Sony A6500 Versus A7Rii or A7Sii

J

Jim Ritscher

Well-known member
I have an A6500 on order, and I can’t help but think, “why not pay the extra money and jump up to an A7Rii or A7Sii (probably an A7Rii).” This is for general use with a focus on video: making short films, documentary work, B camera to a (yet to be purchased) FS7ii, use with a gimble, etc. For people who have used the A6300 and have experience with one of the other cameras, do you have any thoughts on this? Am I going to be kicking myself in the foot if I purchase an A6500? There is, of course, the overheating problem, but I’m guessing the A6500 will be “usable” in this regard.
 
The main things for me would be:
* What glass do you have, or what do you plan to use?
* How much do you value AF? (if "much", avoid the a7S II)
* How much do you value taking super-high-res stills? (if "much", go for a7R II, if "not much" then it's an a6500 vs a7S II thing)
* How much do you value super-high-crazy ISO? (if "much, go for a7S II)
 
FWIW, a site that can't be mentioned is promoting an own LUT for A7SII. To show off his product, the site owner compares the baked-in look vs. the LUT. The difference is drastic but I can't help but think that the baked-in look is crappy by intent. Others have gotten more than a decent image out of the Log's.

And, as a side note, a Videomaker site/YouTube Channel named A7SII as one of their Product of the Year winners.
 
If Sony keeps the pace buying an A7rII might not be wise at this point because they will prob update that camera really soon. If you need it for a shoot to make money than its fine but in general the a6500 is a pretty solid camera and we have shot on it for two days with zero overheating :)
 
Thanks people for your replies. My A6500 just arrived from B & H, so I'm going to try that out and see if I like it. I might even consider buying a second A6500 so I could do a two camera shoot, rather than spending the extra for a A7rII . I guess my question, vague as it was, was, "Does the A7rII have some kind of secret sauce that I will be kicking myself if I don't purchase it?" I'm starting to think that the answer is no, only a few pluses and minuses.
 
FWIW, Sony's road map for 2016 got really screwed up because of the Kumamoto quake. They even decided to quit supplying Fuji sensors for one of their recent cameras. And a lot of updates were pushed back and maybe even cancelled altogether.
 
Just got my a6500 today. That touch focus in video mode is impressive. I started giggling when I was playing with it. Used the Sony E 1.8 50mm.
 
Erik Naso said:
Just got my a6500 today. That touch focus in video mode is impressive. I started giggling when I was playing with it. Used the Sony E 1.8 50mm.
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hi erik,

I'm curious how the a6500 touch AF compares to the 5DmkIV or 1DXmkII? I've got the 1DXmkII and find it very usable for face detection AF. i also have the A7sII with no touch and AF tracking isn't worth using in video mode. i suspect the A7sIII would likely have touch AF and hopefully a qualified face traction feature as well. I'm thinking the a6500 might be a glimpse into whats coming with newer A7S bodies.

thanks
david
 
The a7SII doesn't have PDAF, so its AF is useless most of the time. Right now, the Sonys with good AF are the a7RII, a6300 and a6500 (and maybe also RX100V). I also hope the a7SIII will join that group.
 
jmsbf said:
Guys - I am an A7S owner and I was thinking about picking up the A7Rii for 4K and the image stabilizer (to help with gimbal use)

From what I understand, the A6500 and A7Rii in crop mode (Which is recommended) will produce identical video footage. Is that correct?
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A few thoughts.

As far as detail goes I feel the a6500 has a touch more. The rolling shutter is worse than the a7rii and a7sii.
At 120 fps the a6500 is full 1080 HD as opposed to 720 on a7rii. No face detection.
At 60p you get full HD with face detection

Menu is better. Nice having most of the video settings in one place.

I like the size and weight of the a6500 for gimbal work. I bought the a6300 just for that but the overheating issues I was having made it practically unusable.
 
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* I don0t think the a6500 has 4K at 60fps, does it?
* the a6500 overheats just as much as the a6300 with latest firmware, but a6500 has a menu option to ignore temperature readings and just go on shooting. This is not good for the camera in the long term, and it can get unconfortably hot to hold, but people say it works and I don't think it's reaching temperatures that would damage the components in a meaningful timeframe (maybe in 3-5 years, but not in 1-3 which is more than I think most a6500 shooters will hold on to their camera)
 
it seems like the cameras overheating is different for each sample...so if it overheats easily, you could send it back and ask for an other one.
 
@Samuel H

I'm aware of the option the software update added, that's why I specified after the update.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, but my question was mainly aiming to get some proper and specific feedback from those who own and operate the camera.
 
This probably won't help much but I absolutely love my A7Rii, I haven't shot tons of video with it yet but I'm planning on doing that a whole lot more. I'm kind of torn on what to get for a second/backup body or smaller solution for video when I am taking two cameras with me and the a6500 is at the top of my list, wouldn't really be different than shooting in Super 35 mode on my A7Rii I wouldn't think so I could use all my nice Sony FE glass. I'm worried the A7Rii or A9R will get announced right after I buy something though (I'm sure it'll be 3x the price).
 
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