Sony A99 II so far, likes and dislikes

[Andrew Reid]

This camera is better in almost every way than the A7R II and A7S II.

Lenses... I'll get onto those in a minute but A mount is nothing to be afraid of. Will be selling a lot of Canon glass after this and will end up actually saving money at the same time as increasing quality and decreasing weight.

The AF is definitely better than the A7R II and kicks the A7S II into the dust. At F3.5 it tracks like a hawk. I can now see why Sony did this because at F1.4 on a softer lens it doesn't work nearly as well as Dual Pixel AF on the 1D X Mark II. But to have this bonus feature on the 24-70mm F2.8, losing just half a stop, but gaining amazing run & gun AF for video.

The 1080/24p and 1080/120p are the SAME QUALITY. This makes the 1080/120p the best on the full frame camera market. The nicest ever. There's no crop, it's full frame. A7R II was 720p only and A7S II was a big 2x crop!

What's more it is not just an S&Q mode but a fully continuous normal video mode with 5 axis IBIS and AF tracking, at 100Mbit. The S&Q mode is only 16Mbit.

The 4K full frame quality is also very good but Super 35 does still have advantage in low light and to eliminate moire.

Nice to have a top LCD for shooting info. A7 series lacks this of course.

Buttons are better arranged than A7R II and A7S II. It is not laid out like a RX10 III. It is its own beast in terms of ergonomics.

You can now assign Super 35mm mode to a button, which you can't on the mirrorless cams. The new menus are in there and do group stuff together better but they're not a big enough overhaul to make me really appreciate them. I try to go into the menus as little as possible. Unfortunately you can't assign 4K/1080p to a func. button or the func. menu, you have to dig into the menus when switching between 4K 24p and 1080/120fps.

You can assign video recording to the exp. comp button next to shutter release, really handy. Default video button is better placed than A7 series but on the rear not the top.

Exposure compensation can be assigned instead to rear or front dial when in A-priority mode, then it automatically reverts to shutter speed / aperture control in manual mode.... again super handy.

The LCD can face forward for VLOGs and stuff, cannot do that with the A7 series or A9. It can also sit on top of the hotshoe almost (reminds me of Sony R1), or flips away to the base. More articulation options than the A7S II.

AF for photos.... hmmm lovely. Super quick and reliable.

The A lenses...TOP stuff. Particularly Zeiss 135mm F1.8, 50mm F1.4 and 24mm F2.0.

The 85mm F1.4 is a bit noisy and slow for AF but great in MF. Super optically. The Zeiss 24-70mm F2.8 is like the G-Master lens, and just as big unfortunately.

I prefer wherever possible the SSM lenses (24,50,24-70 but not 135 and 85) if using AF for video - much quieter internal focussing.

I love the green indicator boxes in manual focus mode for video. Way less intrusive than peaking. It stops you from diving into the punch-in zoom mode or racking the focus ring back and forth a little bit to be sure. As soon as you get that green dot you can just stop and relax knowing that area is in focus. LOVE IT

Have dialed EOSHD Pro Color into PP1. Looks WAY better than the default. Not tried S-LOG 3 to see if the banding is improved since A7S II yet. S-LOG 2 and S.Gamut Cine 3 with view assist all present like A7S II and an improvement over A7R II.

42MP stills and 18MP Super 35 mode. This for photography is significantly more in resolutions terms than the 1D X Mark II and allows you to effectively get two high quality prime lens focal lengths in one.

The camera is more responsive than A7R II / A7S II. Starting / stopping video has zero lag. Start-up time very good. Writing the 42MP RAW+JPEG files - MUCH smoother. Max write speed is 60MB/s to UHS 1 cards. Dual card slots. Not Compact Flash speeds (80MB/s plus) on the card controller but much better than A7R II 30-40MB/s.

This isn't a DSLR. EVF quality is very good, translucent mirror doesn't flip. It's instant-on like mirrorless camera.

Body size and weight is similar to the GH5. So far far less than 1D X Mark II.

Has a DC-IN port, but doesn't seem to take charge from USB. Battery is probably too big for 5v 2-amp charging.

There's a very smooth and nice front dial near the lens release which is assignable to things like ISO... It can be clickless or clicking.

Now the bad stuff...

