Fuji X series vs Sony A7/A7r: A tie? Maybe!

[Samouraï]

My dream camera..

Foveon like sensor on a camera body similar to Fuji xp1 😀. Never gonna happen, but I can dream..

Gary

I'm not going to lie, the SD1M body is the best-feeling camera I've ever held, controls included. I prefer a smaller camera, though. Fuji and Sony both have controls too small on their mirrorless offerings so far, and have been criticized for it in reviews (particularly the control wheels).

First company to release a full-frame Foveon-style sensor, or a monochrome sensor that doesn't cost $8,000, will have me selling everything I own for them.

 

[YYV_146]

Is that true? Which lenses out-resolve the 55/1.8 on an APS-C? I suppose the Nex-7 does have a higher-res-per-area than the A7R (crop mode is like 15mp, right?), though most shots I got out of my Nex-7 were pretty mushy looking (with the 24/1.8), despite this. That could be a side effect of my love affair with the DP Merrill cameras, however.

Besides that...

If Fuji releases a FF camera, I'd be hard pressed to prefer the A7R, which is kind of wonky and soulless. But the 55 and 35 are pretty amazing, aside from the considerable vignetting.
If Sony releases a monochrome FE camera, I'll 100% stick with Sony. If they release a Foveon-style camera, I'll stick with Sony. We'll see how the organic sensor tech turns out for Fuji, but that could sway me...

All I know is that I am sick of CMOS sensors. I greatly prefer CCD and Foveon Merrill. I'm also sick of focus-by-wire. So those manual focus Zeiss FE lens rumors are kind of interesting, too.

I think that the Sigmas for APS-C E-mount are sharp enough on the NEX-7, being slow lenses with moderate FOVs. Some Leica lenses stopped down are also tack sharp from corner to corner (50apo, 90apo), and the 50mm Summilux ASPH can outresolve the NEX-7's sensor at the very center.

Personally (and this is from someone who's much younger than most RFF members) I find the Fuji cameras except the X100 I've used subpar in terms of build quality compared to the A7 or EM1. Operations are noticeably slower than most other mirrorless bodies, and franly a bit annoying when I'm using longer, manual lenses. None of the Fuji cameras have EVFs that come close to the latest Sony or Olympus/Panasonic variants. The X-E2's EVF was more fluent compared to the X-E1, but still washed out and unresponsive compared to the EM1.

I also don't see why people would buy manual FE lenses instead of simply getting M lenses or other manual glass. My M lenses work fine on the A7, and designing wide angles for short registers will always be challenging. At the end of the day any retrofocus wide for the A7 cameras will be bigger and heavier than a similar symmetric lens - and we already have excellent retrofocus optics such as the Zeiss ZM Distagons. I used the 18mm F4 on the NEX7 for two years, and loved how sharp the combination was...

 

[GaryLH]

I'm not going to lie, the SD1M body is the best-feeling camera I've ever held, controls included. I prefer a smaller camera, though. Fuji and Sony both have controls too small on their mirrorless offerings so far, and have been criticized for it in reviews (particularly the control wheels).

First company to release a full-frame Foveon-style sensor, or a monochrome sensor that doesn't cost $8,000, will have me selling everything I own for them.

I agree about the sd1m... But my preference these days is for a more compact camera.. Which the reason I still have my dp Merrill cameras.

Gary