First Sony A7RII Reviews, Tests, Hand-on Videos

First reviews, tests and hands-on video reviews now available online for the Sony A7RII which is the world’s first back-illuminated full-frame Exmor R CMOS sensor with a resolution of 42.4 megapixels with 4K video recording.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Smith has posted the first Sony a7RII field test review. He says “Unlike previous a7-series cameras that each have particular strengths or features, the flagship a7RII does everything well.” in his conclusion.

CameraLabs posted a short Sony A7r Mark II hands-on video to find out how the autofocus compared between native FE, adapted A and adapted Canon EF lenses, including the first shutter noise test. See the videos below.

The new Sony A7RII boasts high speed AF response up to 40% faster than the original α7R thanks to 399 focal plane phase detection AF points.

First Sony A7RII Reviews, Tests, Hand-on Videos

Sony Alpha A7RII: Quick Focusing Test Using Non-Native Lens

Sony Alpha A7r Mark II hands-on Video

Dpreview posted their positive opinion for the new Sony A7rII shooter.

42.4MP… ignoring medium format, who would’ve thought that we’d have to call that not class-leading? You can thank the Canon 5DS and 5DS R for that, which the a7R II falls short of with respect to resolution. And yet, in almost every other respect, the sensor in the a7R II is bound to outclass the 50.6MP sensors in Canon’s latest high-resolution beasts.

One could remark that in challenging the giants, Sony must innovate to offer a competitive advantage. And one would be absolutely right. But the level of innovation and effort that we’re seeing here is formidable. I haven’t even touched the surface in this opinion piece

From Trustedreviews also got his hands on the A7rII and writes:

The Sony Alpha A7R II is a dream camera for many. It takes everything that made the A7 and A7R so important, then adds and improves so much it comfortably outpaces the rate of improvements we see from Nikon and Canon in their DSLR ranges. Sony is not treading water.
This is a system camera that should interest professionals as well as just keen hobbyists, while its impressive video skills mean it’s anything but a stills-only specialist.

Kai from Digitalrev has posted an article named “Sony a7RII: The Canon 5Ds R Killer”.

High-resolution, 5-axis stablisation, 4k video, faster autofocus, better shutter – these are not marginal improvements but rather changes of a colossal scale. Other camera manufacturers should take note: the a7R II is how a product update should be done.

I’m not going to say that the Sony a7R II is a better camera than the Canon 5Ds R, I’m not comparing the cameras as such. But what should be compared are the approaches of the respective manufacturers of each camera. Both Canon and Sony are huge companies that don’t need to rely on outside help to develop things like their own sensors, they have the potential to create new and exciting products without having to take whatever parts they are given. They are pretty self-reliant companies. When you look at what Canon are coming up with and then what Sony are doing, you can’t help but think that Canon are holding something back, playing it safe. In this comparison, there is no comparison because it has become quite apparent that Sony is the one that we should be eagerly anticipating to make the next big moves.

In a recent interview with Kimio Maki, Sony Corp by imaging-resource, Sony currently is working on uncompressed RAW for mirrorless cameras, this feature will coming to a7RII one day by a firmware update. They also talked about why sensors is 42MP not 50MP, and Advantages of backside illuminated sensors and Hybrid Autofocus. You can read full interview at imaging-resource.

The 42.4 MP sensor combines gapless on-chip lens design and AR (anti-reflective) coating on the surface of the sensor’s glass seal to dramatically improve light collection efficiency, resulting in high sensitivity with low-noise performance and wide dynamic range. This allows the camera to shoot at an ISO range of 100 to 25600 that is expandable to ISO 50 to 1024002.

Sony A7RII Mirrorless Camera Price

The Sony α7R II full-frame interchangeable lens camera will be available in August for about $3200.