Sony a7R II vs III

Have questions about the equipment used for macro- or micro- photography? Post those questions in this forum.

Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau

Macrero
Posts: 1166
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2011 8:17 am
Location: Valladolid , Spain

Post by Macrero »

Btw, I started looking into the Nikon D850 and it seems a very interesting option as well. New 45MP BSI sensor, Silent Live View mode (E-shutter), touch screen with focus peaking. That fits (and exceeds) my needs, the bad thing is that it exceeds my budget as well... :( :mrgreen:
https://500px.com/macrero - Amateurs worry about equipment, Pros worry about money, Masters worry about Light

Lou Jost
Posts: 5942
Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2015 7:03 am
Location: Ecuador
Contact:

Post by Lou Jost »

Pau, somewhere in there we need a converter to mount Nikon lenses. If they are short lenses a fat adapter or bellows might prevent them from focusing at infinity. But the best solution for me (I have no Pentax lenses) is to remove the K mount and replace it with a Nikon mount. A huge advantage of the Sony cameras is that they have so much room for adapters.

Macrero, yes, I briefly considered the D850 before I bought so many lenses but now it is beyond my means. The sensor is probably the best one out there.

mawyatt
Posts: 2497
Joined: Thu Aug 22, 2013 6:54 pm
Location: Clearwater, Florida

Post by mawyatt »

Lou Jost wrote: The sensor is probably the best one out there.
And it's not from Sony, rumor is it's from the Tower/Jazz fab designed by Nikon. :shock:

Best,
Research is like a treasure hunt, you don't know where to look or what you'll find!
~Mike

mjkzz
Posts: 1681
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 3:38 pm
Location: California/Shenzhen
Contact:

Post by mjkzz »

FYI, I think Sony dropped the price on A7R III, search Amazon, it is now under 3000USD

Macrero
Posts: 1166
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2011 8:17 am
Location: Valladolid , Spain

Post by Macrero »

Retail price here in Europe (or at least in Spain) is still high, though I can get an a7R III for a tad less than 2.700 EUR (around $3100) and a Nikon D850 for about the same money (a little more). The thing is that I can get an a7R II (new) for 1000 EUR less (1700 EUR). 12 vs 14 bits RAW with ES ain't worth 1000 EUR. Is the Pixel-shift worth it? I'm not quite sure...

Btw, Sony could probably add pixel-shifting to the a7R II via firmware update, but they will obviously don't, since it is one of the main selling points of the a7R III...
https://500px.com/macrero - Amateurs worry about equipment, Pros worry about money, Masters worry about Light

anoldsole
Posts: 24
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2018 5:49 pm

Post by anoldsole »

Another a7rii user here. Love the camera, minus a few little quirks and design decisions that baffle me. The biggest issue i've run into for macro is that the "multi-terminal usb", of which there is only 1, doesn't allow you to tether your camera to a computer and use a remote trigger at the same time. I get around it by triggering it with IR from my stackshot 3X with the cognisys ir controller, but it shouldn't require a workaround and is one of the reasons I feel the Sony mirrorless team are brilliant engineers but are still a little green on the needs of photographers. Just something to be aware of if your plan is to shoot tethered in studio.

ray_parkhurst
Posts: 3412
Joined: Sat Nov 20, 2010 10:40 am
Location: Santa Clara, CA, USA
Contact:

Post by ray_parkhurst »

There may be other software besides Sony for the ARQ compositing. At this point, without much control over the ARQ compositing, I would say the pixel shift is not very useful on the A7RIII as it is overly-sharpened. It may be this is the only problem, but even with less sharpening the details may still not be true.

mjkzz
Posts: 1681
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 3:38 pm
Location: California/Shenzhen
Contact:

Post by mjkzz »

Macrero wrote:Retail price here in Europe (or at least in Spain) is still high, though I can get an a7R III for a tad less than 2.700 EUR (around $3100) and a Nikon D850 for about the same money (a little more). The thing is that I can get an a7R II (new) for 1000 EUR less (1700 EUR). 12 vs 14 bits RAW with ES ain't worth 1000 EUR. Is the Pixel-shift worth it? I'm not quite sure...

Btw, Sony could probably add pixel-shifting to the a7R II via firmware update, but they will obviously don't, since it is one of the main selling points of the a7R III...
The only things that pulled me back on getting a Sony camera before were the overheat and short battery life issues. Sony A7III (not R) has some good reviews about these two issues, so I went for it because of its large pixel size (6um) for macro and easy adaption of lenses. And with focus peaking feature, I think manual lenses are not bad at all.

