My Sony A7 II Review

I don’t ever write reviews about anything, but I felt the need to write one about this. 

I’m not going to address every topic, I’m only going to address topics that I feel are relevant to my type of photography and my day to day use.

Build:

This was the primary reason why I decided to get the A7ii.  As much as I loved the feel and build of the A7, the new ergonomics definitely gave it a beefier / solid feel.  Also has a metal mount now, where as the old A7 had plastic.  Also, the new finish has a nice “rugged” look compared to the shine the older A7 had.

I hope Sony improved on the glue that they used, The A7 rubber on the bottom started coming off.  And the NEX 7 I had before the rubber grip started coming off as well. 

The controls are different and I guess the layout are improved.  Honestly I didn’t have any issues with the A7, so the new layout isn’t too important.  Just like everything, you’ll get used to it.

The new dials are smaller, and the rear dial is somewhat difficult to use.  The older dials where large and you can operate them wearing gloves.  Perhaps Sony could add rubber to the dial to enhance grip?

The LCD is nicer, the improved resolution is definitely noticeable.  Its thinner than the previous generation; its also a little more difficult to flip out, mainly because the older A7 had space behind the bottom “a lip” where as the newer A7ii sits inside the body.  I guess this is good because it prevents the LCD from snagging on things.

I don’t recall Sony advertising weather sealing on the a7ii.  From the looks of it, the battery door has a foam seal, so that should help.  However the battery door has a little more play than I would like, it doesn’t have the same foam seal.  I can vouch for the weather sealing on the A7, I’ve shot several times in pouring rain and it still keeps on ticking.  Don’t quote me on this, YMMV. 

Autofocus:

I was surprised and happy to hear Sony improved the AF on the A7ii.  I’ve done several shoots with the A7ii already and one of the things I did noticed was the camera would gain up/ down to achieve single shot AF.  The A7 only did this in extremely dim lighting conditions.  I guess this would be more accurate because the camera would compensate the exposure to achieve good contrast for the focus point you are using. 

Going through the pictures, I noticed the AF is more accurate!  Yay… My 70-200 always back focused at 200mm, so I tend to avoid using the end of the lens for that reason.  Well, I’m pleased to say it works flawlessly from 70-200 mm now!  The A7ii seem to have more “perfect focused” shots, where as the A7 where “good… usable” focused shots.  I’m super picky about AF.

I don’t wanna jinx it, so again don’t quote me on the improved AF accuracy.  For all I know my next shoot could hit the shit and the AF would miss everything.  As of this writing, I’m pretty confident its improved :)

ICBM (Kidding)

I don’t like image stabilization.  Last thing I want is for something to be moving around in the body / lens while I’m shooting.  I move around a lot and so does my subjects.  I usually keep my shutter speed pretty high to avoid motion blur.

With that said, it does work :)  Just for shits and giggles I played with my 55 1.8 shooting at 1/8th sec and my god its amazing. 

Would be nice if Sony offered a non SteadyShot version of the camera,  and knock off a few hundred bucks and reduce weight?  Just saying… :)

Thats it.   Questions? Comments?  Keep them to yourselves.

J/K, ask :)