Sony Alpha 7 II - The Three-Year Wait

Updated: 26 Sept 2019. I've since purchased a Sony Alpha A9 - a truly incredible camera, with a short update / review coming soon. I'm using my A7 MK II as a second body - mainly for wide lenses.

Original post: It's taken three years since I officially unloaded my hefty pro-DSLR equipment for the camera I've been waiting for to arrive. The Sony Alpha 7 II is essentially everything I was asking for in my previous review of the Sony NEX-7 . It's as if someone from the engineering department at Sony read the post, and said okay - here ya go - the camera you've been waiting for.

I love the new design including the new and more rugged magnesium alloy body, the new controls and shutter release location, the image stabilizer, the viewfinder, the menu system, and most of all - the gorgeous images produced from the full-throttled, full-frame 35mm sensor. The shutter, especially when set to electronic-first-curtain, is also significantly quieter - which was one of the biggest gripes with previous Alpha 7 series models. Even crazier, images taken with my Voigtländer 12mm f/5.6 Aspherical Ultra-Wide Heliar are color-distortion free, and produce excellent results (this lens on the Nex 7 produced some tough-to-correct magenta casts and wicked vignetting).

I don't know what state Sony is in as an organization overall, and whether longer term, an investment in Sony gear will pay off, but in this particular case - thank you Sony.