Turns out that it didn’t take long for my mirrorless curiosity to turn into lust for the Sony a7RII — to turn into a box from B&H sitting on my doorstep. While the bulk of my digital gear is Canon/EF, I had been enjoying playing around with my Sony a6000. The prospect of a feature-rich mirrorless body that could effectively autofocus EF lenses and had in-body image stabilization (for my growing collection of legacy manual focus glass) proved too tempting. Once I convinced myself that 42 megapixels could add some longevity to my landscape images, the move seemed inevitable. Sure, the Canon 5DS R can compete well enough from a resolution and image quality perspective, as far as I’m concerned, but the Sony has so much more to get excited about. I’ve been shooting the a7RII for about 6 weeks, including a trip to Detroit and a big hike in Yosemite, which is enough time with the camera to share some real world observations.
In action — a7RII with Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art capturing Yosemite’s Cathedral Peak at sunset (iPhone 6)
Resolution and Image Quality
There’s not a lot to say about resolution and IQ — it’s great. With sharp glass and good technique the level of available detail is really stunning. Just check out the rivets in the 100% crop of the center smokestack in the images below. Compared to my Canon bodies, raw files do seem to come off the Sony a little more saturated, but with a little processing images from either will render as desired. I have yet to encounter any issues from Sony’s compressed raw format, though I don’t doubt it can happen. With soon to be released firmware offering an uncompressed raw option this is a moot point anyways. The Sony sensor is arguably the best sensor currently available. I have no reasons to complain nor anything unique to add to the copious amount of pixel peeping already going on out there.
A7RII with Leica Tele-Elmar 135mm f4, ISO 100, 1/500s, f8.0.
100% center crop of above image. Default Lightroom develop settings (sharpening amount=25), no output sharpening. I am adoring this lens/sensor combo.
EF Lens Autofocus
This is another section that I could keep really short — if fast phase detection autofocus of third party lenses is a big factor in your interest in the a7RII then move on. Contrary to a lot of reports that I’ve seen, in my experience the performance still isn’t there. I’ve tested the Canon 24-105 f/4L IS and 70-200 f/2.8L IS II with the Metabones Mark IV adaptor with the latest firmware from 6 Oct 2015. In high contrast lighting the autofocus can actually be surprisingly snappy, but in anything but ideal conditions autofocus performance is still unusable for me with hunting and frequent inability to lock onto anything. Non-ideal in this context includes situations where there is plenty of light but low contrast, such as some tests that I recently shot in daylight under a white tent. Notably, focal lengths of about 70mm and below are handled significantly better than longer lengths.
I was hoping to find that my Canon lenses would focus acceptably under a fairly broad range of reasonable lighting conditions. Instead, I’ve found that the performance can be above expectations but only in a very narrow range of ideal conditions, with unacceptable performance outside this range. Autofocus performance was a big disappointment for me and I seriously considered returning the camera over it. In the end the sensor performance and IBIS were big enough advantages for me to keep the a7RII and, on balance, I’m glad I did.
Lens Selection
Then what lenses am I shooting on the a7RII? Though the autofocus performance of native mount lenses is perfectly fine in my experience, many of the Sony manufactured lenses leave a lot to be desired from an optical standpoint, and apparently from a durability standpoint if you believe Roger Cicala (and I do). For landscapes I’m mostly using EF mount primes and dealing with a little extra bulkiness. I do have the Sony Zeiss 16-35mm f/4, one of the stronger performers in the Sony lineup, which is a fine option if you don’t need speed. The a7RII really gets fun for me, though, when I head out with manual focus lenses.
This could happen to you.
I’ve yet to buy into the mystical qualities of Leica glass compared to the modern competition, but when I don’t need autofocus these manual focus lenses, particularly the rangefinders, are very compact, solidly built, and just plain fun to shoot. Some of them are pretty outstanding optically as well. They make you look cool, too, which is all that really matters, right? For my recent trip to Detroit I took the Sony Zeiss 16-35mm f/4, Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f/1.4 (bottom right above) and the Leica Tele-Elmar 135mm f/4 (middle right above). It covered everything I really needed and was the lightest my shoulder bag has ever been with that much capability; I was really pleased. Most unfortunately there are the issues of smearing and color casts with wider angle rangefinder lenses due to the extreme angle of light hitting the sensor stack. I do believe a small amount of smearing is present with the Sumicron-C 40mm and Voigtlander 40mm lenses wide open, but it’s minor and much of the time corner sharpness is not a concern for me when shooting wide open. Stopped down or with 75mm or greater lenses these issues are not present. It’s just a limitation that you need to be aware of and I’ll be sticking with native mount glass or adapted SLR lenses for anything wider than 40mm.
