Hi
I have now had the Sony A7RII for 5 days and thought i would comment on what I have found so far. These are my honest opinions only, while using the camera. If you disagree, that’s fine, that’s life! I just hope you have as much fun as I am. I love this camera. I thought i had made a mistake moving over from my Canon a few years ago. But Sony are just getting better and better with both their Cameras and lenses!
The plus points:
- High ISO shows amazing low noise and quality of detail. Low light photography is really nice.
- 42MP Sensor shows amazing details, colour and sharpness. The image quality is far better than any camera i have ever owned.
- The silent shutter mode is awesome! And i will use it a lot.
- The shutter is much better than any of the other A7’s. Vibration is very well handled.
- Steady shot built in stabilization is in my opinion better than my A7II. But that could be the sensor handling low light so much better.
- Auto focus is insane and i mean fast! Even in low light.
- The camera body is really nice, feels good in my grip and is very solid.
- Auto bracketing now supports 9 shots, which is Mad for HDR but welcome.
- The dial lock on the functions dial, i used to catch this a lot. Now it has a center button lock!
- 4K video looks fantastic, even low light recording.
- Battery life seems a little better, but not much.
- Focus tracking is very fast. (I walked around taking photos with both A7II and A7RII, leaving the cameras on while walking. The A7RII seems to have a more efficient hibernation impact on the batteries. As the battery on the A7RII lasted longer but got the same use. I used it for an additional 30 minutes after changing the battery on the A7II. And took around 50 more shots.
- Very stable. I have had issues with my A7II, but the A7RII has had no issues freezing up or showing errors.
- Auto switching between electronic eye piece and the screen. This has infuriated me with the A7II. Constantly not jumping back to the screen. But it works without fault so far on the A7RII.
(while out yesterday, I had the same issues with this on the A7II, while the A7RII did not display the bug once. Infant I kept trying to replicate it) I want to highlight this as i have had comments stating i am wrong and the system in both is the same. That maybe. But i am reporting on real world usage with the camera in my hands. This is not an opinion but the result of testing the side by side in the same conditions. This has driven me bonkers with the A7II, so i would certainly be complaining if it was the same with the A7RII!
(new update regarding the View finder switching. It has happened recently when i have been wearing a new very dark coat. So the black of the coat stops me from viewing the screen. Very annoying but i can understand why. I will have to get a new coat 😉
- I can use my Sony 70-200 G lens. And every shot is sharp!!! This makes me so happy as i nearly sold it a few months ago. But I love this lens.
- Adobe support the Raw files from day one in Photoshop and light room!!!! Never had this before. Great Job Adobe! When the A7R came out, i had to wait weeks. Or at least it felt like weeks.
Negatives:
- The weight! The camera is a little on the heavy side. But not much difference than the A7II.
- I had a couple of issues with Focus tracking when other things move through the frame.
- My wife won’t let me bring it to bed 😉 and it’s not very comfortable to spoon…
- I need to spend more money on a bigger Storage device!
Addition
- Another issues is that the A7RII highlights weaknesses in lenses more. the 16-35mm Zeiss lenses shows more distortion in the edges at 16mm than i noticed before. Even after applying a lens correction profile. But my 55mm and 35mm primes give an outstanding image. Don’t get me wrong here. The lenses are still great especially the 16-35mm. But pixel peaking i perceive more distortion at the edges. And perception is reality!
- As i said about the storage, each raw file is around 43mb.
- At times it seems to start up a little slower than the A7II.
- A new issue. Using the LA-EA4 adapter i had low light auto focus issues. Mainly because the little red LED that assists the AF is not engaged when the adapter is connected.
NEW UPDATE
I have been asked a lot of question regarding HDR, Auto bracketing setting on the 9 frames.
The max for the 9 frames is 1.0EV9.
After 1.0, it’s 3 and 5 frames up to 3.0.
OK one very big complaint!
I put the camera into sports mode to take some photos of my kids on a swing. The burst shooting was good for the first 15-20 shots. After that I could not take any more shots for around 20 seconds or so. The red light was on and it was writing to my card. So in Raw and even with a fast card, you are very limited with sports shooting. And there is a very real chance of missing those important sports moments.
“New observations”
Ok, so i have been using my Sony A7RII for over a month now.
Yes i still love it. It’s easily the best camera i have ever had. I’ve read that some lenses like the 50mm Zeiss is not as great as with the A7II. Thats not what i am finding! And i have had both cameras.
- I still struggle with the menu system.
- The A lenses don’t focus that fast with the LAE4 adapter.
- The built in stabilisation is very reliable.
- Image quality is epic!
- Handling is sweet in the hand, i don’t have very big hands mind you!
- Now that i have a fester SD, the buffer issue is not as bad. But still not DSLR!
- Now that 14bit raw is coming, lets hope it is lossless Raw and not compressed lossless. (which makes no sense to me and is a contradiction.)
So after a month, would i recommend this camera!
The answer is a very honest…YES!!!!!! I put my foot down, no other camera in my kit bag.
It is a truly remarkable piece of kit! I love it in most ways. Is it perfect? No! No camera is. But it has so many strengths. It’s good in so many aspects. Sony’s lenses are so sharp and awesome and complimentary to this camera. I can’t help but feel excited to shoot with it. And this camera as really added to my Joy.
Rickyban Photography 