{"id":5417,"date":"2015-08-23T18:39:11","date_gmt":"2015-08-23T23:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=5417"},"modified":"2015-08-24T08:02:48","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T13:02:48","slug":"review-sony-a7r-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-sony-a7r-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Sony A7R II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sony has been quite busy the past two years in fleshing out what is still the only full-frame mirrorless camera system. \u00a0The latest addition to this growing set of the cameras is the impressively specified A7R II. \u00a0The A7R II follows up the very successful A7R by giving it the same upgraded body style that premiered on the A7 II this past winter, giving it an all new back-side illuminated 42 Megapixel sensor with 399 phase detection points, in-body image stabilization and internal 4K video recording. While it seems like the ultimate camera on the spec sheet, is the hype greater than the reality? In this Sony A7R II Review, we’ll find out.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Sony A7R II<\/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.\u00a0Due to the identical body styles and similar feature sets, some portions of this review are taken from my review of the A7 II.<\/em><\/i><\/p>\n

Construction and Handling<\/h3>\n

The A7R II has received the same body makeover that the A7 II received earlier this year. \u00a0If you’ve used the A7 II, then the A7R II feels identical to hold and operate.<\/p>\n

The A7R II has upgraded the exterior construction to a more robust 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 A7R II is nearly 35% heavier than its predecessor, and it can definitely be felt.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The new grip on the A7R II is much more ergonomic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, as I noted in my A7 II review, I feel the improvements to ergonomics and control are well worth the added heft. \u00a0The new body style provides a very comfortable hand grip with the shutter button moved forward onto the grip itself. \u00a0As a result, the A7R II handles beautifully in the field, despite the heavier weight. \u00a0The grip is perfectly contoured with a wonderfully textured rubber grip. \u00a0The dials on the camera are redesigned as well from the original A7 series, and these are a bit more fiddly than the original broader dials. These dials are notably more difficult to operate with gloves, so come wintertime, you may be slowed a bit.<\/p>\n

The other controls are identical to the A7 II and similar to the original 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.<\/p>\n

Operation and Controls<\/h3>\n

As I mentioned above, the general control scheme of the A7R II is largely similar to the original A7R. The controls are laid out almost identically to those on the A7R 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 A7R is now the C3 button, and it still sits up and to the left of the AF\/MF\/AEL button, but the angled back plate makes this button easier to reach on the A7R II than it was on the original body.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The rear controls are essentially unchanged from the other A7 series cameras<\/figcaption><\/figure>\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 in one of the only changes from the A7 II, the A7R II’s PASM dial has a push-button lock that must be depressed to change the mode. \u00a0While I have rarely knocked the dial on my personal A7 II, this locking feature will help eliminate accidental mode changes entirely.<\/p>\n

As one who’s been shooting with the A7 II for the past 4 months, the control system of the A7R II was instantly familiar. \u00a0In fact, I often needed to remind myself that it was a different camera from the A7 II. Sony 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 bit later in the review.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The top and rear controls are the same as those on the A7 II, save for the mode dial lock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The A7R II’s new silent shutter option can also be placed into the Fn menu, though oddly, selecting silent mode doesn’t change the audible focus confirmation beep to silent. Sony also hasn’t changed their tabbed menu interface, which puts a huge number of options into a well-organized interface. I was a huge opponent of the original NEX menu system, but given what I hear from other reviewers, I may be in the minority in actually liking the current tabbed menu system. 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 A7R II features an upgraded electronic viewfinder (EVF) from the A7R or any other previous A7 series camera. \u00a0The most notable change is in the finder optics, which enlarge the EVF to 0.78x magnification, which just passes the Fuji X-T1’s 0.77x magnification to become the largest viewfinder currently available on a 35mm format or smaller camera. The viewfinder is clear and has good color response and the extra size gives the EVF a beautiful full view of your scene. \u00a0While the hardware side of the EVF is quite excellent, there is a down side with regards to the software implementation when magnifying the view.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The A7R II’s new EVF has an element with Zeiss T* coating<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you regularly plan on using adapted manual focus lenses with the A7R II, then the viewfinder is actually slightly worse than the original A7R or the A7 II for focusing while magnified. \u00a0Something in the EVF scaling when magnification is activated with adapted lenses is quite off, especially at the 5x level. At this magnification, the view is a soft fuzzy mess. \u00a0Bizarrely, this isn’t the case when magnifying using a native FE mount lens. \u00a0The 12.5x magnification isn’t as bad as the 5x, but it still doesn’t appear as clear as the other A7 finders. \u00a0I’m hoping Sony issues a fix for this oddity, as it can be quite difficult to resolve fine details at the 5x magnification level.<\/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

