Sony a7R II Field Report

Mark Walrod wrote:EJ,
Not sure if you saw my question in response above, but was curious which lens adapter you recommend for Nikon.

Thanks again.
Mark

You need one that has a manual aperture control.  I recommend either the Novoflex, Fotodiox, or Metabones G adapters.  I would avoid the really cheap ones as it is imperative that they are perfectly planar to avoid cross field variation issues.  I personally use the Novoflex.  I covered all of this in my original a7R review.

Do note that there are automatic aperture control and AF adapters under development for Nikon lenses.

E.J. Peiker wrote:

sdaconsulting wrote:With my SLTs I generally just use dusting air cans to remove dust from my sensor (carefully though!) and wet clean (100% methanol) when something is sticking to the sensor.

You do realize that the propelant in those is oil based and if you get that on the sensor, you might destroy the sensor filter. 

I've never had anything liquid come out of the cans I use. Spraying oil all over the inside of a computer motherboard would be just as bad as spraying it on a camera sensor.

People certainly have had sensors destroyed by many of the expensive commercial products available for sensor cleaning, though.

Thanks for the detailed review. Very interesting.

Have you tested the camera for birds in flight, maybe with a Canon prime like the 4/500 II?

With such a good AF it might even be an alternative to the 7D II or 1DX for birds.
The FE lenses do currently not include anything really useful for birds but with the Canon lenses attached it might be a good alternative.

Markus

EJ, thank you for a comprehensive summary, as always it is excellent. One comment though, I think you need to leave a battery in the camera in order for the external charging through a USB cable to work. In practice this works very well if you tape or velcro the external battery pack to the tripod.

I took the A7RII and the Pentax 645Z on my trip to Iceland two weeks ago, along with the new Batis 25 and 85 lenses. About 65% of the images were taken by the Sony, the majority of those with the 25 f2 Zeiss lens.

I can safely say that the combination of the A7RII and the Batis 25mm produces the sharpest and best images of any 35mm camera and lens combo I have ever used. The 85 produces some of the best portraits with a beautiful bokeh and a smooth, creamy look. It is probably not quite as sharp a lens as the 25 though.

My 24-70 copy is a bit soft. I now have the 16-35 f4, Batis 25 f2, 55 f1.8 and Batis 85 f2 as my landscape line-up and happily they all fit along with the A7RII in a Billingham Hadley Small bag. I had bought the famed Nikon 14-24 with adapter to use on the Sony, but I think the 16-35 is sharp enough and if I need wider, I could get the Rokinon 14mm 2.8 without the need for an adapter.

What is needed now is a prime or zoom in the 135-400 range with a native E-mount. However, I doubt even with that the A7RII would replace my Canon system for wildlife action.

These are good times  

Pradeep

Excellent review E.J. I think electronic shutter alone is worth the upgrade (although not the price ). I will wait for a naive 18-21mm option (Batis or Loxia), then one day the a7rII.

I agree with all of these needed firmware updates:
http://diglloyd.com/blog/2015/20150915_ ... ixing.html

Neilyb wrote:Excellent review E.J. I think electronic shutter alone is worth the upgrade (although not the price ). I will wait for a naive 18-21mm option (Batis or Loxia), then one day the a7rII.

There is a native 20mm f/2.8 option.  It comes in the form of the 28mm f/2.8 with wide angle converter.

Primus wrote:EJ, thank you for a comprehensive summary, as always it is excellent. One comment though, I think you need to leave a battery in the camera in order for the external charging through a USB cable to work. In practice this works very well if you tape or velcro the external battery pack to the tripod.

I took the A7RII and the Pentax 645Z on my trip to Iceland two weeks ago, along with the new Batis 25 and 85 lenses. About 65% of the images were taken by the Sony, the majority of those with the 25 f2 Zeiss lens.

I can safely say that the combination of the A7RII and the Batis 25mm produces the sharpest and best images of any 35mm camera and lens combo I have ever used. The 85 produces some of the best portraits with a beautiful bokeh and a smooth, creamy look. It is probably not quite as sharp a lens as the 25 though.

My 24-70 copy is a bit soft. I now have the 16-35 f4, Batis 25 f2, 55 f1.8 and Batis 85 f2 as my landscape line-up and happily they all fit along with the A7RII in a Billingham Hadley Small bag. I had bought the famed Nikon 14-24 with adapter to use on the Sony, but I think the 16-35 is sharp enough and if I need wider, I could get the Rokinon 14mm 2.8 without the need for an adapter.

