Dpreview tests the A99II and says “the mirror’s impact on image quality is remarkably small”

Dpreview just posted the a99II first impressions review. And there is one very interesting part about the “Light loss” caused by the presence of the fixed semi translucent mirror. And the news are very good indeed:

Raw
Let’s get to it and answer the biggest question: how does the mirror of the a99 II impact image quality of the 42MP sensor from the a7R II?
At base ISO, the differences between the two are virtually imperceptible, save for resolution dropping due to the lens used. That means between the a7R II and a99 II (center) resolution and detail remain largely the same, as does moirè.
Switching to low light we see a very small noise cost due to the mirror. We were surprised by just how small this noise penalty was, so we performed a more controlled study with the a99 II and a7R II both mounted to the same lens to minimize variables. Here, we found the a99 II to be about 1/3 EV behind the a7R II, closer in line with the expected 1/2 EV noise cost expected and reported by DXO. All in all, the mirror’s impact on image quality is remarkably small.

JPEG
As far as we can tell, the a7R II and a99 II share similar JPEG engines. There’s just a hint more NR at lower ISOs on the a99 II, perhaps due to the slightly increased underlying noise thanks to the mirror in the light path. That means users will continue to enjoy class-leading sharpening and very good high ISO detail retention. Unfortunately, Sony’s typical color issues persist, with greenish-tinted yellows and slightly cool greens.

Dynamic Range
The mirror’s effect remains shockingly small even in our ISO-invariance and Exposure Latitude tests, where while the sensor performs largely like it does in the a7R II. That means while it isn’t entirely ISO-invariant, it still offers an extremely low noise floor that can cope with some very strong processing, much like the a7R II.

Sony A99II at [shopcountry 54828].

Sports Photography test: A99II vs D5 & 1DX Mark II

Sport Photographer Davey Wilson (article at SLRlounge) tested the [shoplink 54828]new Sony A99II[/shoplink] and compared it with the “classic” sports professional tools like the Nikon D5 and Canon 1DX Mark II. The conclusion is:

The Sony A99ii has been a camera we’ve been excited about since PhotoPlus last fall. On paper, it’s a veritable powerful taking the best of mirrorless and DSLR’s and compressing those features into a compact SLR-style body. It’s not perfect, no camera is, but it’s nice to see a company like Sony listening to its longtime users and delivering a high-resolution performance driven camera that actually appears to be as advertised.

Sony A99II at [shopcountry 54828].

Sony A7rII and Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 ready for sport photography?

This is a Guest Post from IzioPhotography:

Sony A7rII and Sony 70-200mm f/2.8 ready for sport photography?

You can already find a lot of reviews on the internet about this topic. Unfortunately they have used the [shoplink 54958]70-200mm f4 lens[/shoplink]. Certainly a very good lens but not when you have to shoot sports like Hockey. Depending on the light this lens is just to slow. And since i have received my [shoplink 54957]Sony 70-200mm f2.8[/shoplink], why not giving it a try. As one of my assignment I’m acting as team-photographer for the premier league Hockey Club EV Zug in Switzerland. A perfect playground for the test. During the last 3 home games of the EVZ I have used the combination of a [shoplink 55034]Sony A7rII[/shoplink] and the [shoplink 54957]Sony 70-200mm f2.8[/shoplink] as my main “working-horse”. I have integrated them in my mobile pictures-creating work-flow:

  1. shooting pictures with the Sony,
  2. transferring them via WLan to an IPad pro
  3. quick post-processing them on the IPad
  4. uploading them to the social-media and news services

This work-flow is a bit different to a “classic” one. Were you would use a Notebook and perhaps a tool like Photomechanic to add description to the pictures. But since I create the pictures for the team and their social-media, websites and news-feed I have different needs. Like being light, mobile and fast. I do not have to write that much into the files. My first concern was how the autofocus of the Sony A7rII would perform and would the lens start hunting for the focus? Over or under exposed pictures can be recovered. But out of focus? They are lost. Therefore forget the Wide focus setting. It might look cool, to watch all those green boxes hunting for an objective to focus on. But first they are way to slow, second they will not always lock on the objective you want and third did I mention they are slow? My tests indicated that the Centre focus setting has the fasted and most reliable focus. The lens had never an issue with “hunting for focus”. Smoothly working lens, sharp and fast. The pictures that you find in this posts are all taken with this lens. The setting of the camera:

  • 1/800 shutter speed
  • f2.8 aperture
  • ISO 2000

Post process was done in Lightroom: straighten up, cropping, correcting white balance and contrast. In a nutshell, what did i like:

  • The lens is sharp, even at full open aperture
  • The lens does not hunt for the focus. Works smoothly
  • Autofocus is reliable when you set it up correct (Centre)
  • WLAN is working smoothly. Better than my Nikon WT-5

What did I not like?

  • I miss a second slot for a memory card
  • Battery performance is weak. The battery-grip is a must. You need those two batteries for the full length of a Hockey game
  • 5 frames per second is a bit slow. A few more would be great
  • More reliable autofocus settings to play with.

Let’s come back to the initial question. Is the A7rII ready for sport photography? Yes, but not for all sports. Hockey is fine, as you see with my images. For soccer we are missing longer lenses like a 400mm or 600mm. Some action sports would profit with more frames per seconds and a autofocus that you can tweak more. In my case I’m happy with the Sony. Picture quality is the same with my other Nikon cameras (D4s/D810), the WLAN work much more reliable compared to the Nikon WT-5 module.

I hope I could help someone with this short test. I’m not affiliated with Sony or Nikon.

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70-200mm f/2.8 FE GM store links: [shopcountry 54957]
70-200mm f/4.0 FE store links: [shopcountry 54958]