The Chris

Drones are great for showing vistas and unique angles that you can't get from the ground - use them for establishing shots, cutaways and for the occasional different perspective - but a few minutes of endless drone shots, yawn. I have no problem adding them to the mix. But geez, the vertical takeoff shot, the fast flyover, the looking straight down, the circle around something, the zoom out selfie - rinse, lather, repeat - it gets old quickly. In the China video (and Blooms which also bored me) the drama of that unique perspective is just becomes blase. Again, just my opinion, but I don't find four different drone shots of the same subject to be interesting.

Drones = boring. That video looks like a bunch of stock footage. There's no connection to the subject when you're zooming around hundreds of feet in the air. There's no detail, anything more than a couple of shots and its monotonous. I'm a big fan of closeups, I like detail. I watch lots of travel videos because I'm planning an extended trip and will be shooting all the countries I visit. Good videos are always a mix of people, scenery, food, landmarks, culture and those things you won't see anywhere else - whatever makes destination X unique. Sound is so important, it really adds texture, sets the mood and pulls the viewer in - nat sound gives travel videos so much life. You get no sound from a drone outside of buzzzzzzz. I find videos from exotic locations with no sound to be very disappointing. Just my opinion.

Pro video obviously makes up a small percentage of the overall market as CaNikon still dominate with cheap DSLR's. Most people buying cameras are not pros and the dominance of small APS-c bodies - the bottom of the CaNikon DSLR lineup - clearly demonstrates that. By most accounts of market share - Canon or Nikon still sells more than everyone else combined. If the 5d4 busts out with 4k and a host of other video-centric features or the next D800 does the same, pros will buy them in droves. Mirror or no mirror - it really doesn't matter.

You can plug a cheap Lav into the H1. But if the budget is that tight, I'd just move the H1 closer to the subject with a boom just out of frame and maybe put a piece of foam around the outer edge that's open in the middle to reduce ambient sound. Or maybe a cheap lav straight into the camera? Pretty tough to get anything decent for less.

I think the A7sII drops at NAB next year with most of what people are guessing here - BSI, 4k internal, 5-axis, the 399pt AF, a MP bump so APS-c is full readout, 1080p/120, stills at about 8fps and so on. NAB 2016, that's my prediction. Oh and the requisite Sony price hike - so $3599 at launch.

​I don't see any moire in the 4k video Sony posted when the A7rII was released. The A7II is also much better than the original - which was really bad IMO. The scheduled release date is 2 1/2 weeks away, I'm really surprised we haven't seen anything else from this camera yet.

4k samples from the LX100 and GH4 look better than the few clips I've seen from the GX8 on my 40" 4k monitor. Youtube could be killing it, but it lacks the detail and pop from good 4k footage. Will wait for more comprehensive tests. So far, meh.

​BSI may add a little DR, but not that much. Look at the NX1 vs the A6000 - almost identical. See here: http://www.dxomark.com/Cameras/Compare/Side-by-side/Samsung-NX1-versus-Sony-A6000___976_942 Anyone expecting a dramatic jump will be seriously disappointed.

​This looks awesome. I'm going to be doing some extended traveling next year - and right now I'm thinking Macbook Air to edit in the evenings or early morning, but I'll need some additional storage. This fits the bill nicely.

To the OP, the A7rII is going to be released in about 3 weeks, so we should start seeing more footage soon. I'd hold off on the ordering it or speedbooster until more footage surfaces if you have any doubts. We literally have one video from the camera right now and on my 4k monitor it looks really good. Pretty tough to make concrete statements without any actual tests. Dan Chung's preview still didn't include any recorded footage and like all the previews (except for Brian Smith's romp around NYC that was all stills) he wasn't able to take the camera into the field.

Even though the OP went with the G7, I have the A5100 and haven't experienced any overheating. Make sure to move/tilt the LCD off the body. I rolled three consecutive 25-30 minute takes shooting 30p XAVC with no issues in the hot Florida sun. Its far better than the Nex5n/7 days when the camera would get really hot to the touch and shut down after a few minutes. YMMV.

This looks like a great all-in-one package. Looking forward to the full review with test video.

