A7rII is now shipping!
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
The Sony A7rII is climbing the Amazon mirrorless ranking (Click here). And it will keep going up if more reviews like those will be published the coming days:
Lensrentals writes:
If you’ve been waiting for a better alternative to your big, bulky DSLR, this might finally fit the bill. I’ve been hesitant to say that for the a7S, a7R, and the a7 II, even though I love those cameras, but the a7R II, I think this is the one. Try it out ASAP!
Alin Popescu writes:
How much details the new and first full frame BSI CMOS sensor holds? Well, plenty of! I have yet to find anything to not like about the new Sony A7R II. Until then, I’ll go shoot more with this little gem!
Wimarys writes:
The BSI sensor can capture beautiful images with lots of dynamic range and I’m sure it will score top of the list in technical tests. The slow autofocus which plagued the original A7r is completely gone, and this camera is now quick and responsive. With a burst rate at 5 fps and good follow autofocus and an the improved object tracking capabilities, the A7R II can be used in many photographic fields.
German A7rII test at D-Pixx:
Test: http://www.d-pixx.de/2015/08/sony-a7r-ii-1-test/
ISOs: http://www.d-pixx.de/2015/08/sony-a7r-ii-iso-reihe/
Plenty of A7rII owners discussions ongoing on our SonyAlphaForum.
And here is the embedded Youtube video of the A7rII live stream event from Uniquephoto:
A7rII preorder list:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
A7rII case:
Gariz leather case in [shoplink 39113 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39108 ebay]Camel (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39110 ebay]Orange (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39111 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 39112 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink]. Also available on Amazon US (Click here).
Gariz Alcantara case in [shoplink 39094 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 39095 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink]. Also available on Amazon US (Click here).
Lim’s case in [shoplink 39107 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39102 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39103 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39104 ebay]Yellow (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39105 ebay]Navy Blue (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 39106 ebay]Khaki (Click here)[/shoplink]. Also available on Amazon US (Click here).
84 Responses
tomorrow is the day for me. testing against D800 / Nikon.
We know the sensor is superior…
Pleeeeaaaassse compare AF-speed, too
Mine will arrive on Monday. Weekend going to be long. What am I going to do with my a7s?
… send it to me … Thank you !
listen to Cinema5D and sell it
Get rid of it along with your username?
got mine this morning. What an awesome camera. Enjoy everyone.
Everyone? Only those who can justify a $3k+ price tag. Sadly not me.
The first sample pic @ Lensrentals is 1/640s f/2 ISO 800 (with a 90mm lens and 4.5 stop IBIS advantage). Was the bride really moving that fast???
1/400 f/2.8 ISO _800_ w/90mm outdoors? 1/250 f/4 ISO _400_ w/21mm? You gotta be kidding me…
Sony finally has a camera that can seriosly challenge Canikon dominence.
Now they need to follow through and properly market it.
As for future products that should be biult as soon as possible
A 78mp bsi with 12,500 native iso and features similar to the a7rii. But this one should be optimized for still pictures with no compromise made for video.
A 300-600mm f4.8, 5.0 or 5.6 with built in 150mm barrel extender for close up/macro mode and a dedicated 1.8x drop in teleconverter..and even a drop in .6x focal extender if the optics allow it…..to retail in the mid $3000. Range.
This will fall midway between current expensive heavy 600mm f4 primes , and economy 150-600 f6.3 lenses.
The barrel extender and drop in tc will make it highly versatile.
There are currently no really long E mount lenses, and this lens would fill a huge gap in the lens lineup plus no comparable lens currently exists.
Now that people can use competitors lenses having a unique lens like this will give them a reason to choose the Sony lens.
Admin
Next time you do a survey of lenses SAR readers want could you please include this lens in the survey?
“78Mpx BSI” +1.
With the same technology as the a7rii a 78 mp bsi sensor camera would only be 1 stop slower iso than the a7rii.
If technology improves possibly even better.
I expect when/if the new 3d 4 layer stacked bsi sensor is released we will see about 2 stop improvement in both iso and dynamic range as well as a revolutionary improvement in autofocus speed/acuracy.
I am not sure…because the patent is not specific about this..but this new sensor may incorporate quantum thin film…not only would it be highly beneficial because of the multiple layers but it is also possible that quantum thin film would be essential for this new sensor to even work at all.
Well, let’s just hope it won’t cost as a medium format camera 🙂
Will cost like 5DSR, and will have similar 100% crop image quality. But you can improve the IQ by scaling down the resolution!!