That pretty much sums up where I’m at with lenses and the a7RII. I don’t use it for events (or sports obviously) because the native autofocus zooms are lacking. A high quality native 24-70 f/2.8 alone would go a long way towards making the camera practical for event photography. I’m primarily using Canon EF lenses for landscapes and rangefinder lenses for most everything else. The Zeiss Batis lenses are looking pretty promising for native mount autofocus primes, if you can get your hands on them.
Build, Form Factor and Usability
Another couple of dings against the Sony line for build, weather resistance and ergonomics. Obviously the svelte a7 bodies aren’t going to fill my chunky hands, but that’s just an inevitable feature of smaller systems and not really what I’m getting at here. I’ve been using the a7RII for over a month and the a6000 for even longer. I still fumble around in the buttons and menus all the time and the dials don’t have the solid tactile feel and response you desire, but I’ll manage with the usability, it’s not a deal breaker.
Just picking a body up, looking it over and feeling it in your hands, let alone looking at the teardowns, is enough to tell you that the durability and weather resistance isn’t on par with Canon/Nikon semi-pro bodies. The most obvious example is the articulated screen and its electrical attachment which can’t help but be more delicate and leak-prone than the fixed screens on higher end Canon bodies. I anticipate that there will be inclement days where I’ll leave the a7RII behind in favor of my 6D just because of weather resistance.
I have indeed shared in the past my feeling that the size advantages of mirrorless are overhyped unless you compromise in sensor size. Getting into the rangefinder lenses has really softened this stance for me. While you do need to beware of smearing and color casts at the wide end, longer rangefinder lenses can be fantastic for landscapes and the slower speed options can be very affordable. The Leica Tele-Elmar 135mm f/4 has become one of my favorite lenses on the a7RII, producing some stunningly detailed images and allowing me to leave the much larger 70-200 behind. The a7RII also fits quite a bit more comfortably in my crammed backcountry pack compared to my Canon 6D. To my surprise, the size and weight of the kits that I actually use in the field are high among the reasons that I’m happy I stuck with the a7RII.
High ISO Performance
I shoot a lot of low-light high-ISO images. The ability to get 42 pretty clean megapixels at moderately high ISO is fantastic. However, despite the slight edge that testers like DxO have given to the a7RII sensor, my gut questions if the files really look quite as good as those off my Canon 6D (no low light slouch either). I would like to do some focused real world testing to address this question, but the a7RII performs well enough in these conditions, no doubt.
Matthes Crest in Yosemite under a moonlit sky. With Sigma 35mm f/1.4 Art, 6s at f/4.0 ISO 3200. Winds blowing 30+ mph on an exposed ridge, tough conditions.
Silent Shutter Mode
I don’t shoot a lot of street photography. For me it’s largely a way to get out and shoot close to home to keep my technique sharp. Hence, my skills and comfort on the street might be a little lacking, so the silent shutter mode has been an unanticipated bonus. You really can blend in on the street a little easier. All you need to watch out for is rolling shutter effects on fast movement — not really a serious limitation.
A7RII with Voigtlander Nokton 40mm f/1.4, silent shutter mode.
Kind of cool when shooting from the hip actually works (silent shutter mode).
Battery Life
The battery is clearly undersized for the power hungry a7RII which is, of course, entirely dependent on electronic displays. There is a pretty effective approach to power management, though. Just set one of the custom keys to “Finder/Monitor Sel.” and then make sure “auto” is not checked in the FINDER/MONITOR setting. This allows use of a custom key to toggle between the viewfinder and the rear display monitor, with the monitor totally powered down when not in use. Note that the blank display setting will black out the monitor but leave it powered up. Since I primarily shoot using the viewfinder, this setting allows me to walk around with the camera powered up and ready to shoot without rapidly drawing down the battery. I was pretty impressed on my Yosemite trip when I was able to do a long overnight hike with lots of live view focusing and long exposures without changing batteries. As long as you’re not overly dependent on the rear monitor, battery life is actually pretty manageable.
Conclusions
This is definitely a “mini-review”, I haven’t touched on important topics like video or in body image stabilization performance at all. I don’t shoot a lot of video and I would only notice IBIS in the field if it wasn’t working (or more likely I forgot to set the focal length on a manual focus lens). I don’t have much to add to such discussions at this point. I suppose this post could appear somewhat negative regarding the a7RII. I hope not, it’s a great camera that has taken over the Canon 5DIII as my all around go-to camera. I have tried to provide an objective assessment of the pros and cons that I’ve experienced, and that you’re likely to experience if your usage is similar to mine. My Canon gear isn’t going anywhere because it’s still my go-to platform for events and sports. Sony still has some serious catching up to do in the lens lineup. Photo+ is right around the corner and rumor has it that we’ll see a number of new lenses. I hope so; filling in some of the gaps in the lens selection would greatly increase the viability of the a7 as a professional platform.
All photographs copyright 2015 Joseph P Kenny.
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