What's the ISO from the sample frame?

I recently picked up the A7II to see if I wanted to move to the new camera with IBIS, and to see what a difference it can make over the NX1 with OIS. So far I'm really impressed -- 5-axis eliminates the handheld jitters and significantly reduces the number of rolling shutter occurrences when doing something like a walk-and-talk. For my work I no longer need a glidecam and I'm not looking at a gimbal anymore either. The A7RII will make an amazing camera for travel or run-and-gun documentaries because you can get high IQ from stills and video, carry a few small lenses and no need for rigging, a stabilizer, a slider and so on. YMMV. I think this is going to be a much better option than the A7s. If you want 4k, its a much better value with the new sensor, vastly superior AF, 5-axis IBIS, lower base ISO in Slog, better EVF and so on. The extra $1000+ you have to spend for a recorder/SSD/batteries in order to get 4k from the A7s compared to the A7RII can be spent elsewhere. Stills at 42mp will absolutely blow the A7s out of the water too, crop mode has 50% more MP than the A7s in FF. If you are heavily into stills and video - the A7RII can replace the A7s + Shogun and the D810 in one tiny body. Handling is so much better with the revised body, its put together much better, it offers more customization, better button placement, the front and rear dials feel like a DSLR - not that weird knurled metal, the revised grip makes it a really comfortable camera to use. I hated shooting with the A7s because the ergonomics were so poor, the new cameras a completely different and much better. And it has pretty competent AF with Canon glass. AF with e-mount lenses looks to top every other mirrorless offering as well. The eye tracking AF shown on Dpreview is better than what my D750 could do. I sold my D750 and NX1 for the A7RII, and everything I've seen so far has left me with no doubt it was a good decision. Between the APS-c and FF lenses, all my needs are covered as I'm a 35/85 prime shooter, there's a class leading UWA zoom, a number of other high IQ primes, and even the original 18-200 looked good on the 16mp Nex5n - so it'll be fine as a crop 4k video lens and they're dirt cheap.

I filed this rumor with the A99II, curved sensor RX2 and the A9 "pro A7" unicorns SAR has been trumpeting for the last year or so. SAR had nothing on any of the upcoming releases - he was way off with the A7RII, had nothing on the RX10II or RX100IV. He also had nothing on the A7II at the end of last year. All the announcements were a complete surprise. It appears all his insider info evaporated after the hack and hes now just making stuff up. Well, he did get the A7RII about 20 minutes before the embargo was lifted. I'm sure we'll start seeing "SR3 - A7sII to have IBIS, 399pt AF, 4k internal and BSI - will be released later this year or early next year" rumors soon. Followed by "SR3 - A7III getting 399pt AF, 4k internal and BSI - will be released later this year or early next year". You can probably add high resolution sensor shift mode like Olympus has to the rumor mill as well - I would because it will get clicks. He did great work, but most of that's in the past. I still visit the site daily - its just a great resource for samples and tests of all things E-mount.

This is such a great feature with 4k when you're delivering in 1080p. The samples posted here look really good. I just shot a commercial and I'm doing the same thing - fake dolly shots by moving around the frame. Sekhar and elkanah77, nice job. Chris

The D750 produces a nice image with the flat profile, file sizes are great, ergonomics are great, batteries seem to last forever and so on. The one drawback for me is the poor quality of the rear LCD compared to what Sony is putting on the A7's and the Samsung NX1. When you zoom in, it looks like a CRT TV. Its still a powerhouse FF camera. Nice piece. I sold my D750 to get the A7RII.

There was another interview just posted on Dpreview with the same Sony people: http://***URL removed***/articles/0717419525/interview-kimio-maki-of-sony-the-customer-s-voice-is-the-most-important-data-for-me Lots of the same info, though one little nugget about the upcoming lenses, "We have already made a 35mm F1.4 and 90mm macro - both were based on customer’s requirements, and also we have a full F4 zoom lineup, so our next lenses will be at the upper end of the lineup." Just what the "upper end of the lineup" means is the question.

