Sony Alpha 7S : when is the mark II expected? is it still a good idea to buy the A7S now?

I agree with most of MCquestions observations and amplify them. I was surprised at the low price point and wonderful ergonomics of the A7II and this shows what you can put out for such a low price. Remember a 12mp is not moving anywhere near as much data off the sensor as the A7rII

so readout is not going to be that hard. The A7rII is the landscape camera for Sony the way the Nikon D810 is for Nikon. Nikon had D700 and D3 12mp cameras long ago, and they were high iso animals for there day, but 12mp was soon considered insufficient for a FF camera. Todays 24mp D750 does very well in low light has good FPS, fast focusing even in low light. Sony would be wise to take the BSI 30% advantage in better high iso and noise and raise the resolution.

I would personally raise it to 18mp but at least to 16mp like the Nikon D4 its flagship camera.

About the price I wouldn't pay $36OO for a 12mp camera in 2016, some of the high iso range on the present A7s I would never even use today for me anything over 12,800 iso is for tricks since I don't do astrophotography.

18mp or even 16mp would be useful for most people's landscapes and still life. One other thing

even with IBIS and shooting higher ISO such high MP as A7rII is going to require a Tripod because such high resolution will show any subtle movements and these will show all the flaws in the photos and lenses. I will be using Leica and other manual focus rangefinder lenses, and I don't think they are really good enough for a 40+ MP camera, I would only see their limitations. The reason I say that is my Nikon D7100 APC is 24mp without an AA and that is about 40mp on a FF sensor and it shows all and reveals all the flaws on my best Pro Level Nikon glass.

Again, thanks for prompting me to look deeper into this for more accuracy, Johnny.

Here is an interview with Kimio Maki about the new Exmor R and Exmor RS sensors, including some good visuals.

Interview with Kimio Maki (Sony CEO) w/ Images of New Sensors

And here is an interview with Kenta Honjo discussing the Exmor R upgrade in the A7RII and Exmor RS upgrade in the RX100IV and RX10II.

Interview with Kenta Honjo (Sony Product Manager) discussing new cameras (Exmor R and Exmor RS)

Mr. Honjo is holding his cards close to the vest, suggesting that the A7RII is the single solution for all A7~ cameras, but I think if you read between the lines when he goes on to describe the Exmor RS advantages in the RX100IV you can get a good idea of what is hiding in the wings with the A7SII.

Yes, I am guessing that the advantage of the BSI configuration of the basic Exmor R allows Sony to increase resolution without compromising sensitivity. The lower noise of the copper construction in that Exmor R will also allow room for increased resolution.

Someone earlier pointed out that the 12mp allows for an 8mp crop in Super 35 16x9 ratio. I assume this is correct. If so, expect the resolution boost to conform to factors of 3, meaning a 15 or even 18 mp sensor with no appreciable loss in sensitivity and perhaps some gains in the area of noise. DR and noise improve along with capacity to crop.

Add DRAM through the stacked Exmor RS design, and the A7SII becomes a tool that surpasses most pro-grade dedicated video cameras in the $5,000+ range.

AF cross-compatibility forever ends the lens library advantage for Canon that has dogged Sony since the advent of the T3i.

This is the strategy moving forward.

I like the thought of the 18mp would make cropping with less percentage of lost pixels. Also, making the resolution higher would aid in landscape details and printing large.

For my use I hope that the new sensor continues to perform well with rangefinder lenses, they are the smallest lenses for FF coverage, and on the wide end AF is less important because of WA inherent DOF. I will cover the Tele end with other camera systems. I prefer M4/3 for long tele lenses with stabilization. Pretty much I cover 15mm to 600mm well in a light and compact way.

Sounds like even if this camera is pricey it may be the last camera I will be needing since I am getting to that age where you hope you will last as long as your gear.

Zenjitsuman said:

Sounds like even if this camera is pricey it may be the last camera I will be needing since I am getting to that age where you hope you will last as long as your gear.

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You never know... somewhere in the most secret corners of the Sony laboratories they may be working on a longevity chip.

Live long and prosper!

I would say wait just a little bit longer for the a7s markII. It will most likely have better ISO performance, higher resolution, inbody 4k and IBIS. And probably a few more new extra things to differentiate it from the a7rII, like articulated touch screen and higher bitrate. Worth the wait this close IMO.

I have that touch screen on my Oly EP-5 , works nice and so does IBIS. I haven't checked but BSI on M4/3 would be welcome.

Some say Sony needs to work on its Jpeg colors, and software, menus, I don't know but every angle needs to fit for mirrorless to displace DSLR, which for years I have predicted would happen.

I have lots of newer and older Nikon Glass many with AFS and VR, but lots of D type and AIS classics like the 50mm F1.2 AIS, and 28mm F2 AIS, and the tiny 45mm F2.8 P lens, The 85mm F1.4, the 105 mm AFS macro etc. I would love to see all this work eventually on an A7sII that can focus fast enough to make them work in AF. Somebody could make a fortune sell Nikon electronic adaptors, and most of those patents must have run out by now.

The noise, when present, can have a very grainy, very filmic look to it and I prefer the way the 12mp sensor handles it compared to the other cameras in the alpha family. It reminds me of film. I can't stand colorful, blotchy noise and the A7s goes a long way to solving that issue.

Flopass said:

The noise, when present, can have a very grainy, very filmic look to it and I prefer the way the 12mp sensor handles it compared to the other cameras in the alpha family. It reminds me of film. I can't stand colorful, blotchy noise and the A7s goes a long way to solving that issue.

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i have a7s and e-m1 and x-e1 and 5d2

i will over expose my very dark photos to look at the grain you are talking about. i did not notice what you said before. i will do some research.

x-e1 pretty good when looking photo on iPad and 30 inch monitor, it is not after i bought my 4k monitor that picture look not as good. a7s photo look nice on 4k monitor. honestly i hardly notice any noise at normal viewing

only until 100% can i see noise