Sony A7 II Review

With the camera’s internal image stabilizer, the Alpha 7 II is able to offer optical image stabilization with any original or adapted lens. Up to 4.5 EV levels longer exposure times are thus possible. If the camera detects an attached Sony E-Mount lens with optical image stabiliser, of which there are not many in the system anyway, a combination of both image stabilisers is used in a special stabilisation mode in order to benefit from all the advantages. In the case of adapted alpha lenses and external lenses, the camera image stabilizer works alone. As with the Alpha 7, a 24 megapixel 35mm sensor with a size of 36 x 24 millimetres and a resolution of 24 megapixels is used. In addition to the contrast autofocus with 25 AF points, the sensor also has 117 phase detection sensors for fast autofocus measurement. Compared to the Alpha 7, the Alpha 7 II is said to have a 30 percent faster autofocus and a 50 percent faster tracking autofocus (C-AF). The switch-on time, which could be shortened by 40 percent, is also faster.

Short evaluation

Pros

• Image quality up to ISO 400 excellent, at ISO 6.400 still good
• Excellent in-body image stabilizer
• Significantly improved ergonomics (but slightly larger and heavier than A7)
• Professional video functions (but not 4K)
• FEL improves flash exposure on reflective backgrounds

Cons

• No battery charging cradle included
• No board lightning
• Slightly low serial frame rate

The Sony Alpha 7 II [Photo: Sony]

The rear 3″ screen of the Sony Alpha 7 II can still be folded up and down. Thanks to new white subpixels, the screen has a higher resolution and offers better readability in sunlight. [Photo: Sony]

 

The Sony Alpha 7 II’s full-frame image sensor continues to resolve 24 megapixels and offers 117 phase auto-focus points. The autofocus should be 30 percent faster than with the Alpha 7 [Photo: Sony]

The Sony Alpha 7 II uses more magnesium alloy and less plastic as case material. The trigger has moved to the handle. [Photo: Sony]

The new handle on the Sony Alpha 7 II offers significantly more volume. [Photo: Sony]

Further changes compared to the Alpha 7, which is otherwise largely identical in technical terms, concern the case, which weighs about 100 grams more, and ergonomics: For example, magnesium parts replace some plastic parts in the case and the handle has been designed to be more ergonomic with a larger volume, and there are also improvements on the back for a safer hold. The trigger has moved to the now larger handle. Sony has also made the bayonet more stable for heavy telephoto lenses. Of course, the housing is still splash-proof and dustproof, which is ensured by seals on the control elements and the memory card compartment. As usual, the Alpha 7 II offers a rear three-inch screen, which I fold up and down. Its resolution is increasing from 921,000 to 1.23 million pixels. This is not so much due to a higher effective pixel resolution, but to the use of RGBW technology, in which each true color pixel is additionally given a white subpixel for higher luminosity and stronger contrasts.

Videographers will be pleased that the Alpha 7 II can now store Full HD recordings in XAVC-S format at up to 50 Mbps, while 4K is still reserved for the Alpha 7S. As usual, the data is stored either on a MemoryStick or an SD/SDHC/SDXC card. The electronic viewfinder resolves 2.36 million pixels as usual, but a flash is not built into the 7 II and has to be attached to the multiinterface accessory shoe. Thanks to WLAN, the Alpha 7 II can also be remote controlled from a smartphone (Android or iOS).

In the Sony Alpha 7 II, a five-axis image stabilizer works for the first time in a full-format DSLM. [Photo: Sony]

Almost exactly one year after Sony introduced the Alpha 7, the first mirrorless full-frame camera ever, the Alpha 7 II is now coming. An outstanding innovation is its image sensor, which is stabilized in five axes and is intended to enable up to 4.5 times longer exposure times. Mechanics and electronics of the image stabilizer make the housing of the Alpha 7 II somewhat chubby, but this doesn’t have to be a disadvantage for ergonomics.

Ergonomics and workmanship

The close relationship with the previous A7 family becomes apparent with the new Alpha 7 II only at second glance. The youngest offspring has become somewhat more pudgy – but remains significantly slimmer than a full-grown DSLR. The weight of the Alpha 7 II also grows with the circumference. It weighs around 130 grams more than its ancestor and now weighs 617 grams. Sony simply needed some extra space to accommodate the image stabilisation via sensor shift in the case (more on the new image stabiliser in the “Lens” section). The increase in weight is certainly also due to the handle, which is much more pronounced on the Alpha 7 II.

