On left 5 axis on and on right 5 axis off (Source: Mobile01).

Note: The A7II is shipping at Amazon Japan. Will ship from Tuesday on Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore!

Here are new Sony A7II stabilization tests:

First the bad news: It’s still not official but it really looks like manual focusing third-party lenses will indeed benefit from the 3 axis stabilization only. But maybe that’s something can easily upgrade in future if SAR reader will make some pressure on them :)

And now the good news: There are new stabilization test videos you have to check out. It really shows how impressive the difference is between having or not having the new A7II on sensor stabilization system. After watching this you will a hard time to buy any other A7 camera without the stabilization!

Amazing! Also the “limited” 3 axis stabilization on the [shoplink 31489 ebay]Minolta MD 135mm lens[/shoplink] does wonder. One more stabilization test has been posted on Mobile01. Justs croll down to the two (10pics series) of pictures taken with and without the stabilization.

What do you think? If you find more test feel free to post them all on our forum thread: sonyalphaforum.com/topic/135-sony-a7ii-steadyshot-test-la-ea2-sal70400g-ssm-ii/.

USA/Canada preorders:
Sony Alpha a7II (Body Only) for $1,698 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore and Sony Store Canada (Click here).
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 preorders:
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 preordersNote:
Sony A7II at Sony Store Australia (Click here) and Amazon Japan (Click here).

The Sony A7II will ship soon in US/EU and as a consequence more and more reviewers are getting their hands on the camera. Here are two more preview reports:

Steve Huff writes:

Sony is kicking ass and I have yet to use a camera this year that feels as good, looks as nice and performs like this one. No Fuji, no Olympus, No Leica, No Nikon has done it. The A7II makes the Nikon Df feel like a toy in the hand, that is how much better it feels over the A7 Mark I. I love the Nikon Df, it is the only DSLR I would own (and did for a while) but the A7II has shown that Sony still means business and they are not backing down.

Colby Brown writes:

While I am used to the shutter button on my a7r and a7s, the new shutter release button not only feels more natural in its new position, the button itself feels more responsive. It is larger and better built as well, making it easier to press down. While the camera is certainly faster to turn on, I wouldn’t exactly say it has an “instant on” feature. It still has to wait half a second from when I flip the on switch. Either way, there is an improvement.

Note: Sony US (Click here) is giving away one A7II and one A6000 camera

USA/Canada preorders:
Sony Alpha a7II (Body Only) for $1,698 at Amazon, BHphoto, Adorama, SonyStore and Sony Store Canada (Click here).
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 preorders:
Sony Alpha a7II (Body Only) for 1.799 Euro at Sony Germany, Sony 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 and at Wex UK. In Finland at Verkkokauppa.

Asian/Australia preordersNote:
Sony A7II at Sony Store Australia (Click here) and Amazon Japan (Click here).

If you want to know what you get with the $2,300 discounted Hasselblad Stellar on sale at BHphoto (Click here) just watch the video below (courtesy of Steve Huff).

Would you buy it now that it costs $999 only?

If you have some spare time watch this great Philip Bloom Sony a7S seminar video (courtesy of BHphoto). Philip is not only a very good filmmaker but also a very good teacher. Current A7s owners could learn quite some things from the video. And at the end of the seminar non A7s owners will probably be tempted to grab their credit card to buy the camera the second after the seminar video ends :)

If you have not so much time just watch the video from minute 20 to understand why the A7s is so special! Thanks Philip for sharing all your insights on the A7s!

Sony A7s store links:
Sony A7s in USA/CA at Amazon, Adorama, BHphoto, Sony USA, Sony Canada.
Sony A7s in Eu at Sony DE, UK, ES, FR, IT, NL, BE, AT, CH, SE, NO, FI, PL. And Wex UK.
A7s Gariz leather case in [shoplink 27569 ebay]Black (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 27570 ebay]Brown (Click here)[/shoplink], [shoplink 27571 ebay]Red (Click here)[/shoplink] and [shoplink 27572 ebay]Orange (Click here)[/shoplink].

3D-Kraft (Click here) made the very first serious wide angle lens comparison between the new Zeiss 16-35mm FE lens and those other lenses:

• Olympus OM Zuiko Auto-W 21mm f/3.5
• Voigtlander Ultron 21mm f/1.8 ASPH
• Leica Wide Angle Tri Elmar (WATE) 16-21mm f/4 ASPH
• Leica Super Elmar 21mm f/3.4 ASPH

And at the end on the Sony A7r the new Zeiss even outperforms the [shoplink 30684 ebay]$5,200 Leica Tri Elmar[/shoplink]! Of course note that the A7r is not really M-mount lens wide angle friendly. But it’s good to know the Zeiss 16-35mm FE is that good! 3D-Kraft writes:

At open aperture, the Sony/Zeiss FE 16-35 beats all other lenses and at 16mm it performs best. It delivers high and consistent performance across the whole focal length range only getting a bit weaker at the long end (35mm). It has the least vignetting and the good results at open aperture together with the optical stabilization make it a winner also for videos at low light.

New 16-35mm Zeiss FE lens store links:
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.

EOSHD Sony A7 II test shoot with 5 axis SteadyShot Inside from Andrew Reid on Vimeo.

We finally have first native english hands-on previews with the new Sony A7II. As usual keep in mind those are previews and not full tests. So any conclusion you read here is subject to change after serious in deep testings.

EosHD focused his test on the video aspects of the camera and the 5 axis stabilization. He writes:

The 5 axis stabilisation system is also somewhat underwhelming. I didn’t find it as effective for video as the system Olympus employ in their OM-D E-M1. Handheld pans and tilts are not so much the issue, it is the lack of damping on very high frequency jitter. Granted it was a very cold day and my hand was a little shakier than it normally is! But the difference is obvious. Sony seem to have their own system and it just doesn’t work as well as the one in the E-M1 for video.
The system undoubtedly has an advantage for stills, but even then the advantages vs the A7S are debatable. The A7S can shoot at such high ISOs, you can use a shutter speed like 1/100 to avoid blur from camera shake in low light. The A7 II can certainly shoot at speeds like 1/10 handheld and get a sharp shot, meaning you can shoot at lower ISOs than on the A7S in low light but the A7S is pretty much as clean at ISO 12,800 as the A7 II is at 3200!

Pocket Lint tested the autofocus performance and writes:

We got to play with the original A7 and the A7 II and did find the new model to be quicker. Perhaps most notably in continuous autofocus, where it’s automated adjustment between subjects at different distances wasn’t as far behind our Nikon D810 (which we also had in tow) as the earlier system.

USA preorders:
Sony Alpha a7II  (Body Only) for $1,698 at Amazon (non available), BHphoto (Click here), Adorama (Click here), SonyStore (Click here).
Sony Alpha a7II  with FE 28-70mm OSS Lens for $1,998 at Amazon (non available), 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 at Sony UK (Click here), Wex UK (Click here).
Sony Alpha a7II  with FE 28-70mm OSS Lens for 2.099 Euro at Amazon Germany (Click here) and at Wex UK (Click here). In Finland at Verkkokauppa.