{"id":4482,"date":"2015-01-16T16:40:28","date_gmt":"2015-01-16T21:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=4482"},"modified":"2015-01-17T07:01:26","modified_gmt":"2015-01-17T12:01:26","slug":"review-sony-a7ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-sony-a7ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Sony A7II"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been about a year since Sony shook up the mirrorless industry with the release of the full-frame A7 and A7r. \u00a0They followed up with a low-light king, the A7s, in the summer, and now the original A7 sees a refresh with the A7II – a camera that is largely about refining the A7 brand, but adds one key feature to the mix: the world’s first full-frame 5-Axis in-body stabilization. The A7II slots in at the exact same spot its older brother occupied, at the same $1698 price point<\/a> as well. \u00a0Is the addition of in-body IS along with some ergonomic changes enough to up Sony’s game? Let’s find out in our Sony A7II Review.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Sony A7II<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you\u2019re not familiar with my reviews, I review from a real world shooting perspective. You won\u2019t find lens charts or resolution numbers here. There are plenty of other sites that cover those. I review products on how they act for me as a photographic tool. \u00a0I am not a videographer, so my reviews concentrate on the still imaging capabilities of a camera.<\/em><\/p>\n

Construction and Handling<\/h3>\n
\"The<\/a>
The A7II features an all-new grip and upgraded body construction<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the nicer changes from the original A7 to the new A7II is the tweaking of the exterior design and an upgrade in construction quality. While the original A7 featured a composite and metal hybrid build, the A7II has upgraded the exterior construction to an all magnesium-alloy construction with a durable matte finish. \u00a0While this has the great effect of making the camera feel incredibly solid and decidedly like a true professional tool, it has the down side of increasing the weight of the camera body substantially. \u00a0In fact, the A7II is nearly 35% heavier than its predecessor, and it can definitely be felt.<\/p>\n

However, Sony also changed the main ergonomic complaint of the A7 and have provided a very comfortable hand grip with the shutter button moved forward onto the grip itself. \u00a0As a result, the A7II handles beautifully in the field, despite the heavier weight. \u00a0The grip on the A7II is the best ever on a Sony mirrorless camera, and is perfectly contoured with a wonderfully textured rubber grip. \u00a0The dials on the camera are redesigned as well from the A7 series, and these unfortunately are a bit more fiddly than the original broader dials. \u00a0The dial that sits under the shutter button is the worst offender, especially when shooting with gloves, but the redesigned hand grip is worth it.<\/p>\n

It may seem odd to go on at length about a simple grip change, but for me, it made all the difference in the world, and made the A7II significantly more fun to shoot than the original A7. \u00a0The other controls are very similar to the other A7 series cameras, and this is a good thing. \u00a0I also have to remark on the feel of the exposure compensation dial. \u00a0This is smaller than the EC dials on many other cameras, but the resistance is absolutely perfect. \u00a0It is just firm enough to avoid accidental movement, but not so firm as to prevent easy use of the dial with just the thumb. \u00a0It simply feels fantastic to use. \u00a0The overall ergonomics and handling of the A7II are big reasons to consider diving in with this body vs. the other full-frame Sony mirrorless cameras.<\/p>\n

Operation and Controls<\/h3>\n
\"The<\/a>
The A7II’s rear controls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As I mentioned above, the general control scheme of the A7II is largely similar to the original A7. The controls are laid out almost identically to those on the A7 with two minor changes. \u00a0First, with the shutter button now moved forward on to the grip, there is additional room on top of the camera, and Sony has added a second customizable function button on the top plate. \u00a0C1 and C2 buttons sit in front of the exposure compensation dial, and while they do require a slightly uncomfortable bend of the finger, they are both within easy reach during shooting. \u00a0What was the C2 button on the A7 is now the C3 button, and it still sits up and to the left of the AF\/MF\/AEL button. \u00a0This button location was one of the few ergonomic problems I mentioned in my review of the original A7<\/a>. \u00a0However, the simple act of angling the back plate has made this button location significantly easier to access. \u00a0Thanks, Sony!<\/p>\n

