Timelapse photographer and EOSHD Forum user Davide Roveri has shot a revealing low light test of the new A7R II.
Here is what Davide had to say on the forum about the low light capabilities of the A7R II:
“The results are very surprising, whereas during the day i couldn’t really spot a difference in quality between the FF and S35 modes things are completely different when the lights go down: the S35 mode is vastly superior to the Full Frame”
“I don’t know if that is only the result of the better readout from the sensor in S35 or there is some noise reduction wizardry happening in real time but the output from the S35 mode is way cleaner.”
Interestingly he claims that the A7R II in Super 35mm mode is able to match even the A7S right up to ISO 25,600 (which is the maximum for video on the A7R II).
Remember that the Super 35mm mode would also be able to benefit from the Metabones Speed Booster for an further gain in low light performance of nearly 2 stops.
This has made me quite confident about replacing my A7S entirely with the A7R II. Low light performance is very important to me and of course it easily beats the 50MP Canon 5DS at high ISOs.
Another test from London has come in from Dan Chung who has also taken advantage of the earlier shipping to the UK.
This one is shot in the XAVC-S HD 120fps mode (100fps when set to PAL). This is actually 720p not full HD like on the RX10 II and RX100 IV.
To me the video looks soft but aliasing and moire look a bit less than on the A7S, however Dan writes at Newshooter that the camera performed very badly in this respect at 120fps. So I’ll guess we’ll just have to treat 120fps on this camera as a nice ‘bonus’ and hold onto the new RX cameras for that.
These are very early tests by the way so do take them with a pinch of salt until everyone has had more time with the camera. I find that initial impressions can change over time and new discoveries come out for quite a while after a camera has been released. It has only been out literally a couple of days. Also stay tuned for my comprehensive review on EOSHD in the weeks to come.
