Hands-On with A7r mark II / A7rII autofocus with E-Mount and A-Mount lenses
A7rII and new RX preorders:
You can now preorder the new Sony cameras in US stores. Click on the store name to place your order and be among the first to get the camera in early August:
A7rII at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
RX10m2 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
RX100m4 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at:
A7rII at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m4 at DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m2 at DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at:
A7rII at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX10m2 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX100m4 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
A7rII Autofocus tests:
These are three new videos made to show the autofocus performance of the new A7rII. Sony still didn’t allow journalists to record videos on their SD cards so we have to wait a couple of weeks more before to see real more “scientific” tests.
Sony A7R II + LA-EA3 + 70-300mm SSM (A-mount)
Sony A7R II + Metabones Smart Adapter + Canon EF 40mm f/2.8 STM
Store links:
In USA:
A7rII at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Uniquephoto.
RX10m2 at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Uniquephoto.
RX100m4 at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here), Uniquephoto.
In Europe at:
A7rII at Sony DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m4 at DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m2 at DE, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at:
A7rII at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX10m2 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX100m4 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
49 Responses
Not bad at all. Very encouraging results !
Encouraging? I guess if you if you shoot slow moving and/or still targets it would work okay.
With DSLR lenses the AF clearly hunts, and I can see the reliance on contrast-detect AF making it look very much like an old school point and shoot. Definitely no match for A99/A77II.
It’s clear from this video that shooting sports with A7RII would be an absolute disaster, so unfortunately I can’t even consider this body.
Chillax. Let’s get accuracy and workability down first, and we’ll get speed in due time. And don’t forget these are with third party adapters that bridge two companies that don’t want to directly cooperate.
Did you even watch? The first example was with a Sony 70-300 G2 mounted with Sony adapter. Huge disappointment on the A-mount compatibility front, and I’m definitely not sold.
Well, this is definitely not a sports camera for sure. It looks good enough with LAEA3. Problem is…as in the video…that 70-300 G2 is SSMII and about 1200.00. There are only a few SSMII lenses from Sony if you want that speed. SSMI- not to many either. I only have on non A mount screw drive lens- the 50mm Zeiss. I’m more so hoping we’ll get a new adapter. This is a bigger selling point for Canon shooters than A mount users unfortunately.
From what I understand, the Sony Zeiss Planar 50mm 1.4 ZA SSM actually was the first lens to feature the newer SSM II spec. The 500mm F4 G SSM also uses the SSM II. There’s also now the 24-70/2.8 ZA SSM II, 16-35/2.8 ZA SSM II, 70-200/2.8 G SSM II, 70-300 G SSM II, 70-400 G SSM II and 300 F2.8 G SSM II. That’s a pretty decent selection, if you ask me. Don’t forget the 1.4x TC and 2x TC feature full AF support with the 70-200/2.8 G SSM II and 300/2.8 G SSM II for even greater flexibility & reach!
I think at Sony they focus more on Canon then on A-mount lately. But My f ears have been confirmed AF is better as 1. Series but nothing near Native A-mount. I wait for the September announcement!!
if you really want a sport camera you won’t be oki with 5 fps… SO this is not the camera for that thing, and you re right it’s still missing in a7 series.
Yes, there’s that too!
lool let’s just hope we can focus on kids moving or cat maybe not fury cat ^^ . Otherwise this camera is really sexy!
For shooting children on the mirrorless front, you’d be far better off with A6000.
why the a6000 would be faster? I was thinking to get one as a second camera but the a7r2 should be faster, no?
Absolutely not! A6000 is a Sony 4DAF camera optimized for speed. It’s still not quite built for sports like Sony’s SLT A-mount offering, A77II, but it’s definitely the fastest Sony offering for E-mount so far with a OSPDAF array covering over 90% of the frame and a burst of 11 FPS.
oki good to know! thx
A7RII would be faster with the Metabones adapter or EA1/EA3 – but with native lenses, the A6000 is currently the AF king.
My impressions is a6000 with native lenses would beat all a7rII lens options, maybe except for la ea4+ speedy a-mount offerings.
Its still a 400% improvement over pure contrast detect which to me is a pretty big thing.
Good, but what i am interested in is tracking AF-C. For a subject that don`t move, i dont mind if it needs 3 seconds to focus. I dont even mind to focus it manually. I`d like to see some fast tracking there.
True. AF-C is the weak point for OSPDAF though. Let’s hope Sony can improve it.
I feel like it will be a while before mirrorless cameras can really compete at the level that DSLR’s are at in terms of AF. But every day is a day closer to that!
A fine thing … Dos anybody know about such an adapter (w/ Exif, Auto-exposure & Autofocus) for Nikon G lenses? (I’d really appreciate such a beast). Thx for your efforts, Hubert
question Please correct me if i am wrong: LEA3 is for Amount lenses that have SSM motors. All my old Minolta lenses are the old screw drive AF so I need the LEA4 adaptor. But it has a mirror assembly so wont i be able to use the new on sensor PDAF???
You are correct, screw drive lens’s need the laea4 (or the laea2 for apsc). Many people are hoping sony will make a laea5 that also incorporates screw drive, will have to wait and see I guess.
Yes, at this moment, you are correct.
The EA4 adapter with SLT mirror, although it is 5 years old PDAF module from entry DSLR, but it focus lots faster, accurate & more reliable than the OSPDAF with EA3.
So, yes , you may lost 1/3~1/2 EV light, but you get better auto focus.
The first video at 5min, you can see that the a-mounts lens keep hunting & could not lock the focus with the EA3, as OSPDAF point are so small, it will always have problem when focusing at indoor light condition.