The only controls that sit outside of the main area that can be accessed by the index finger and thumb are the movie record button, which sits on the outside of the right grip and the menu button that sits on the left side of the camera. \u00a0The menu button location is a bit odd, but it’s not a major issue. \u00a0I like Sony’s positioning of the movie record button, which provides easy access while making it difficult to press accidentally. \u00a0A standard PASM mode dial sits on top of the camera and has great resistance to prevent accidental changing of this important setting.<\/p>\n

As one who’s been shooting with the a6000 for the past 6 months, I fell naturally into the control system of the A7II. \u00a0Sony continues use of their excellently implemented 12 item Function Menu, accessed with the Fn button on the rear of the camera and providing quick access to all the settings you could wish for during shooting. \u00a0Especially nice is the ability to place quick access for the in-body stabilizer settings, which comes in very handy when shooting with adapted manual focus lenses. \u00a0I’ll get more into the in-body IS a little bit later in the review. Sony also hasn’t changed their tabbed menu interface, which puts a huge number of options into a well organized interface. Frankly, I think it’s great that they didn’t make any changes here.<\/p>\n

Continue: Viewfinder and Performance<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Viewfinder and Rear Screen<\/h3>\n

The A7II features more or less the same viewfinder that is present in the original A7. The finder is a 2.3 million dot finder with 0.71x magnification, which gives the viewfinder a size similar to many full-frame DSLRs. The viewfinder is clear and has good color response, though I have to admit to being slightly underwhelmed after shooting with the Fuji X-T1’s enormous finder for the past year. However, the A7 II’s viewfinder is still one of the better viewfinders on the market, and I didn’t notice any appreciable lag or slowdown in indoor environments.<\/p>\n

The rear screen is a 3″ 1.2 million dot screen that is extremely good. Viewing angles are excellent and the display is clear, rich and has great contrast. Colors are fairly accurate as well. The rear screen also is on a tilt mechanism like most of the E-mount cameras, which can tilt flat to point up at 90 degrees, or down at approximately 45 degrees. The tilting mechanism is, like the rest of the camera, very robustly constructed. \u00a0It’s a shame that Sony still doesn’t feel the need to make the rear screens on their recent cameras touch sensitive, which would add a nice added dimension to shooting with the camera.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The tilting rear screen of the A7 II<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Autofocus and Performance<\/h3>\n

One of the things that the A7 and A7R were sometimes criticized for was a somewhat average responsiveness with regards to autofocus performance. While I didn’t have any issues with the autofocus when I reviewed the A7 last year, I did notice that the A7II has stepped up the game a bit. The camera can now track motion at the maximum burst rate instead of the reduced 2.5fps of the A7, and phase detect sites now cover almost the entire sensor.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The A7II has 117 phase-detect autofocus points on its full-frame sensor<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I found autofocus to be very quick and very accurate on the A7II. For the most part, it felt indistinguishable in use from the autofocus on my a6000, which has one of the best AF systems in the mirrorless world. Single shot situations, even in dimmer light, locked on quickly and surely.<\/p>\n

I didn’t do a ton of shooting in continuous autofocus situations, but I did throw on my Sony 18-105mm f\/4 to test how it tracked motion. Zoomed out to 105mm and shooting wide open at f\/4, the A7 II was able to maintain accurate focus placement through the vast majority of shots I took of cars moving towards me. I was shooting at the maximum frame rate of 5 fps, and in general, 5 of the 6 on average tended to be dead-on in focus. It’s hard to ask much more from a mirrorless camera in this situation.<\/p>\n

The maximum frame rate of 5 frames per second is certainly not going to endear the camera to action shooters, but it’s a sufficient speed for most photographers. While the burst rate isn’t anything noteworthy, I was glad to see that Sony did concentrate somewhat on improving overall camera performance.<\/p>\n

The A7 II has gotten that last little bit of lag out of the camera, save for a small delay on startup. Overall, the camera operates quickly and surely, and is ready when you need it to be ready. Shutter lag is acceptable, card write speeds are quick and image review is snappy. Ultimately, the improved ergonomics coupled with a bit faster operation make the A7 II melt into the background when shooting, which is exactly what a good camera should do.<\/p>\n

