So, is it a keeper? (A7R II)

[Guy Mancuso]

Wide is tough because it needs to nail the object. If its not a busy scene no problem but like anything is can get confused but once it gets it , very nice.

I would try a few things with like cars coming at a angle and see what picks up easier for you. When directly at me doing runway I use the expanded flexible spot

Zone works nice as well but i think it stays in that zone only

 

[ptomsu]

See to me these look very smooth and do not look digital. Back to my sneaky comment the other day=filmlike

These not only look very smooth and not digital, these are simply stellar! I am slowly getting overwhelmed!

Looks to me as simply the best you can get out of a system these days!

Peter

 

[Guy Mancuso]

These not only look very smooth and not digital, these are simply stellar! I am slowly getting overwhelmed!

Looks to me as simply the best you can get out of a system these days!

Peter

Peter and i know people will get mad at me but they look really good in C1, not sure what the heck is going on but C1 seems to be nailing this cam. Not saying LR does not and I have not even looked but from my seat its a flat out wow factor on the files.

Case in point that Babbit wall with brilliant daylight should look digital and its not

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Here it don't get much stronger of a image than here but yet it still is smooth. Batis 25mm smoking the skies up. LOL

Love this freaking lens already

 

[ptomsu]

Peter and i know people will get mad at me but they look really good in C1, not sure what the heck is going on but C1 seems to be nailing this cam. Not saying LR does not and I have not even looked but from my seat its a flat out wow factor on the files.

Case in point that Babbit wall with brilliant daylight should look digital and its not

Guy, this is the same with a lot of other camera RAWs as well, C1 simply outperforms LR in all my - maybe limited - trials. This is very off topic, but for example the Olympus EM1 with its tiny 43 sensor produces stunning result up till ISO 8000 wit C1, whereas the results start already getting noisy and sucking from ISO 1600 in LR. One of the main reasons I prefer C1 today again (after loosing Aperture ).

And same is even more true for all my files from Nikon Df and D800E - look just so much better processed in C1 compared to LR.

So actually I do not wonder why this is also true for the A7rII, but good to know this really is the case and makes me even more confident joining the Sony FE route in future!

 

[Guy Mancuso]

I certainly do not shy away from being a fan of C1 been saying it for years. I started using it back when I had the Canon 1ds and paid 500 for the software. thats a lot of years and it is a kluge fudge for some folks , totally get that and folks like LR for cataloging and printing and such. I just want a Raw converter and use other things for the extra stuff. I view LR as more a generalist software where I think C1 is more specialized. But thats me and Im not always right. Im wrong once in a blue moon. ROTFLMAO

Im kidding of course

 

[ptomsu]

I certainly do not shy away from being a fan of C1 been saying it for years. I started using it back when I had the Canon 1ds and paid 500 for the software. thats a lot of years and it is a kluge fudge for some folks , totally get that and folks like LR for cataloging and printing and such. I just want a Raw converter and use other things for the extra stuff. I view LR as more a generalist software where I think C1 is more specialized. But thats me and Im not always right. Im wrong once in a blue moon. ROTFLMAO

Im kidding of course

I used to run Aperture, LR and C1 in parallel. As Aperture is gone I stick with C1 and LR, using LR mainly for cataloging and C1 for editing. Obviously this seems to be the way we have to do it today

 

[Guy Mancuso]

LR has that cataloging advantage and I understand why folks use it. No question its a complete package and folks like that

 

[Knorp]

This maybe of interest, especially the APO-R 280/4 shutter shock measurements on A7R and A7RII by Jim Kasson.

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3885234

Somewhere I read this:

4. Newly Designed 500k Cycle Shutter

• One of the key complaints about the SonyA7R was the overly loud and violent shutter slap that caused vibration issues when using telephoto lenses.
• The A7RII solves this with a new highly durable reduced-vibration shutter that causes 50% less vibration than the A7R
• Electronic first curtain
• Rated at a whopping 500,000 cycles (most professional cameras last between 200,000 to 300,000 cycles)
• Silent Shooting Mode

 

[Jim DE]

LR has that cataloging advantage and I understand why folks use it. No question its a complete package and folks like that

Guy how is the Capture One software they made for cataloging ... do you use it? CRS or I would name the software

 

[Vivek]

One thing that clearly bothers me is what seems like thermal noise (shown by atleast one user on fredmiranda) even at base ISO. I did expect better.

Availability, for once, is not holding me back as every shop here has them in stock. :shocked:

 

[Guy Mancuso]

If I ever sound like thermal noise please tell me. I don't want to be that guy either good or bad comments.

I'm actually being careful what I say. I can tell you all this I'm very happy give me another sir

 

[jamato8]

LR has that cataloging advantage and I understand why folks use it. No question its a complete package and folks like that

I am going to put you on hide, if you have it here. lol Those lenses look great. What I am finding is that the A7RII, with all the frustrations, is the most undigital camera I have used, besides past film cameras :^). I don't get that cut and paste look when you have a limited depth of field with a an object in sharp focus. That ruins it for me but the A7RII isn't doing that.

I can't seem to find the Batis lenses you are using anywhere, the 25 and 85. But I am also liking the Lietz lenses as well but for some of my work, like visual anthropology I really have come to rely on the rapid auto focus for capturing what I need to. A 25 and 85 would be very nice as would a 135 or longer.

 

[hcubell]

One thing that clearly bothers me is what seems like thermal noise (shown by atleast one user on fredmiranda) even at base ISO. I did expect better.

Availability, for once, is not holding me back as every shop here has them in stock. :shocked:

If that's what is holding you back, run down to the camera shop and buy one. Jim Kasson, who actually owns an A7RII and IMO is a very trustworthy tester in such matters, says thermal self-heating is not an issue. Of course, Jim did not first put the camera in a barbeque, so who knows what happens if you do that.

