A Small Window Of Opportunity
A Small Window Of Opportunity, Laguna Gloria, Austin
Back in September I dissed Sony for their historically poor interface design while wondering if the NEX-7 might stretch my loyalty to Panasonic and Micro 4/3 for street camera work. Since then both Michael Reichmann (of Luminous Landscape fame) and Steve Huff have written strong reviews / previews of the NEX-7. Of the handling, Steve Huff’s video review described the camera as “about damn near perfect” so it appears that I may owe Sony an apology.
Where Michael Reichmann only had a two days or so with a pre-production model, Steve Huff has had the camera for a couple of weeks and has written an extensive report complete with 18 minute video covering the camera’s controls. His conclusions after real world use are a half notch down from “near perfect” to “it’s damn good” coupled with “All in all, this is a killer camera system and the NEX line has now matured into a camera that most of us have been asking for over the past 2-3 years.”
Huff and Reichmann are much better qualified to write about cameras than I am so I recommend that you follow the links read what they have to say.
It will be least three months before I will be in a position to upgrade my GF1 so Panasonic still has a window of time in which to counter Sony’s seductive call. Sadly, the strong rumor is that the GX1 (or GF Pro) to be announced (maybe) this Friday will not have a built in viewfinder à la NEX-7. It will (they say) have a low noise 16 mega pixel sensor and an optional 1.4 mega pixel attachable finder. Sony’s 24 mega-pixels in a APC sized sensor does seem to have sacrificed some high ISO noise quality so Panasonic has probably made the right decision there (especially for the smaller 4/3 silicon) but the lack of a built in viewfinder feels like a huge mistake. The extra mega pixel of resolution in Sony’s finder is not to be sneezed at either.
See 4/3 Rumors (ignore the fake picture) and Pocket-lint for more details on the GX1 rumors.