Continue: In-Body Image Stabilization and other key features<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

In-Body Image Stabilization<\/h3>\n
\"Selecting<\/a>
Selecting the focal length for shooting with adapted lenses<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By far the biggest upgrade internally for the A7II vs. the original A7 is the addition of in-body image stabilization (IBIS) utilizing a 5-axis sensor-shift stabilizer that Sony dubs “SteadyShot Inside.” The system is similar to the 5-axis stabilizer used in Olympus mirrorless cameras, but Sony insists that this solution is independently developed.<\/p>\n

The addition of IBIS to a full-frame mirrorless camera is a big deal. It takes the excellent low-light capabilities of that large sensor and leverages them even further to create what my be the ultimate camera for low light handholding. As many shooters utilize the A7 series cameras as a digital body for manual focus lenses such as older SLR lenses like Canon’s FD mount lenses or the outstanding rangefinder optics for the Leica M mount, the addition of IBIS allows these manual focus gems to gain modern image stabilization. That is, provided, that it works.<\/p>\n

The good news is that it does work, and it works fairly well. The system is unique in that it works with optically stabilized lenses as well as non-optically stabilized lenses. When an optically stabilized native lens is used, the camera allows the optical stabilizer to correct the two axes of shake that the optical unit can correct. The camera body then corrects the other 3. When utilizing native E-mount lenses with electrical contacts that don’t have stabilizers, the full 5-axis sensor shift is in action. When utilizing manual focus lenses, the camera corrects shake only in 3 axes of movement (presumably the other two are best corrected with distance information from the lens).<\/p>\n

\"Sony<\/a>
Sony A7II with Contax G 90mm f\/2.8 @ 1\/50s in APS-C Crop mode. IBIS allowed for a tack-sharp shot at a slower speed than would have been possible without it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sony claims 4.5 stops of extra handholdability with their IBIS system, which I found a bit too optimistic. \u00a0With both native lenses and adapted manual focus lenses I found the system to be good for an extra two to three stops of handholdability. This is below the very best optical stabilizers (and not quite as effective as Olympus’ excellent IBIS on the E-M1), but it is still a very good result, allowing me to get sharp shots in many demanding situations.<\/p>\n

One thing to note is that to use the in-body stabilizer with manual focus lenses, one must first enter the focal length of the lens, so the body knows how much to correct. This is done quickly and easily via an on-screen menu, and thankfully can be assigned to the camera’s Fn menu for super easy access. \u00a0One bizarre omission is that the input of focal length for IBIS is not appended to the EXIF data, which would have been very nice for helping to organize shots taken with manual focus lenses.<\/p>\n

One thing of minor note: when the camera was released, there was a bug in the software that would prevent the stabilizer from working with manual focus lenses if you had an optically stabilized lens mounted, then swapped to the manual focus lens while the camera was off. The only way to correct it was to either hot-swap from the OSS lens to the manual lens, or to first mount a non-OSS lens and turn the camera on. Thankfully, Sony was quick to correct this glitch, as the error is reported to be fixed with the very recent firmware update to improve the IBIS functionality.<\/p>\n

One frustrating thing for me was that the new firmware was released 12 hours after I had to send my review sample back, so I unfortunately did not get to test the camera with the latest firmware update.<\/p>\n

Wi-Fi<\/h3>\n
\"Sony's<\/a>
Sony’s remote control interface<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like all recent Sony E-Mount cameras, the A7II has full-featured Wi-Fi capabilities, including remote control and the ability to transfer images from your camera to your tablet or smartphone.<\/p>\n

The functionality is largely unchanged from earlier E-Mount cameras. \u00a0A hotspot can be created on camera through the menu, and you can then connect your mobile device to the camera by connecting to that hotspot. \u00a0If you have an Android phone with NFC capabilities, tapping your phone to the NFC spot will help establish the link as well.<\/p>\n

