I had the absolute pleasure of reviewing the new Sony A7Rii, I took it along with me to a wedding and was excited to see if it could match my Canon 5d mk iii. This was what I concluded…
The 4k video is pin sharp and beautiful to shoot in, especially now you don’t have to hook up an external recorder like with the A7R.
Autofocus tracking is amazing it tracks the subject perfectly but I did find that in low light conditions it seems to focus where the light was brightest even with the face recognition setting on.
Using the supplied lens the optical stabilization worked amazingly well, it was just a shame it doesn’t work as well ( if at all ) with Sony’s high 35mm lens.
Battery life is a huge issue, it doesn’t last long (even from fully charged), shooting video destroys it (and shooting a wedding will require at least two batteries)
I think the whole Sony Alpha Series is let down by the amount of E Mount lenses available (full frame lenses ), and the amount of stock in the UAE is even more worrying, every camera / electronics shop carries products for Canon and Nikon but not all have Sony. I would love to see more of the Sony range in Dubai stores, for my A7R I have mainly shipped in from the UK or the US.
Built quality is fantastic, it doesn’t feel as nice in your hand as the original version (A7R) but it is very well built, everything works as it should and doesn’t feel like it is going to snap off any minute.
It would have been nice to make more use of the time lapse feature which is available in the play memories app but unfortunately for me and the little Sony time was against us. On the subject of the Play Memories app it is a great tool especially for bloggers and fashionistas looking to be InstaFamous. Take a shot on the camera, use the wifi connection of your smart phone and the Play Memories app to transfer the photo straight to your phone alternately you can use your favourite editing package and upload there and then.
I guess on the subject of editing I was disappointed with the .RAW file format the A7RII uses as it’s not supported in Lightroom or Photoshop ( previous A7R .RAW files are supported in the latest update of Lightroom ), they have to be converted before importing them into Lightroom. It’s the same story for video files they are not supported in Adobe Premier or Final Cut Pro without conversion ( another process that takes time and doesn’t give you as shot quality ).
Overall though it is a great camera, it does have some annoying points and requires more lenses or an official Sony lens adapter for Canon and Nikon lenses.