Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Last night we received the Sony a7RII camera that we had preordered about a month ago. It’s a good thing that we jumped on an available deal so quickly, because apparently it’s now sold out in most places and backordered at most of the popular online camera retailers, including B&H, Amazon, Adorama and BuyDig. My husband and I are hobbyists and take photos for our own pleasure. If you want to see more photos we took with the camera, check out our website: [...] When we first saw the specifications on the a7RII, my husband and I were both extremely excited. Yes, it’s expensive, but it has just about every feature we wanted: - 42 megapixels world’s first backside-illuminated full-frame sensor, with class-leading dynamic range, color depth and high ISO performance. - 4k internal video recording with color profile at 30fps, with Super 35mm mode and clean HDMI output. - SteadyShot 5-axis in-body stabilization. - High ISO performance, ISO 25600 expandable to ISO 102400. - Silent shutter mode and electronic front curtain shutter, rated up to 500,000 shutter actuations. - 399 phase detect points and 25 contrast-detect points, rated to -2 EV sensitivity for low light autofocus performance. - Continuous eye autofocus, which automatically detects and tracks an eye of a moving person. - Bright electronic viewfinder, with 2,359,296 pixels, 0.78x magnification (largest for full-frame), and 100% coverage. - Articulating LCD screen with 1,228,800 pixels that tilts both up and down. - Minimum shutter speed for auto ISO, with options to change how the camera responds to changes in lighting. - 1/8000th second shutter in both stills and movies mode, 1/250th second flash sync speed. - Small and compact body size, despite weighing a little more than its predecessors. That is not to say it has no drawbacks. The downsides of the a7RII are: - No dual card slots. - No touch screen, something that would be great for pulling focus during video. - Less than stellar battery life: rated for 290 shots when using the viewfinder, and 340 shots when using the LCD. - Although the build quality has been upgraded to all plates made of magnesium alloy, I still would not completely trust the weather sealing claims. - Still incomplete native E-mount lens selection, like no 18mm wide angle or 135mm long portrait prime lenses. Because we had gotten the Sony a7II a little over two weeks ago and have been playing with it a lot, we felt right at home with the new camera. We quickly set up the menu system to our liking and started taking photos. My husband was immediately wowed by the large, bright and beautiful viewfinder. We both prefer electronic viewfinders and the “what you see is what you get” effect of them, and this camera has the best one we’ve seen. Unlike traditional DSLRs, an EVF allows one to review photos and look at menu options without needing to squint in bright daylight. As luck would have it, we got an awesome sunset this evening when we went to the park for a walk with our cameras. My husband used the A7RII with the native E-mount 16-35mm F4 lens to take a few shots — all handheld, thanks to the awesome 5-axis in-body stabilization that Sony calls SteadyShot. The camera was a little heavier in the hand than the a7II, but not by much. When my husband first pulled it out of the box, I was reminded once again of just how small and compact these full-frame E-mount cameras are. We also received the Peak Design sling and strap from Amazon today, which distributes the weight comfortably and is useful for changing between carry positions quickly. The autofocus is extremely responsive, noticeably faster than the a7II, and my husband remarked that it was practically on par with the APSC Sony a77II camera we previously owned, which boasts sports-oriented lock-on tracking and fast autofocus. The a7RII has 399 on-sensor phase detect autofocus points with 25 contrast-detect autofocus points, and focuses down to -2 EV, which definitely makes a huge real world usage difference. Even indoors under low light conditions, the autofocus was fast, confident and accurate. My main complaint about the a7II, indoor low-light focusing speed and accuracy, was completely addressed by the new a7RII. The a7RII also has an amazing autofocus feature for taking portraits of high-energy kids, of which we have two — continuous eye AF, which works extremely quickly with the native E-mount lenses we have. It finds the eye almost instantaneously and keeps the focus as the person moves around the frame! After the shoot and sitting down in Lightroom, we were highly impressed by the image quality, dynamic range and well-controlled noise from the huge 42 megapixel RAW files. My husband underexposed by quite a bit, and the dynamic range after lifting the shadows by several stops is astonishing. There’s definitely noise after raising the shadows so much, but it’s very usable and controllable with a little bit of noise reduction. In our indoor test shots, the low light noise performance was excellent. The a7RII seems to have about a stop better high ISO performance than the a7II, which has about two stops better than the APSC cameras we had been used to using before this month. To summarize, we both love the camera. It is fast, responsive, compact, feels great to shoot with and has class-leading image quality. It's packed full of awesome, state-of-the-art technology, and it's currently the cheapest full-frame camera that delivers 4k internal video. Sony also makes the next cheapest full-frame camera, the a7S which retails for $2500, but you'll have to add $1000 to that price tag to get an external 4k recorder. Canon's 1DC is selling for $8000. Considering all of this, plus the amazing stills performance, the a7RII is an amazing deal.