720p at 120fps. This speed can be later slowed for slow motion capture. AVCHD can be used at lower bitrates (from 17 to 28Mbps) and can also be configured at 24p or 60i. If you don't care about video quality but still want to share your files online, MP4 may be the right choice.
You can use full manual controls to control the recording. The autofocus system automatically adjusts the focus according to the changing scene. Half-pressing on the shutter button can be used to trigger faster focus, however this gives footage that jarring contrast detection focus system look. Although the internal microphone is good at picking up voice, you will need an external mic for serious work. A headphone jack is available for monitoring and there's also a micro USB port.
By plugging in to a USB wall, the Alpha 7S will charge its battery within-camera. Sony also includes a dedicated wall charger and a second battery with the camera—that's a welcome change from the Alpha 7 and 7R, which required you to purchase an external charger separately if you wanted one. The 7S, like the 7R and 7R does not have a PC Sync socket or built-in flash. To use the 7S with studio lighting, you will need to purchase a PocketWizard (Amazon: $95.00) and a hotshoe accessory.
Sony's Alpha 7S full-frame Alpha camera is one of its most advanced. This is the ideal choice for videographers looking to increase 4K and photographers who prefer low-light performance to absolute resolution. It offers all the benefits of its sibling, such as a full frame image sensor, integrated Wi-Fi, an excellent EVF and integrated Wi-Fi.
It also shares some of the same limitations—the native lens library is still a little weak, with only five autofocus lenses currently available, and its tracking autofocus capability isn't quite on the same level as APS-C mirrorless cameras like the Alpha 6000.
The Alpha 7R is our favorite full-frame mirrorless. Its high-resolution sensor won us over in our review, and it remains Editors' Choice. But Sony offers three models in this space for a good reason—each has strengths that appeal to different situations. The Alpha 7 offers fast continuous focus and is budget-friendly. The 7S is the best of the bunch when it comes to shooting in the darkest conditions, but you'll have to pay extra for that privilege—and invest even more in an external video recorder if you want to take advantage of its 4K capabilities.