Reminder: The new A7II preorders are up at BHphoto , Adorama and SonyStore!

The very first full Sony A7II review has been posted in China at Dc.it168.com (google translation here). Image samples can be seen on that page (Click here). These are the reviewers conclusion:

– A great evolution but not a revolution over the A7
– Autofocus Speed is faster than the one from the A7 but still slower than the A6000
– Image quality is the same of the A7
– Ergonomic is much improved and also the camera “feels” better in terms of build quality

Pretty “obvious” conclusions I would say :)

P.S.: A7II announcement at Fotointern.ch.

USA preorders:
Sony Alpha a7II  (Body Only) for $1,698 at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here), SonyStore (Click here).
Sony Alpha a7II  with FE 28-70mm OSS Lens for $1,998 at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here), SonyStore (Click here).
Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G SSM II Lens for $1,148 at BHphoto (Click here).

EU preorders:
Sony Alpha a7II  (Body Only) for 1.799 Euro at Amazon Germany (Click here) and 1299 pounds at Wex UK (Click here).
Sony Alpha a7II  with FE 28-70mm OSS Lens for 2.099 Euro at Amazon Germany (Click here) and 1699 pounds at Wex UK (Click here). In Finland at Verkkokauppa.

Since yesterday the A7II is available for preorder in USA and in few Eu stores (strangely still no preorder options at Sony EU). ItsDanK is one of the very few lucky guys that got his hands on the A7II and he writes:

Things to note:

1. The dials are quite nice and rubberized now
2. The entire body is quite a bit thicker, noticeably.
3. Weight is also increased.
4. There’s a manual function for the steadyshot to adjust for third party lenses all the way up to 1000mm.
5. I’m so use to the shutter button being on top that it’s almost weird to use the grip shutter.
6. New mag alloy rubberized spec finish for the body, quite grippy.
7. Steadyshot is pretty awesome and more noticeable with longer focal lengths (obviously).
8. a6000 like AF box dots whilst focusing. This uses hybrid AF with contrast and phase detect (on sensor) working together at the same time.

All good news so far!

UDPATE: A Korean readers sent me info on Korean A7II tests:

http://www.slrclub.com/bbs/vx2.php?id=minolta_forum&divpage=168&no=896986
http://www.sony.co.kr/alpha/handler/AlphaIndex-Start
Sony Korea announced that Sony A7II will be launched at 12/2 Tue.
That means its a first launch in the world and so many sony mirrorless cameras sold in korea.

http://www.slrclub.com/bbs/vx2.php?id=minolta_forum&no=896844
BTW, here a short review of Sony A7II. That explains
– a7ii is more heavier than a7 but the hand grip is better than a7.
– (just felling)viewfinder is better than a7’s one. he felling that framerate is increased.
– AF is more more faster than a7 but not good at low light scene (compare with A7s).
– AF Tracking is better like A6000 in the phase detection area.
– 5-axis stabilization is nice. check that article. (he succeed with 55F18 lens and 1/8)
– boot time is much faster than A7, feels like 2x.
– does not show the flare (halation) — check: http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1247655/144 (http://www.vahonen.com/2013/A7temp/20131226chruchFlareCrop.jpg)
he feels that new A7II is like A8 not A7II. :p
and the here is some shots taken with A7ii : http://www.slrclub.com/bbs/vx2.php?id=minolta_forum&divpage=168&no=896978&category=3

USA preorders:
Sony Alpha a7II  (Body Only) for $1,698 at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here), SonyStore (Click here).
Sony Alpha a7II  with FE 28-70mm OSS Lens for $1,998 at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here), SonyStore (Click here).
Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G SSM II Lens for $1,148 at BHphoto (Click here).

EU preorders:
Sony Alpha a7II  (Body Only) for 1.799 Euro at Amazon Germany (Click here) and 1299 pounds at Wex UK (Click here).
Sony Alpha a7II  with FE 28-70mm OSS Lens for 2.099 Euro at Amazon Germany (Click here) and 1699 pounds at Wex UK (Click here). In Finland at Verkkokauppa.

Preorders:
Sony Alpha a7II  (Body Only) for $1,698 at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here), SonyStore (Click here).
Sony Alpha a7II  with FE 28-70mm OSS Lens for $1,998 at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here), SonyStore (Click here).
Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G SSM II Lens for $1,148 at BHphoto (Click here).