​Phottix Odin solves the A7's flash issues, its a brilliant transmitter/receiver and flash setup, can do HSS and TTL. There aren't as many options as Canon and I'm far from an advanced strobist, but the Phottix has served my OCF needs well for product, real estate and the occasional portrait. I would choose the A7rII over the 5d3 + A7s (I've owned both) if you're doing stills and video. The MP bump and DR improvement will be significant, the A7rII will easily outclass the other two - even at sky high ISO's because when you downsample to anything close to 12mp noise will be dramatically reduced. The 5d3's AF will still be better for event and sports shooters, it has a much better battery life and its a more ergonomic friendly body. But that's pretty much it on the stills side. For video its still unknown as we have just one A7rII sample, and obviously it wont hit the crazy ISO's the A7s does. But the upper range of the A7s is pretty useless because of the noise outside of ENG type stuff. IQ is good on my A5100 to 6400, I'm betting 25,600 will be as good or better on the A7rII - and it'll be 4k recorded internally. The 5-axis can replace a gimbal/slider/dolly in many shooting situations and all lenses are stabilized, giving you an advantage over every other 4k camera available. For me its the total package that makes the A7rII so appealing. I've enjoyed using the A7s and NX1 (which replaced my 5d3), but I just sold both to consolidate to the A7rII. I held off getting a Shogun and got a NX1 instead, but I'm tired of transcoding and I'm not leaving Mac. Now I get 4k internal and the 1080p downscaled from the S35 4k should be as good or better than when I getting right now. So the A7rII saved me the expense of a shogun (don't do heavy grading or green screen) and a gimbal as there's no need for me to get a half-baked Nebula for my occasional walking shots or walking tours of homes for real estate videos. If we get the A7sII with the new body, 5-axis, internal 4k and so on, I'll be buying one of those too. Till then the A7rII is going to be my workhorse with the A5100 as a stills backup. Everyone's needs are different, but this ticks almost every box for me. The only thing I'll miss from the A7s is the full sensor readout in FF, but I think we'll see a A7sII so for now I can live with that.

Brian Smith just posted a hands-on report. Says the U.S. camera can be switched to PAL. Interesting. http://briansmith.com/field-test-sony-a7rii/

​Can't speak for the A6000, but I have the A5100 (because of XAVC and the touchscreen) - I shot a dance performance indoors and it was my static wide shot with the 10-18 lens on a gorillapod. I did three consecutive takes of 25, 28 and 28 minutes and there were no overheating issues. This is so much better than my old 5n or Nex7 which would overheat in less than 10 minutes on the first take and usually about 3-4 minutes with each subsequent take. I live in Florida and frequently shoot outdoors in really hot weather, the A5100 has been great for me. Can't wait for its 4k replacement.

​Did you actually read the interview or the incorrect SAR summary? Nowhere does the Sony manager state that its going to happen, this is just spreading false information. From Imaging Resource: "Sony RAW is compressed, not uncompressed. But if we're getting a lot of requests for it, we should make such a kind of no-compression raw. Of course we recognize that. But I cannot give you a guarantee when we're going to fix or not fix." Cannot guarantee when we're going to fix or not fix. That's hardly confirmation that its coming. The full IR interview: http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2015/06/16/sony-qa-the-must-have-sensor-tech-of-the-future

​If Sony ever decides to release another APS-c camera, that's probably a pretty safe bet given 4k in the new RX cameras.

​Nikon has the D4x/DF 16mp sensor, which performs as well or better than the A7s on the stills side. http://www.soundimageplus.com/soundimageplus/2014/11/21/sony-a7s-compared-to-nikon-df-iso-performance Don't see why they couldn't do a lowlight monster with that sensor if so inclined.

The spec sheet says ARW 2.3, which its still the same lossy compression Sony has used on all the other A7's. Here's a better explanation than I can type. https://photographylife.com/reviews/sony-a7-ii/3 Imaging Resource was at the press event in NYC and asked about it and it was confirmed that the A7rII still uses the 11+7 compression. Boo. http://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2015/06/10/sony-rx10-ii-rx100-iv-and-a7r-ii-announced-were-blogging-live-from-the-pres