Sony A7C II Part 1: That Escalated Quickly… First Impressions.

Sony A7C II Part 1: That Escalated Quickly.

Warning: This is a long one and makes little sense. Run now. You have been warned. Still there? Buckle up.

First Preface: While I am locked into one (main… digital…) system due to familiarity and existing lenses this is not to say that other brands are not viable options. I am in no way trying to convince anyone to switch systems. If I ever find that elusive money tree I would likely buy an offering from nearly every brand. For starters that wonderful looking Nikon Zf. This is just the system I chose. With that sorted…

Second Preface: Until a conversation kicked off with my wife I had no plans of upgrading the camera I use most often.

To the tune of almost 7,000 images posted to Flickr. Used it just last week…

…then in the words of Ron Burgundy,…

…”That escalated quickly.”.

First off kudos to my wife. She is supportive of this photography endeavor to the extreme. As she is with everything. She is the best. What does that have to do with this post? Well… Everything this time.

A walk down the insane path that is my camera “reasoning” matrix. This time with spousal assistance.

As explained to my friend Anthony, it went a little something like this.

Will try to go in chronological order. Started Tuesday morning in our shared office, i.e. formerly our dining room. With a UNC Healthcare IT Project Manager and a NCDOJ Assistant Attorney General in the same workspace, you get some interesting cross talk by the way. Occasionally about cameras.

Part 1. Sony RX1RII.

An MPB ad came up on my phone showing a Sony RX1RII for sale.

I muttered something like, “Always wanted one of those but it will not depreciate.”.

Narcisa says we cannot take it with us. Get it… Yay.

The “problem”.

I talk a good game about that camera. Mainly because it is so small and a full frame camera. Sounds like my dream camera so far. But at over $2,000 there are significant shortcomings when I think about it for a minute.

The A7C exists.
- Not much larger and does not have the same shortcomings. Mainly…
  - I can change lenses.
  - Does not have a cheesy pop up EVF.
  - Much more recent AF tech.
  - The 33MP gen II A7C only gives up 9 MP to the RX1RII.
  - It costs more used than an A7C new. Much more.
  - And I already have an A7C.

Part 2. GFX fantasy/rabbit hole. (All personal preference mind you.)

I start to think. Narcisa cleared me for enough to get a GFX 50R… Yay

Then I quickly realized…

The 50R is wildly overpriced (In my opinion.) because of the rangefinder shape. I do prefer this body style but not enough to pay an aesthetic tax. The mechanically identical original first gen GFX 50 S costs $800 less which would allow me to get a lens. Or…

I could get a newer gen II GFX 50S for the same spend as the 50R… but I still would not have a lens. I have read that I could adapt some M glass… but that is less than ideal. A GFX body for that? Makes no sense to me. Would be better off using the cameras I already have.

Part 3. An A7C upgrade.

If I traded I could get an A7CR for the same spend… but I do not need an A7CR. An A7C II makes more sense.

$800 less than where I started after a trade.
33MP gives a 9MP bump which is good enough.
The last thing I need is another 61MP camera that fills up my cloud and kicks my laptop in the teeth.
- I enjoy these detail filled files, but I have to remember to pace myself more than usual at 61MP a pop.

Then I go into SE Camera and they have an A7CR in stock. Uh oh. But in a show of maturity where I shocked myself I passed on the immediate gratification of the A7CR and they ordered me an A7C II. But then I saw that they had a used GFX 50S II in the cabinet for only $100 more than the A7C II. I could walk out of here with a GFX (with no lens for it) right now. Uh oh.

Then I was saved by the epiphanies.

Looked up GFX 50 camera images on Flickr and… big whoop (In my opinion.). Yes, many images were amazing. But the images that interested me most, subject isolation at a distance, could be reasonably replicated with the fast glass I already have.
- This was proved out during a bridal session. I failed to differentiate between the two formats afterward which led to me trading an A7III and Pentax 645D for the A7RV.
No phase detect AF.
- Tested a GFX 50S II they had in SE Camera and once again I was reminded that it is slow (Contrast AF will never be able to keep up with Phase/Contrast hybrid AF.). I find it hard to go back after being spoiled by top tier current AF cameras.
Tops out at 1080p video.
Tops out at 3fps.
The A7RV has more MP.
Why am I doing this again? Oh yeah. So I can say that I have a medium format digital camera…

Nope.

As an aside, I tested the A7CR quickly. My local camera shop did not limit me but I did not take any pictures, just tested the AF speed, because I did not want to impact the shutter count on a brand new, never out of the box camera.

I do not need an A7CR. Further an A7C II upgrade is not necessary either. The gains are minimal taken on an individual basis.

9MP.
More AI AF modes.
Newer processor that does increase AF speed noticeably but goes from fantastic to more so
A proper front dial, but I had made peace with using the back wheel for a second dial.
A slightly better feeling grip.

I am largely upgrading for the same reason why I eventually traded my A7III for the A7RV. Nothing was wrong with the A7III. It is just that I wanted to upgrade to a more recent model… Ok, I also wanted something to put behind a fantastic lens that rivaled the MP count on the Pentax 645D I also traded at the time as mentioned above. Ultimately pure want, not a need.

