The Canon 5D MkII comparison shot was at exactly the same exposure settings and ISO. The lens used was the Canon 100mm f2.8 EF Macro; the self-timer was used. Focus point was identical according to the camera AF and visual confirmation. When using the Canon and macro lens, I was not able in any photographs to obtain exactly the same level of sharpness as the old Minolta lens produced on the Sony. Much the same applies to tests made on the Nikon DX3 with 105mm VR Nikkor (this shot was not repeated as the Nikon was not delivered yet).

The Canon ACR defaults with no exposure adjustment required a -0.4 stop adjustment from the Sony to match highlight and shadow clipping limits. Some manipulation of brightness, contrast, black point was needed to get a fair match between Canon and Sony. However, later testing using a linear conversion and identical parameters showed that the Canon ISO 100 in terms of true sensitivity is higher than the Sony - the camera simply handles midtone gain very differently. If the Sony raw file is converted using similar parameters to the Canon, it would have a relative speed of ISO 64, but differences in blackpoint and highlight headroom negate any strict comparison.

As can be seen, both cameras can be made to produce a very similar result. At ISO 100, supposedly an over-exposed setting (saturated) on the Sony, both cameras have a similar highlight headroom and Sony just a little more detail in the denser shadows.