anteroWhich one would you choose? A7SII or the upcoming A7SIII ? Now, 5 years after the A7s2 released, Sony has decided to upgrade the camera. Exiting times. Is the a7S II still be a camera to buy in 2020? With the new modell coming up the old one will drop drastically in price. Originally it was priced at around 3000$. I bought it for 32 000 kr. I preordered it when it was announced and I got it pretty early. The lowlight capabilities was its strong selling point and the nr one reason for me to buy it. A lot of my film work happens in dark environments with the lights being out of my control, so it was a must for me at the time.
Through the years Ive own many of different Sony cameras but I never even considered getting rid of the A7s ii. It has stayed in my arsenal and been a true workhorse all of these years. Its been with me on every film assignment, it has never crashed on me and it has never overheated. I have hacked it so it doesnt have the 30 min record limit (do this at your own risk). I only use it for filming with the battery AC cable attached. It has served its purpose and never failed me. Until this day it is the one camera that I owned for the longest of time.
Should you buy it in 2020? In my opinion, all the newer alpha 7 models, a7iii, a7riii and a7riv, all of them included the a6400 and the a6600, has exactly the same sensor quality when it comes to video, note that is not the same sensors, just the quality coming out of it in video is quite the same. The specs are the same, the film resolution is the same, the colors are the same, the bit rate is the same, the color dept is the same. The only difference is that the a7sii is slightly better in low light, but honestly, Ive used all of them extensively in lowlight conditions, and all of the Sonys are pretty darn good I must say. It is not really noticeable for the normal naked eye, when you pixelpeep, youll se it tho. So if you are looking for a film camera, the a7sii will give you most for the value for your money.
History of my gear, my professional career started with the Nikon D800 (before that I had the Nikon D80 and the Nikon D7000). In 2015 I bought the Panasonic GH4, later that year Sony A7s 2 got released, I got a job that payed the same that the camera costed, so I decided to invest the money from that job into the camera.
One year passed and I sold the GH4 and bought a Sony FS 700. For film work the A7sii and fs700 was a perfect match. D800 was my main stills camera. In 2017 I bought a Nikon D5 and a few months later I bought a Sony A7Rii. The D5 was going to be my main stills camera, and the Rii my b-camera for stills and film. Later that year Sony released the A7riii, It was a breakthrough that I had been waiting for, high megapixel camera with 10fps mechanical shutter and all the amazing sony film features. I pre-ordered it. Few months later I sold my D5 and my R2 and started using R3 as my main foto camera. The fs700 was at the time my main film camera and a7sii my b-cam. It was a very pleasing setup, and I finally had done the full switch to Sony, being able to use only e-mount lenses on all my camera bodies. It ment I needed fewer lenses, since owning many different brands ment that I needed the same focal length for different systems, which was just dumb and expensive. So investing in one brand made it possible to get higher end lenses. In 2019 the Sony A6400 got released and some months later also the A7R4 came. I got them both. Since these cameras did not have any record time limit they where perfect for film work combined with photography. The fs700 got placed on the shelf where its been ever since. And I now mainly use the A7r4, a7r3, a6400 and the A7s2 for my filming work. Those 4 cameras match each others in colors and settings and makes my life very easy in post processing. So you see I have went through many cameras but the A7sii has stayed with me. And it will stay with me for many more years to come. It is perfect for its purpose, a static overview camera always on manual focus. Theres is no reason for getting rid of it. So if you are considering it or the new upcoming a7siii, it will be getting a lot cheaper very soon. And many people will be selling it for the a7s iii. So youll find many used bargains out there. Since I still use the camera actively after 5 years, I cannot more than recommend it. Im guessing it will drop to half price used and mabey 2/3s price new when tbe a7siii arrives. And for that ammount you are getting more than you pay for. Go for it.