–

The video on top shows you how much the Full Frame sensor moves to stabilize the image. Quite incredible that there is enough space on E-mount to make it work!

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Preorders:
Sony Alpha a7II  (Body Only) for $1,698 at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here), SonyStore (Click here).
Sony Alpha a7II  with FE 28-70mm OSS Lens for $1,998 at Amazon (Click here), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here), SonyStore (Click here).
Sony 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 G SSM II Lens for $1,148 at BHphoto (Click here).

Tony Northup posted this 30 min long A7m2 introduction video (Thanks Tony!!!). I agree with him when he says the 5 axis stabilization system is a real game changer feature. Ai also want to add the A7m2 has NOT the A6000 hybrid focus system. That’s coming (in an advanced version) on the Sony A9. And Yes, Canon and Nikon will offer FF mirrorless by late 2015 but Sony’s real advantage is the knowledge they have acquired in these years on the mirrorless front and compared to Nikon Sony has an immense tech knowledge on the video front too. I therefore really do believe Canon and Nikon will not be able to match Sony’s offerings by end of 2015. That’s why the Sony A9 is that exciting. Sony will put all the best tech on it!

Stay tuned on SAR because the real rumor time is ahead of us!

P.S.: There is still no A7m2 preorder option at Sony US and Sony Europe.

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Image courtesy: CameraSize.

The new Zeiss 16-35mm FE is now shipping almost everywhere and I keep receiving more and more tests. First of all see the picture on top to see how much smaller the A7+Zeiss combo is compared to equivalent Canon and Nikon kits. Also note that DxOmark ranked the Zeiss as best here (although it beats the Nikon only by a hair). And here the new tests:

Verdict FE16-35mm vs. SEL10-18mm (alphafotograf.de).
Sony FE 16-35mm F4 Testing (ProImagenz).
Quick look by Steve Huff.
SONY A7R + Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar T* FE 4/16-35 ZA OSS (SEL1635Z) Timelapse TEST (Youtube).

Check the 16-35mm Zeiss lens price and in Stock status here:
USA/Canada  at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Sony Store US, Sony Canada.
Europe at Sony DE, UK, ES, IT, FR, CH, AT, NL, BE, FI, SE, NO, PT.
Australia and Asia at Sony AUS, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.

You can download the A7 with 16-35mm versus A6000 with 10-18mm comparison images at Jörg Haag’s website.

In contrary to what I did in the hands-on review of the FE 16-35mm F4 ZA OSS I will not give any comments or a verdict on the images and will leave that fully to the readers.

So what do you think of that comparison?

Preorder the 16-35mm Zeiss lens here:
USA/Canada  at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Sony Store US, Sony Canada.
Europe at Sony DE, UK, ES, IT, FR, CH, AT, NL, BE, FI, SE, NO, PT.
Australia and Asia at Sony AUS, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.

Zeiss 16-35mm FE shipping early next week! Yesterday many US SAR reader got notified that their 16-35mm preorder at Amazon US will ship next week November 18!

Photographyblog (Click here) posted the extensive 16-35mm Zeiss FE f/4.0 lens review. The lens gets Highly Recommended for the following reason:

It delivers outstanding sharpness in the centre of the frame almost throughout its aperture and zoom range, and also performs very well at the edges of the frame too. The Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35 mm F4 ZA OSS lens does suffer from both distortion and vignetting at either end of the zoom range, requiring some post-processing to remove it, but chromatic aberrations are well-controlled and it can even create some nice bokeh effects when shooting wide-open at 35mm. The relatively compact Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 16-35 mm F4 ZA OSS offers an effective image stabilisation system, quite fast, quiet and reliable auto-focusing on the A7R that we tested it with, intuitive manual focusing and an excellent level of build quality, plus it’s usefully weather-tight too. All in all, we’d definitely recommend buying this lens if you can stomach the price of admission – it makes an excellent addition to the already released Zeiss FE 24-70mm F4 and FE 70-200mm F4 lenses.

Preorder the 16-35mm Zeiss lens here:
USA/Canada  at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Sony Store US, Sony Canada.
Europe at Sony DE, UK, ES, IT, FR, CH, AT, NL, BE, FI, SE, NO, PT.
Australia and Asia at Sony AUS, Amazon Japan and Digitalrev.