Sony Alpha a7IIK Mirrorless Digital Camera with 28-70mm Lens, black

To preface this review, I think the time for purchasing this particular camera is when it is being sold for under 1000 dollars. This tends to happen frequently throughout the year, especially around the holiday season. In fact, one could also find the body for ~900 new on black friday/cyber monday deals on amazon or other camera stores. If you already have invested in one system, say Canon or Nikon,or even already own a Sony APS-C camera, I would not recommend the a7II. The a7II is a gateway product that provides the most value to those who have not yet experienced the mirrorless movement of cameras, or even cameras in general. I will also not recommend this camera to those who are looking into seeking photography as a career. You would probably be better investing in a camera which is 'competitive' to offer top results to clients. So to begin, who is the Sony a7II perfect for? This camera is perfect for those who are interested in full frame photography and not so much interested in shooting video. This is the camera for the amateur or the casual shooter who want to reap the rewards that mirrorless designs offer. While the camera is fairly old, around 4 years as of 2019, do not mistake it as a bad camera. Even in 2019, the image quality and sensor performance is quite impressive. The IBIS, a feature seldom found on cameras of this price range, allows you to take very sharp images in low light situations. Auto focus on this camera is fairly quick and will get you sharp focus in most, if not all, situations. Just know, that high action or high movement subjects will not be easy to focus on using this body. Dynamic range on this camera is also very impressive. Aside from the built in features, the E-Mount system is the most mature mount system on the market. Since Sony adopted mirrorless designs early, there is a large selection of high quality lenses that can fit almost any budget. The current high value lenses to be looking out for are: - Tamron 28-75mm F/2.8 which runs for just under 900 dollars MSRP. It is the most bang for you buck zoom lens on the market for the E-Mount system and potentially a lens you will never take off. - Sigma Art Primes come in various focal lengths and sizes. Again, these lenses are razor sharp and don't break the bank. One could get the a7II kit for 1000 dollars and the Sigma Art 35mm F1.4 and that would still be cheaper than buying an a7III body. - Samyang/Rokinon lenses. For every Sony lens on the market, there is a Samyang/Rokinon of similar design at a small fraction of the Sony price. This glass is cheap, but quality for what you pay for. Some would even reckon that these lenses surpass some of the available Sony options. Of course many will be purchasing the a7II Kit which comes with the 28-70mm lens. This kit lens is about the epitome of the 'jack of all trades and master of none' title. It gives access to a pretty standard zoom range, the sharpness is pretty solid even at its wide open aperture of 3.5. It is small and light weight as well, meaning you could easily carry this lens around with you in a bag. But that's about it. You can take very good pictures with this lens, but you'll always be wanting for more in terms of sharpness and aperture options.

Nice

Sony has very nice cameras; this model, I think, is a good deal for photographers, not videographers... I wasn't sure that I want to switch from Nikon, but I like the concept of using same lenses for a6000 series and A7 series :-)

I have now had this camera for about 6 weeks. I have used it for vacations shots, landscape photos, portraits, astrophotography, sports photos and even low light photos in a cavern. I guess you could think of this camera as a world class decathlete. It is very good at everything but not the very best at anything. I think the three things that makes this camera so good is the image stabilization, the small size and lightness, and the small price for such a high end camera. Even though the high ISO performance isn't the absolute best it is still good and with image stabilization it allows you to shoot at much slower shutter speeds with any lens than nearly any other camera. I took usable photos with the ISO at 6400 and the shutter speed between .5 and one second. These were hand held shots and only one out of four photos were sharp enough but I doubt I could have done that with any other camera. It is not as fast at focusing as my A77m2 nor does it have as many pixels as the A7rII but it takes incredible shots and raw photos have so much depth of information I can pull a lot of detail and contrast and color out of photos that seem too dark and drab at first glance. So far I am very impressed with this camera. I think it is well worth the price. The only downside is the lack of affordable full frame lenses for the E mount cameras. Sony has decided to market very high end lenses with high end prices. You can either buy expensive Zeiss lenses, expensive Leica lenses or expensive Sony lenses. I think Sony calls them G master or something like that. At least the kit lens seems to be a good lens especially for a kit lens. I have taken some pretty difficult photos with that lens and I have not been disappointed. eica

Still learning how to use all the options. I was able to buy some old glass lenses for about $30 (28mm, 50mm) and take some outstanding portraits and landscapes. Very versatile.