New NEX-7 tests, Kenko specs (and USA shipment!)
NEX-7 vs. GH2 side-by-side video comparison (FullHD 1080p25 version) from Hacky on Vimeo.
Came back from a day of work and just found a dozen email from USA readers. Sonystore (Click here) is now shipping preorders from December and early January. So be prepared to get a package 
There are also some new NEX-7 tests:
A NEX-7 vs. GH2 side-by-side video comparison by 3Dkraft (Click here). A new review has been posted by Expertreviews (Click here). A test with the huge 18-200mm lens has been posted on SonyAlphaLab (Click here). And here are the new 400mm E-mount Kenko lens specs at Kenko Japan (Click here).Huge lens!
As I told you I epxect soem major SLT news soon and new NEX products by April. The CP+ show in Japan starts in mid February and maybe Sony will show some prototypes too….but don’t hope too much for the A99
More Sony NEX-7 preorder links: Amazon, B&H, Adorama, J&R, eBay.
Matthew
2 years ago |Now, onto Sony getting the kits out! I hope they start shipping before April…
Me
2 years ago |The USA site shows if you order the kit now it should ship March 26th. Body only is now set for Feb. 20th.
Matthew
2 years ago |Except my pre-order is with Abt, they’re still quoting April…
Me
2 years ago |I gotcha. Well I hope you get it earlier as well.
Dave
2 years ago |It seems crazy to me that Sony is shipping NEX-7 (body only) ordered in Dec/Jan but they can’t fill kit orders from September!!
Linh
2 years ago |I just punched a puppy.
Randy
2 years ago |what nex news? I can wait on my nex 7 if something better is coming along with a new sensor in a month. Also does anyone know if the nex 7 crops for video like the a77. I have not seen that answer
Matt
2 years ago |I have read they don’t crop like the a65/77 because they don’t use the crop mode stabilization, they use optical stabilization. Older 3 and 5 models used to crop also, though I have never been sure why. a55 didn’t crop because it used sensor shift stabilization, which caused it to overheat more easily (already quite bad).
Tulio
2 years ago |Ok, so the NEX is an excellent stills camera and crap at video, great.
Randy
2 years ago |wow it is pretty bad for 28mbps
Mark
2 years ago |i don’t understand.. where is crappy?!
the Nex-7 is more sharper of GH2..
if you don’t believe me, stop the video at 00:36 put the full screen mode and look at the brick wall!!
on the Nex-7 you can almost see the division between brick and brick..
on the GH2 is not detailed and looks like more a painted wall (and you can notice is much more pixelated)
the only “defect” of nex-7 is that sort of film effect (that personally like!!) and is adjustable with adding 1 or 2 stops of contrast..
both camera have a problem in fact of colours, for example, on the nex-7 the red color on the brick wall is more realistic/vivid than the yellow color that is more ”sad”
and the GH2 is the opposite!! the yellow boat is more vivid and the brick wall is completely off..
anyway i don’t get why the first clip of Nex-7 is perfect and the other 2 example later sucks… (as you can see in the 3rd clip the brick wall is present the moire effects!! in the 1st clip was not present!!) really strange…
however i don’t see any ”crap” things..
(sorry for my english but isn’t my native speakers)
Randy
2 years ago |I don’t care if the brick have detail when the moire is so bad it ruins the rest of the video
kk
2 years ago |How can you justify any quality-comparison with a downsampled online video? Silly. They both are pretty much the same online.
Randy
2 years ago |KK compression wouldn’t ever add moire.
Tony
2 years ago |The aliasing in 25p is horrible…
Matt
2 years ago |Even on web video the GH2 outperforms the NEX 7 by far… Though I have no clue why he’d compare upscaled 720p, he used some really shitty algorythm for that and 1080p50 isn’t favorable at all.
Mark
2 years ago |i can perfectly understand your point of view…
even if i would spend 1300$ for a camera, i would like to don’t have the moire effect or other ”defect” like that!! and this is a valid reasoning..
but from the moment that we are in 2012 and fortunately the “anti-moire filter” are in commerce, why bang the head in a problem that doesn’t exist?
the real problems come when you can’t do nothing to solve it..
remember that: melius abundare quam deficere (better too much than not enough)
Helge Hackbarth
2 years ago |“if you don’t believe me, stop the video at 00:36 put the full screen mode and look at the brick wall!!”
