Menu systems stink, and no touch screen stinks. To fix the user interface of the camera. To open a path to great photography for those whom have been put off by camera geekiness. To provide a CLEAR and FRIENDLY PATH to advanced photography for those wanting more than their phone can offer.

Better features wouldn't come with iOS.

The menus work well enough on current Sony cameras.

NoMirror99 - Do not confuse a menu system with an operating system.

Thematic, The menu system is the UI of the OS, and thus a part of the OS. If you like the menu system of the camera, no touch screen, and the few pitiful apps Sony has available, just stick with it. I'm happy for you.

Apple iOS to replace that menu mess would be very cool. Hell ya I want a touch screen.

iOS on my a7RII, YES!

having to control cameras largely by touch screen has been well demonstrated to be problematic for many situations. (See here the Samsung Galaxy NX.)

iOS devices have one button, would that change? Or is the proposal iOS on the screen with all the usual buttons?

Another thing iOS/Android devices need to be away from your body to be adjusted. Well thought out buttons and wheels, once you know them allow the user to change most of the important without taking her/his eye off the viewfinder.

Further applications aren't going to add to the performance of the camera. An app does sort apertures differently.

Touch screens can be perfectly useful, the NX1 has decent one. But noses have been known to change things.

@RAW, Thanks for the reply. As a photographer and a musician most of my life I am keenly aware of the desirability of camera ergonomics so that one can play the camera tactically like a musical instrument. And I agree that the implementation of touch on cameras has been very problematic. I chalk it up to very bad design. An apple CameraOS would of course be very very well designed. I'm no UI designer, but here is some of what I envision, not in any special order. 1. TouchScreen TS would shut off when you bring the camera to your face. 2. The camera would have buttons just like now. 3. Reviewing shots would appear on the screen/VF like now, but pinch-zoom, and flick through previous shots would be like on an iPhone. In addition, in the VF or LCD zooming would also be the back dial, and previous/next would be the front dial. 4. Similarly to an iPhone, you would be able to have whatever buttons you want on whatever screen. But unlike an iPhone, you would be able to leave any slot blank.

NoMirror:

Oh Samsung's NX1 does shut down the touch function, when the EVF engages, but since they don't want the screen shutting down everytime you bring the body near your body (this is a problem with current Sony A7 models) the NX1 doesn't do the switch until such time as your nose can easily have touched the screen and reset the focus point.

And the NX1's touch menu is well executed. But it's still a problem, despite the fact that Samsung was years ahead of Sony, Oly, and Fuji with decent menus.

I assume most just turn off touch, if they plan on using the EVF on the NX1.

Continued: You would be able to have which ever buttons you want where ever you want on the screen. You would be able to navigate in the VF with the wheel, and by wheel or touch on the LCD. Like the phone, things you use less you would push further back in your screen order. 5. Unlike the iPhone and MACs zoom would be a universal system function, no matter the screen or app being viewed, but user selectable of course. 5. Apps: There would be an app store open to all developers. I can't imagine what developers might come up with, but if the iPhone App Store is any indication, it will be a lot. Things no one has thought of yet. 6. Yes it would have all the usual buttons, but the camera body would have better quality wheels and dials and ergonomics in general, so it can be played more smoothly and easily. That's all I have for now. And again this is just my vision. I would love to hear yours, and yours, and yes all of yours.

ick

The path to great photography starts with a great eye, and still to this day for many world class fine art photographers ends with cameras that have ZERO electronics and menu systems. I bought my A7RII the first 30 seconds it went on presale and its nice, but my 50yo 8x10 view camera with a sheet fp4+ souped in Pyro still produces a negative that far exceeds in image quality over the RAW files my A7R2 produces.

Chris,

That's a nice sentiment, but only goes so far.

After 2004 digital cameras far surpassed film cameras for high ISOs and low light shooting. (I'm sure you realize this.)

Big sheet film cameras are fine, but require set up and have limited uses. And you are mostly limited to landscapes with those cameras.

A Sigma Quattro will likely also surpass an A7RII for very low ISO landscapes--but I'd have to test both under the same circumstances.

@Chris, I loved my 4x5 too. I hope that one day digital will catch up to those large negatives. I can smell the fixer now.

NoM:

"for very low ISOs".

I'm quite certain that the Quattro challenges the Pentax 645Z for low ISO landscapes too. And in that case I have raws, though not my own, which back me up.

So low ISOs NOT low-light.

No:

That's what I thought.

We, I too, get an idea in our head and see the text that way.