Transferring images between the camera and phone is easy and painless. \u00a0You can select images either on the device or the camera, and a JPEG is then moved to the mobile device. \u00a0One downside to the image transfer that still hasn’t been addressed is the inability to convert RAW images on the fly. \u00a0Both Fuji and Olympus have robust RAW conversion capabilities in camera to adjust exposure, color and contrast settings, etc, and then create a full-resolution JPEG. \u00a0With Sony’s cameras, you can transfer full resolution JPEG images if they are created at the time of capture, but if you shot RAW only, you are only able to transfer the low resolution JPEG preview that is embedded in the RAW file. \u00a0While I’d love the full RAW conversion capabilities I mentioned earlier, Sony really needs to implement a quick full resolution JPEG conversion with the default\u00a0settings to allow for full resolution transfer of RAW images. \u00a0In 2013, this was an acceptable oversight given the relative novelty of Wi-Fi in a camera, but in late 2014\/early 2015, it’s now a bit behind the times.<\/p>\n

The remote control features are identical to other E-Mount cameras, as they use the same ‘Remote Control’ app from the PlayMemories store. \u00a0By default, the camera comes with a crippled version of the remote control software, which then must be upgraded to the latest version by logging into a PlayMemories account and downloading the Remote Control app update. \u00a0While this is free, it’s also a pain, so it would be nice to not require a login to upgrade a feature of the camera right away. \u00a0The upgraded app works well, allowing for adjustment of exposure parameters, focus point and so on, though the app does have a fair bit of lag, and shot to shot times with remote shooting are quite slow. Sony is very close to being great with these Wi-Fi features, but they do need some refinement.<\/p>\n

APS-C Lenses<\/h3>\n

The A7II, like the other full-frame E-Mount bodies, has full compatibility with the entire APS-C lineup of E-mount lenses. \u00a0When utilizing native lenses with electrical contacts, the camera will (by default) automatically switch to APS-C cropped mode, showing and recording a 10 megapixel APS-C sized crop of the full sensor readout, and making the lenses behave exactly the same \u00a0as they would on an APS-C body such as the a6000 or NEX-7. \u00a0The downside, of course, is the loss of resolution to 10 megapixels. \u00a0While that sounds like an enormous drop, I was very pleasantly surprised as to how useful this capability truly is.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The APS-C Sony 35mm f\/1.8 OSS on the A7II<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While you won’t get the super high resolution shots that you would with these lenses on something like the a6000, there is something to be said for per-pixel image quality. \u00a0The 10 megapixel images in APS-C cropped mode are exceptional in quality. \u00a0The lenses don’t tax a 10 megapixel resolution, and the sensor quality is outstanding, such that your 10 MP images are tack sharp and have great tonality. \u00a0If you have some APS-C E-Mount lenses and are thinking of making the jump to one of the A7 bodies, don’t feel the immediate pressure to duplicate your APS-C lens lineup with all FE mount lenses right away, as you can feel confident in getting good images with your APS-C lenses. \u00a0Of course, long term, to get the most out of the camera, you’ll want to use the full sensor area, but it’s a handy feature to use certain lenses that you may already own. \u00a0There is a setting to disable the APS-C crop, which will show the whole image circle. \u00a0With some lenses, such as the Sony 10-18mm,\u00a0almost the whole sensor is still covered. \u00a0The 10-18mm, for instance, covers the full frame sensor from 13-15mm, providing an extreme ultra-wide-angle lens. \u00a0Longer focal lengths only require minimal cropping as well.<\/p>\n

Other Items of Note<\/h3>\n

Like the other recent E-Mount cameras, the A7II has access to the PlayMemories Camera App Store, which enables the user to purchase new functionality for their camera. \u00a0Some of these apps are gimicky image editing programs that don’t do anything particularly special. \u00a0Others give genuinely useful features to the camera, such as the Time Lapse app, which adds intervalometer functions to the camera for the price of $10. \u00a0This feature is both nice for adding functionality, and a bit frustrating that such functionality wasn’t included by default on a $1,700 camera.<\/p>\n

The camera has excellent bracketing functions, allowing for 5 shots at +\/- 3 stops, which should be enough exposure lattitude for any scene (provided the 1\/8000s max shutter speed is sufficient).<\/p>\n

