New A7rII tests: RAW file opening in Adobe improved. Legacy lenses performing much better.

LR RAW vs JPEG Sony A7RII
(Click on image to enlarge)


A7rII in Stock now
at [shoplink 39078 ebay]BestBuy eBay (Click here)[/shoplink] and BestBuy (Click here)
A7rII preorders are now shipping in USA
at Amazon, BHphoto, AdoramaSonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto, BestBuy.
One more quick news: Live panel discussion with Sony on August 12 at BHphoto (Click here to read detailed info).

New A7rII tests

Alin Popescu sent me that image (posted on top) and the following text:

I just updated to last version of LR and I am now able to see my RAW files from the Sony A7R II. What came to my surprise was to see the interpretation of the RAW files by the LR engine. Until now, you could see for a fraction of a second the embedded jpeg in the RAW file and then, the LR engine interpreted the file in a more washed-out, uglier version. You had to use Camera Calibration profiles to get closer to the JPEG look.
With this last version it interprets almost perfectly the RAW file, less the DRO shadow boosting on the Jpeg file.Is it just my brained fooled or is there a real RAW engine shared by Sony to the Adobe team ?!

AustroWiki on SonyAlphaForum noticed that Legacy lenses appear to perform better on A7rII:

I have tried two legacy lenses briefly on my new Sony A7rII. I haven’t done any proper testing. With those points made I have observed that the legacy lenses are performing much better. CA seems to be markedly less. This was particularly noticeable on the Minolta MD 135mm F2. At F2 on the first A7r purple fringing was always present now it is much reduced. I had a similar problem, though not so great with the Minolta AF 500mm reflex lens.. there are still hints of CA… but that lens now produces phenomenal pictures. What has Sony done? Tomorrow I am trying the beer can and the MD 24mm VFC I will see if the same occurs.

Readers Write on the Sony A7R II (Diglloyd).
We take Sony’s A7R II street shooting in Portland (Imaging Resource).
Some sample videos with the Sony A7R II at all of the available settings, from 4K, then AVCHD, through to MP4 (Photographyblog).
Tutorial Sony A7RM2 Autofocus mit Metabones-Adapter und Canon EOS-Objektiven (Martin Wagner on Vimeo).
Sony a7RII AF test with Canon lenses (Learningcameras on Youtube).
Sony a7RII Sample Footage in 4k (Learningcameras on Youtube).
Never ending new A7rII owners discussion at SonyAlphaForum.

A7rII preorder list:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, AdoramaSonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at Sony DEUK, 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).

New A7rII review by Mark Galer. A7rII now shipping at SonyStore Europe and US.


A7rII review by Mark Galer

SAR readers notified me that their US preorders and EU preorders (Sony Germany and Fotomundus) are shipping the camera today! Check out the usual A7rII preorder list:
In USA: at Amazon, BHphoto, AdoramaSonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto, [shoplink 39078 ebay]BestBuy eBay[/shoplink], BestBuy.
In Europe at Sony DEUK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

Marg Galers review:

Here is a review movie on YouTube (embedded on top).: https://youtu.be/uu43uhx8gsI
Here is a 4K sample movie on YouTube at ISO 3,200: https://youtu.be/vJQs3IwzjLU
Here is a link to a folder of Raw files captured with the A7RII: http://adobe.ly/1ItECWN
Gallery of 4K files on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/markgaler/sets/72157655787552128

New A7rII test:

Plenty of readers and bloggers keep sending me links to their A7rII test. So here is a new roundup and to start with something different let’s talk about the “negatives” listed by Alex Pasquini:

There are a LOT of cool things about this camera but for now I’m just going to concentrate on some negatives.

  • Switching between Full Frame and Super 35 has to be through the menu. You’re unable to assign it to a shortcut. Sony please fix this through a firmware update!
  • I’ve found Peaking to be a little buggy, sometimes it just stops working, haven’t narrowed it down to why just yet!
  • Magnify during recording to check focus is awesome. Downside is, it’s still quite hard to tell without peaking. In the Canon 5dMk3 the image kind of popped into focus. With the Sony it’s a little more subtle. Need to get used to this.
  • You can’t take photos in video mode. Pretty annoying. 
  • When shooting 4k it can be a little slow to start. Not an instance record, a lag of a second or so. A bit frustrating when shooting fast action like skateboarding but not a massive deal. 