I’d only buy a 78mp camera if it came free with a 16Tb NAS drive and 100Gb ethernet connection to shift the files around…
I think a A5000 style camera that has proper easy to use pairing with smartphones (hell, even Sony smartphones alone will work) is needed. Like, proper proper integration. Like, automatic save to smartphone easy.
Allin Popescu’s shots are quite impressive – the 100% crop of the bee taken with the 55mm – wow. And the girls eyelashes and eye detail are terrific. Plus, while I was unsure about the color I was seeing from some of the other early images posted, I’m finally seeing some shots with color that I like. Mine arrives tomorrow – so looking forward to heading out with this new camera.
Cry Canon Cry!
It’s a pity we have to wait this long for the 5Dmk4
https://soundcloud.com/tuanba2308/aliez#t=0:57
My A7rII just arrived. I have to say, the AF is a noticeable improvement over the A7II in good light. Will test low light event AF at a food truck festival this weekend. Lots of little things are improved, it’s better built and wakes from sleep faster. 4k is just, wow.
This new camera was proudly brought to you using 0.5 tonnes of CO2 emissions, hundreds of underpaid Chinese slave workers, 1,5000 kg of water polluted with toxic metals, multiple deaths of illegal underage miners, and several industrial accidents resulting in limb amputation. But the higher resolution and improved dynamic range was well worth it, ENJOY! 🙂
*citation needed*
…written by the moron who’s typing this on a laptop that was built 100 tonnes of CO2 emissions, millions of underpaid Thai slave workers, 1,500,000,000 tons of water polluted with toxic metals, multiple deaths of illegal underage miners, and several industrial accidents resulting in limb amputation.
Your “facts” are wrong. My camera was made in Thailand.
I will enjoy it.
Douchebag.
See for yourself. And the lens is made in Japan dumbass.
Your point is very very valid… but this is the wrong place.
My full frame Canon is really limiting my art. I must have this cam.
My art suffers until 600mm * 400mm ultra large foveon sensor comes out. Then, my photos will stop being garbage
well if you are into videography, your statement might be valid.
Decent rationalization.
OK. where are the small lenses made for BSI sensor?
It was just taking off from a flower, so yea, it was full flight. Check this Flickr folder to see the second frame 100% crop – https://www.flickr.com/photos/alinake/sets/72157654455493044
Sry, wanted to answer to Nikola 🙂
Apparently, M lenses work well.
On the used market
Nice. Is the Popescu`s bee in full flight or hover mode?
Bad news for sports photographers.
Just tested my a7RII, to see if it has improved from a7II with LAEA-3 and 4 adapters.
Regardless if tracking preference is set to “Release” or “AF” priorty…
Regardless if LAEA-3 adapted to Sony SSM lenses…
Regardless if LAEA-4 adapted to Sony/Minolta screw drive lenses…
There is NO AF-TRACKING while in “Continuous High” motor drive setting. AF locks on first frame and never attempts to readjust AF. Can shoot a million photos and it never attempts to track or even refocus. Doesn’t work.
Set camera to “Continuous Low” motor drive setting (about 2fps) and it will track both with LAEA-3 adapted Sony SSM, and LAEA-4 adapted Sony/Minolta screw drive lenses. Seems to track ok, about like a Sony a200 camera. Not nearly as good as a77, a77II, a900, a700, a99.
They didn’t fix it.
This problem was reported back in April on Dyxum concerning a7II and LAEA-4 adapter.
http://www.dyxum.com/dforum/does-your-a7ii-allow-afc-with-high-cont-laea4_topic112363.html
Various users tested their systems with similar to identical results. No AF tracking while in “Continuous High” motor drive.
_________
More bad news…
With LAEA-3 adapted to Sony SSM lenses, the “Flexible Spot” focus area is limited to a perfect square. No far edge spots available.
With LAEA-4 adapted to Sony/Minolta screwdrive lenses, the “Flexible Spot” area is limited to the standard a99, a77 focus area. No extra wide spots available like on a77II. It’s a little smaller than the LAEA-3 focus area with Sony SSM lenses.
While the a7RII is a dramatic improvement over a7II with LAEA-3 and SSM lenses, it’s still not as fast or sure footed, or as quick to react as either camera is with LAEA-4 adapted lenses, SSM or Screwdrive. And that’s not nearly as fast as any of the higher end A-Mount cameras, including the old a900 and a700.
__________
I’ve found other interesting things about a7RII with LAEA adapted lenses. It’s not the best news but I want to do more testing before making final conclusions.
Sports and fast action photographers beware. Your mileage may vary. Your tests may show differently. But so far, I’ve found no E-Mount solution for AF tracking high speed continuous motor that even comes close to a99, a77, a77II, a900, a700.