Now, I have my eyes on the A9, maybe next year when I get back to US (warranty reason)

Beatsy
Posts: 2105
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 3:10 am
Location: Malvern, UK

Post by Beatsy »

mjkzz wrote: Now, I have my eyes on the A9, maybe next year when I get back to US (warranty reason)
Spectacular camera for just about everything - macro, micro and photo (as in "real world" photography in any genre). Pricey of course, but you really do get what you pay for IMO. Given the rate that Sony release new camera models at, price should have dropped quite significantly by next year too. You'll love it.

Macrero
Posts: 1166
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2011 8:17 am
Location: Valladolid , Spain

Post by Macrero »

I don't use tethering, so that's not a drawback for me. Never had overheating issues with Sony cameras even in deep stacks at relatively long exposure.

The only potentially worthwhile feature (for me) of the a7R III over the II was the Pixel-shifting, but it seems that it's not quite as good as it looks on paper. So I'll go with the a7R II. And taking into account the difference in price it's a no-brainer for me.

- Macrero
https://500px.com/macrero - Amateurs worry about equipment, Pros worry about money, Masters worry about Light

JohnyM
Posts: 463
Joined: Tue Dec 24, 2013 7:02 am

Post by JohnyM »

I just would like to point out, that after years of using my A7RII, it overheated first time just few days ago.
In full sun, tropical heat. ~15 minutes of 4K recording and ~600 shots my camera shutted down. I've changed batteries in grip and turned it back on, and kept on shooting untill i was done with the job.
It NEVER even displayed warning in my lab work, running hundreds of images in a row.

About thehering: I've no problems here either. Im using USB for We-Macro control, HDMI for 4K TV display and IR remote to browse camera without touching it.
All those ports can work together. You can also use IR trigger in WeMacro and other rails, so your USB port will be free (but i've not tested it).

Beatsy
Posts: 2105
Joined: Fri Jul 05, 2013 3:10 am
Location: Malvern, UK

Post by Beatsy »

JohnyM wrote:I just would like to point out, that after years of using my A7RII, it overheated first time just few days ago.
In full sun, tropical heat. ~15 minutes of 4K recording and ~600 shots my camera shutted down. I've changed batteries in grip and turned it back on, and kept on shooting untill i was done with the job.
It NEVER even displayed warning in my lab work, running hundreds of images in a row.

About thehering: I've no problems here either. Im using USB for We-Macro control, HDMI for 4K TV display and IR remote to browse camera without touching it.
All those ports can work together. You can also use IR trigger in WeMacro and other rails, so your USB port will be free (but i've not tested it).
Never had overheating on my A7rii either. Did get the warning icon on my A9 once, but that was after doing a couple of hours of rapid fire shooting in a hot butterfly house. It didn't shut down though.

I have a similar setup to yours on my macro rig - but the remote I use is just for triggering the camera (the WeMacro one) so my USB port is free (power). Which remote allows you to browse the camera? That would be quite handy. thanks

JohnyM
Posts: 463
Joined: Tue Dec 24, 2013 7:02 am

Post by JohnyM »

I use Sony RMT-DSLR2. Full controll over anything in your camera. Even power-zoom if you have it.

mjkzz
Posts: 1681
Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 3:38 pm
Location: California/Shenzhen
Contact:

Post by mjkzz »

I was over whelmed by the general consensus (reviews and feedback on them) that short battery life and over heat are two major issues, of course, perhaps not to all users, but the general opinion is not favorable.

I was playing with a Sony RX100IV for its high speed feature at a Sony store, after about 10 minutes, just playing with it, a short 4K video, etc, it shut down due to over heat and that experience made me believe it more, so I got the Panasonic GH5 and Canon 6DII, which I think I should have invested that money in an A9

Anyways, I think I am itchy to get the A9 (thanks Beatsy) next time I go to Hong Kong, though I still want US warranty.

Macrero
Posts: 1166
Joined: Thu Sep 01, 2011 8:17 am
Location: Valladolid , Spain

Post by Macrero »

Lou Jost wrote:So for me the choices for a FF camera are A7Rii and Pentax K1 Mark 1. Both cost the same and both have fully electronic shutters (the Pentax has this only after a firmware update). The Sony has better adaptability to non-native lenses but the Pentax has pixel-shifting.
Lou,

I was not considering a DSLR, but since you mentioned the K1 I looked into it and it seems a very good option as well. And, hmm... its pixel-shifting seems to work, at least in the DPR samples.

*Pics removed due DPR copyright policy. You can download the RAW files from DPR if you want to see how they compares.

There is clearly more/better detail in the K-1 crop.

Are you sure the firmware added e-shutter is fully electronic? I read in a few sites that it is an EFCS.

Best,

- Macrero
Last edited by Macrero on Mon Jun 18, 2018 3:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
https://500px.com/macrero - Amateurs worry about equipment, Pros worry about money, Masters worry about Light

Post Reply Previous topicNext topic