Sony Alpha 7 II E-mount interchangeable lens mirrorless camera with full frame sensor

It may not be the newest fancy model, but the colour quality is great. The camera boots up quickly and focusses quickly as well even in fairly low light. Also by using adapters, I can use 35mm full frame glass and APS-c smaller frame lens I have collected over the years. The 5 axis stabilization works perfectly with current Sony E-mount lenses and 3 axis (more basic) is the default stability for all other glass including everything from screw mount 50 year old glass to Minolta 20 year old glass with AF. Great addition to my kit.

This is a fantastic camera and I've been through plenty of cameras. This is the one I'll be keeping. A little history... My first DSLR (9ish years ago) was a Nikon D40. I quickly outgrew that and bought a D90. After I while I wanted more. I got myself a D700 and that was a fantastic camera. At some point I got sick of the weight of heavy cameras and lenses. I sold all of my Nikon gear and bought a Sony Nex7. I loved the light weight...but I was never happy with the image quality. Sooo...back to Nikon. Bought a D7100 and a bunch of lenses. I took a trip to Italy and midway through the trip decided that I needed to look at other options. Once again I was sick of carrying around all that weight. I planned to sell my Nikon stuff (again) and look back at the mirrorless options. I never got the chance because my camera bag was stolen on the way to Milan. Once I got home I started investigating my options. I tried an Olympus E-M1 but that didn't suit me. It's a nice camera but just wasn't up to the standard in image quality that I was used to. Next, I tried the Fuji X-T1. That is a beautiful machine. I would've been happy with it...If I hadn't also tried out the Sony a7. I was happier with the image quality from the Sony, but happier with the feel of the Fuji camera. In the end, image quality won and I kept the Sony. For my type of photography (landscapes, portraits) the Sony fit me very well. The autofocus was acceptable, but not great. But with my kind of work this isn't that big a deal. But I was never happy with the quality of the actual camera body. Just felt a little cheap. Then the a7ii was announced and I decided to trade up. While the camera is a bit heavier, the trade off of AMAZING handling makes it well worth it. The camera oozes quality and feels much nicer to hold than any other mirrorless camera I have tried. The in-body image stabilization is also great. I can handhold with the 55 1.8 at 1/4 second pretty consistently. I can get good images slower that that too, but they are more hit-or-miss. Still, the fact that I CAN get clear images at 1 second is insane. Autofocus is also noticeably better than on the a7. It's not in the same league as a Nikon DSLR like my old D7100, but for me that's not a big deal. If I were shooting sports then the Sony would be out...simple as that. For me, this is pretty much the perfect camera. I'm using it with the FE 55mm f1.8 and FE 16-35mm f4. I also have a Rokinon 85mm f1.4 (replaced my Nikon 85 1.4G that was stolen) and I just ordered a Canon FD 135mm f2.0 for portraits. That pretty much covers all my needs. Very very happy with this camera. Oh, I also got a Nissin i40 flash for Christmas and it is a great match with this camera when you need it. It's remarkably powerful for its size and doesn't look ridiculous on the a7ii.

This article is very well done. It is robust and of high quality.

Five stars because it's phenomenal for the price. Perhaps not the best camera ever made, but a truly great camera and a tremendous value. I'm a long-time Canon guy with a 5Dii and 7D, but after a couple of backpacking trips this summer carrying 10+ pounds of camera gear I decided to look for something that would give me at least decent images from a smaller and lighter package. I had never given a second thought to Sony cameras because, I guess, I'm a DSLR and Canon snob. But when I saw some great reviews and that I could use my Canon lenses with adapter on the a7ii I decided to give it a try. I'm really blown away by the images I've been getting from the a7ii. I must say they equal the quality of those from the 5Dii. The color tone of the Sony images is a little different than the Canon, but not in a bad way. I think I prefer the Canon color look, maybe because I'm used to it, The Sony images are very pleasing, and are very sharp with the couple of Zeiss lenses I've used. I never shoot with the 5Dii above 800 iso because of noise, but I was able to get noise free images at 3200 iso from the Sony. That makes the difference between getting a sharp hand-held shot inside a dimly lit church or not. I bought the 5Dii because many images I liked in photo magazines were taken with it. I did not expect the Sony to come close to its image quality, but it really does, in an affordable and nicely sized package. It's a great camera that will be used for much more than just backpacking trips. In fact, I'm seriously considering an a7Rii as my primary camera. No longer a Canon snob... p.s.: I wish people would stop whining about the battery life. It's a small camera and has a small battery. You need three to shoot all day, but you can buy 2 batteries and a charger for $25 so get over it. I would rather carry a couple of batteries in my pocket than add the weight around my neck.

I've long been shooting full frame and aps so, transition on doing still photo using this cam isn't too bad since it is very similar to the digital cam Minolta Dimage 7i about 20 years ago. Of course, a7ii does have many more features. Well, a7 ii has many more buttons, too, and can be confusing. Of the maze of buttons, I really like the Fn button. I wish the options in there can be user assigned, esp, when some of the choices are already built with actual dedicated buttons. For example, there is a dedicated ISO on the wheel, there is one from Fn, and one from the MENU. So how many different buttons do one really need to assign ISO? The play back zoom-in/out buttons are awkwardly placed. How come only the zoom in button is labelled? Couldn't the play back zooming be assigned to the control wheel. After all, there are 3 wheels on this camera? While focusing, display show highlight histogram, rather than all three RGB channels. It's making it hard to tell which channel may be clipping or not. Peaking level doesn't work well when the image is magnified for critical focusing. In magnified mode, the red showed as a few tiny dots when my aperture is set at F11 using a 50mmF1.8 lens focusing on newspaper laying on the floor about 3 feet away. When going for 2nd magn (11x), there is just no dots at all. What is more, the highlighting color doesn't show on some objects, i.e. a well lit street sign. Battery life is too short. A fully charged lasted for ~6 hr of use with the view finder, manual focus, airplane mode and clicked about 100 pictures. When using a non-Sony zoom lens, Steady Shot becomes less ideal. to get the optimal SS, one have to go into menu and change the focal length each time when the focal length on the zoom is changed. the doors hinges are flimsy; can be accidentally open and ... break. while the hand grip is better than earlier a7, it is hard to use the front dial. The dials are poorly place which is making the grip feel short unnecessary. I hope the next better release can comfortably hand held with 3 fingers while the index and thumb easily turning the dials. why is NFC so hard to pair? when I am on the road, I don't always count on WI-FI. easy paring is really my bare minimal. I understand the advantage of RAW and have use RAW since last century. :) I don't mind the camera can generate snappy JPG, so, I can spend time in Photoshop for something else. I wish the view finder can turn to 90 degree liked the 20 years old D7 and a build in flash would be a nice add-on. I am interested to know more about the next gen of this cam.