Reminder: A7II now in Stock at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto and Sony US and Digitalrev.
Dennis Biela posted the video you see on top with the following comment:
Sony loaned me a production a7II camera for a upcoming photo shoot and in testing out the camera I found that it has a huge image buffer. If you shoot in jpg fine and use a fast SD card like Sony’s new high speed SDXC memory cards you will not fill the buffer to the limit and can shoot continuously at 5 frames per sec. all day. In the video I only stopped shooting so not to bore people. As to raw files they are different you can shoot up to 25ish images still a respectable amount. Another interesting fact is the camera does not have a high speed mode like the a77II meaning that you can shoot at 5 fps at what ever f-stop you want unlike some cameras where shooting at high speed means you shoot at the maximum lens opening. 5 fps is not extremely fast like 12 or 8 but with the fact that you can keep shooting for a long duration of images and the camera can track focus at this speed I feel its a big leap for the a7 class of mirrorless cameras.
Allin Popescu (Click here) wrote a very detailed A7II test with many samples and videos. His findings on the 5 axis system and autofocus are:
To conclude on the stabilisation subject, I must say that 5 axis IBIS in Sony a7II works best on wide to medium focal lengths, but looses its effectiveness while you go towards tele zone (over 135-180 mm and beyond). At those focals, any simple movement translates to long jumps over the image sensor, and it’s movement to compensate for it it’s limited to millimetres. That’s why, for tele lenses, the best system is the Optical Stabilisation.
I tell you that this new model behaves excellently at focusing, much better than it’s older brother, especially in low light.
Paul Gero (Click here) writes:
I have been testing this camera and as you can see from the photographs below being able to shoot handheld at 1/4 of a second with a 200mm focal length is pretty impressive. As long as your subject is stable, then sharp photographs are now possible in what we jokingly referred to as the “Hail Mary” range of light (hold your breath, dig your elbows into your body and say a prayer before you shoot at a slow shutter speed shot — thank you Bill Allard for that description).
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USA/Canada A7II links:
Sony Alpha a7II (Body Only) for $1,698 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore and Sony Store Canada.
Sony Alpha a7II with FE 28-70mm OSS Lens for $1,998 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore.
Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G SSM II Lens for $1,148 at BHphoto.
EU A7II links:
Sony Alpha a7II (Body Only) for 1.799 Euro at Sony Germany, Sony UK, Jessops UK, Sony France, Sony Italy, Sony Spain, Sony Austria, Sony Switzerland, Sony Netherland, Sony Belgium, Sony Portugal, Sony Sweden, Sony Finland, Sony Norway.
Sony Alpha a7II with FE 28-70mm OSS Lens for 2.099 Euro at Amazon Germany, Wex UK, Jessops UK, Verkkokauppa.
Asian/Australia A7II link:
Sony A7II at Sony Store Australia, Digitalrev and Amazon Japan.
50 Responses
1st spam
LOL
Popescus’s finding: “To conclude on the stabilisation subject, I must say that 5 axis IBIS in Sony a7II works best on wide to medium focal lenghts, but looses its effectiveness while you go towards tele zone (over 135-180 mm and beyond). At those focals, any simple movement translates to long jumps over the image sensor, and it’s (its… ) movement to compensate for it it’s limited to millimeters, That’s why, for tele lenses, the best system is the Optical Stabilisation”.
I’d really like to see a real comparison about this claim, not a few seconds of video without a “side by side” test; it’s not that the “in lens system” is free to move centimeters instead of millimeters.
Gero’s finding: “I have been testing this camera and as you can see from the photographs below being able to shoot handheld at 1/4 of a second with a 200mm focal lenght is pretty impressive”.
So, guys, who’s the right one?
Sony’s has changed the shutter position and now it’s not “awkward” anymore, but “what I found annoying, is the shutter button. Not its position, which is a plus, but the way you press on it, the feeling you have doing so”… oh, good God.. never happy. Okay: he says it might be because of the camera being a pre-production, but c’mon…
I read this and remember what the guys at CameraStoreTV said and, again: who’s got it right?
You can take 100 shots at low shutter at 200mm. You only need to get one sharp one, post it in a review and say it can be done either in support of IBIS or to argue against it (noobs! I don’t need no IS).
The one with the pictures is right.
That’s what I thought as well.
Do the test as it should be done… damn it! LOL
Popescu’s tele test was done on the Pentacon 200mm f/4.0, so it would only have had 3 axis ibis.
This is another ridiculous shutter test: Who will carry around a big table = resonant body when he takes images? Normally you keep your camera in your hands when you take images. When doing so even the A7r is a pretty silent camera compared to 5D or such. Admin, please prevent us from such idiots.
It’s useful for me because for A6000, it actually moves after each shot because of the strong shutter.
absurd
Not kidding you, I was gonna do a timelapse in an airport and it became more of a hyperlapse LOL
Only this is not a shutter sound test but to show that is has a huge memory buffer
Admin please save us from internet fools that don’t make an effort to read video descriptions.
this…
I tried it out in the Hong Kong Sony Style store today. They have 2 A7II there, one with the FE55 and another I can’t quite remember, I think it was FE1635?
