Sony A7C Review
Smallest Full Frame Camera with EVF and IBIS
Sony A7C (ILCE-7C)
Announced - Sept 2020
Pro
Compact and light
Full Frame sensor with IBIS
Selfie Screen
Good Autofocus with Real Time tracking
Con
Limited control points
Small EVF with no eye cup
I have pre-ordered the A7C and received it the first day it was released here in Hong Kong. The reason for buying it is that I wanted a small body that is compatible for my existing lens. I ordered the silver body kit with the new SEL2860, which was reviewed here.
What’s in the box
Beside the body and cap, there is manual, battery, charger, power cords (EU, UK, US plugs all included), USB-C cable, and neck strap.
Body
The A7C body is really similar to Sony’s APS-C A6000 series camera. It reminds me of the A6500 that I used to have, but slightly beefed up. A7C is 124mm x 71.1mm x 59.7mm, and only weights 509g. It is the lightest full frame ILC with IBIS available. Surprisingly it is dust and moisture resistance even with this compact size.
The EVF hump is gone and is just a flat top, so the A7C has a range finder style design. It has a similar layout as the other Sony A6000 series camera. There is the Power switch/Shutter button, EV dial, Mode dial, and a record button. There is no lock toggle on the dials, unlike the A7R4. The record button is not very satisfying to press in use.
At the back, still a familiar layout as the A6000 series body. There is no joy stick for moving autofocusing point, which is a big difference compared to other A7 bodies. EVF is at the top left corner. It is 1 cm XGA OLED with 2.36M dots and 0.59x magnification. It is smaller than what is on the other A7 bodies. Sony has put a fully articulating screen on this body, and this is the 2nd body after the A7S3 that has it. There is a welcoming changes since a lot of people have been asking for it. However, A7C is still using the old and familiar Sony menu, unlike the new more user friendly one on A7S3. This is a plus or minus, depending personal preference.
On the left side, the ports are covered by 3 flaps. There is the 3.5mm mic in on top. Middle is the single UHS-II SD card slot. Bottom is the 3.5mm headphone out, USB type C that for data transfer and charging, and a micro HDMI.
The right side is just a grip since everything has been moved to the left. The grip is also much shallower than A7 series, more like the A6400/6100 series grip.
In the grip, it still houses the same NP-FZ100 battery used in the A7 series that provides impressive battery life. This probably explains why there is no control dial at the top of the grip like other A7 body, since there is not much space left after stuffing this battery in.
Image Quality
A7C has the 24.2MP 35mm Full Frame BSI EXMOR R CMOS sensor with BIONZ X image processor. This is the same sensor used in the popular A7 III, and there is 5 stop In-body image stabilization on the sensor. In terms of image quality, this is pretty much the standard for the current non high MP full frame cameras. A7C file size is more manageable than the A7R4 with JPG is below 7MB and RAW (uncompressed) below 50MB, while A7R4 would have been JPG below 16MB and RAW (uncompressed) at about 120MB.Unlike the A7 III, A7C has the real time tracking in AFC, with Face and Eye AF. Autofocus is easy to use, sticks to the target, and accurate.
There is no major breakthrough on video side, still at 8 bit 4k30p. However, it has Gyroscopic metadata so you can use Catalyst browse to do post stabilization. It also has the Multi interface hot shoes, so will work with the ECM-B1M hot shoes shotgun mic in digital mode.
Shooting Experience
I have used the A7C for a couple of weeks. The first thing I noticed was the small size and light weight. The difference of 150g seemed small on paper, but quite significant in use. The 28-60mm kit lens pairs well with the body, and A7C with the kit lens weights about the same as A7RIV body. I enjoy carrying the A7C walking around the street or hiking. The fully articulating screen is useful for selfie or shooting at low angle.
There are a few obvious sacrifices made to keep the body compact. The lack of front dial took some time to get used to. It is also missing the joystick to move AF point. I mostly use AFC real time tracking with center focus area and just focus then recompose. This doesn’t cause a lot of problem with me, but will be annoying for some people. EVF is worst than A7RIV, but is good enough for framing. However, the lack of eyecup means that light would leak around the view finder when shooting against bright light. Single SD card slot is not a major problem to me as a casual shooter, but I understand a lot of professional would be concerned about this.
The kit lens FE2860 is great for this compact body, and definitely worth getting the kit version of A7C. Other options that I enjoyed are the f/1.8 primes. The Tamron Zoom lens, particularly the 28-200 would be nice lens to go with this body as well.
Conclusion
The A7C is a nice and attractive compact body with a full frame sensor and IBIS. There are now a lot of other mirrorless full frame camera options, but most of them are still following the DSLR style body. I am happy to see Sony trying something new for full frame market. There are definitely some trade-offs for this compact body. It is not as comfortable to hold, not as easy to control, has a lower quality viewfinder than the rest of the A7 line up, and not really suitable to use with big lens.
Whether or not the A7C is the right body is highly dependent on personal requirements. It is amazing if small size, light weight, great autofocus, and a large number of lens options is the priority. This is also a good option for existing Sony user as 2nd body. However, this is not the body to go for if you need a camera to do everything from casual shooting on the street to shooting professionally or BIF. A regular A7 series body is more suitable for that.
It will be interesting if the A7C line can become a high end premium compact body for Sony, similar to a ILC version of RX1 line. I wish the second generation of this body will have better grip, front control dial, better EVF, and make it even lighter with exotic materials (titanium or carbon fiber?) being used.
Sample Gallery (Unedited, SOOC JPG - Mostly shot with 28-60 kit lens)
