I'm not sure what people are smoking on Sony forums around the internet. The only "innovation" I see from Sony in this case is putting a 35mm sensor in a small body, and:
- To get a complete A7 camera, I would need three bodies, one with premium video and good high ISO, one with IBIS and usable AF and one with high resolution. Still my D810 is probably a more capable camera than the sum of the three, but it lacks IBIS and the option of 4K.
- Two of those bodies have the nosiest shutter since... can't remember.
- IBIS is not a Sony innovation but something that came with Minolta. Olympus has had 5-axis IBIS for more than a year.
- None of those bodies have in-body 4K, one can record 4K with an external recorder. Panasonic offer in-body 4K with three bodies, one of which is nearly pocketable.
- The A7s has great high ISO, but Nikon offers at least four bodies that are less than one stop behind when reduced to 12MP (D750, D810, D4s and Df).
- Ergonomics are partly a matter of taste, but it's difficult to understand why Sony only figured things out after releasing three versions of the A7, particularly when they have been producing DSLR cameras with rather good ergonomics for around 10 years.
While the A7 bodies are nice, mostly because of their size and the ability to mount any old lens on a full frame sensor, Sony is definitely not in a class of its own when it comes to innovation. That is something they would have to share with Samsung, Olympus and Panasonic. Sony would undoubtedly win the prize for the most inconsistent model policy though. The camera manufacturer that impresses me most at the moment is Nikon. While they present technology in a very traditional package, their recent cameras are packed with great ideas and stand out as extremely usable tools for any kind of photography. Their DSLR cameras have come a long way since the D700, and sometimes I wonder if there has been more useful innovation going on the last five years in those camera bodies than in the mirrorless world.
Sorry for the rant. I would still like an A7something, but complete cameras they are not.