The body feels amazing to hold, heavier but more solid as well, the whole combo with the FE55 is light.
The button layouts are far better, out of the whole body, I only dislike the dials.
The IBIS is a bit ineffective for my testing, granted I was trying to exaggerate my movement and a slow shutter (I think it was 1/15).
That being said, it clearly is working, I am sure the image would have been a lot worse without the IBIS.
The shutter is louder than A7 imo, but I think one of the A7II may had some issue as it was much louder than the other one.
Someone could have turned EFCS off, that sort of thing happens on demo units all the time.
That was the first thing I checked after noticing the difference but it was on. It might have been some kids breaking it since it has some spring bouncing sound as well
Yeah, my brother was sending me pics of the A7II from Japan. Said he thought it was way better feeling than the A7. He thought it was all plastic, but even though it’s a bit heavier felt much better. I’ll wait for it to drop 400 in the next 6 months.
there is also this test of A7II IQ and comparison with A7, A7s and D750:
http://www.focus-numerique.com/test-2080/compact-a-objectifs-interchangeables-sony-a7-ii-bruit-electronique-12.html
… and it is not a test from a bloddy Sony artisan …
That continuous shutter sounds like an F250-truck diesel engine 🙂
LOL…
Well, when you put a camera on a damn table that’s what you get.
Any camera sounds awful when you take a video with a mic close to it and/or on a “hollow” object that might work as resonance chamber.
I agree, it’s resonance from the table and not the camera’s fault – it’s just funny how the video sounds like a diesel engine.
This is the 2nd review I’ve seen that’s done a table test. It’s almost like they’re going out of their way to exaggerate the noise…
The good news is tests from people who’ve used the a7 suggest that the shutter is quieter (which makes sense as I’d expect the new body design to dampen the noise better than the original)
I call these “tests” (big word for something so lousy) about shutter sounds (for any camera) “click bait”.
They hope to earn something from YouTube.
On top: we’re talking about a camera.
The only one “silent” is the SLT, all the others are noisy on a higher or lower level.
Please, “testers” and “reviewers”, let give us a break.
I’m personally pretty tired about “how the shutter sound, because I’m a pro and it disturbs in the church…”… ok… keep up with the good work.
WTH… 😀
RX1 is pretty damn quite as well… (forgot)
His next test demo will be on a snare drum.
The stand out thing for me in Popescu’s review was “Sony a7II does a great job in choosing the right exposure every time when you are in Aperture Priority mode and have Auto ISO activated. The exposure time is set based on the inverse of the in-use focal length (not anymore the so annoying 1/60th of a second), considering you are within the limits of the Auto ISO (minimum or maximum).” looks like they’re listening to feedback!
Good news if it’s true! Can’t believe nobody noticed that to date.
It’s a pretty good test of how familiar the reviewer is with Sony’s systems. If they haven’t used auto ISO before, they won’t know about the 1/60 love affair.
Thank you Andrew. Yes, I’m pretty familiar with the Sony’s cameras, and this was a thing that bothered me a lot before :). To my surprise, I saw that fixed in the new model
It’s great news for me – the a7’s iso performance is more than good enough for it to be a very useful feature, especially with my 35/2.8.
This is huge for me as I shoot AP most of the time, definitely a worthy improvement.
Yes, it has a shutter. We get it.
You fail.
That has to be the dumbest video ever.
That has to be the dumbest comment ever.
no it really was a dumb video, all that was needed was to say that the camera can shoot all day and never its buffer. you don’t need a stupid shutter wasting video to make that point.
it’s much the same as showing off image quality with a video, utterly stupid.
whats up with a7000 ?
I want the A7000 II with SS. 🙂
Camaro SS?
Camaro SteadyShot. Get with the times.
Great consistent “reviews”: longer lenses do not profit from stabilisation, longer lenses profit immensely. LOL.
And the A77II forces the aperture when shooting bursts… Maybe the A77IIIIIIIIIIII will fix this very basic bug…
I repeat my advice to all newbies: keep your fingers off Sony consumer cameras.
Yeah ok, we should all sell our Sony gear, and revert back to our old antiquated Nikon and Canon bodies.
Mate, IMO the Sony stuff is light years ahead of the rest, Period.
J
Not so, judging from the results. It may be the system or the incompetent photogs using it, but I mostly see pretty crappy pics taken with Sonys.
Sounds credible, but…
Nonsense about loosing effectiveness after 135mm. It’s crazy effective, almost hard to believe. Shot yesterday just for fun the Zeiss 135 APO @ 1/10s and got a sharp result.
A bit fatigued with all these new alpha bodies (4 in total so far) but with only 6.5 FE lenses… Need more FE lenses, esp. Tele primes, and sooner… There are money to be make with them, come on, Sony!
Need more affordable ones too.
Need 14-35mm f2.8 and 24-70 f2.8. Or preferably 1.8 if that’s possible