Contrary to what the type designation might suggest, the Alpha 7 II does not replace the Alpha 7, but rather adds the fourth model to the A7 family. The housing of the Alpha 7 II is largely made of a light but resistant magnesium alloy, and the Sony has also donated the reinforced bayonet of the Alpha 7S. Other innovations are not so obvious. The one that Sony gave the Alpha 7 II a very soft eyecup. Especially spectacle wearers will appreciate it, as the rubber minimizes the danger of scratching the valuable lenses. This eyecup is available as an optional accessory for the previous Alpha and SLT cameras.

The slightly thicker housing and the more pronounced handle may make the Alpha 7 II look less elegant than the previous A7 sisters – the more luxurious dimensions undoubtedly benefit the ergonomics. Above all, the trigger now moves to where it belongs: to the projection of the handle. So far the front wheel has been found here, it has now found its position further forward on the handle. Nice also: Front and thumbwheel turn tighter now, the danger of accidentally moving the camera decreases. But the Alpha 7 II is also so low that not all fingers of the right hand can enclose the handle – the little finger floats in nothingness and cannot find any hold. The new VG-C2EM vertical handle, which also accommodates two batteries and doubles the capacity, provides a remedy here.

On the right shoulder of the camera has become free due to the redesign, Sony uses it for another custom button. Otherwise, not much has changed during operation. What has remained is the practical setting wheel for exposure correction and the option of assigning eleven controls to one of 56 individual functions. Unfortunately the program selector wheel is still not lockable, the central selector wheel still turns much too easily.

The display is as foldable as ever, it cannot be swivelled or rotated. It now goes up by more than 100 degrees, up to now it was just under 90 degrees. At three inches (approx. 7.5 centimeters), the monitor’s diagonal is as large as usual in the class, and the resolution increases from 921,600 to 1,228,800 subpixels. Nominally it remains with a matrix of 640 x 480 pixels, but new additions are white subpixels. They provide greater luminosity, which is very welcome in bright surroundings. With the electronic viewfinder, everything stays the same: It has a very high resolution of approx. 2.36 million pixels, the colour display is exemplary and the amount of information that can be displayed, including a live histogram or electronic spirit level, is far superior to that of a DSLR viewfinder.

At the bottom of the camera there is a tripod thread neatly in the optical axis. The battery is also inserted from below, but its capacity remains very poor with a maximum of 350 shots. It’s also annoying that Sony doesn’t add a charging cradle to a camera of this price range, as standard the battery has to remain in the camera for charging via USB.

Equipment

Apart from the extended video functions (more about this), the Alpha 7 II’s features hardly change compared to the Alpha 7 (see the links at the end of this article). This isn’t a disadvantage when it comes to the recording functions, as Sony is already drawing on the full potential of the older A7 models. There are a number of useful fully automatic functions that help the less experienced photographer to achieve appealing image results at the touch of a button. This is especially true for the panorama and HDR functions, which are easy to use and deliver very good results. In addition, there are many gimmicks such as image effects or a smile trigger.

Seen from the front, the Sony Alpha 7 II looks like a small DSLR.

The distinctive handle of the Alpha 7 II allows the camera to lie comfortably in the hand.

The Alpha 7 II is also available as a set with the SEL 28-70/4.5-5.6 OSS lens.

The tripod thread on the Sony Alpha 7 II sits correctly in the optical axis.

Sony Alpha 7 II memory card and battery compartment

Ambitious photographers will also hardly miss anything with the Alpha 7 II. Perhaps best of all a flash on board, because there was no more room for it in the very compact camera. The fact that exposure series with a spread of 1 EV and more were only possible with three shots is now a thing of the past – the Alpha 7 II takes up to five differently exposed photos in one go. Particularly in conjunction with adapted external lenses, it is also practical that the Alpha 7 II can control the exposure via ISO automatic for the manually set aperture and shutter speed (M mode). The multi-shot noise reduction is also convincing in practice; it shoots several shots in rapid succession, which are then offset to form an image with significantly reduced noise. The shortest possible exposure time is 1/8,000 s, the shutter noise is still quite pithy for a mirrorless system camera.

From the Alpha 7S, the new Alpha 7 II inherits a new form of flash exposure, the FEL function. It determines and stores the flash energy required for a correctly exposed image and sends out a short volley of measuring flashes before taking the picture. The advantage of this method is especially obvious if a strongly reflective background would underexpose the photo. In practice, it has also proven to be an advantage that the Alpha 7 II is ready to go much faster after switching on than the other models of the A7 family.