I like the A7RII, and look forward to uncompressed 14 bit raws. I hope that Camera Raw 9.1.1 will extract them. Since I'm against rental only software and have no great inclination to purchase LightRoom version whatever.

I still would likely rather use a Quattro for landscapes.

I would love an 80mb file if it contains extra detail.

Remember that many pros shoot in a studio or controlled area or low volume that can't afford medium format. The Nikon D810 or Canon 5DR...and now the Sony a7RII are excellent options for us.

Cheers.

I think the 5DR users are not exactly happy about Raw perfromance - and if you want to shoot raw in a fashion shoot - you will need speed and quality - and that really wont be achieved if the raw takes forever to write (or transmit tethered) because its uncompressed.

Just not very fast to write out data.... which was my point

GB:

It was reasonably fast every time I tried it with a fast card.

It's not the 5D or the D750, but that's not the market.

I hate to repeat myself. Check out the images, there is a screenshot showing the option for uncompressed RAW files within the menu. That's the proof. And also not my blog.

> What proof?

Checking out that page would have taken as much time as asking here, methinks.

There is indeed a picture of "uncompressed RAW" option in the camera menu.

What would be your next complaint? Is it irrelevant? Photoshopped? Go ahead, tell us the truth...

"in a meeting today with Sony’s engineers we were told that by enabling this setting, the files literally become twice as large. So if a file is 24MB, 14 bit uncompressed RAW will allow for a 48MB file"

So I guess that confirms that they mean Fully 'Uncompressed'. Which I'm actually fine with, but would have been nice to see a Losslessly compressed option (but not if its slowed the camera down).

Either way, great news.

Thanks for sharing. Given that the A7RII will likely have the same implementation as the A7SII we can expect that uncompressed literally means uncompressed (not losslessly compressed). No need to waste any more time speculating.

"What we were also told is that the color depth and dynamic range also won’t be affected–and instead the difference in image quality will really just been see in the artifacts that happens in high contrast areas."

I guess this attitude is why Sony has been so reluctant to give us 14-bit RAW. Corner case artifiacts with 11+7 are indeed rare but that's not the main reason for getting away from compressed RAW. 14-bit RAW, with about 4x more latitude, is extremely useful when editing. After manipulating the file many people may export to an 8-bit JPG file and it looks just fine for viewing. However, anyone who has tried to manipulate an 8-bit JPG realizes the detriment of having less latitude in the source file.

Agreed Robert98. Though it would be poetic justice if A7rII-owners suddenly had 103MB arws to deal with.

Based on my back-of-envelope calculations (1DX files are 20-25MB for an 18.1MP image) I wouldn't have thought they'd be much bigger than 60-ish MB. Given that you need to have a 64GB card in order to access all the a7RII's video goodness, it's not an issue I'm worried about, either way. And it's switchable in any case, so I'm doubly not worried :) And finally I've not seen any artefacts in my own images, so it's not a given that I'll enable it for every image, so I'm triply not worried.

"....Sony Alpha Rumours proved to be right more then once ..."

this alone made your whole comment irrelevant

I'm pretty sure Ngc is shooting JPEG anyway ;p

Are you sure about those numbers?
A 36mp Nikon D810 uncompressed 14bit RAW files averages 75mb

Also ovf is not clean and clear, its through a focusing screen.

Clean and clear?
It's dark and dingy.

Looking through those Sony viewfinders in best buy they all seem electronic and fuzzy.More info and everything else I guess but not for me.Like the system otherwise but after decades of looking through the viewfinder,it's not for me.Pity, love the size and features.Nice small ziss lenses. maybe I'll take another look. ha ha.

buy a camera for what it does now, not for what you hope it may do someday. i think it's cool Sony's listening. everyone benefits.

They listened in late 2007 on the jpeg engine of their a700, remember, Carl?

Yes, next time I buy a premium camera, I want a guarantee signed in blood by the CEO of Sony that he'll continue to provide feature-laden updates for it for the next 10 years. Consumers have rights.

Even when battery, dual card slot and this is addressed, there will still be complaints like: my-hand-is-big-tiny-body-noob, big size better to impress client and oh-my-OVF-is-best-evf-no-good. Sigh.

AksCT, I find it nice that they are simply upgrading the software. I find it incredible that they did it just one month after release of the R2. At worst, which in reality is pretty awesome is that even if they make the improvement in the new model at least there ARE new models. Unlike some others that release a 'new' model with the smallest change they can get by with, and then rush it to market with a 3-5 year refresh rate.