my thoughts on the a7r mark II after 6 weddings and a couple weeks of shooting

[tpphotography]

I've seen everyone review the A7R2 as soon as they got it. I thought I'd use it a bit first. I've been a canon/nikon/dSLR shooter since starting. and also use panasonic too. More recently moved to nikon after starting with canon then shooting canon and nikon for 5 years at the same time alongside each other. More recently i've added A7s and A7II to my collection with a view to using them more for weddings. I didn't even really mean to get the a7r2 it just happened.. here's some thoughts FWIW.

Sony A7R Mark II, Sigma 24-35/2 and wedding photography » TP Photography


Enjoy,

Greg

 

[jfirneno]

I've seen everyone review the A7R2 as soon as they got it. I thought I'd use it a bit first. I've been a canon/nikon/dSLR shooter since starting. and also use panasonic too. More recently moved to nikon after starting with canon then shooting canon and nikon for 5 years at the same time alongside each other. More recently i've added A7s and A7II to my collection with a view to using them more for weddings. I didn't even really mean to get the a7r2 it just happened.. here's some thoughts FWIW.

Sony A7R Mark II, Sigma 24-35/2 and wedding photography » TP Photography


Enjoy,

Greg

Greg:
That was a very interesting review. One thing I was curious about was the low light focus. If you were taking shots in a darkish hall would you be able to magnify manual focus fast enough to get some of those quickly changing opportunities?

 

[douglaspboyd]

Similar experience

Greg,

I also had this for a couple of weeks. I feel like an idiot for half-believing some of the Sony basher critics, especially about low light at weddings.

This weekend I attended a friend's wedding as a guest. There was a team of four wedding photographers, two still shooters and two video shooters. The still guys each had two D4s, one on the belt and one in the hand. Mounted were heavy Nikon 24-70 and Nikon 70-200 f2.8 (relatively slow) zoom lenses. To add to the weight, each camera had a pocket wizards strapped to the SB900 flash. In the church, they sounded like machine guns with their loud shutter chattering.

In contrast, I had a Sony A7rII with a Sony 28mm f2 and a 85mm f1.8 in my pocket. I shot in silent mode from the audience in the church and electronic front shutter elsewhere. I didn't need heavy zoom lenses, because with 3X pixels, I could crop in Lightroom and do the same thing. The rehearsal dinner was in a darkened restaurant, so I carried a small flash in my pocket with a tiny Yongnu rf trigger to light the room.

I had no problem focusing in any kind of light-- contrary to reports from some. A recent report by Rishi on DPREVIEW gives hints about how to make the AF fast on A7rII.

Some of the photos are on my dropbox page: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/i4sjn560dr147c7/AACFaYWawXgZRA-dLFE-Xgbfa?dl=0
I processed in my laptop using Lightroom CC, but didn't always get white balance right because of the mixed lighting and the poor screen on my laptop. Note I also pp'd in Portrait Professional 12.5 for some of the closeup shots of ladies.

==Doug

 

[Quentin_Bargate]

You're clearly a top guy if you like bacon AND cider.

Another guy who shoots weddings and a whole bunch of other stuff with the A7RII is Jason Lanier. He seems a little mad, but he swears by the Sony E-mount system and has produced some superb work - as you have done. Eye focus is a huge benefit for portraiture.

 

[jfirneno]

Well I'll have to admit that more and more evidence is surfacing confirming better autofocus in the A7R II. That would be a fantastic coup for Sony if they started capturing some significant part of the wedding shooter market.

 

[dmward]

My biggest problem with focusing during a wedding, or any other situation is getting the focus point onto a sufficiently contrasty point to grab focus in a timely manner. This naturally gets more difficult when overall ight levels go down at a reception or otherwise. This was true with all three models of 5D Canon I used, the Fuji XT-1 and even the A7RII.

That said, the A7RII is as good or better than the other two. My instinct is that its a bit better.

The biggest advantage is being able to move the focus point all over the screen without diminishing focus sensitivity. At least it seems that all the phase points act alike. They appear to have either a horizontal or vertical bias. I found a few times that when I couldn't lock when in holding the camera horizontally, tilting it to vertical locked instantly on the same point.