The LCD dims in movie mode when you're shooting 4K or 120fps 1080p. It's either a power management thing or a heat thing. Makes exposure look totally different and 2 stops darker than same settings in stills mode. Very silly Sony!!! It seems all unnecessary on this camera because of the bigger battery than A7 series. Although the screen does get very slightly warm at full brightness outdoors, to think this would contribute to overheating problems is unlikely and it can be flipped completely away from the back of the camera where the hot main board and chipsets back directly onto the rear casing with no proper heat sink (I've seen the tear-down photos).

Sadly my camera came with a small faulty part... a sticky joystick in the 'right' direction. Apparently it 'wears-in' over time but I don't think mine is proper...why would it only need wearing-in to click right responsively and not also up/down/left? We'll see if my next unit does the same weirdness. On this point, I think Sony still have work to do to convince us they can make buttons. Can you imagine this on a pro body like a Canon 1D X Mark II? Journalists would be rabid, foaming at the mouth.

That's it for now, can't actually use it much more as it has to go back to DigitalRev but plan to do the review soon.

I think this is a real rival to the GH5... No 10bit but you gain full frame, better slow-mo, 42MP stills and maintain pretty much all the other features.

That's it with the Zeiss 50mm F1.4

The Sony 35mm F1.4 G is also a nice one... forgot to mention that. It's much smaller and lighter than the Sigma ART 35mm.

Size comparison with the GH5

Although lens mount makes the A99 II look much larger, the tops of the bodies are practically level (look at hot shoe and mode dials)

The grip is a bit deeper on the A99 II and card door a lot wider... dual card slots on both.

[tomekk]

Nice first impressions review. Just one note. Zeiss 35mm 1.4 is smaller and lighter, but it's specs are much lower as well according to dxomark. No free lunch there. Either, top specs or size, you can't have both with current glass tech ;). https://www.dxomark.com/Lenses/Compare/Side-by-side/35mm-f-1.4-G-on-Sony-SLT-Alpha-99-II-versus-Sigma-35mm-F14-DG-HSM-A-Canon-on-Canon-EOS-5DS-R-versus-Sigma-35mm-F14-DG-HSM-A-Sony-on-Sony-SLT-Alpha-99-II__380_1120_1056_1009_1060_1120

 

[Andrew Reid]

You don't need to quote the post if your reply is directly under it.

[Mark Romero]

@ Andrew Reed:

Thanks for posting. Did you try out the 1080p at other speeds? How would it compare to that of the a7s?

I know you only had it for a short time before having to send it back, but do you think it would be competent shooting 4K or 1080 (at 60fps) in the ISO 1600 to 3200 range? At what ISO would the 1080p of the original a7s becoming noticeably better than that of the a99 II?

Thanks in advance for testing this out when you have a moment.

[Andrew Reid]

Get a replacement on Monday so let's see about all that.

The Super 35mm 4K mode is competent up to ISO 12,800!

The full frame mode 4K is good to about 1600 but I think the 1080p might go higher and still look good.

a7s still has advantage in low light for full frame 4K.

1 hour ago, tomekk said:

Nice first impressions review. Just one note. Zeiss 35mm 1.4 is smaller and lighter, but it's specs are much lower as well according to dxomark. No free lunch there. Either, top specs or size, you can't have both with current glass tech ;). https://www.dxomark.com/Lenses/Compare/Side-by-side/35mm-f-1.4-G-on-Sony-SLT-Alpha-99-II-versus-Sigma-35mm-F14-DG-HSM-A-Canon-on-Canon-EOS-5DS-R-versus-Sigma-35mm-F14-DG-HSM-A-Sony-on-Sony-SLT-Alpha-99-II__380_1120_1056_1009_1060_1120

Yes the Sigma is a bit sharper but the Sony has a lovely rendering and character.

The new price for the Sony is insane but I got mine used for £599, which is similar price to the Sigma ART.

Same with the Zeiss 50mm f1.4 vs the Sigma, the Zeiss has a nicer character and rendering.

[treb999]

Glad you're liking the camera Andrew.  If you do a full fledge review, if you could try taking video, 4k, under continuous fluorescent lighting.  One of the reasons I use Canons are the full frame don't have that damn banding like my Panasonic G7 has, just curious if the Sony doesn't have it or does have it.  Cheers!

[Inazuma]

Whats the rolling shutter like in S35?

[ntblowz]

wonder what stops them using f2.8 or higher for using AF on video?

[Trek of Joy]

I do like the A99 ergos, still the best camera I've ever held in terms of grip, button placement and usability. When I tinkered with the A99II at a few Tokyo camera shops it was love, but then I put the 24-70 on there and it became a giant brick. The 24-70 is a really good lens, but by no means a lightweight. I never found the old A-mount 35 to be all that great, but that's my walk around FL and the SigArt is just so much better at its widest apertures, no sense in paying for a 1.4 if its not very good wide open.