My God, that video was hard to watch. I know I have the attention span to match that dog in the movie “Up” but the guy on the left was just so long winded and swayed back and forth constantly.
Lensrentals is wrong. I gave up my big dslr’s for the A7 and A7ii for my wedding photography. They have performed to utter perfection and never once have I wanted my traditional dslr’s back. The A7rii is so cool but it is not the first mirrorless wonder.
I agree. I recently shot a wedding where I still used my DSLRs for the portraits and ceremony, but then switched to my a6000 for the reception. It worked beautifully; the pictures came out great, and I saved myself lugging around all that unnecessary weight. It made me think I might need to pick up an A7 body or two for future work, just shoot with them the whole day next time.
The A6000 is incredible and I just shot a University Graduation in a very very dark auditorium with my A7ii. For fun I slapped my A5100 on my 70-200 f4 G lens and I was blown away by the results. I ended up using the A5100 more than my A7ii. As we know the A5100 is a stripped down A6000 and Like I said the results were spectacular. I shot at ISO 3200 and 6400 and the grain structure of the A5100 photos were perfect. That 24MP Sony APSC sensor is truly a marvel. I hope to pick up the A6000 soon. Thanks for your feedback on the A6000!
Why bother with the 6000? The 5100 is plenty good. I’d rather invest in other parts.
I won’t disagree with you, but I’ll say it’s personal preference. I’ve shot extensively with the a7S and a7II on weddings, next to a Nikon D750. There hasn’t been a time where I felt fully comfortable without the D750 until now with the a7RII. There were things about those other bodies that just weren’t quite good enough for me yet, mostly AF. But again, that’s personal preference. They guy I second shoot for uses the Fuji X-T1 and has for a couple years now. And I think the a7II is better than that in many respects.
AF? or lens selection? The A7RII might solve both!
Traditional DSLR is simply an emulation of the film SLR mechanism, from the mirror box and most importantly the shutter to control exposure time.
The true “Solid State” camera body should also remove the shutter mechanism itself completely and go for full electronic global shutter. Mirrorless is the first step of digital camera evolution, full electronic shutter is the true form of digital photography.
As soon as electronic readout is fast enough, the shutter will go away ;)… THe A7R-II is actually a huge step in that direction already.
Which is why the next (and current tbh) RX100/10 should remove the physical shutter. Stacked RS tech FTW.
Totally agree!
There must just be a setting to emulate the shutter sound with internal speakers.
There already is, on all (non) pro cameras. Thinking about that makes me a little bit sad.
doesn’t make me sad – not a little bit. If there is a real global shutter, I don’t need a mechanical one. (cost, weight, durability) And I am sure there is no shuttershock anymore. that’s great!
But sometimes I need this sound to give my models acoustic feedback.
A speaker is better suited than any mechanical thing inside the camera that makes a clap-sound (and shakey my camera)
How is it on Native lenses, like the FE70-200mm?
It works. It was written in a previous review posted by SAR (I don’t remember the reviewer name/blog…). I think it was Steve Huff… :/ Don’t remember…
No AF-tracking with adapters, but works OK with native E mount.
Speaking about bulky – Sony did a good job making A7 series as bulky as mirrorless can be
interesting, RX1 body was recognized as the smallest body that FF mirrorless can be，and if you add tilt screen, EVF, a better grip, and 5 axis stabilization to it, the size would be very close to what A7r2 is right now.
Is there any other company have FF mirrorless smaller than A7？please let me know
as for the lens, I don’t think it was sony’s problem, it was pretty much limited by optical physics, in other words，the lens size is limited by nature.
I should have know to get stupid answers in this forum…
just let me know which part I was wrong, or it will only prove you stupid
The viewfinder-hump adds unnecessary 2.5cm in height.
Adding a flash, it is mounted on the highest position of the camera, making it as high as possible. Hang this combination on your neck, go into a crowded area and you know why it is necessary to save every cm in height.
Even if you claim, you need this extra height in order to have a bigger LCD-screen below, you must agree that A7 has still some unused space between LCD and actual viewfinder. And on top of the viewfinder there is another space needed for hotshoe.
For mirrorless there absolutely no reason to keep a DSLR-viewfinder-hump design. You are free to place the EVF whereever you want. Old rangefinder cameras had the same freedom – and the viewfinder was in the corner. Nobody had the stupid idea to place it on top of the lens in order to look DSLR-like.
BTW: Look at Fuji XT10 – it has a EVF-Dome, but it shows how a dome can be flat.