More A7rII tests:
Ongoing A7rII owners report at SonyAlphaForum
Long time Nikon (D4/D4S) wedding photographer’s first thoughts on the a7rII with examples. She will be selling the Nikons and replacing with Sony (Agatomaszek.com).
Handheld shooting and grading test (Youtube).
Sony A7R II with the Sony FE 55mm Sample Images (Photographyblog).
Sony A7R II with the Sony FE 28mm Sample Images (Photographyblog).
Sony A7R II with the Sony FE 90mm Sample Images (Photographyblog).
New RAW and JPG files availabe at SonyAlphaForum via Le Butler.
Slow motion and slow shutter test at Newsshooter.
Image samples by Brian Smith.
Sony a7R II – First hand impressions + RAW Download (Brian Matiash).
A Mega Star is Born: Sony Singapore unveils its much anticipated full frame mirrorless A7RM2 camera (Stardoms).


Sony α7R II review – DAY 3: FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND LOW LIGHT TESTS

The A7II bug found by David Sampson is also “valid” on the new A7rII:

If you attach a 3rd party lens after using an OSS (eg the 24-70 FE) lens then IBIS does not work
If you attach a 3rd party lens after using a non OSS lens (eg the 55 f1.8) then IBIS does work.

There is a workaround to fix the issue when it appears. David S. sent me this:

If you unmount (take off) an OSS lens without turning the camera off (or at least turn it off after you have removed the lens) then when you attach a third party (dumb) adaptor ‘steady shot’ (IBIS) continues to work normally. Of course this is not a thing a photographer would normally do as it usually common sense to turn the camera off when changing lenses so would still benefit from a firmware upgrade

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

Bildschirmfoto 2015-08-02 um 06.52.12

Uniquephoto (Click here) organized a special A7rII launch event with Sony Artisans. If you cannot participate don’t worry, there is a livestreaming too.

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

First A7rII vs 5DSr comparison: Sony outperforms the Canon and is “nothing short of incredible”!

This is the very first Dynamic Range image test comparison between the Canon 5DSr and Sony A7rII done by Tim Parkin from On Landscape. Tim writes:

“We can obviously see a considerable difference here and so straight out of lightroom the A7Rii is nothing short of incredible. Let me remind you, this is +5 exposure and +100 shadow recovery!”
Tim still wants to make more tests to confirm this so take it with a grain of salt. And obviously we have to see more test made by different reviewers before to draw any conclusion. But if those will confirm Tim’s conclusion well the new Sony smokes out the new 50MP Canon
UPDATE: Tim sent me an additional note: “Might be worth putting a little note on the blog post that the Sony A7Rii had more headroom in the highlights and the 6 stops was measured from there – hence why the exposures aren’t the same.
Also Gordon from CameraLabs posted a first hands-on review:
With the Mark II the A7r has grown-up quickly to become a camera that needs no excuses. I still lament the absence of a touch-screen, but otherwise the A7r Mark II is shaping up to be an extremely promising camera.

Ongoing A7rII owners discussion can be followed on our SonyAlphaForum.

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

A7rII Gariz case
The current A7II Gariz cases suite perfectly for the A7rII too:
Alcantara case in [shoplink 38168 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 38169 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink].
Leather case in [shoplink 38164 ebay]Orange (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 38165 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 38166 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 38167 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink].
As this is the same A7II case you can buy them all also at Amazon US (Click here).

A7rII rolling shutter tests by Cinema5D and Newsshooter.

Image courtesy: Cinema5D

Reminder: A7rII shipping in USA! The first preorders will ship tomorrow from all major stores like Amazon, BHphoto, AdoramaSonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto. Plenty of SAR readers got notified by those stores their camera will ship tomorrow or aftertomorrow :)

The cine sites Cinema5D and Newshsooter are eagerly testing the video quality of the new A7rII. Today both posted their rolling shutter test and both came to the same conclusion:

Cinema5D writes:

Rolling shutter on the new Sony A7RII is both good and bad. If you need a camera with good rolling shutter performance in 4K (UHD) you can either resort to the Sony A7RII Full Frame Mode or avoid this camera altogether and go with the Panasonic GH4 instead. The Sony A7s performs better, but the difference isn’t huge.

Newsshooter writes:

The results re-affirmed to me what I knew from my earlier tests. The jello effect is pretty bad when the camera is set in S35 mode. It is very similar to the performance of the sister a7S in full frame mode. For fast moving subjects and sports this could be a real problem. Luckily if you switch to full frame mode its a different story. The rolling shutter is much reduced. How much? well it is very close to the M4/3 sensor of the GH4. This comes as quite a surprise as the GH4 sensor is much smaller.

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

A7rII Gariz case
The current A7II Gariz cases suite perfectly for the A7rII too:
Alcantara case in [shoplink 38168 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 38169 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink].
Leather case in [shoplink 38164 ebay]Orange (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 38165 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 38166 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 38167 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink].
As this is the same A7II case you can buy them all also at Amazon US (Click here).