If you're looking to go one system for stills and video Sony's 42mp sensor is really the best option IMO. The A-mount just lacks direction and seemingly a future as Sony has completely ignored the lenses in the last few years. The 35/85/135 are all in need of updates to SSM II tech, those are my most used primes so as always YMMV. They also need a good 28/2 like the E-mount as well, though you can get the Minolta easily. The 35 should be a Zeiss lens too, almost seems like the FE Z35 was the lens the A-mount should have gotten.

If Sony put the A7s sensor in the A99 body that could be a video monster and round out things a little better in terms of an ecosystem, but their focus is the FE cams as crop E-mount and A-mount are getting nothing but new bodies that seem to be not very well planned.

Lots of cheap Minolta glass still floating around including some really great stuff like the the 28/2 and the APO zoom. The beer can everyone talks about is good, but not great IMO. Lots of good deals on used A-mount lenses - both Sony and Minolta - can be found though. Looking forward to comparison videos. The 16-50/2.8 is a great option for s35 video too, its easy to find used on the cheap.

Cheers

Chris

[Andrew Reid]

2 hours ago, Trek of Joy said:

I do like the A99 ergos, still the best camera I've ever held in terms of grip, button placement and usability. When I tinkered with the A99II at a few Tokyo camera shops it was love, but then I put the 24-70 on there and it became a giant brick. The 24-70 is a really good lens, but by no means a lightweight. I never found the old A-mount 35 to be all that great, but that's my walk around FL and the SigArt is just so much better at its widest apertures, no sense in paying for a 1.4 if its not very good wide open.

All 24-70mm F2.8 lenses are bricks even G Master.

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If you're looking to go one system for stills and video Sony's 42mp sensor is really the best option IMO. The A-mount just lacks direction and seemingly a future as Sony has completely ignored the lenses in the last few years. The 35/85/135 are all in need of updates to SSM II tech, those are my most used primes so as always YMMV. They also need a good 28/2 like the E-mount as well, though you can get the Minolta easily. The 35 should be a Zeiss lens too, almost seems like the FE Z35 was the lens the A-mount should have gotten.

With Sigma 35mm F1.4 ART on the market, Sony probably would be wasting their time.

I like the existing 35mm F1.4 G, it's tiny and renders beautifully.

Could do with SSM.

Between SSM 1 and 2 hardly any difference.

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If Sony put the A7s sensor in the A99 body that could be a video monster and round out things a little better in terms of an ecosystem, but their focus is the FE cams as crop E-mount and A-mount are getting nothing but new bodies that seem to be not very well planned.

I don't think a 12MP sensor would make sense in A99 II instead of 42MP. Remember it's a photography flagship not a low light / video specialist cam.

I like that stills are still 18MP even in APS-C mode, gives you huge crop ability to reframe a shot.

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Lots of cheap Minolta glass still floating around including some really great stuff like the the 28/2 and the APO zoom. The beer can everyone talks about is good, but not great IMO.

28mm F2.0 is old MD not AF?

I have the 70-210mm F4 beercan. It's great for stills, for £70! Bbut AF is very noisy.

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Cheers

Chris

 

[mercer]

They have an A mount 28mm f/2 as well. 

[Trek of Joy]

5 hours ago, Andrew Reid said:

I don't think a 12MP sensor would make sense in A99 II instead of 42MP. Remember it's a photography flagship not a low light / video specialist cam.

I was talking more about having options in addition the A99, a A99s would do what the A7rII/A7sII combo does only with the SLT. The A7sII is just so much cleaner at higher ISO's and A-mount shooters really only have two options right now - and the A77II video is crap. Sony is hitting niche's with the A7's and now the A9 - the A99 body is perfect as is, just would like to see more options as A-mount the future doesn't seem very bright. Just my opinion.

Cheers

[Witzgall]

I am an a99ii shooter. I have a question about 35mm lenses. I currently have the Sigma 35mm 1.4 I am interested in hearing about the performance of the AF on the Sony 35mm 1.4 vs. the Sigma, in low light. I have found that the Sigma is slow to focus in normal ev levels, but gets really really slow/inaccurate when the light is very low.My feeling is that this camera really needs the hybrid AF to do well in low light. Any thoughts???

Chris