[shoplink 40133 ebay][/shoplink]
We have the very first Sony A7rII superkit deal: You get 13(!) free items along the A7rII sold by [shoplink 40133 ebay]Cameta on eBay (read all the long free extra list here)[/shoplink].

DigitalCameraWorld writes:

For a compact and lightweight camera capable of producing excellent high resolution images in a range of conditions, the A7R II is pretty impressive but by no means perfect. It’s a good all-rounder despite it’s high price tag, which is a considerable amount more than the A7 II. This is just as well, as in direct competition it could seriously affect the A7 II’s future.

Sony a7R II Vs a7S Video Field Comparison by Lensrentals:

The Sony a7R II is seriously impressive. I still love the lean and light Sony a7S with an unreal low light capability, but it is clear that the Sony a7R II can go places the Sony a7S cannot. Shooting telephoto handheld and need it in 4k? You know what you’ll go for.

Sony A7r II – Focus Testing w/ Canon EF 24-105 f/4 L IS Lens (SonyAlphaLab on Youtube).
Test – Sony A7R II : présentation et caractéristiques (Focus Numerique).

Sony A7Rii Buffer Test, RAW and all Jpeg formats in High Continuous Mode by Jason Lanier

Fred Miranda: “There is a way to turn OFF the monitor LCD using a custom button. This method will turn off both EVF and Monitor and save battery life.
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1384552”

Florian: “The well know review portal digitalkamera.de (Martin Vieten is one of their reviewers) has tested the A7RII together with the 1.8/55 and they found out that it perform massively worse in the corners with the A7RII compared to the A7R. Wide open the resolution drops as low as 32 lp/mm and only gets back to the level of the A7R at around f4!!!
MTF and full review can be found here:
http://www.digitalkamera.de/Meldung/Bildqualitaetstest_der_42_Megapixel_Sony_Alpha_7R_II_mit_1_8_55_Zeiss/9614.aspx”

Kolarivision Sony A7R II with Leica M Lenses: Coming Soon (Diglloyd).
Test at German Chip.de.

New Photographyblog A7rII with EF lens tests:
http://www.photographyblog.com/previews/sony_a7r_ii_canon_ef_11_24mm_f4_photos/
http://www.photographyblog.com/previews/sony_a7r_ii_canon_ef_24_70mm_f2_8_photos/
http://www.photographyblog.com/previews/sony_a7r_ii_sigma_24_35mm_f2_photos/

3D-Kraft “Early in the morning in Hamburg’s Hafencity”
Vimeo (playable in 1080p, 4K download available): https://vimeo.com/137224849
YouTube (playable also in 1440p and 2160p): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrOIix3_Css

A7rII store links:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

A7rII case:
Gariz leather case in [shoplink 39113 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39108 ebay]Camel (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39110 ebay]Orange (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39111 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 39112 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink]. Also available on Amazon US (Click here).
Gariz Alcantara case in [shoplink 39094 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 39095 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink]. Also available on Amazon US (Click here).
Lim’s case in [shoplink 39107 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39102 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39103 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39104 ebay]Yellow (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39105 ebay]Navy Blue (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 39106 ebay]Khaki (Click here)[/shoplink]. Also available on Amazon US (Click here).

In Stock status: The A7rII is in Stock at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, and Digitalrev!

This is probably the most “philosophical” A7rII review to date. Dearsusans claims that “While my informal and brief testing can’t let me conclude that anything in the quantity department is any better than before (resolution, dynamic range …) quality is a quantum leap ahead in the A7rII.”

And with Quality they mean theA7rII images have a much improved “aesthetics” suggesting that Sony completely changed the way images get produced:

It seems that, through the combination of slightly lower contrast, better white balance and something else…colours show better differentiation. Without being more saturated, they feel bolder and more balanced. Photographs, even when pushed hard, don’t get that slightly cartoonish look that happened on occasion with the previous camera.
Black and White photos: What I’m seeing is not only more clarity, notably in the shadows, but also better, smoother tonality. Even with contrast pushed significantly read way too much, as above ? ), photographs remain rich and smooth. This was not always the case with the A7r which could sometimes become grainy and harsh.

They have done what only film manufacturers bothered to do before them. They have crafted a look.

A7rII (left) vs A7r (right): “Colours and tones are more differentiated, the photo seems brighter and more lively. Resolution is also slightly better and holds sharpening better, too.”

A7rII preorder list:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Sony DE, UK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

A7rII case:
Gariz leather case in [shoplink 39113 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39108 ebay]Camel (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39110 ebay]Orange (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39111 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 39112 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink]. Also available on Amazon US (Click here).
Gariz Alcantara case in [shoplink 39094 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 39095 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink]. Also available on Amazon US (Click here).
Lim’s case in [shoplink 39107 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39102 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39103 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39104 ebay]Yellow (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 39105 ebay]Navy Blue (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 39106 ebay]Khaki (Click here)[/shoplink]. Also available on Amazon US (Click here).

