Another day, and the week continues to be packed with announcements. Zeiss announced some interesting new DSLR prime lenses yesterday, and this morning Sony announced the new A7S Mark II camera, which looks like another winner for the A7-series.
The new Sony A7S Mark II Full Frame camera. Photos: Sony Europe.
The A7S II inherits the same body as the A7 II and A7R II before it, along with the same 5-axis in-body image stabilization technology. Better yet, this new low-light monster can reach ISO sensitivities of up to 409600, and promises minimal noise across the whole ISO range. Lastly, the camera also has a much-improved electronic viewfinder with 0.78x magnification, and can now record 4K video internally.
All in all, this is a really great update, although perhaps not quite as revolutionary as the A7R II was (the sensor in the A7S II is not back-illuminated, for one). Now that the Mark II phase of the A7-series is complete, each model is clearly aimed at a very different type of customer:
The 24-Megapixel A7 Mark II is a general purpose camera, perfect for those without very specific needs and those who are transitioning into a Full Frame system, professionals and enthusiasts alike.
The 42-Megapixel A7R Mark II is for those that need the extra resolution for printing large, or for very demanding applications such as fashion shooting, landscape and architecture photography, and the like. This is a camera optimized for taking still pictures, but it can also do 4K video internally.
The new 12-Megapixel A7S Mark II is the best out of the bunch for video, but it’s also perfect for low-light photography or for those who don’t need as many pixels. This is a great camera if you shoot mostly for the Web, and as a nice bonus, the smaller files its 12.2-Megapixel sensor produces will make post-processing considerably faster and less resource-consuming.
With the A7S II, Sony keeps improving upon the A7-series lineup and giving photographers even more reasons to ditch their DSLRs and jump onto the mirrorless train for good. And if the rumors pointing to new FE lens releases in October are true, things are about to get even better.