$1400 for the A77 seems a little high for a crop camera. I think used A850s go in the $1800 range but of course no live view or SLT tech. I might opt for the A65 as my crop factor backup camera if it isn't too handicapped. Hopefully they'll be in stores by early October.
I've read some rumor about some adapter for the NEX-7 that will let you do fast AF on screw drive Alpha lenses?
A77 seems to be going for the Canon 7D space if not a tier below it (maybe where the Canon XXD line used to be). I'm surprised at the NEX-7 price though. I thought it would be at $1000 to $1200, tops. They must have really felt the fervor around the development of the camera or looked at the X100 as an example.
Re: the NEX-7. Considering that it has a built in EVF (though not confirmed above) that you don't have to spend several hundred dollars for, the price seems reasonable. (though according to here the EVF for the new NEX-5 will be about $450!)
So looks like there will be a $400 device adapter thing that will let you AF Alpha lenses on to the NEX.
This is actually pretty compelling. Buy a NEX-7, enjoy ALTERNATIVE LENSES galore as you can adapt anything, also enjoy excellent native AF ZA Zeiss lenses!
The NEX7 will also be a very compact backup camera that won't take up nearly as much room in the bag.
Will be interesting to see how effective the 2.4M dot EVF is in use. My Minolta A2 has a 0.93M dot EVF. When I look through it now it seems rather grainy, but things do pop when in focus. I know it worked out fine in use after I got used to it. Brightness/contrast of the image through it was better than a DSLR optical viewfinder, even if the resolution wasn't the best.
You get:
AF Fine Tune (all my fast lenses have a setting from my Lens Align)
1/8000 vs 1/4000
Magnesium frame
Extra control dial
LCD on top
Much more flexible screen hinge
More AF points
Faster burst
Seems like it's totally worth it if size doesn't matter.
A more interesting choice for ALT users would be the NEX-7 vs A77...
I would love to have the same flexibility and more that Canon users have with alt lens selection. No more Leitax!!!
Or instead of a A-77 you can get an A-65 + Nex-5N for nearly the same price...
A77 is larger than the D7000 and the K5. It's in fact almost as large as the E-5. The NEX-7 is obviously relatively compact, but that can't be said about the lenses, and even with this launch, there aren't very many to choose from. Right now, I'm relatively happy that I bought into m4/3.
The key question in the slew of new products is IMHO: how good is the new high-end sensor? 23Mp for APS-C is, by far, a new density record. If Sony have managed that in conjunction with good IQ and noise performance, it will put massive pressure on competitors. I know that it is considered bad form to insist on pixel count, but it definitely matters in the market.
Nex 7 looks badass... from the front. Why aren't there any pictures of the back? Reminds me of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana:
Verum est, quod legitur,
Fronte capillata,
Sed plerumque sequitur
Occasio calvata.
Regardless, since there's already a NEX-3 in the household, it makes sense for me to continue building up that system in parallel to my Canon outfit. Oddly enough, all 3 new lenses seem cool enough to buy, and I hope that some time, down the road, Conurus has that EF-to-E adapter finished, so I can get the best of both worlds, and stop thinking of buying a second Canon body.
are we supposed to be impressed by that