Sony Alpha 7C
Andy Westlake examines Sony’s new compact-bodied full-frame mirrorless model
SONY is famously a company that likes to make things small. Indeed this was the driving force behind the original Alpha 7 and Alpha 7R in 2013 – the world’s rst full-frame mirrorless cameras. Over time, their successors have retained the same SLR-like shape, but become ever larger and more complex. Now the company has gone back to the drawing board and made a new body design. The result is the Alpha 7C (for ‘compact’), which is rather circumspectly touted as the world’s smallest full-frame camera with in-body image stabilisation (IBIS). The rm is keen to stress that it doesn’t replace the popular Alpha 7 III – instead it’s a new strand of the rm’s full-frame line-up.
In essence, the A7C places the 24.2MP full-frame sensor and core feature set from the A7 III into a
at-topped, range nder-style body that’s very similar to the APS-C Alpha 6100. At 124 x 71 x 60mm and 509g, it’s about the same size as the A7 III without its view nder housing, and 80% of the weight. It’s not as small as the Sigma fp, but with a built-in view nder, fully articulated screen and IBIS, it has a much more attractive feature set.
In fact the A7C retains almost the same impressive spec list as its sibling. It offers a standard sensitivity range of ISO 100-51,200, along with extended settings from ISO 50-204,800. A hybrid autofocus system makes use of 693 phase-detection points arranged across 93% of the frame, and supports shooting at 10 frames per second with a 115-frame raw buffer. A new shutter unit provides a slower 1/4000sec top speed, but this can be extended to 1/8000sec by engaging silent mode. Meanwhile the downsized IBIS unit promises 5 stops stabilisation, just like the A7 III. Video can be recorded in either 4K resolution at up to 30fps, or Full HD up to 120fps, and both microphone and headphone sockets are built in.
Build and handling
Unsurprisingly, the most signi cant changes are to do with the body design. Operationally, Sony has decided to keep things simple, which means that enthusiast photographers are likely to
nd the A7C more frustrating to use than its SLR-shaped siblings. It’s an improvement on the A6100, at least, thanks to the inclusion of an exposure compensation dial. The movie button is also more conveniently placed on the top plate, and can be reassigned to control other functions in the stills modes. But compared to the A7 III, there’s neither a control dial on the handgrip, nor an AF-area joystick. Instead Sony expects you to let its AI-based subject recognition take the strain, with a prominent AF-ON button on the back that’s used to specify and lock onto the subject.
The A7C employs a dust- and moisture-resistant magnesium-alloy body shell, and will be available in either a retro silver-and-black nish, or all black. One aesthetic change compared to the boxy A6000-series models is a stepped top-plate. The
rm’s obsession with downsizing has also resulted in a rather small handgrip, which means the camera is happiest with relatively compact lenses.
Sony’s new-found enthusiasm for fully articulated screens continues, with a 3in screen that can be set to almost any angle. This brings a signi cant advantage over the tilt-only unit on the A7 III, as it can be used to compose high- and low-angle shots when you rotate the camera to portrait format. It’s a huge improvement over the 16:9 screens used on A6000-series bodies, but the trade-off is a smaller view nder, with the 2.36m-dot unit providing a meagre 0.59x magni cation. The EVF also has a very small surround, with no apparent option to t a larger eyecup, which means it’s likely to be dif cult to see in bright conditions.
With the A7C designed to appeal to users stepping up to their rst proper camera from a smartphone, it comes as a real disappointment to nd that Sony has failed to include the excellent touchscreen interface it developed for the recent Alpha 7S III. Instead, the touch controls are restricted to specifying the focus area and a few playback functions. This compounds the relatively limited physical control set, and means users who want to take manual control will spend a lot of time pressing the d-pad buttons.