The Sony Alpha NEX-7 ($1,349.99 direct with 18-55mm lens) is the company's top-end mirrorless interchangeable lens camera. Whereas the entry-level NEX-C3 ($649.99, 4.5 stars), our Editors' Choice for under-$1,000 mirrorless cameras, is targeted at point-and-shoot users looking for better image quality, the NEX-7  is a serious tool for photographic enthusiasts. The 24-megapixel NEX-7 includes a built-in electronic viewfinder, a hot shoe, pop-up flash, and a wealth of physical controls. It's a top performer in its class, but is bested by the Olympus OM-D E-M5 ($1,299.99, 5 stars), our Editors' Choice for high-end mirrorless cameras.

Design and Features

The NEX-7 looks like a beefed-up version of the middle child of the NEX series, the NEX-5N ($699.99, 4.5 stars). The NEX-7 measures 2.75 by 4.75 by 1.7 inches (HWD) and weighs 10.3 ounces without a lens. This makes it a bit thicker than the 5N, which measures 2.4 by 4.4 by 1.6 inches and weighs 9.5 ounces. The 5N maintains its slim form factor by omitting a few of the key features of the NEX-7, notably the built-in electronic viewfinder, the hot shoe, the pop-up flash, and the Tri-Nav dials.

Physical controls are one of the NEX-7's strong points, with more buttons and dials than the two lower models in the series. Sony's Tri-Nav system lets you take control of common functions—it consists of the two top dials and the rear Command dial. The functionality of the top dials is determined by your shooting mode—for example, they control Aperture and EV Compensation when shooting in Aperture Priority, and the Shutter Speed and EV Compensation when shooting in Shutter Priority. The rear dial adjusts the camera's ISO in all shooting modes. There are also a few programmable functions—the button in the center of the command dial, the right direction press on the dial, and button at the bottom of the camera can all be customized to suit your shooting style. One sticking point is the location of the Video Recording button. It's placed on the rear thumb grip, and during testing, I repeatedly pressed it accidentally when raising the camera to shoot. This immediately starts rolling video, preventing you from taking a photo, and there's no way to disable the button.

The large, colorful icons that you see when you launch the camera's Menu may seem out of place on a camera with professional aspirations, but it is consistent with other cameras in the NEX series. There's a lot you can configure in this camera, and as you drill down through menus the long lists of text you are greeted with seem to run together. It will take a bit of time to figure out where every setting is hidden, and to configure things to your liking, but once you do, you'll be happy to know that trips into the menu will be infrequent. One physical control that is noticeably absent is the mode dial—you'll need to adjust the shooting mode from the camera's menu. I set the button that is located at the center of the Command dial to take me directly to the screen from which you do this. It's a natural function for it, as you can turn the command dial to go from mode to mode, just as you would with a dedicated physical dial.

The rear 3-inch LCD features a hinged design so you can tilt the screen up or down. Its 921k-dot resolution is superb, and the wide 16:9 aspect ratio makes it possible to show settings on the display without cluttering the Live View image frame. The camera is also the only NEX with a built-in electronic viewfinder. The OLED EVF is the technically identical to the FDAEV1S Electronic Viewfinder ($349.99), an optional add-on for the NEX-5N . It's packed with 2.5 million dots and is very bright, and sharp, with high contrast. The pop-up flash is on a hinged neck, so you can manually position it to bounce light off of a ceiling to add softer light to a scene.

Despite being slightly larger than the next model down in the series, the NEX-7 packs an APS-C image sensor, the same size that is found in consumer D-SLRs—in this case, it's the exact 24-megapixel sensor that is found in our Editors' Choice D-SLR, the Sony Alpha 77 ($1,999.99, 4.5 stars). It's a physically larger sensor than is found in competing mirrorless formats like Micro Four Thirds and the Nikon 1 system. Many enthusiasts use older 35mm camera lenses on mirrorless bodies, and the NEX's larger image sensor lends itself well to this, as the magnification factor for legacy lenses is only 1.5x—compared to 2x for Micro Four Thirds and 2.7x for the Nikon J1 ($649.95, 3.5 stars) and V1.

If you're thinking about buying the camera as a digital back for your older lenses, there is a neat feature called Focus Peaking that should help you nail focus—adapted lenses won't autofocus unless you're using Minolta Maxxum or Sony Alpha glass using the LA-AE1 ($199.99) or LA-AE2 ($399.99) adapter. If you're planning on using older rangefinder lenses that are 28mm or wider, be aware that these designs exhibit serious color shift around the edges. If you're photographing a blue sky, the corners will appear to be magenta, gradually fading into the blue. There's a free program called Cornerfix that will correct for this, but you could also go with the NEX-5N or NEX-C3—the 16-megapixel sensors in those cameras aren't effected by this issue. This is only an issue with rangefinder lenses, which often place the rear element very close to the image sensor—there's no color shift issue when using native Sony E-mount lenses or adapted SLR lenses.