News Sony A7II tests by Dennis Biela, Paul Gero and Allin Popescu.
Reminder: A7II now in Stock at Amazon, Adorama, Bhphoto and Sony US and Digitalrev.
Dennis Biela posted the video you see on top with the following comment:
Sony loaned me a production a7II camera for a upcoming photo shoot and in testing out the camera I found that it has a huge image buffer. If you shoot in jpg fine and use a fast SD card like Sony’s new high speed SDXC memory cards you will not fill the buffer to the limit and can shoot continuously at 5 frames per sec. all day. In the video I only stopped shooting so not to bore people. As to raw files they are different you can shoot up to 25ish images still a respectable amount. Another interesting fact is the camera does not have a high speed mode like the a77II meaning that you can shoot at 5 fps at what ever f-stop you want unlike some cameras where shooting at high speed means you shoot at the maximum lens opening. 5 fps is not extremely fast like 12 or 8 but with the fact that you can keep shooting for a long duration of images and the camera can track focus at this speed I feel its a big leap for the a7 class of mirrorless cameras.
Allin Popescu (Click here) wrote a very detailed A7II test with many samples and videos. His findings on the 5 axis system and autofocus are:
To conclude on the stabilisation subject, I must say that 5 axis IBIS in Sony a7II works best on wide to medium focal lengths, but looses its effectiveness while you go towards tele zone (over 135-180 mm and beyond). At those focals, any simple movement translates to long jumps over the image sensor, and it’s movement to compensate for it it’s limited to millimetres. That’s why, for tele lenses, the best system is the Optical Stabilisation.
I tell you that this new model behaves excellently at focusing, much better than it’s older brother, especially in low light.
Paul Gero (Click here) writes:
I have been testing this camera and as you can see from the photographs below being able to shoot handheld at 1/4 of a second with a 200mm focal length is pretty impressive. As long as your subject is stable, then sharp photographs are now possible in what we jokingly referred to as the “Hail Mary” range of light (hold your breath, dig your elbows into your body and say a prayer before you shoot at a slow shutter speed shot — thank you Bill Allard for that description).
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USA/Canada A7II links:
Sony Alpha a7II (Body Only) for $1,698 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore and Sony Store Canada.
Sony Alpha a7II with FE 28-70mm OSS Lens for $1,998 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore.
Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G SSM II Lens for $1,148 at BHphoto.
EU A7II links:
Sony Alpha a7II (Body Only) for 1.799 Euro at Sony Germany, Sony UK, Jessops UK, Sony France, Sony Italy, Sony Spain, Sony Austria, Sony Switzerland, Sony Netherland, Sony Belgium, Sony Portugal, Sony Sweden, Sony Finland, Sony Norway.
Sony Alpha a7II with FE 28-70mm OSS Lens for 2.099 Euro at Amazon Germany, Wex UK, Jessops UK, Verkkokauppa.
Asian/Australia A7II link:
Sony A7II at Sony Store Australia, Digitalrev and Amazon Japan.