Sony Alpha 7C R: the megapixel monster

<61 megapixels in a compact body: still a rare combination on the market, but one that the Sony Alpha 7C R offers. For what purpose? My guess: primarily for landscape and architectural photos, when you're out and about. You need high resolution and, at the same time, the camera equipment needs to remain as light as possible..
To check whether my intuition was right, I tried out the 7C R for about ten days in Scotland. I chose to use the new 16-35mm lens. This is lighter and more compact than its predecessor, so it fits in perfectly with the concept. Together, the camera and lens weigh less than a kilo.

Cameras

Sony Alpha 7C R

61 Mpx, Full frame

12

Lenses

EUR3159,–

Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM II

Sony E, full size

6

The catch is that this choice limits me to wide-angle. Even though it's great for landscapes and architecture, it's impossible for me to limit myself to wide-angle shots on holiday. I need at least one other lens, but with that, no more 'light and compact'; the usual holiday dilemma.

My solution in this case is not very orthodox, but it has served me well: I take the RX100 VII as a complement. The focal length of this compact camera, converted to full format, reaches 200 millimetres. So my photo equipment covers 16 to 200 millimetres without me having to carry a lot of stuff. The downside: the compact camera doesn't offer the same image quality as the full-frame camera.

The downside of compactness

As I expected, the Alpha 7C R comes in handy on the move. I always had the camera with me, not for testing, but because it didn't clutter me up.

That said, compact dimensions also have their drawbacks. Compared to the Sony Alpha 7R V, which has the same sensor but a larger body, it lacks the joystick. For static motifs, that's not a problem. I can take my time and also move the focus field with the four directional keys located around the OK button. As these keys have several functions, I sometimes don't move the focus field, but call up another function. A little annoying, but it passes. Overall, the camera is easy to use despite the limited space.

The viewfinder is at the heart of my biggest criticism. Its resolution is 2.4 million pixels, which is no more than a meagre 1024 × 768 pixels; completely out of proportion to the high resolution of the sensor. I can hardly see if my photos are really sharp.

The 0.7 magnification is also modest, the viewfinder isn't bright either and it lacks an eyecup. None of this necessarily leads to poorer quality images, but taking photos is less fun. Also, as a left-handed person, the viewfinder bothers me when I press the menu button: the screen goes blank and the viewfinder lights up because I put my hand close to the sensor.

And while I'm grumbling: the fact that the camera has only one card compartment doesn't bother me, but this is a point most photographers dislike. At this price point, you'd expect two compartments. Even my cheap Canon EOS R7 has two.

The fact that the viewfinder and card compartment aren't better equipped isn't just down to lack of space. Nikon, for example, included a miniSD slot in its Nikon Z f because there wasn't room for two compartments. Sony could have done the same with this model. For the 7C R, the giant uses exactly the same body as for the much cheaper Alpha 7C II. This, of course, saves on production costs. Which is understandable, given the small number of units sold today. But in this case, the equipment is one-sidedly geared towards the 7C II and inappropriate for the high price of the 7C R.

Ideal for architectural photography

The camera/lens combination tested here is well suited to photographing tall buildings. A wide angle is needed to bring the subject into the image. To keep the vertical lines straight and not converging towards the sky, you need to keep the camera upright. In doing so, you're usually not halfway up the building, which would be optimal, but at the very bottom. The consequence: a large part of the image is taken up by surface area on the ground, which you crop out when retouching.

There are special tilt and shift lenses that allow you to do this mechanically without loss of resolution, but they have no autofocus and are not universal. So they're totally useless if you want to travel light.

That's where the 7C R's 61 megapixels come in. They give me so much headroom that I can cut out the bottom half of the image without fear. Even if I have to remove half of it, I'm still left with 30 megapixels. In other words: enough for a photo that also looks convincingly sharp on a big screen or print.

Image quality: top of the range

Image quality is pretty much the same as the Sony Alpha 7R V. The sensor is the same, and it's truly exceptional. Despite its high resolution, it offers a very high dynamic range and generates very little noise. What's more, with 61 megapixels, the image is almost always degraded, which makes most of the noise disappear.

