A7RIi vs A7SII - going crazy, cannot choose

A

alohype

Veteran
For the last few weeks my head is spinning. Cannot chose which one to get. The way I see it:
a7rii- great continious AF, almost C300Ii like
a7sii- slog3, no overheating, better low light (but a7rii with MSB will not be far away)

What was your tipping point feature to chose one or another??
 
As an A7SII and C300II user, the A7RII looks better than the A7SII in color and AF from examples posted online. Unless you will be shooting mostly in very low light, the A7RII looks like the way to go if color and AF are top priorities (both will overheat where the A7SII might do it a bit less). The A7SII has less aliasing in FF 4K, perhaps check out the examples online. 4K S35 looks great on the A7RII (no S35 4K for the A7SII), appearing quite a bit more detailed than the A7SII FF 4K. SLog3 in 8-bit isn't very useful due to banding.
 
jcs said:
As an A7SII and C300II user, the A7RII looks better than the A7SII in color and AF from examples posted online. Unless you will be shooting mostly in very low light, the A7RII looks like the way to go if color and AF are top priorities (both will overheat where the A7SII might do it a bit less). The A7SII has less aliasing in FF 4K, perhaps check out the examples online. 4K S35 looks great on the A7RII (no S35 4K for the A7SII), appearing quite a bit more detailed than the A7SII FF 4K. SLog3 in 8-bit isn't very useful due to banding.
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Many thanks!! That was very informative and helpful. I didn't knew about A7RIi better color. Using both C300II and A7RII how would you compare AF on them? Is a7rii coming close?
 
Apart from the speed difference (which is a big deal), to me the main difference is that the A7SII is optimized for full frame lenses and the A7RII is optimized for super 35 lenses. So in terms of lenses, it’s a question of what you have now, and what you intend to buy. Also the A7SII has added choice in terms of S-log. Different people will have different ideas about which is better in terms of image quality.
 
A7RII unless LL capabilities are fundamental for your kind of jobs!

FF is solvable with Speed Booster Ultra BTW...and you even gain 1 stop... ;)

PS Keep an eye out for Moiré!

All Sonys have it unfortunately...sometimes it comes out in the most difficult situations...
 
For me, the biggest thing is color. In this thread we saw that color has improved a lot from the a7S to the a7S II. If the a7R II has the same nice color of the a7S II, then it's what I would go for. I don't think you're likely to see moire in 4K FF on the a7R II, yet it has great resolution, decent rolling shutter speed, and not a lot of noise (I would just switch to APS-C with SB in very low light situations; the SB is great but it does make your corners softer, at least the non-turbo version that I have). Plus you get usable AF for video, and top notch stills with reasonably fast and super-accurate AF.
 
SB Ultra has better corners indeed...

I did a job a couple of weeks ago...

A7RII has a tiny bit of moire in difficult situations (patterns)...even in APS-C...if shooting in 4K, APS-C 1080P performs better, because of less resolution captured.

BUT the A7RII is the best choice IMHO.
 
this was a great resource for me-as it went through a number of the video and still differences in great detail. What it came down too however was the overheating. There are people who are getting as little as 7min regularly with the A7rII, and that is something that I just couldn't cope with. As a predominantly solo shooter, who needs to be able to have the camera unattended, for at least 30min (the record limit anyway) the issues like S35 compatibility, moire and still resolution all faded behind the overheat issue.
 
is it possible to shoot in crop mode (aps c) in a7s ii and a7r ii in 4k and hd?
if yes, can all the full frame lens be used with aps c mode?
 
IIRC:
both shoot 1080p at FF and APS-C
a7S II shoots 4K in FF, but not in APS-C
a7R II shoots 4K in both FF and APS-C

You can set APS-C mode manually, and if you do that you can use it with FF mode, no problem at all there.
 
Samuel H said:
IIRC:
both shoot 1080p at FF and APS-C
a7S II shoots 4K in FF, but not in APS-C
a7R II shoots 4K in both FF and APS-C

You can set APS-C mode manually, and if you do that you can use it with FF mode, no problem at all there.
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thanks for the prompt reply...

can both of them take stills in aps c and ff mode?
 
ianthom said:
this was a great resource for me-as it went through a number of the video and still differences in great detail. What it came down too however was the overheating. There are people who are getting as little as 7min regularly with the A7rII, and that is something that I just couldn't cope with. As a predominantly solo shooter, who needs to be able to have the camera unattended, for at least 30min (the record limit anyway) the issues like S35 compatibility, moire and still resolution all faded behind the overheat issue.
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I have recorded many 20-30 minute interviews in the past and so the A7Rii is automatically removed from my choice as I shoot in 4k - I don't want the extra bulk of an external recorder. A friend owns one and it quit after 20 minutes when he was recording a wedding ceremony!
 
I've rolled a couple long takes on my A7Sii, hit the 30min limit. Haven't had any heat issues. (knock on wood)
 
I have no idea really...but i have the same question...havn't used them and want to rent them both first and then see if it is good enough. Untill now i'm not tha crazy about sony cameras i use and have used . On paper they are great in reality...they lack something which others have and are importnant to me.. ( nice looking images ).

If you need it only for video...just get a7sii and you dont need to look back

For photography...reviews i have seen of a7r ii . have not impressed me at all but the sii might be usefull if the high iso images really look better than the a7s.
Frankly i don't care a bit about dynamic range numbers and other data.....good images impress me. Damn canon keep ripping us off but the images look nice
 
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aras said:
For photography...reviews i have seen of a7r ii . have not impressed me at all but the sii might be usefull if the high iso images really look better than the a7s.
Frankly i don't care a bit about dynamic range numbers and other data.....good images impress me. Damn canon keep ripping us off but the images look nice
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You must be reading the wrong reviews, the A7rII gets you medium format IQ in a very small package. Canon is way behind and falling further back every year. You don't have to care about DR numbers, download raws from the A7rII and any Canon, then lift the shadows and pull down highlights. Sony's advantage becomes clear.

If the OP wants to shoot stills, there are advantages to the A7rII beyond the extra 30mp - better AF, 18mp crop mode and so on.
 
The color thing is quite subjective: some people love the Canon colors, some people love the Nikon colors, some people love the Sony colors.
It's even more difficult on the a7 family because people are using all kinds of completely different lenses on these bodies, and this can have an even bigger effect than which camera was used.

Apart from that, the a7R II image is awesome if you care about sharpness, DR and AF accuracy, but not so great if you care about AF speed, so, sports and wildlife photographers can still trash it, and many did. I don't think there was ever a camera that was better than any other for all possible uses, and that keeps being the case in 2015.
 
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