LOL: SAR reader sleeps with his new A7rII :)

SAR reader John Wilhelm sent me this picture he posted on facebook happily sleeping with his new Sony A7rII toy! While the picture is certainly nicely photoshopped I am pretty sure some of the new A7rII owners will keep the camera close to their bed the first night :)

If I sound critical is this brief description it’s because $3k cameras are not allowed to make excuses  :-)

-It’s massive, I really don’t like how big these cameras have become. I knew the weight had gone up hugely too and expected that to make it feel like a dense, top quality item. It doesn’t – it merely feels just like any other good DSLR.

-Packaging/presentation is standard fare, no more premium than any of their other cameras.

-Included: 2 batteries, USB cable, strap, nicely compact 11W USB charger.

-It accepted my non-Sony battery and happily charged from all my USB battery packs as well as an iPhone wall charger while in use.

-Viewfinder: nicer than I expected though flicker is very noticable, resolution adequate but pixels visible

-Speed of operation: Responsive, some extra (but still not all) functions can be used while it’s still writing to card

-Software: Many small improvements, eg more customisation, can add copyright, zooms into AF area chosen instead of the centre every time, AutoISO limits 

-Shutter: I’m going to love silent shutter and might leave it that way perminantly: I couldn’t make any rolling shutter-like artefacts appear when I tried

-Buffer: A sometimes-limiting 21 shots (RAW+JPG), and only 44 shots/min thereafter using a 280MB/sec card. RAWs are 43.5MB each.

 

Overall – When you say “Oh my God” loudly after viewing the very first shot, you know you have something special…makes me want to go reshoot everything I’ve had success with before and more :-D