A7RII initial thoughts and images

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

Thanks for sharing. My own will arrive in a few days.

Best regards
Erik

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.


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

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

It would be interesting to hear about those other reasons.

Personally, I bought my Sony A7rII to be used with existing A-mount lenses and I have ordered A Canon 24/3.5 TSE to be used with it. I also plan to add a T&S adapter that will allow me to use Hasselblad lenses.

Best regards
Erik

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

[adrian tyler]

my 'other reasons' apart from size, image quality, the innovative idea (had an m9 but couldn't get consistent results,) was that i've been looking for a really good 50mm lens for digital 35mm for years, not just sharp but nice rendition and bokeh and the zony 55 is just what i was looking for, although i did like the way the hasselblad distagon fle 50mm 'drew' on the digital 35mm format but it was big, clunky and not so good at infinity...
so there you go not only do i love the camera, but i get my 'holy grail' 55mm lens to boot!
www.adriantyler.net

[davidgp]

It would be interesting to hear about those other reasons.

Yes, increase DR with my Canon lenses it is the most interested to me as you already commented.

4k internal video recording comes as second one...

[shadowblade]

I'd like to see if they manage to push the resolution further with their pro-oriented body and outdo Canon on this account too. For me, 54MP is the big milestone, for 150ppi at 60x40".

[Alan Klein]

I'm using Lightroom 5.  How would I convert the RAW pictures?

[Ken R]

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

Nikon/Sony Exmor sensor cameras only have an big edge in image quality mainly if you shoot at base iso or below iso 400. Once you start shooting at iso 800 and above it makes little sense for a Canon shooter to switch.

The A7RII looks like it has raised the exmor image quality noticeably so it might b the holy grail of sensor measurebators. I am sure it will score well over 100 in the DXo test. We will know in a week but I suspect that once people start posting image quality tests of the A7RII it will shake up the camera world. I mean, lot's of people are still gonna be making lot's of crappy pictures with it, just like with any camera, but it will be a great tool in the hands of someone who know what he/she wants and knows how to do it.

I played with a few low iso raw files and the depth of the files is just stunning. I was pulling clean detail with good color out from under a sofa in a well underexposed, backlit! image. As good as the D810 is (which IMHO is an improvement over the A7R and D800E) the A7RII is gonna wipe the floor with every sensor ever made in regards to base iso DR. It also should push high iso performance even higher.

Where the 5DSR might have an edge is in detail and also long exposure image quality which has been talked very little about but is a HUGE improvement over the 5D3's.

[Quentin]

Continuing tests and images confirm that this is an outstanding camera.  Silent shutter mode is completely silent.  





I'm also impressed with the 16-35mm F/4, particularly used in its sweet spot (around F/8 amd mid zoom range)

[pegelli]

I'm using Lightroom 5.  How would I convert the RAW pictures?

Once the Adobe dng converter supports the A7RII you can convert the arw's to dng's, which you can open with any old version of Lightroom.
That's how I managed my NEX6 files until I upgraded from Lightroom 3 to Lightroom 5 (Lightroom 3 was too old to support NEX6 arw's)

[Hans Kruse]

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 agree and for landscapes I think Canon did a good job on providing a high resolution camera. So far my expectations have been met with this camera (5DsR) only having it for two days now. The amount of detail is incredible and the DR is not bad at all for the way I'm shooting. I think this is going to be a huge success for Canon. I was lucky to get mine now as there were hundreds in line for the 5Ds(R) in my pro shop in Copenhagen. I'm going to Scotland in late August for two weeks to really test this camera out in real landscapes and a lot with high DR I'm sure.

[eronald]

Continuing tests and images confirm that this is an outstanding camera.  Silent shutter mode is completely silent.  





I'm also impressed with the 16-35mm F/4, particularly used in its sweet spot (around F/8 amd mid zoom range)

Quentin,

 Those are strong cheerful images.
 Could you snap some people?

Edmund

[adrian tyler]

these are all out of the camera jpgs, factory settings, the night time shot is 6400asa!
(sony 55 mm lens)

[Quentin]

A church interior shot handheld at ISO 2,500, with some luminance NR in ACR



And a mono conversion of the exterior of the same medieval church, processed in Photoshop with Nik Silver Effex, shot at a more regular 100 ISO



Both images shot with the Sony / Zeiss 16-35mm F/4

I have a 90mm Macro F/2.8 on order; some people pix therefore on the cards shortly, Edmund.

[NancyP]

Thanks all. Keep those images coming. I don't see that your average sports shooter is going to drop their 1DX or 7D2 (or D4) any time soon for a Sony, or for that matter a 5Ds/r, but the Sony is certainly of interest for a large segment of photographers. While I wait for the shake-down and testing, I will keep to my primitive 6D, which is better than I am, anyway! 

[JohnBrew]

I am following this thread with interest but mostly to keep tabs on the competition. I'm uncertain to how much PP was involved in Quentin's images, and boy are they sharp. That last bw sure does resemble a good MF film image.

[Quentin]

I am following this thread with interest but mostly to keep tabs on the competition. I'm uncertain to how much PP was involved in Quentin's images, and boy are they sharp. That last bw sure does resemble a good MF film image.

Here is an unsharpened (save for default ACR sharpening) crop of a small section from the original church image, which might assist in gauging sharpness (no AA filter on the A7rII of course).  I'm certainly seeing good sharpness.

[eronald]

Here is an unsharpened (save for default ACR sharpening) crop of a small section from the original church image, which might assist in gauging sharpness (no AA filter on the A7rII of course).  I'm certainly seeing good sharpness.

Yes, I would call it mediocre, either OOF or bad lens, or CMOS texture loss. Excuse my frankness.
Point the thing at a brick or stone wall at right angles straight ahead of you eg. that church, @ F5.6 and post a crop please.
BTW, no refelection on your skills.

Edmund

[Quentin]

Edmund, I'm not a camera tester, so sorry, no.   But I am not sure I agree in any event.  One of the things you may notice about the A7RII is the relatively low contrast by default. 

[Quentin]

However, I will post another crop from an earlier image in this thread, again unsharpened.



Well, its a brick wall of sorts  

Same wall, slightly sharpened

[Norm Nicholson]

Quentin,

I have been following your work with the Merrills since the beginning, and still use mine. I've never bonded with the A7, and mine sits with 3 Zeiss lenses unused. Would you care to compare the A7RIi with the Merrill?


Thanks,
Norm