Sony Announces A7r II

Sony has announced its new A7r II.

Priced around $3,200 this makes it Sony’s most expensive mirrorless camera. Even more expensive than the Canon 5Dmkiii. But is it worth it?

Camera Specs

The rumors all seemed to have gotten this one wrong. Sony did a great job keeping it a secret and the camera released with a bunch of features we never saw coming.

Sensor: 42 MP Full-Frame Exmor R BSI CMOS Sensor, with 5-Axis Steady Shot
Image Processor: BIONZ X
Video: Internal UHD 4K Video & S-Log2 Gamma with a Super 35mm crop mode
Focus: 399 Phase-Detect AF Points with a 5fps burst
OLED: 0.5″ and 2.36M-Dot XGA OLED Tru-Finder EVF + Zeiss T* Coating
LCD: 3.0″ 1,228.8k-Dot Tilting LCD
ISO & Shutter: 102,400 with a silent shutter mode
Extras: Built in Wi-Fi and NFC
Durable Reduction-Vibration SHutter
Weather Sealed

Ships in August

I’ve pre-ordered one so I can put it through its paces when it delivers. And it’s about time. My old A7r is at the end of its life. Sad, I know.

Should be a lot of fun new features to test, with its improved video, 5-axis stabilization and 42.2 MP sensor. If they’ve upgraded the build quality this could be the last camera I’ll need for landscape photography for a long time.

Other Thoughts

They market that it’s the first Full Frame Back Illuminating sensor. But Fujifilm has been doing that for years with its X-Trans Cmos II sensor. Except I guess it’s not full frame. Sorry, I just like my Fuji cameras. 😉

What’s so special about a Back Illuminating Sensor? 

It basically means that all the circuitry is placed behind the light sensitive photodiods allowing for more light to be gathered by each pixel. I should help low light performance and some dynamic range.

I’m surprised we didn’t get a curved sensor. I know Sony is working on one but it would have been nice to have had something that could give a little help to the corners and edges when shooting with ultra wide lenses. A current problem with the E-Mount design.