Like the first generation of the Alpha 7, the Alpha 7 II also shows itself to be more from the cozy side in serial photos. No matter if you record in JPEG or Raw, more than 5 fps (photos per second) are not included. After all, she kept up the pace in the test for 67 JPEG and 28 raw shots, respectively, before the Alpha 7 II fell into the endurance run. Then, however, it continues very leisurely with only 1.9 fps for JPEG and even only 1.5 fps for raw recordings.

The Alpha 7S was also the inspiration for the new video functions. From the video specialist the Alpha 7 II takes over some specialties, which film enthusiasts will surely be pleased about. It also optionally records in the new XAVC-S format, which enables data rates of up to 50 megabits per second. In addition, the professional image profiles for video recordings of the Alpha 7S, which enable individual film locomotives or particularly post-processing-friendly data, have been added. These include the profile sLog 2, which has a very soft gradation and thus provides a dynamic range of your choice for post-processing. However, Alpha 7 II cannot film in UHD or 4K; Alpha 7S retains the right to do so. In return, the Alpha 7 II benefits from a further innovation that Sony introduced for the first time with the Alpha 7S: when shooting video, a variety of markings can be faded into the viewfinder image, such as a 15:9 frame, a central crosshair or a grid.

Unfortunately, Sony also saves on editing options in playback mode with the Alpha 7 II. In particular, a function to develop raw files directly in the camera, the camera does not have to offer. Sony compensates for this with the unique possibility to extend the functionality of the Alpha 7 II with camera apps, including a highly recommended app for interval shooting. WiFi also has the Alpha 7 II on board, thanks to NFC it is very easy to contact an Android device.

Lens

The Alpha 7 II is also available as a set with the lens FE 28-70 mm F3.5-5.6 OSS; exactly this combination had to prove itself in practice and laboratory test. Although the standard zoom is equipped with an optical image stabilizer, it also benefits from the new shake protection that Sony introduces in the full-frame class for the first time with the Alpha 7 II.

traditionally, Sony relies on an “in-body image stabilizer”, in which a movable image sensor compensates for tremors and slight shaking. With the E-Mount cameras with their very slim housing, however, this didn’t seem to be technically possible – Sony nevertheless managed it somehow. And even more: The in-body stabilizer of the Alpha 7 II not only compensates for swings around the X-axis (pitch) and Y-axis (yaw), but can also compensate for tilting movements around the Z-axis (roll), and even for shifts along the X- and Y-axes. This “5-axis image stabilization” is not completely new, Olympus has already introduced it with the OM-D EM-5 (see further links at the end of this article). With the Alpha 7 II, the image stabilizer works in different modes: If an optically stabilized E-Mount lens is attached (recognizable by the abbreviation OSS in the type designation), this lens takes over the pitch and yaw correction, the stabilizer in the Alpha 7 II only takes care of the remaining three axes. With a non-stabilised lens, however, the image stabiliser in the camera compensates movements in all five axes. This works even with adapted lenses and even fully automatically with A-mount lenses, which are attached via adapters LA-EA3 or LA-EA4 and transmit the current focal length to the camera. If, on the other hand, a “foreign lens” is adapted (which is usually possible without problems thanks to the small flange focal length of the Alpha 7 II), the camera needs information about its focal length – it can be manually set between 8 mm and 1,000 mm.

Sony promises that the new SteadyShot will allow up to 4.5x faster shutter speeds. In practice, this may only be possible in exceptional cases, but with a 135 millimetre tele around 30 years old, the Alpha 7 II is able to take unshaken shots safely at 1/60 second; at 1/20 second, after all, almost half of the shots were still free of blur. This makes the Alpha 7 II a hot tip for old glass lovers and foreign lens adaptors, also because the viewfinder image is stabilized, even in the focus loupe since the latest firmware update.

The autofocus of the Alpha 7 II hasn’t changed at first glance. It remains with a hybrid system, with 117 Pasen AF sensors on the image converter, which support the contrast AF with 25 freely selectable AF ranges. According to Sony, however, an improved algorithm should accelerate the autofocus by up to 30 percent. Motion detection should also benefit from this power control, so that the Alpha 7 II can track the focus of action photos faster. In the first practical use, the autofocus reacted quickly and accurately, and the subsequent laboratory measurement confirmed the Alpha 7 II with a shutter release delay of 0.3 seconds including AF an average performance.