Your answer was stupid because you claimed that there is no other FF mirrorless that is smaller than A7… BECAUSE THERE IS NO OTHER FF MIRRORLESS AT ALL (RX1 is a high-end P&S)
sony actually explained this design, see the height of RX1, thats the height needed for FF body, so even if sony put EVF on the left, it won’t help in reducing anything, and put hot shoe on top of that, you aware that A7 is a pro line, it will have many long lens with wide shade attach to it, so for on camera flash, the higher the better, I see its a very practical position.
And that was a rhetorical question I asked, A7 so far is the best and only option you have for FF mirrorless,
so it sounds ridiculous when you say bulky FF mirrorless, because if you don’t even have another one to comparison, how do you know its bulky?
what if A7 is the smallest FF mirrorless can be with the limit of today’s technology, how do you know if it can go any smaller?
it will have many long lens with wide shade attach to it, so for on camera flash, the higher the better, I see its a very practical position.
if there is a really long lens – e.g. 400mm or longer I guess the you photograph something really far away. A flash is useless there.
Worstcase lens is maybe 35/f1.4 – Someone who uses a lens big as this for best image quality may like to mount a big flash with some light modifiers on top – there should be no problem with shades. Next thing is that flashes are often used as a bounce flash.
how do you know if it can go any smaller?
I use my brain
Maybe Sony should introduce an A6 with no hotshoe, carbon body, and overall super focus on size/weight reduction.
For $3200 I want the feel of a DSLR! The fact is you can make things smaller, but not without losing something. For that money, I refuse to lose anything.
But you loose a lot with your top of the line DSLRs 🙂 And they cost even more sometimes 🙂
$3200 is right in the ballpark with other pro level DSLRs. It’s whatever you can live with. Since I’m 90% tripod shooter, The bulk is not much of a factor. In fact, I welcome a little less weight to carry around (I use a large Manfrotto carbon tripod and geared head).
I switched from DSLR to NEX years ago.
That others coundn’t do it for whatever reason, I don’t care.
It’s been possible to produce outstanding results since the NEX 7/5n era.
I feel somewhat confussed at the constant publishing titles from people who look for “DSLR quality” or “DSLR capability” and “how I ditched the DSLR” or “Z camera helped me see the light” and “buy this and you’ll never need anything else, ever”
What happened to self confidence and self esteem?
Died somewhere along with “the best camera is the one you have”
Black market must be flooded with kidneys right now.
I tried A7r and A7s, and it’s simply impossible to hold them comfortably in my average size hands. On the other hand, A99 was amazing and it’s ergonomics is one of the best for me. So, some people do not want to have small cameras and rather buy larger DSLRs.
That’s why Sony’s accessory department needs to step it up with more custom grips, flashes, lenses, etc. etc.
I think Sony will keep one foot in updating the a99. Maybe thats the camera for sports shooters and other areas where tradition DSLR excels. I have played around with the a7r at retail locations and it is smaller than I’m use to…but still seemed very good ergonomically. I’m actually renting an A7R (version 1), grip and 16-35 for my local house magazine shoot on Monday (Camera will be here Friday). I’ll be curious how the camera feels with the Grip installed. I’ll probably use my normal Canon set up for the portrait shot (using triggers and flash). Since the portrait shot is the last part of the shoot, I may experiment using the triggers and canon flashes for a portrait using the Sony (and my assistant as the model). If I like my results on Monday and have a good experience, I will order the A7Rii.
I have heard this kind of claim too many times but none of them was true.
All of your issues are alleviated with FE lenses. I’m getting great tracking with the FE 70-200 – it locks on and follows the subject anywhere in the frame, the eye AF is especially impressive. It was widely reported before release that tracking was only functional with FE lenses. Dpreview had videos demonstrating the difference posted a month or so ago.
3200.00 alternative- it’s real! It’s real money that’s for sure. What ever happened to lighting and composition?
Died somewhere along the way of “quality over quantity”
I finally started getting serious into lighting- and thinking about location before going out- yada yada. Changed my life. It’s helping to curb the lens lust as well. Got less gear- never felt better.
If everybody focused all their gear upgrade lust towards photo upgrade lust… the world will be a much better place.
So you can’t light and compose with the A7Rii?
For sure you can! And if you have one you should!
I often forget how blind I am to price since I work at LR. It’s something I overlook all the time when I talk about gear. For the price, I’d still probably get a D750 instead.
Enjoy is directed to all the buyers. Also, we viewers of the results enjoy plenty enough as well at no extra cost!
And Canon lenses, and Nikon lenses, and Sony Alenses, and Minolta lenses, and….
That is unfortunate… Sony! here’s homework for the A7SII
Can you explain to me how numbers work again? I seem to have forgotten how 2000 times 2.5 can equal 3200.