Sony NEX-7 Flash

Coverage and Range
A weak flash with narrow coverage at wide-angle. EV compensation had little to no effect on flash exposures, so our standard shot is a bit dark.

Coverage. Flash coverage was quite uneven at wide-angle (18mm), leaving very dark corners in our flash coverage test image. Narrow coverage at wide-angle isn't unusual, though, and some of the corner darkening is likely from the lens itself. Coverage was much more uniform at telephoto (55mm), though exposure is much darker.

Exposure. Our Indoor Portrait test scene was dim even with +1.0 EV flash exposure compensation at ISO 100, and adjusting the flash exposure compensation had little to no effect on brightness here. That's no surprise given the size of the flash, though. We'd recommend boosting ISO to help with the flash's range for scenes like this (or using an external flash). The camera's Slow-Sync flash mode produced a much brighter image at the default setting, though with a stronger orange cast from the room lighting from the longer exposure.

ISO 100 Range. With the 18-55mm kit lens, flash exposure started out bright at 6 feet at wide-angle and slowly decreased in brightness out to 16 feet. We'd say the usable range is 7 to 8 feet.  At full telephoto, flash exposure was already a little dark at 6 feet, and only continued to decrease in brightness from that point on.

Manufacturer Specified Flash Test. The Sony NEX-7's built in flash is rated with a Guide Number of 6m at ISO 100. In the shots above, the NEX-7 performs as Sony says it will, producing bright exposures at the rated distances with its ISO set to 100 at both wide-angle and telephoto. Our standard test method for flash range uses a fixed setting of ISO 100, to provide a fair basis of comparison between cameras. We've now also begun shooting two shots using the manufacturer-specified camera settings, at the range the company claims for the camera, to assess the validity of the