Continue: Image Quality<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Image Quality<\/h3>\n

Dynamic Range and Color<\/h4>\n
\"Ice<\/a>
Ice at the Lower Falls, Hocking Hills State Park, OH – Sony a7 II with Carl Zeiss FE 16-35mm f\/4 OSS @ 19mm, f\/18, 0.8s, ISO 100<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The A7II features a largely unchanged 24 megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor that first appeared in the original A7. \u00a0Minor modifications include the additional phase-detect autofocus sites and a somewhat redesigned sensor stack that reduces reflections off the sensor vs. the A7 (which occasionally had issues with sensor reflections showing in images). \u00a0As a result, the overall image quality from the A7 II is extremely similar to the A7, and that’s just fine.<\/p>\n

The A7II produces images with wide dynamic range that can capture the brightest brights and the darkest darks in all but the most demanding scenes. \u00a0The bracketing options on the camera may make it easier to do HDR photography, but for most shooting, that’s an unnecessary step. \u00a0The beautiful tonality to the images that was present in the original A7 is still on display here, with a gentle rolloff from light to dark that gives a simply gorgeous look to the images.<\/p>\n

The A7 II also has excellent color response and color depth, yielding rich files that display a subtlety that is difficult to get without a big full-frame sensor. \u00a0If you are a RAW shooter, you will find really nothing to complain about the A7 II with regards to dynamic range and color.<\/p>\n

Noise and Detail<\/h4>\n

As with other imaging characteristics, the A7II has excellent control of noise at higher sensitivities. \u00a0The camera is capable of low levels of noise through ISO 3200 and images are easily usable for moderate size prints up to 12,800. \u00a0ISO 25,600 is usable for small prints and web use, but does display a fair bit of noise at this ISO. \u00a0The level of detail remains very high when shooting at higher sensitivities, which makes any residual noise a non-issue. \u00a0The excellent noise performance combined with the high quality in-body stabilization\u00a0makes the A7II\u00a0one of the best cameras around for shooting in dim light while handheld.<\/p>\n

Overall detail levels from the camera are also excellent. \u00a0The sensor does have an anti-aliasing filter, but it’s not particularly strong. \u00a0Images at low ISOs display a wealth of information and fine detail, even in the shadows and highlights.<\/p>\n

\"Siblings<\/a>
Siblings – Sony A7II with Canon FD 50mm f\/1.4 @ ISO 1600 – Click the image to enlarge then click the green arrow to view full size<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

JPEG Image Quality<\/h4>\n

I am predominantly a RAW shooter, but if you read my review of the A7 last year, you will know that one of the few things I thought the camera failed at was JPEG output. \u00a0The JPEGs out of the original A7 were, in a word, atrocious, especially at high ISO. \u00a0They had artifacts and terrible compression, making the images look like they’d been taken with a camera from 2003 rather than 2013. \u00a0Thankfully, Sony has dramatically improved the JPEG image quality with the A7 II.<\/p>\n

While Sony still doesn’t produce the best JPEGs in the industry (a nod I give to both Fuji and Olympus), the A7 II produces JPEGs with far less artifacts than the first generation of the camera. \u00a0Tonality and color are quite good and the blotchy mess that was created at high ISO is now much more natural. \u00a0That said, Sony is still too heavy handed with the noise reduction in JPEG mode, which does remove a notable amount of detail from the images compared to the excellent RAW files. \u00a0So while the JPEG output is still only ‘OK’, it’s a massive improvement over the terrible JPEGs of the original A7.<\/p>\n

Video<\/h3>\n

As I mentioned in my little disclaimer note at the beginning of the review, I am not a videographer, and I don’t feel comfortable going in-depth on the video features. \u00a0That said, the limited video I did shoot looked outstanding. \u00a0The camera is capable of 50Mbps 1080\/24p video, with full manual exposure control and continuous autofocus. \u00a0The in-body stabilization also works in video mode and does a very nice job at keeping the video still, even with non-native manual focus lenses.<\/p>\n

Continue: Conclusion and Image Samples<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

Pros<\/h4>\n