Picture quality

In principle, the Alpha 7 II takes over the image sensor unchanged from the first generation of the camera. Thus, it remains with an image converter in 35mm format that has a moderately high resolution of 24 megapixels. Is the image quality of the Alpha 7 still up to date or does Sony sell old wine in new tubes with the camera?

The Alpha 7 II had to compete for the test with the Sony FE 28-70 mm 3.5-5.6 OSS (SEL 2870) lens, with which the camera is also offered as a set. For a price-optimized set lens, the standard zoom cuts a very good figure: distortions are practically not measurable (they are already corrected in the camera), chromatic aberrations occur only in homeopathic doses and play no role in practice. It’s easy to overlook the fact that the zoom vignettes over the entire focal length range; the edge drop is not particularly high at around -0.5 EV and is also pleasantly soft. Compared to the Alpha 7, which we also tested with the SEL 2870, the lens doesn’t deliver such high resolution values. Among other things, this may be due to the somewhat less researchful re-sharpening of the Alpha 7 II. Nevertheless, the SEL 2870 is anything but a soft-focus lens: A little dimming is enough, and it already skips the very high resolution hurdle of 50 line pairs per millimeter (lp/mm) at 50 percent edge contrast (MTF50), while it pleases with an unusually low edge loss of resolution for the price class.

The Alpha 7 II may take over the image sensor unchanged from its older sister, but it goes its own way with the processing of the image data. Above all, Sony tuned the noise reduction of the Alpha 7 II a little differently, it suppresses luminance noise even more effectively at low ISO values. No wonder that the Alpha 7 II delivers an excellent signal-to-noise ratio of 45 dB in the test laboratory up to ISO 800. With very high sensitivity values above ISO 6.400, the noise suppression also doesn’t pack in quite as brashly as with the Alpha 7 and preserves the finest details better. The Alpha 7 II is a bit more reserved when sharpening, but the texture sharpness up to ISO 800 is still 1.1 above the optimum of 1.0. The bottom line is that Sony has managed to adjust the noise reduction and sharpening of the Alpha 7 II in such a way that a loss of texture only becomes visible beyond ISO 6,400. ISO 6.400 is also the value up to which brightness noise remains inconspicuous, but then increases rapidly.

The input dynamic of the Alpha 7 II is very high between the basic sensitivity of ISO 100 up to ISO 6.400 with almost 11 EV, but then decreases by 1 EV with each additional ISO level. When it comes to detail and noise, the Alpha 7 II to ISO 800 can meet the highest demands. Prints in DIN A4 format are also possible up to ISO 6,400 with barely visible quality losses. The camera doesn’t do quite as well with the tonal value transmission. In the standard setting the curve is quite steep, the Alpha 7 II reproduces contrasts rather crisply than subtly. The same applies to the color reproduction, which is almost a bit too saturated for a professional camera. But this and the sharpening can be adjusted to the exact point in the Alpha 7 II – or you can record directly in raw format.

Bottom line

With the Alpha 7 II, Sony is already launching the fourth incarnation of the first mirrorless system camera with 35 mm sensor on the market – and this is also something to be proud of. An outstanding feature of the Alpha 7 II is its integrated image stabilizer, which explicitly stabilizes almost any adapted lens. The mechanics necessary for this allow the housing of the Alpha 7 II to grow slightly compared to the earlier models, but the camera remains noticeably smaller and more handy than a comparable DSLR. The handle, which is now much stronger, also allows the camera to lie more securely in the hand. The image quality of the Alpha 7 II is without fault and blame and allows a sensitivity of ISO 6,400 without any problems, if an output size of about DIN A4 is sufficient. The object FE 28-70 mm 3.5-5.6 OSS, which is available with the camera in the set, looks a bit rickety on the outside, but its inner values are convincing. Those who like to adapt foreign lenses or old glass to a 35mm camera will not find an alternative to the Alpha 7 II at the moment. This also applies to videographers, who at best get an even higher quality tool in their hands with the Alpha 7S. But apart from videos in 4K resolution, the Alpha 7 II is hardly inferior when it comes to filming. But the Alpha 7 II also has its downsides: The continuous shooting rate is still quite low, the autofocus should be even faster – the Alpha 7 II is therefore less suitable for sports and action photographers.

Sony Alpha 7 II Datasheet