Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by abat 4320 days ago
The Leica T has an outdated Sony sensor they used in one of their lower end mirrorless cameras (NEX 5). The NEX 5 was even more portable and you can use a large number of first party lenses and use many other brands via converters.

It's not clear that the Leica T's image quality is any better than an NEX 5, and I would expect the more recent Sony cameras to be better image wise. The Sony A7 would give you a newer, larger sensor for less.

2 comments

That is good to know.

To go automotive analogy, a bit like a deluxe sportscar manufacturer, e.g. Lotus, that have a good looking product that goes nicely, handles great, has heritage yet has some Toyota engine inside...

For this reason I think I would want to give the Sony product a try. Sony make the whole thing from lens to screen for stills, video and film. Their products seem more about being part of that whole thing rather than some guy spending ages hand polishing aluminium. For me Leica are doing it wrong but they know their market and they don't have the capability of a Sony to develop their own sensors.

I'd rather have less MP if it means a better noise profile, and AFAIK there is a a fair amount of parameters affecting image quality other than the sensor itself.

These samples from the A7 don't seem to come close in color reproduction or dynamic range: http://www.cameralabs.com/reviews/Sony_Alpha_A7/sample_image...

I don't own either so this is just armchair judgement.

> I'd rather have less MP if it means a better noise profile

In that case, you want the A7s. For some reason, there are three variants of the A7: the standard A7, with a 24 megapixel sensor, the A7R, with a 36 megapixel sensor (the R is for resolution, you see), and the A7s, with a 12 megapixel sensor, but better signal-to-noise ratio, and so low-light performance (the s is for sensitivity, you see - no idea why it's lowercase when the R is uppercase).

> and AFAIK there is a a fair amount of parameters affecting image quality other than the sensor itself.

I suppose the biggest one is the lens. The A7 doesn't have a big range of lenses yet, but there are a few made by Zeiss that are apparently very good.