 

[ohnri]

Thanks, Guy. There are several choices for AF focus modes that may make sense. Wide, Zone, Expand Flexible Spot and Lock on AF Expand Flexible Spot. With Wide, do you do a half press on the main subject, and then let it follow the subject? Is this tracking AF, or do you have to use the Lock On AF Expand Flexible Spot?
I am renting the Sony A 70-400 Zoom with the adapter.

I just shot with the 70-400 G2 and the '3' adapter on my A7r2 this morning.

The fancy tracking modes are not available.

AF-C only works with the low speed continuous or single shot advance rate.

Overall, I was satisfied with the AF performance as well as the image quality.

Lock on was speedy enough in the morning sun and the A7r2 was able to maintain sharp focus in all the situations I would have expected it to.

I did have to keep the focus point on my subject but did not find that difficult. The focus point itself can be placed almost anywhere in the frame.

I brought my 70-200G FE with me as a backup but never once touched it.

Yesterday, I shot with the 90 FE/Macro and had access to all the super focus modes and I came away convinced that it will serve dual use as a portrait lens and macro lens.

-Bill

 

[Guy Mancuso]

Guy how is the Capture One software they made for cataloging ... do you use it? CRS or I would name the software

No it's been **** in the past. Although I think Bob uses it today and maybe he can chime in. I hear it's much improved

 

[bwana4swahili]

Guy I am sure you are following those "artifact" issues being discussed with a7rII's and pushing the darks up 4-5 stops under very specific light/subject conditions and the hot pixel/noise issues also being discussed on long exposures.

Now I am no brainiac and as stated before some of these issues and discussions have so little importances to the effects of my needs and wants they tend to sound like the teacher in a Peanuts cartoon. But, I put this out to you and the rest here...... Lets forget just how over the top the exposure settings have to be for these objections occur but being as there is documented differences on how obvious or not these issues are with various PP softwares could these possibly be PP software issues and not the camera's?

If you read the posts of some they seem to want to rattle the tree's to possibly force Sony to lower the MSRP more than determining if the problem is a real issue to final output or one that needs Sony to correct or who the source of the problem is? Makes one wonder their true objectives.... and whether they have a agenda.

I have not seen a hot pixel issue personally yet with long exposures so I don't have much to say about it but the artifact issue when pushing the blacks up 4-5 stops all I can say is really???? In what/who's world is that a real issue as I have always felt that as a photographer we have a obligation to at least get our exposures close. If one wants HDR shoot the shot that way with multiple exposures and stack them.

Mark my words the so called professional reviewer's are listening and reading these absurd complaints (whose parameters to observe them are so ridiculous no good photographer would ever intentionally encumber himself with them in a proper shot he took) and depending on their hidden agenda's will dissect these issues to the nth degree and malign this body like they are issues that every photo you shoot with this body you just can't avoid them. One can see the writing on the wall already and with the pre volume hype of letting other manufacturers glass function as well or better on this body than their own has brought forward over critical evaluations from people who are based in the other camps who worry this just might happen one day.

Sad to see this happen yet again.....good ole agenda driven misinformation and the sky is falling; mentalities.

Yup, heard the story with the A7R BUT I've loved it since Nov. '13. I now have the A7S and A7 II, and they are both great. The A7R II will join the ranks as probably one of the best, if not the best, camera currently available and for some time into the future. Mine is on pre-order and will probably arrive next week? I hope.

bwa

 

[Guy Mancuso]

I am going to put you on hide, if you have it here. lol Those lenses look great. What I am finding is that the A7RII, with all the frustrations, is the most undigital camera I have used, besides past film cameras :^). I don't get that cut and paste look when you have a limited depth of field with a an object in sharp focus. That ruins it for me but the A7RII isn't doing that.

I can't seem to find the Batis lenses you are using anywhere, the 25 and 85. But I am also liking the Lietz lenses as well but for some of my work, like visual anthropology I really have come to rely on the rapid auto focus for capturing what I need to. A 25 and 85 would be very nice as would a 135 or longer.

Just remember who said film like first.

The Batis lenses are tough to find

 

[douglaspboyd]

Re: So, is it a keeper? (A7R II) YES for me

Mine arrived 2 hours ago, and I snapped a picture of my wife using the Nikon 85mm f1.8 D lens on manual focus. This was at 1/125th, f1.8, ISO100. Not completely sharp because Steadyshot was not set to 85mm (camera shipped at 5mm), and the Nikon lens is not sharp wide open. But I got the effect I wanted, especially considering the wife is approaching her 69th birthday-- used a bit of pp for this. I'm keeping it.

 

[bwana4swahili]

As they are still in short supply in the UK and because I am off on holiday soon I'll leave purchasing the A7RII until September or October.

I'm in two minds about selling my A7S. The A7R will definitely go. Been a great camera but I am convinced about the ergonomics and IBIS alone to want to go up to the A7RII. But the A7S? Knowing that I have a camera that will really do high-iso, e.g. 10,000-20,000 is very powerful. I am perhaps reacting to having been tortured for several years with digital cameras that couldn't even get above iso800 (specifically my Leica M8) so I'm concerned about losing good high-iso capability.

Of course, if any of you can convince me the A7RII really will do good very high-iso then I'll consider selling the A7S as well. I don't like having cameras sitting on a shelf doing nothing.

Just my two cents.

LouisB

I own the A7R, A7S and A7 II. Both the A7R and A7S are full spectrum modded for astrophotography and IR; keeping both. Even if the A7S wasn't modded I'd be keeping it. It is simply the greatest low light camera in existence! If the A7R II is really up to all the current hype, the A7 II will be the one going out the door.

bwa