Ok. We are now caught up to the day it arrived… just two days later. Kudos to Sony for that. Not to get all brands-ist up in here (Behavior I am highly opposed to. These are just the facts ma’am.) but Chris mentioned that the quick turnaround was due to Sony being the only manufacturer where he can go to their site, see what is in stock, and get a reasonably accurate delivery date. In this case yes they had one and two days from the order. Cool. Yes. This has nothing to do with the camera itself. I know. But Chris said it. I did not. Anyhoo.

Arrival.

Side note. I decided to forgo my all black all day mantra and get the silver topped version this time.

First impressions.

In shop.

No big deal. Rescued my Peak design strap mounts from my previous A7C and set up the basics. Very familiar which is good. Off I went.

Later in the day.

The main thing I am appreciating so far is that the menus now match. A “downside” of upgrading from the A7III to the A7RV was that the menu structures changed. Finding stuff on both hurt my (ever moving towards get off my lawn/don’t want to learn anything new) brain so I put the stuff I used most in the My Menu on the A7RV to match my A7C and pretty much never took the time to learn the A7RV. Yesterday I walked through both menus and realized that there were a lot of features I had overlooked in the new menus.

If I am not in the market for a new camera I do not watch video camera reviews. What is the point? If I am happy with what I have that will possibly move me towards a trade I do not need. Or at a minimum cause me to look less favorably at what I already have. But now that I secured the new device I wanted to know what the reviewers I respect had to say.

I started with a Gerald Undone video on both the A7C II and A7CR from last year and that was helpful.

Also made me glad I chose the II over the R. What I mainly took away:

The original A7C was a smaller A7III with a smaller EVF.
- I agree and this was largely why I was able to finally let go of my A7III.
The A7C II is a smaller and slightly better A7IV courtesy added features.
- Adds things I have not tested yet like AI Auto Tracking which follows a subject in the video frame and other features from the A7RV which came after the A7III, so he made an argument that the A7CII should be chosen over an A7IV.
The A7CR is a smaller but slightly worse A7RV.
- Loses the tilty-flippy swing around screen, some video features are downgraded, and some other stuff is limited likely due to the size of the body.

I will need to find some tutorials on both cameras. I am now realizing that I have been playing with other film and digital cameras so much that there are many features on my “main system” I am clueless about. This may be a seen as a downside to these cameras doing what I need out of the box for my basic purposes. But I will hold myself accountable rather than an inanimate object. I have never investigated some of the newer tricks on the table.

On the camera’s physical size side I had “fixed” my A7C’s slightly too small size concern with a thumb grip and a half case.

I am trying to avoid playing dress up with this one. The body changed enough where the half case did not fit and I am trying to make do with the raised hump for my thumb on the camera rather than putting the thumbs up knock off hotshoe dealie on this one. Right now my pinky does feel lost dangling with nowhere to go on the bottom (The mother of all first world problems… Oh no. How will I cope?) but small is what I wanted… Right? That is the point, no? Sony gives a bottom grip away with the much more expensive A7CR but they charge you $158 if you want one for the A7CII. You do you, but to me that is ridiculous. Anything over $100 better have some manner of electronics in it in my little nerd world. Very Leica of you Sony. Would likely look to smallrig if I did get one, but again I want to try getting used to it without anything before I buy anything else. We will see.

So. That new sensor.

I like it. 9MP is not a huge jump, but it is appreciated. Seems like a nice balance between increased resolution while remaining reasonable enough to keep the low light capabilities and processing speed up. And I like the images so far. These quick pics were taken in and as I was leaving the camera shop.

Nice.

Is it worth the upgrade if you have a Sony A7C?

Gerald thinks so. Me?

Not so sure.

May just be my A7C nostalgia talking or the wide gap between their prices but I think you could continue to get on just fine with the OG. Especially if stills are your thing.

I will admit that I have noticed that the AF is quicker. And I know from my initial tests with the A7RV, which shares the same processor, that the AF accuracy has been improved. The added subject types are cool, but I rarely make use of the existing options if I am honest. If you are into video this changes things. The video improvements I have read about, like crop panning chosen subjects in the frame, and other performance improvements sound impressive… but I do not often shoot video.

That being said. I am still glad I upgraded.

I do have something to say that I have never said of a Sony camera before. It is purdy.

I am glad I opted for the silver camera.

As far as the added features go? Will I warm to them?

Time will tell. More to come.

But I know this.

I am happy I did not get the RX1RII.
- In nearly every measure the A7C II is a far superior camera… of course, since it was released in November 2015… for much less money and brand new.
I am happy that I did not get the GFX 50S II.
- I need another lens mount to feed like a hole in the head. Especially an expensive lens mount to feed.
  - For that last sentence, I am speaking to the two GF lenses that haunt me. The 80mm f/1.7 and 110mm f/2. There are more affordable lenses for sure but they do not interest me. I am not going into medium format to use an f/3.5 or slower lens. My issue admittedly.
  - Additionally, I will want phase detect AF again at some point. And there the price of bodies increases significantly. So I know any GF body purchase is the mother of all slippery slopes for me. Especially since I am happy with the results I am getting with the gear I already have. I want GF merely because it exists and that is not enough of a justification. All the best to those who go the GF route. An excellent system.
My wife is the best.