While it lacks the innate sharpness of the A7R, the A7 produces images that fare well compared to the other full-frame entry-level models.
Lori Grunin
I've been reviewing hardware and software, devising testing methodology and handed out buying advice for what seems like forever; I'm currently absorbed by computers and gaming hardware, but previously spent many years concentrating on cameras. I've also volunteered with a cat rescue for over 15 years doing adoptions, designing marketing materials, managing volunteers and, of course, photographing cats.
You can start seeing the edge artifacts from Sony's image processing in the shadow areas at ISO 800 (look at "pushed").
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High ISO sensitivity JPEGs
There's some detail loss in the out-of-focus areas at ISO 1600, and by ISO 3200 soft shadow areas show a lot of mushiness compared to the in-focus areas.
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A7 vs. A7R, ISO 100 JPEG
You can really see the difference between the sensors in the A7 and A7R.
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ISO 100 JPEG
Even at ISO 100, it's not exceptionally sharp, although you can do a little better with a higher-end lens. (This was shot with the 28-70mm kit lens.)
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ISO 400 JPEG
You get reasonable detail at ISO 400.
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ISO 800 JPEG
Sony's slightly aggressive processing results in edge artifacts as ISO sensitivity increases. That said, overall it's still pretty good.
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ISO 800 oddness
This odd interference pattern in the blue channel resulted in yellow bands across the labels. It appears only in this shot, however.
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ISO 1600 JPEG
While it's pretty soft at ISO 1600 -- and there may be a tiny bit of shake in this photo -- the A7 holds color saturation well.
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ISO 3200 JPEG
The A7's algorithms do hold onto sharpness in the focused areas.
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ISO 6400, raw vs. JPEG
You can recover quite a bit of detail shooting raw.
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ISO 12800 JPEG
While raw recovers a little detail at ISO 12800, the JPEGs are quite usable scaled down.
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Color
Sony's color reproduction at the default settings looks relatively neutral.
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Creative Styles
On its defaults, the A7 pushes the saturation a little bit but it doesn't overboost the contrast.