New A7rII tests: Minor Miracle on wide angle M-mount lenses. How to avoid 12 bit shooting.

A very first fully detailed A7rII review has been posted by Mobile01. It’s not in English but there are plenty of pictures and tests you can check.

First impressions by DearSusans:

A minor miracle appears to have occurred in that two of my favourite M lenses – the 18mm Super Elmar and 24mm Elmar – appear to show no colour fringing, whereas they were simply awful on the original A7. The 18mm Super Elmar and 24mm Elmar still have some problems (vignetting and softness at the edges) but are much, much better than they were on the A7r1. I would think anything from 35mm on will perform well.

A7RII 12-bit mode. How to avoid it by Fred Miranda.
The Sony A7RMII does 10 frames with auto bracket for an extreme HDR pic (Flickr by Richard Banton).
Sony A7RII 1st Thoughts, Images & Video by Steve Huff.
A7rII cage from Varavon (Newshhooter).
This is a 181mp panorama which turns out to be a 153mb file (Wayne G on Flickr).
New A7rII image samples and owners reports on SonyAlphaForum.

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

A7rII Gariz case
The current A7II Gariz cases suite perfectly for the A7rII too:
Alcantara case in [shoplink 38168 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 38169 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink].
Leather case in [shoplink 38164 ebay]Orange (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 38165 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 38166 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 38167 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink].
As this is the same A7II case you can buy them all also at Amazon US (Click here).

RX100m4 is a dream for videographer and has surprising RAW files too. New Nauticam housing announced.

Jordan from Thecamerastoretv team reviewed the Sony RX100 IV. And in very short he claims this is the best pocketable camera you can get, a dream for videographer and what’s more surprising is that the RAW files show a huge(!) dynamic range improvement you don’t see on the normal JPG files.

And Nauticam announced the new RX100m4 housing. It costs $995 and it will ship…now!

A7rII and RX camera store links:
In USA:
A7rII at Amazon, BHphoto, AdoramaSonyStore US, FocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
RX10m2 at Amazon, BHphoto, AdoramaFocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
RX100m4 at Amazon, BHphoto, AdoramaFocusCamera, Uniquephoto.
In Europe at:
A7rII at Sony DEUK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX100m4 at DEUK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
RX10m2 at DEUK, FR, IT, ES, NL, BE, CH, AT, SE, FI, NO, PT. Wex UK.
In Asia at:
A7rII at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX10m2 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.
RX100m4 at Digitalrev, CameraPro.

A7s vs A7rII low light battle. 40 year Hasselblad shooter sells everything and buys the A7rII.


Image of the A7rII vs A7s by Cinema5D.

Cinema5D posted a A7s vs A7rII ISO (video) comparison (on vimeo here). They write:

– The Sony A7RII is good in terms of lowlight and certainly very good in comparison to many other 4K cameras out there.
– The noise floor of the Sony A7RII vs A7s seems similar, but the footage is cleaner on the Sony A7s.
– In terms of detail the Sony A7s can retain usable quality up into high ISO’s while the Sony A7RII lacks detail much sooner. We start to notice this in the shadow areas around 6,400-10,000 ISO. Shadow areas get washed out and become less usable even on an HD downconversion that we compare to the Sony A7s original as seen in the video above.

A 40 year long Hasselblad photographer finally sells everything to buy the Sony A7rII (SonyAlphaForum).
Richard Banton posted a full A7rII ISO range test shoooting on Flickr and on his blog rickybanphotography.com.
Wayne’s got G.A.S. posted two new A7rII videos on Youtube:
Sony A7Rii / A7R ii Still image noise tests at ISO 100 through to 25,600!
A 181 MegaPixel Panorama shot with the Sony A7Rii / A7R ii at 100% zoom to show the amazing detail
a7rii EFCS and Canon+adap​ter lenses: Work ok? Manual seems to indicates “no”. (SonyAlphaForum).
Sony A7R II with the Zeiss Batis 25mm Sample Images (Photographyblog).
Sony A7rIi test images at Fotopolis.

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

A7rII Gariz case
The current A7II Gariz cases suite perfectly for the A7rII too:
Alcantara case in [shoplink 38168 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 38169 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink].
Leather case in [shoplink 38164 ebay]Orange (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 38165 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 38166 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 38167 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink].
As this is the same A7II case you can buy them all also at Amazon US (Click here).

Reminder:

Bildschirmfoto 2015-08-02 um 06.52.12

Uniquephoto (Click here) organized a special A7rII launch event with Sony Artisans. If you cannot participate don’t worry, there is a livestreaming too.