And if an image should still have some slight noise, it is now possible to remove it later using software: Adobe Lightroom's AI-assisted noise reduction does an excellent job.

Here's a photo at ISO 10,000. By downscaling to web size, the noise is no longer visible.

A small crop in the centre of the image shows that there is noise. No surprise there. As I said: ISO 10,000.

After applying AI-based noise removal in Lightroom, the photo looks flawless even in enlarged view.

On paper, the Alpha 7R V has the slightly superior image stabiliser. It's supposed to compensate for eight exposure levels instead of seven as on the Alpha 7 CR. I don't notice this tiny inconvenience on a daily basis. I've never had to expose faster than 1/30th of a second, and with this shutter speed, all images are perfectly sharp. If Sony's indications are correct, it should be possible to obtain much longer exposure times.

With high resolution, you need a lens of corresponding sharpness. The 16-35mm GM II meets these high demands perfectly. It projects a consistently sharp image across 61 megapixels. Even at the maximum wide-angle of 16 millimetres, the image is perfectly sharp right into the corners.

No video camera despite a suitable screen

During my holidays, I hardly made any films. For landscape shots, I didn't find it very useful, and besides, I don't consider the Alpha 7C R to be a video camera. It certainly has very good video autofocus, but it doesn't provide optimum quality. It can't do 8K, although the resolution is high enough. 4K with oversampling is only possible with a narrowing of the angle of view by 1.5 times and only with a maximum of 30 frames per second (fps). Oversampling means that 4K is downsampled from a higher resolution, resulting in a sharper image. Non-crop 4K video recording is only possible with subsampling and also at 30 fps maximum.

The screen can be unfolded sideways by 180 degrees and then tilted up or down. This rotation mechanism is perfect for video cameras and filming. For photography, I would prefer a tilting mechanism without first unfolding. But that's a matter of taste and I prefer to shoot through the viewfinder anyway. The best would be the Sony Alpha 7R V's rotation mechanism, which combines the two in one.

Features worth mentioning and battery life

The battery used is the FZ-100, also found in the Sony Alpha 7 IV, for example. According to the CIPA standard, battery life is slightly less than that of the A7 IV, with 530 images. Battery life isn't exceptional, but the camera can easily last a whole day. That's all I need when I'm not far from any civilisation.

A handle is also included with delivery. It contains neither battery nor release button for the vertical format, but simply makes the existing handle a little bigger. With my small hands, I don't need it, especially as the Alpha 7C R is significantly more ergonomic than the Alpha 7C. As my aim was to have a compact piece of equipment, I left the grip at home.

The Alpha 7C R offers a pixel shifting function. With 4 or even 16 shots, it's possible to create even higher resolution images. There are up to 240 megapixels. But a tripod is required and as I don't want one when travelling, it's all theoretical for me.

The exact same applies to Focus Stacking. For landscape photography perfectionists, this is a great thing. The 16-35mm lens is still a little sharper with a relatively large aperture than with small apertures around f/16. But it often lacks the necessary depth of field. With Focus Stacking, you get both: perfect sharpness in the focus area and sharpness across the entire image.

Conclusion: an interesting camera whose equipment has a few shortcomings

I've never seen such a small body with such image quality. Only in medium format do you get even higher resolution, but the equipment is much bigger and heavier. What's more, the Alpha 7C R is less expensive than other cameras of comparable resolution.

The new 16-35mm lens shows no weakness, even at 61 megapixels, making it the ideal complement. It's not a great combination, but it's perfect for architectural photography. The mini-monster, combined with the lightweight wide-angle zoom, is also perfect for landscape shots where you have to walk a long way and don't want to carry a lot.

If you place a lot of importance on the video function, this is not the camera for you. Unlike the Alpha 7R V, it can't shoot in 8K, even though the sensor is the same. And in 4K, the high resolution means that the camera can only record with an oversampling quality crop.

However, if you mainly shoot stills, the Sony Alpha 7C R could be for you. Only two things don't fit the concept when it comes to equipment and tarnish the otherwise good overall impression: a camera that costs this much should have a much better viewfinder and two card slots.