What is needed now is a prime or zoom in the 135-400 range with a native E-mount. However, I doubt even with that the A7RII would replace my Canon system for wildlife action.

These are good times  

Pradeep

Good to know, I never tried the cable option without a battery in the camera.  I wouldn't do that anyway since the battery would charge from the external battery.

Haven't used the 85 Batis but the 25 Batis is awesome and as a landscape photographer, I love the DOF readout on the OLED.  I don't own the lens though because I own the Zeiss 25mm f/2 ZF2 lens that I can use with an adapter.  As you said the 16-35 f/4 is a good lens and I also have the Zeiss 15/2.8 ZF2 lens if I need to go wider.  But to round out the system on the lens front the following is needed (my next article on this system for my winter newsletter will be on what is needed in the Sony FF mirrorless ecosystem to make it a true professional system):
- Lens in the 12-14mm range
- True 20mm prime
- 135mm fast prime
- 100-400 (ish)
- 300 prime
- 1.4x that works with the 70-200 and the fictional 300 prime
- Some will say that the system needs the three bread and butter f/2.8 zooms

Markus Jais wrote: Have you tested the camera for birds in flight, maybe with a Canon prime like the 4/500 II?

I have not as there aren't really any lenses available long enough to do that with.  The longest native lens is 70-200 f/4.  I have however used the a6000 with the 70-200 on birds including some limited BIF on larger predictable flyers and it did fine.  The a6000 is not as advanced of an AF system as the a7R II.

But realistically, I don't think you would get great results using a 500 f/4 Canon lens with an adapter to do BIF but that is just an opinion, not something I have actually tried.

E.J. Peiker wrote:

Markus Jais wrote: Have you tested the camera for birds in flight, maybe with a Canon prime like the 4/500 II?

I have not as there aren't really any lenses available long enough to do that with.  The longest native lens is 70-200 f/4.  I have however used the a6000 with the 70-200 on birds including some limited BIF on larger predictable flyers and it did fine.  The a6000 is not as advanced of an AF system as the a7R II.

But realistically, I don't think you would get great results using a 500 f/4 Canon lens with an adapter to do BIF but that is just an opinion, not something I have actually tried.

Jvogel tested the Sony 500f4 using the la3&4 native adapters and was a bit upset that the la4 was better focusing than the la3 since the la4 has a module from the consumer level cameras.  The 500 may not have the most modern rom to take advantage of the la3 and the phase detection on sensor.  He specializes in bird photography and has Sony connections.  It will be interesting if some of the most modern Canon super teles do better.  He posts on Dyxum.

E.J. Peiker wrote:

Primus wrote:EJ, thank you for a comprehensive summary, as always it is excellent. One comment though, I think you need to leave a battery in the camera in order for the external charging through a USB cable to work. In practice this works very well if you tape or velcro the external battery pack to the tripod.

I took the A7RII and the Pentax 645Z on my trip to Iceland two weeks ago, along with the new Batis 25 and 85 lenses. About 65% of the images were taken by the Sony, the majority of those with the 25 f2 Zeiss lens.

I can safely say that the combination of the A7RII and the Batis 25mm produces the sharpest and best images of any 35mm camera and lens combo I have ever used. The 85 produces some of the best portraits with a beautiful bokeh and a smooth, creamy look. It is probably not quite as sharp a lens as the 25 though.

My 24-70 copy is a bit soft. I now have the 16-35 f4, Batis 25 f2, 55 f1.8 and Batis 85 f2 as my landscape line-up and happily they all fit along with the A7RII in a Billingham Hadley Small bag. I had bought the famed Nikon 14-24 with adapter to use on the Sony, but I think the 16-35 is sharp enough and if I need wider, I could get the Rokinon 14mm 2.8 without the need for an adapter.

What is needed now is a prime or zoom in the 135-400 range with a native E-mount. However, I doubt even with that the A7RII would replace my Canon system for wildlife action.

These are good times  

Pradeep

Good to know, I never tried the cable option without a battery in the camera.  I wouldn't do that anyway since the battery would charge from the external battery.