I agree — you can see the contrast detection hunting for a target before the OSPDAF kicks in, and this is shooting almost still subjects. Can you imaging shooting soccer with this, or even worse — pro cycling? It would be an absolute disaster!
Watching this video, I am absolutely 100% confident we will see a new pro SLT full frame body in a few months!
With hybrid AF, the OSPDAF actually kicks in first, and contrast detect refines the final stage of focus, so you’re actually seeing the phase detect system hunting. The first video had subjects that were heavily back-lit….the subjects were basically silhouettes in the LCD. Even my 5DIII would hunt trying to focus on something like that
Does it matter which kicks in first? I honestly don’t care. What does matter is that AF is visibly slower than my A77II or even aging A99. Look, this is still a huge leap forward vs. A7R, but it’s absolutely no replacement for A-mount SLT cameras.
However, for still life work, landscapes & portraits this camera will be an amazing choice!
Of course, for still life, you don’t use AF. Unless I’m the only one that doesn’t.
That was EXACTLY the point I was trying to make, and why I listed that first! LOL
If you want to do sport, you buy a proper lens.
Excuse me? Did you miss that it’s a 70-300 G2 mounted in the first video? That lens is only “slow” in terms of aperture. Sony’s SSM II lenses AF speed are lightning fast on A77II, and I’m speaking from experience as I own almost all of them.
Correction. A proper lens for the camera.
Unfortunately, they don’t have a “proper” native lens for sports in that system — the closest being the 70-200 F4. This is their first attempt at making the system modular from E-mount compacts to full-sized A-mount so all Sony SSM lenses work as native lenses. It’s an admirable attempt, and a huge leap forward, but we clearly aren’t quite there yet. I certainly wouldn’t reach for this camera as for any of my current work. For most of you on here, however, you will likely get by just fine.
No such adapter currently exists.
Looks quite good to me. I think Sony has spent quite a bit of time and money to make the conversion to the E Mount easier. So now apart from the billions of vintage legacy lenses that were available, now there is another billion Canon EF lenses. Way to Go!!!!
and now ALL of them will have image stabilization!
Absolutely!!!!
It looks like an end of an era…a beginning of a new one.
It’s coming. Will be out in 1 months. Check http://xjrumo.com/2015/06/06/new-adaptor/
what a mission with adapters..
My speculations about A7mk2:
Its possible very possible that it has a BSI sensor from 12 to 16 Mpx with 5axis IIBIS.
12 mpx would be awesome, one more stop of light improvement, usable 51.200 ISO extended to 1million ISO.
16 mpx would be awesome too because of the oversampling and crop modes with fullsensor read out.
Hoping for the 399 phase af, but i don’t think it will be, i guess it need higher mpx to mask the af points(don’t know for sure) with 16mpx this seems more believeable.
High frame rate will come i guess at least 1080p 120p.
The bigger EVF will.
Hoping for 10 bit video output, but probably not, because of the FS7.
And touch screen! A very interesting feature for a video oriented camera.
This will be my camera A7S mk2.
Plase USB 3 or 3.1 sony.
By the interview it looks like it must at least do 4K in Super 35 mode, so it’s just a matter of scaling up to fullframe.
And they won’t put a USB 3 until the type-C became the standard, that micro USB 3.0 connector is a abomination.
A great as it is to see Sony working to get people using competitor lenses on their product, and the bodies are very good products, but Sony lenses are just still way short.
300,400,500,600mm lenses are all missing for E mount. Who wants to buy a mirrorless body with IBIS, then run an adaptor, and then run a larger than necessary lens on the camera? The whole point is to reduce weight, and by going mirrorless with IBIS you should be able to put smaller lenses on the body.
If you are a current Nikon or canon user, and you switch bodies but still use your heavy 70-200, 300mm+ lenses, you’re a mug
Doesn’t the large lens size have more to do with being in Full Frame versus being mirrorless? Like if Sony decided to make a long lens with the same F-stop as one of the large Canon/Nikon lenses wouldn’t they be the same size (i.e. the glass would need to be the same to pull in the light).
My understanding was that using cropped sensors (m43/APS-C) was the way to reduce lens size with equivalent focal lengths, I though Mirrorless just reduced the camera size but I don’t know.
Short flange distance gives you an advantage in short focal length – these lenses have to be specially designed for SLRs (look up: retrofocus lens design).
While this is not theoretically true, you can notice that the simplest (smallest while maintaining good quality) lenses often have focal length close to flange distance. 🙂
So back to mirrorless: wide angle lenses can be smaller.
Tele lenses won’t. In these lenses the last optical element is already far from the mount, so shorter flange distance is no advantage.
What gives you an advantage is the idea behind a7 itself and Sony approach, not the mirrorless itself:
– IBIS,
– electronic focusing (or even zooming, which is even worse…),
– often very visible sacrifice of corner quality,
– no distance scale
et cetera.
All this helps keep the size and weight low.
Looks painfully slow to autofocus with Canon but slow is better than none at all I guess. I use a lot of manual focus Nikon lenses on my A7II. At the right price something like this that would let me use autofocus lenses too wouldn’t be bad.
Now I want this in APS-C so that I can use my A6000 with LA-EA1 and SSM lenses with normal speed AF.
A7sMK2, sorry for that mistake.
It will be quite interesting to see if any manufacturer will create an adapter that’s actually tuned to the new Sony sensor and focusing abilities. Then the focusing might get even faster, or am i missing something?
what’s with the glasses dude???