As we all know reviewers are all different and it’s quite normal to see how everyone sees a camera differently. For some the A7rII focus is excellent (read Dpreview) and for some it is not. For some the image quality is astonishing (and do not care about 12 or 14 bit RAW) and for some not because they know that in 0,1% of the pictures the lossless RAW compression shows posterization artifacts :)
We read a lot of good things about the A7rII but it’s now time to share a review from Ming Thein who dislikes many things on the camera…but at the end bought it anyway :) Here are just some of the negative A7rII points he mentioned in his review:

1) I have used all of the A7 series cameras except the A7S, and previously reviewed the A7R and A7II in detail. Each of these cameras suffered from significant shortcomings, and the A7RII is no different – though perhaps it has the fewest so far.

2) The menu system is typical Sony. It is passable to those familiar, and completely unintuitive to those who aren’t.

3) Operationally, this does not feel like a fast camera. Every action seems slightly delayed, as though damped in oil. Power on is slow. Reviewing images and zooming in is laggy

4) AF with normal E-mount lenses is not exactly speedy – just the right side of acceptable most of the time, but in even slightly backlit situations, be prepared to wait – and get a lot of false positives.

5) No matter how many times I profile the camera or what I do with the primary curves or HSL defaults in ACR, there’s some muddiness and color indistinction going on in the shadows if you want to extract the most dynamic range from it; on the other hand, if you want clean shadows, you’re going to be faced with fairly early clipping.

6) IBIS unfortunately also complicates the matter of sensor cleaning greatly – though there’s a function which basically shakes the thing using brute force, I’ve already got stubborn dust spots on mine that cannot be dislodged with blower or shaker.

Conclusion:

Sadly, the A7RII is not a camera that gives me any pleasure to shoot at the moment, and it bothers me that I cannot put my finger on exactly why. Logically, it ticks all the boxes. Yet it does not inspire goad you on, like the Leica Q, nor does it feel solidly dependable and razor sharp like the D810. It may well be unfamiliarity or a bad choice of custom key configuration on my part, but I suspect that isn’t entirely it. It just feels like a consumer electronic device in operation, something designed for anoraks by anoraks, not a camera.

As usual please don’t be a Sony fanboy. If you feel Ming Thein is NOT right on some points simply argument with reasonable logic. To be 100% fair Ming also listed some positives about the camera on his full review and at the end bought the camera for his personal use.

Personal view:  I do understand some of Ming Thein complains. And I am happy when reviewers highlight the limits of the camera and do hope Sony will take note of it. That said I always see the cameras as a whole package and for me the positives by far outweight the negatives. I have the camera since one week and in my real life use I found it excellent! If you want to see an A7rII review that really reflects my view of the A7rII watch the video review from Luminous Landscape.

Nikon F to Sony E Adapter – with Autofocus & Stabilisation

Our friend Matt Granger (website here) posted the world’s first hands-on review of the Nikon G to Sony E-mount autofocus adapter. Please keep in mind that what you see here is a prototype and has no PDAF support which will be added soon too. So yes, autofocus sucks for now, but it’s a start. I am sure the final version will be much faster and maybe in a year or so we will have very useable ones. A good news for those folks owning a lot of Nikon glass!

The adapter will be sold by end of this year by [shoplink 38429 ebay]Commlite on eBay (Click here)[/shoplink]. The same company alreayd makes a “decent” electronic AF adapter for [shoplink 38430 ebay]Canon EF lenses on Sony E-mount (Click here)[/shoplink].

As you know it’s still almost impossible to find a Zeiss Batis Lens in Stock somewhere. There are a few in Stock on [shoplink 39613 ebay]eBay Japan (worldwide shipment)[/shoplink] and with 2 weeks shipment at Digitalrev. That’s it. A couple of SAR readers contacted Zeiss and got the answer that the request of Batis lenses is much higher than the production. So we will have to wait some more time before everyone can get their preorder fulfilled.

In the meantime check out those new reviews:

Michael Reichmann and Kevin Raber share their thoughts on the Zeiss Batis Lenses

Luminous Landscape writes:

I wouldn’t hesitate for a minute to recommend the Batis lenses, but I would say that as a photographer using the Sony camera line you have choices and those choices should be factored in when determining which lens you need. For me, I will order the 25mm Batis lens as soon as possible. The 85mm lens can wait since I already have the 90mm Sony Macro lens. As I mentioned, I have a number of primes already, but I lust after the 55mm Sony 1.8 lens which is one of the sharpest lenses on the market. I am curious to see what Zeiss Batis lens comes next. A 135mm, 50-50mm and a 200mm would be on my wish list. What’s on yours?

Sony A7RII/ Batis 25mm , Batis 85mm and Sony 35mm 1.4 System Tests at Getdpi.com.

Batis store links:
Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 lens in US at Adorama, Bhphoto. In Eu at Amazon DE, WexUK. In Asia at Digitalrev.
Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2.0 lens at Adorama, Bhphoto. In EU at Amazon DE, WexUK. In Asia at Digitalrev.