A7RII initial thoughts and images

[Quentin]

My new A7RII arrived yesterday lunchtime.

Here are a few of the first images from it, all taken with the 16-35mm F/4 which arrived at my office at the same time.



Bank Reflections





a super high ISO 102,400 shot, with some Luminance NR in ACR



Thoughts:

1.  Much faster AF

2.  Quite a "creamy" lowish contrast out of camera rendition with RAW files.   Spookily low noise in shadow areas, good highlight recovery

3.  I'm not a fan of the boxy shape camera body, but I can live with that for the image quality.

4.  One camera to rule them all?   it just might be.

Quentin

[michael]

Thanks for the initial impressions.

I will be attending a Sony launch event on the West Coast this coming week and shooting extensively with the A7RII there, and then will be shooting for a further five days in The Palouse area of Washington state. Chris and Kevin will be joining me for this shoot.

I expect to have an in-depth report here afterwards as well as some video on my field impressions.

We have both new Zeiss Batis lenses to work with as well.

Michael

[MatthewCromer]

Always really appreciate your reviews Michael. Looking forward to reading your thoughts on the A7R2.

Quentin, would love to see some well-processed, super high DR shots if you get the chance.

[Quentin]

Michael

That's good to hear.  I'm particularity interested in how the Batis lenses fare on the A7RII.  Could be a match made in photograph heaven.

I hope to do more tests with the kit I have this weekend.

Thanks for the initial impressions.

I will be attending a Sony launch event on the West Coast this coming week and shooting extensively with the A7RII there, and then will be shooting for a further five days in The Palouse area of Washington state. Chris and Kevin will be joining me for this shoot.

I expect to have an in-depth report here afterwards as well as some video on my field impressions.

We have both new Zeiss Batis lenses to work with as well.

Michael

[Quentin]

Quentin, would love to see some well-processed, super high DR shots if you get the chance.

I'm on it 

[eronald]

This looks to be a game changer, of great interest to many will be how well the A7RII interoperates with existing lenses from Sony's new third-party lens manufacturers Canon and Nikon  

Edmund

[nma]

Very exciting! Thanks for posting. Care to comment more on the super high iso image? To my eye, the sky and roof shadows seem to be full of nasties, despite NR. ISO 100,000 seems super high but its "just" about 1.5 stops better than most modern cameras can pull off. Of course this is still admirable performance but I would appreciate more examples of this type, just to see what is possible in real world shooting.

[Tony Jay]

If the AF works well with super telephoto lens from Canon (via an adaptor of course) such that it can be usefully used for bird and wildlife photography then it will get my dollar vote!

Tony Jay

[eronald]

If the AF works well with super telephoto lens from Canon (via an adaptor of course) such that it can be usefully used for bird and wildlife photography then it will get my dollar vote!

Tony Jay

I wouldn't expect real time object tracking. Canon and Nikon invested hundreds of engineer years into that.
Face tracking will probably well work because Sony has a lot of experience with video.

Edmund

[Tony Jay]

I wouldn't expect real time object tracking. Canon and Nikon invested hundreds of engineer years into that.
Face tracking will probably well work because Sony has a lot of experience with video.

Edmund

You may be right Edmund, however lets see how this body actually behaves in the hands of real-world users.
We may be pleasantly surprised or we may be disappointed - who knows.

Tony Jay

[uaiomex]

Yes, I would certainly enjoy an A7rII review with Michael style!
Only thing, that would most likely be the fall of my last defense from buying this toy.
Eduardo

Always really appreciate your reviews Michael. Looking forward to reading your thoughts on the A7R2.

Quentin, would love to see some well-processed, super high DR shots if you get the chance.

[eronald]

Yes, I would certainly enjoy an A7rII review with Michael style!
Only thing, that would most likely be the fall of my last defense from buying this toy.
Eduardo

Poverty is my defense

Edmund

[uaiomex]

Edmund, you have too many toys anyway! 

Poverty is my defense

Edmund

[shadowblade]

I'm not expecting world-class AF and tracking - after all, this isn't Sony's fully pro-oriented body. We're still waiting on the A8/A9.

But if it can do better using Canon lenses than the 5D2 (or any other camera using Canon's traditional 9-point system) that in itself would be a significant achievement, and make it usable for almost all purposes besides action photography.

[adias]

It would be interesting to compare the Sony A7RII to the EOS 5DSR and do it with real life photographic scenes not extreme single-shot HDR exercises. Although good the Sony sensors are, to my eye they lack the Canon realistic look and color. I would not mind to be proven wrong.

[shadowblade]

It would be interesting to compare the Sony A7RII to the EOS 5DSR and do it with real life photographic scenes not extreme single-shot HDR exercises. Although good the Sony sensors are, to my eye they lack the Canon realistic look and color. I would not mind to be proven wrong.

They both look equally realistic to me. Canon tends towards warm and Sony/Nikon towards cool.

And, in high-contrast situations (i.e. almost every landscape shot) there's no contest. When I look at a landscape, I see detail in the sky, as well as detail on the ground and in the deep shadows. Unlike Canon sensors, I don't see a blown-out sky or black, detailless shadows. Sony/Nikon sensors can capture that in one shot. Canon sensors require some sort of HDR technique (whether using HDR software, blended images or filters).

[adrian tyler]

i picked up my a7r II yesterday and in terms of image quality what i have seen so far it is a significant step forwards form the '35mm' digital cameras i've used (d3, d3x, leica m9, fuji x100, sony a7 II, sony rx1, d800 & d800e,) i think we can expect some very positive reviews from people like michael in the next few weeks.
the raw files are unreadabe with my current version of acr, can anyone confirm this? (weird becase my a7 II files are fine) but judging by the jpgs i shot last night of the local town band playing at night in the street lit by little more than a full moon and street lighting this thing focusses & stabalises really well and produces night-time results like i have never seen before, they seem to be easily usable up to 6400 asa. i was using the zony 55mm lens.
same goes for the detail and 'believability' of these jpgs, the daylight shots i've taken truly 'pop,' and the 42mp detail is great!
sorry i can't post images, i have no wifi network where, but i'm sure all the pro reviewers will fire up plenty soon!
www.adriantyler.net

[Quentin]

The latest ACR will decode A7RII files

I'm probably the world's worst camera tester, because I tend not to test those features I'm not that bothered about and therefore won't use    Focus tracking is an example.   I tend just to get on and use the camera and learn what I need along the way.

I admire the patience of those who check every function and report on them! 

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

Now that Canon has the 5Ds/5DsR I cannot really see why Canon users would use an adapted A7rII for shooting things like birds in flight or sports. Canon has the camera for that.

For those needing high DR the Sony A7rII may be attractive.

Best regards
Erik

I wouldn't expect real time object tracking. Canon and Nikon invested hundreds of engineer years into that.
Face tracking will probably well work because Sony has a lot of experience with video.

Edmund

[Manoli]

For those needing high DR the Sony A7rII may be attractive.

... and, just perhaps, for a multitude of other reasons !