Haven't used the 85 Batis but the 25 Batis is awesome and as a landscape photographer, I love the DOF readout on the OLED.  I don't own the lens though because I own the Zeiss 25mm f/2 ZF2 lens that I can use with an adapter.  As you said the 16-35 f/4 is a good lens and I also have the Zeiss 15/2.8 ZF2 lens if I need to go wider.  But to round out the system on the lens front the following is needed (my next article on this system for my winter newsletter will be on what is needed in the Sony FF mirrorless ecosystem to make it a true professional system):
- Lens in the 12-14mm range
- True 20mm prime
- 135mm fast prime
- 100-400 (ish)
- 300 prime
- 1.4x that works with the 70-200 and the fictional 300 prime
- Some will say that the system needs the three bread and butter f/2.8 zooms

I agree with that list. And I would like to see a few more lenses:

- 4/200 Macro (1:1) or similar. Necessary for flowers, insects, reptiles, etc.
- a big tele, either a 4/500 (maybe with a built-in 1.4x, that would be awesome) or a big zoom like a 5.6/200-600
- high quality 1.4x and 2x 
- a Macro Flash system (without cables, that sucks with Canon)

Probably not high on Sony's priority list but would be nice and could make the system even more interesting for nature photographers who shoot a lot of macro and/or shy animals.

Markus

E.J. Peiker wrote:

Neilyb wrote:Excellent review E.J. I think electronic shutter alone is worth the upgrade (although not the price ). I will wait for a naive 18-21mm option (Batis or Loxia), then one day the a7rII.

There is a native 20mm f/2.8 option.  It comes in the form of the 28mm f/2.8 with wide angle converter.

I do own the 28mm f2 lens E.J. but I am not impressed enough to add further glass to the front. It remains a nice little walkabout lens for family stuff but serious landscapes I would prefer less distortion and sharper images.

Neilyb wrote:

E.J. Peiker wrote:

Neilyb wrote:Excellent review E.J. I think electronic shutter alone is worth the upgrade (although not the price ). I will wait for a naive 18-21mm option (Batis or Loxia), then one day the a7rII.

There is a native 20mm f/2.8 option.  It comes in the form of the 28mm f/2.8 with wide angle converter.

I do own the 28mm f2 lens E.J. but I am not impressed enough to add further glass to the front. It remains a nice little walkabout lens for family stuff but serious landscapes I would prefer less distortion and sharper images.

Yeah, I feel the same way but just wanted to throw out there that there is a native option.  I do think we will see a Loxia 21mm at some point.

Markus Jais wrote:

E.J. Peiker wrote: Good to know, I never tried the cable option without a battery in the camera.  I wouldn't do that anyway since the battery would charge from the external battery.

Haven't used the 85 Batis but the 25 Batis is awesome and as a landscape photographer, I love the DOF readout on the OLED.  I don't own the lens though because I own the Zeiss 25mm f/2 ZF2 lens that I can use with an adapter.  As you said the 16-35 f/4 is a good lens and I also have the Zeiss 15/2.8 ZF2 lens if I need to go wider.  But to round out the system on the lens front the following is needed (my next article on this system for my winter newsletter will be on what is needed in the Sony FF mirrorless ecosystem to make it a true professional system):
- Lens in the 12-14mm range
- True 20mm prime
- 135mm fast prime
- 100-400 (ish)
- 300 prime
- 1.4x that works with the 70-200 and the fictional 300 prime
- Some will say that the system needs the three bread and butter f/2.8 zooms

I agree with that list. And I would like to see a few more lenses:

- 4/200 Macro (1:1) or similar. Necessary for flowers, insects, reptiles, etc.
- a big tele, either a 4/500 (maybe with a built-in 1.4x, that would be awesome) or a big zoom like a 5.6/200-600
- high quality 1.4x and 2x 
- a Macro Flash system (without cables, that sucks with Canon)

Probably not high on Sony's priority list but would be nice and could make the system even more interesting for nature photographers who shoot a lot of macro and/or shy animals.

Markus

I am not so sure that the Sony is quite appropriate for fast wildlife action (BIF, running animals), even if an adapted or native lens in the 400+ range with fast AF was available. The fps is too slow as is the write to card speed. Perhaps by the time native 400mm lenses come out, we would have a mark 3 body too

Having said that, for slower subjects it may be quite useful even with the current line-up of Canon glass. I just got my 400 DO II and a very brief test suggests that it works well. Will do some more action shots this weekend.

Pradeep

New firmware for the metabones enables phase detect AF.

http://www.metabones.com/article/of/EF-E_Firmware_Mac

mike

mikeojohnson wrote:New firmware for the metabones enables phase detect AF.

http://www.metabones.com/article/of/EF-E_Firmware_Mac

mike

Note that this is specific to Canon EF lenses and the adapter for those.