PLEASE take into account, that in the first sequence, the 720p50 mode of the GH2 (upscaled to 1080 lines) was compared to the 1080p50 mode of the NEX-7 !!!
Anon
2 years ago |The NEX7 video looks much weaker. I agree with kk — with such downsampled video you shouldn’t see a difference and BECAUSE YOU DO you can know there is a real difference that will show up even more in full bit rates/resolution. The GH2 is surprisingly better.
For me, I don’t care that much about video, though.
lifeispixels
2 years ago |O_O wow! hold on! who would buy the E mount version of the Kenko 400mm mirror lens. That is nothing but the A mount version + MA>E adapter!
I would buy the A mount version and use with LA-EA adapter to Nex instead and without adapter when used with alpha bodies…
JesperMP
2 years ago |The GH2 with the hack and 32Mbps is significantly better than NEX-7 and 24 Mbps.
If I was in the market for a mirrorless for mainly video, it would be decisive.
Just my opinion. Look at the video at the end.
pdc
2 years ago |Very useful comparison.
Time to get a second GH2 and do a lot more with the higher bitrate hacks.
Have been nervous about cooking my present GH2.
Stills – hmmm? The G1 was OK most of the time, and not sure the G3/GX1 is a big enough improvement. They really need to get cracking with a BSI sensor for MFT.
Would go for the NEX-7 if I didn’t already own most of the Panasonic lenses. Kinda think I should wait until September and see what Canon’s next move is.
REVENGE
2 years ago |Hacked GH2 is king for videos, it’s too bad we’ll probably never know what a hacked 5n or 7 can do.
NEXfive
2 years ago |Exactly, that’s why Sony is limiting themselves and their customers pushing these extremely advanced guys hacking firmware to Panasonic.
Antoine
2 years ago |The Nex-7 gave us a nice moire at 0:25.
NEXfive
2 years ago |They’ve hinted that you’ve got to download the original files, because some problems have been caused by Vimeo.
Peter
2 years ago |In the first sequence the 720p50 mode of the GH2 (V1.1 with 17 Mbps) is compared to the 1080p50 mode of the NEX-7. The section of the GH2 video was subsequently scaled up to 1080 lines. The shutter speed was set to 1/100s. The second half of the sequence contains a relatively swift swing as panning for the passing barge, which clearly benefited from the higher frame rate. The aperture was set at F5.0 on the GH2 and to about F4.5 at the NEX (due to its lower ISO sensitivity).
In the second sequence the 1080p25 modes (each camera with 24 Mbps) are compared. The shutter was set to 1/50s, aperture F7.1 at the GH2 and appxoximately F6.3 at the NEX-7.
In the third sequence the 24p cinema mode of the GH2 (V1.0 wit a “mild” 32 Mbps patch) is compared to the 1080p25 mode of the NEX-7 (24 Mbps). The 24p video is sped up by 4% in order to preserve a smooth rendering without the sporadic inserted frame repetitions when rendering at 25 fps or 50 fps. The two sequences were cut to one another such that, in the middle part they are in about the same time.
Camaman
2 years ago |OK, Pana looks sharper more fluent but with less DR…
Randy
2 years ago |The pana looks shaper because its OVER sharpened to compensate for lower bit rate.
c.d.embrey
2 years ago |Another useless pixel-peeper test. Bad video quality won’t hurt a good story, and good video quality won’t save a story that sucks. The audience doesn’t care what camera you used or the MBPS , why should you.
Randy
2 years ago |Well they do care. Or you would still own an SD TV with a converter box.
ANDY
2 years ago |As someone who has shown and shot a lot of films they dont care. People tend to watch the subject not a brick in the corner of frame.
All the pixel peepers shoot nothing but trees and candles.
Filmmakers go out and shoot irregardless.
The GH2 is great hacked (I own one) but the Nex 5n/7 has great video also (I own a 5n) and many have shot great footage with it.I pick up my 5n more than the GH2 also.
I do wish GH2 owners stop obsessing over highbitrates and resolve and just go shoot something with a point.