Autofocus<\/h3>\n

The A7R II gains an all new sensor that has a whopping 399 phase-detect autofocus points spread across the central 50% of the sensor area. \u00a0As a result, the focusing has been improved quite a bit from the original A7R. \u00a0In my experience with the camera, the biggest difference was in low-light focus acquisition, where the A7R II consistently was able to quickly and accurately focus in extremely dim lighting conditions, something I can’t say about\u00a0earlier A7 series cameras. \u00a0With my A7 II, I will often have times where even fast native lenses have trouble quickly and accurately finding focus in dimmer light, especially when the subject is backlit. \u00a0Happily, the A7R II’s AF system handles these situations with ease. \u00a0I found the A7R II to quickly lock focus in most any type of light. \u00a0Well done here. \u00a0It’s the best single shot performance I’ve experienced on a Sony camera.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The PDAF area is outlined in the viewfinder<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Continuous autofocus has been improved dramatically from the CDAF-only A7R, \u00a0but unfortunately I found the improvement over the A7 II to be minimal to non-existent. \u00a0The camera performed fairly poorly when tracking moving subjects, even those as common as a person walking towards the camera. \u00a0While I’d get occasional hits dead on in the middle of a burst when someone would walk towards me, in many cases, the camera didn’t seem to be predicting where the subject would be, but would rather track focus and lock it when the picture was taken, resulting in a substantial portion of my C-AF shots with focus just behind where the intended point of focus was. As an example, the sequence below was one of the worst. \u00a0I utilized single point with AF expansion, keeping the AF point directly over the subject’s face, while he walked towards me. \u00a0The shot below, the 11th photo in a 17 shot burst, was one of only two photos in the burst to absolutely nail focus. \u00a0The other shot was the first in the sequence. \u00a0While this sequence was one of the worst I took when testing C-AF, the very best of the 10-15 different runs, with differing subjects, both indoors and out, was only around a 60% hit rate.<\/p>\n

\"Walking<\/a>
Walking – Sony A7R II with Zeiss Batis 85mm f\/1.8 @ f\/1.8, Continuous AF<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sony’s recent cameras also have their new Eye AF focus algorithm, which can be assigned to a custom function button. \u00a0Like the other recent cameras, this function works quite well on the A7R II. \u00a0If your subject is in focus enough for the camera to analyze the scene for faces, it will find faces, find the eyes, and lock focus to the nearest eye. \u00a0It’s an excellent feature for use with fast glass to make sure the eyes are in focus.<\/p>\n

The big hullabaloo about the A7R II’s focus system, however, has been with adapted lenses that have electrical communication: specifically Sony A mount and Canon EF mount lenses. \u00a0Unfortunately, I don’t have a stable of Canon EF lenses to test, nor do I own a Metabones EF to E mount adapter. \u00a0I do, however, have an EF mount Sigma 50mm f\/1.4 EX and the much cheaper Fotga EF to E mount adapter. \u00a0The Fotga when used on my A7 II is effectively only a manual focus lens adapter. \u00a0It attempts to focus on that camera, but actually locking is an extremely rare feat. \u00a0Aperture control works perfectly, of course.<\/p>\n

With the A7R II, Ithe difference was night and day. \u00a0My Fotga adpater has some odd quirks in that it will sometimes work great and other times seems to not do much of anything with regards to AF. \u00a0However, when it does work, the A7R II was able to focus my Sigma 50mm f\/1.4 essentially as fast as a native Canon DSLR body, at least in good light. \u00a0I was able to quickly change focus from close to far away with quick and sure focus moves that were very accurate. \u00a0This is not a fast focusing lens, but the performance I saw was\u00a0only a bit slower than\u00a0what I got with my Canon 1Ds Mark II. See the hastily shot video (handheld with my phone to the EVF) below to see the performance I was able to get with this lens. I apologize for the video quality here..but I didn’t have time to do a more controlled setup.
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