And it seems to only work with the version IV of the adapter, not version III

Hi,

Great review EJ as always. I recently switched from Canon to the Sony a7rII, the Sony FE 35 mm F2.8 ZA and the Sony FE 55 F1.8 ZA. I used this gear set last week extensively in Shanghai together with a rented Sony FE 70-200 F4 G OSS. (And I’ll get to pick up the two Batis lenses tomorrow, yeah!)

First, it can’t be overstated how big a difference the smaller size and weight makes. Days walking through a large city become, while not effortless, much more manageable. On multiple occasions, I encountered throngs of photographers with pro-type DSLRs and I was so happy when I compared the size of my setup to theirs. Of course, some of them gave me a look of pity with my seemingly toyish camera but if they only knew…

…about the incredible resolution. Even with the FE 35 mm, the detail captured is just astonishing and outright mind blowing with the 55 mm. Enlarging an image to 100% feels like zooming in with a telephoto without degradation in detail. Its surreal. I can’t wait for taking images with the 25 mm Batis lens. Granted my previous Canon wide angle setup was a 17-40 F4L lens with a 1D MkIV camera (and rented 5D MkIII on several occasions). So, these are arguably different animals. But still it is something to experience this incredible resolution and sharpness.

Then, if they knew about the incredible processing latitude in the files the a7rII produces. Okay, this is again coming from the perspective of a Canon user. My understanding is that folks using Nikon gear enjoyed this aspect already since the D800. Anyway, the a7rII leaves the 1D MkIV and the 5D MkIII in the dust by a mile. I also never imagined that I’d be comfortable photographing at ISO 12800 (though preferably scenes without deep shadows).

Yes, there are shortcomings compared to pro-type DSLRs. Battery capacity, frame rate, write speed, possibly environmental sturdiness, the dreaded compressed RAW format, limited lens lineup, operational speed, slower AF etc. But the combination of size/weight with the high resolution and dynamic range/processing latitude as well as the more accurate/reliable AF is a really, really compelling proposition for a wide range of scenarios.

Now, my wishlist for a firmware upgrade and/or a possible future MkIII version in addition to what EJ already listed is as follows:
- the size is great. But for my hands perhaps just a little bit too small. My fingers are a bit cramped in the space between the lens and the grip. If the size increases a bit to the benefit of battery capacity I’d be okay with that.
- I wish the lens release button would be on the left side as with Canon’s cameras. I occasionally pushed on it accidentally when holding the camera by the grip. No, no lens fell off but I’d rather eliminate that possibility entirely.
- reduce the power consumption and/or increase battery capacity. I think it’s ridiculous that the camera turned off looses 5% per day as measured by EJ.
- the biggest operational delay I frequently experience is enlarging the image to 100% on the screen/viewfinder. That just takes a bit too long. Sometimes it also takes a bit for the camera to wake up from sleep.
- a better zebra/highlight implementation when shooting RAW. As EJ also indicated, even at 100+ sensitivity it is very conservative. I find often that there is still tons of headspace (e.g. more than 1 stop) if the exposure is chosen such that the blinking zebras just appear.
- I really don’t get why blinking highlights and the histograms in image review can’t be shown full size on the displays.
- at least Bridge CS6 doesn’t list the AF mode and distance. Not sure if it’s in the EXIF but just not read by Bridge but it’s not showing up. And showing the focus location would be nice as well.
- I wish one could enlarge the image while focusing in all focusing modes and not only in manual focus
- I think it would be a cool feature to take advantage of the EVF and overlay in real time the DOF and hyperfocal distance for the given exposure and focus settings. Similar, I wish the distance scale shown in manual focus mode would be “stretchable” such that it adjusts the distance spacing depending on what the focus distance is. Probably not very clear what I mean here… Of course, it should be possible to turn these features off for those who don’t want/need it.

Now, with regard to the lenses I love the 55 mm and the 35 is very good as well. The 70 - 200 F4 was a bit of a turnoff though. Not so much because of the image quality but because of its size. Its actually larger than the Canon equivalent. One draws just so much more attention with such a big lens… Not sure if it is realistic to expect smaller >100 mm focal length lenses.

Hope this is helpful. Happy to answer any questions.

Best, Joerg

I think the Power off battery drainage is a real issue. I had a battery that was charged to 100% on Sunday Sept 6 and without ever turning the camera on, it was at zero on Monday Sept 21.

EJ, I hope you have reported this to Sony...a battery draining like that will distress the internal battery if the main battery goes flat.