Matt
2 years ago |Agree. Besides at a big screening event where you actually show off your made film, rather than pixel peepers peeping in their mum’s basement, no-one will be able to tell the difference.
The only difference I can tell on a $100k projector between a Canon (pretty damn awful at most areas of video for a pixel peeper) and a RED shot in 4k is that the RED has quite a lot more dynamic range and that it feels more clinical than the Canon. All this resolution, moire, aliasing pixel peeper crap completely disappears on a good projector, in a decent theatre and all anybody notices is the story, the talent, the sound… not the damn pixels!
Shoot on whatever camera you have access to, but make the story good
Charlie
2 years ago |Useless without first watching/reading this from the guy: http://vimeo.com/35823620
Pei
2 years ago |Did you guys read the accompany article? You have to download the video to your computer and not just look at the streaming to compare. The streaming video is at 4.5mpbs so both camera lost a lot of detail.
Andrew
2 years ago |True, but it is still apparent that there is a distinct difference in quality. I don’t quite understand why that is so, but it’s still evident.
Bobby
2 years ago |Hi All,
I ordered my Nex 7 in late December in Sydney. I was contact by the shop assistant to advise that it may be a possibility that NEX7 may not even come to Australia. Sony apparently will be releasing new range NEX range in March this year. Is this true?
I have been going nuts waiting and reading about NEX7. Does anyone know if this is true that NEX7 will not arrive in Sydney? And should I hold off buying it?
Thanks Guys.
Simon_P
2 years ago |Andrea, can you share with us the nex and alpha roadmap rumor which you promised weeks ago?
alexander
2 years ago |are there any new SMALLER NEX lenses planed ?
SonyA77
2 years ago |Well since that’s what plenty of people are wanting, no, Sony aren’t listening as usual!
David
2 years ago |Oh yay.. are we pixel peeping video now?
Nobody apart from geeks cares about this. It’s even worse than testing lenses with test charts.
Helge Hackbarth
2 years ago |What kind of pixelpeeping do you mean?
With exception from the 720p50 sequence scaled to 1080p for better comparison, there are no magnifications – just the resolution that you see on any FullHD TV monitor anyway (if you really watch the original video fullscreen). That’s what current video cameras are intended for.
ronin
2 years ago |How about Amazon pre-orders from August?
Sandro
2 years ago |funny people who say the nex-7 is shaper, really! Are you resolutionblind?
Maximus
2 years ago |Yes the colour of the GH2 is more saturated, Yes the GH2 is sharper
But: It looks like a thing of the camera setting, turn the Nex-7 to VIVID and scharpening +2 an you’ll have the same result
Helge Hackbarth
2 years ago |The intention was to compare the cameras as close to their default setup as possible. This is, what the manufacturers usually understand as best compromise for a typical mix of situations.
If you try to use sharpening settings, moiré may be even worse.
Brian
2 years ago |(FT5) Sony NEX 8 to come before the NEX7!
BlackLegSanji
2 years ago |In the related article, the author wrote:
“the focus of the manual lens was set to the end position for ‘infinite’”
which I assume was how he set the focus on the NEX-7 + CV 35mm f1.2. The problem with this is that I haven’t encountered a third-party adapter that does not focus past infinity. Which means that setting the focus to the end position may result in a slightly out of focus image.
monkeyfacemcbride
2 years ago |AFAIK the NEX7 has focus peaking so he should have been able to check it.
Helge Hackbarth
2 years ago |In the setup an adapter from Novoflex was used, that is very precise. The article contains also a link to still photos in high resolution taken with that setting that prove correct focussing.
Aaron Martin-Colby
2 years ago |I am very impressed with how well the GH2 held up. It was generally crisper and maintained better detail in moving objects, such as the waves as the ship passes underneath camera setup.
To be fair, the dynamic range of the NEX-7 is noticeably better.
Tony
2 years ago |I preordered kit the second announced. Zilch. A friend ordered body last week it arrived yesterday!
Tim
2 years ago |Who did your friend order the Nex-7 from?
rafik
2 years ago |Moira effect on sony
bertie
2 years ago |I’ve got my nex7 yesterday…
…and its true – the video quality is really bad! worse moiré and horrible rolling shutter effects – unworthy of discussion for professional work!