Image courtesy: Gregwatermann.com.

Zeiss Ambassador Greg Watermann sent me this:

I recently tested the new Batis lenses shooting actress Kassandra Kanaar in Hollywood. You can see the photos she approved here: http://www.gregwatermann.com/clients/KKanaar_2015/. All pics were shot handheld and wide open on an a7R. Zeiss made a behind the scenes of our shoot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azRl6i06BD4. And you can see more info at the bottom of this page: zeiss.com. The optical performance was exceptional. Beautiful skin texture, obviously sharp, no chromatic aberration, and wonderful to focus manually. The Image Stabilization is amazing and the lenses are perfectly balanced on the camera. All images shot handheld and wide open.

There is also a full 85mm Batis review at Admiringlight:

The lens is simply spectacularly sharp, and starts that crazy sharpness right from f/1.8.  Wide open shots display exceptional clarity and gorgeous background blur while providing a flattering contrast profile for portraits.  I simply love the look of the images from this lens. It’s an absolutely top-tier optic and one that I’m already saving my pennies to purchase for myself.

Batis store links:
Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 lens in US at Adorama, Bhphoto. In Eu at Amazon DE, WexUK. In Asia at Digitalrev.
Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2.0 lens at Adorama, Bhphoto. In EU at Amazon DE, WexUK. In Asia at Digitalrev.

While the 55mm FE lens is the best autofocus lens ever tested I noticed on the DxO interactive graph that the new 90mm FE G lens is actually the sharpest lens in their database. Even sharper than the $4,000 Zeiss Otus lens line!

This also means I changed my mind and I will go for the FE 90mm macro and not for the Batis :)

90mm links:
In USA at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, [shoplink 37938 ebay]eBay US (Click here)[/shoplink].
In Europe at [shoplink 37991 ebay]Fotomundus[/shoplink], Amazon Germany, Sony Germany, Sony UK, Sony FR, Sony IT, Sony ES, Sony NL, Sony BE, Sony AT, Sony CH, Sony SE, Sony FI, Sony NO, Sony PT.
In Asia at Digitalrev, Sony Australia.

P.S.: Sony FE 90mm f/2.8 Macro OSS G Lens Review by SonyAlphaLab on Youtube.

New 24mm XEEN on the new Sony A7rII (Image courtesy: DSLRmagazine)

As you know recently Samyang/Rokinon launched the new XEEN Cine lens line. Those lenses are much cheaper than other current Cine lenses from Zeiss and Schneider. Full specs and preorder are available at BHphoto:
Rokinon Xeen 24mm T1.5 Lens (Click here).
Rokinon Xeen 50mm T1.5 Lens (Click here).
Rokinon Xeen 85mm T1.5 Lens (Click here).

DSLRmagazine (google translation here) tested the lenses on the A7rII and added an interesting note. He got informed by Samyang that those lenses are not only superb for 4K recording but they are also 6K ready if Sony or other camera manufacturer will launch those kind of cameras in the near future.

Newsshooter tested those lenses on the Sony A7rII to see if they can come close to the Zeiss-Schneider quality:

In the test the XEEN lens appeared to be warmer than the Sony or Zeiss. In 4K the XEEN also appeared to be the sharpest of the three. The Sony had a nice image and bokeh was quite pleasant, but there was a slightly strange rendition of the light on the phone. To my eye the Zeiss did look more cinematic, but you may have a different opinion. The Zeiss was also the only lens to exhibit obvious lens flares.

XEEN 85mm T1.5 vs ZEISS CP.2 85mm T1.5 vs Sony CineAlta 85mm T2.0 with Sony a7R II. Ungraded

There is also a first impression review at BH Explora (Click here):

I found the Rokinon XEEN Cine Lenses to be well made, easy to work with, and overall I enjoyed the image quality. They rendered naturalistic images with good contrast and a pleasing, slightly warm feel. Intercutting between the lenses required no additional color correction beyond applying the same LUT to the footage. It is my preference to shoot more closed down than wide open, and I did feel the lenses performed best starting around T4, but I was still satisfied with footage shot at T1.5. Overall, I was pleased with the XEEN lenses and look forward to working with them again.

Full specs and preorder are available at BHphoto:
Rokinon Xeen 24mm T1.5 Lens (Click here).
Rokinon Xeen 50mm T1.5 Lens (Click here).
Rokinon Xeen 85mm T1.5 Lens (Click here).