I need a new camera. I own the A700 and A77 and have a small collection of A mount lenses. I love the idea of the A7Rii but do I really want to invest in another A-Mount body when Sony is clearly moving towards E-mount? I shoot all kinds of things from weddings, architecture, and newborns so I need to invest in a quality camera that I can use for several years. Then I see announcements like the A6300 today and wonder if I could get good results with that? It has a super-fast focus and the E-mount lenses selection is getting larger. I would like to use a full frame but I’ve gotten by with APS-C all these years. I know you can’t tell me what camera is right for me, but what’s your opinion? Do I invest in E-mount – if so, what camera is considered top of the line and how does it compare to the A7Rii?
Sincerely,
Confused in Sony Town
Dear Confused in Sony town
This is a confusing set of questions, rendered even more confusing because I'm still not 100% sure – along with several other responders – what it is that you're really looking for. We also don't know what a mount lenses you already have, and if these are killer lenses or just average.
If you're looking for shallow depth of field effects than you do probably want to go full frame, and then your choices are older technology in the A 99, or possibly adapting your lenses to the A7Rii, depending on whether or not they are screw drive (LAEA 4 versus LAEA 3). If you're interested in spending significantly less money, the A 77ii is a real upgrade over the original A 77 that you already own, including in terms of its lowlight performance (despite the very modest improvement in dxo numbers), where the noise quality avoids the wormy chroma noise of the previous generation and has mostly more manageable luminance noise. Alternatively you could wait to see whether or not there is an alpha 99ii in the coming months, but of course that's a crapshoot.
Another large variable is ergonomics. Have you ever shot with an alpha 6000? If you really like small bodies, then the alpha 6300 looks like a super camera if you want to go APS-C. I still believe that the lens ecology despite all the new releases for e-mount is inferior, super costly, and the size of their 2.8 zooms are humongous. I think that there are serious compromises involved in getting big fast zoom lenses to mate with a 18 mm registration distance. In this sense I think that E-Mount has this weird trade-off of low body weight for bigger lenses of equivalent speed and range.
All that being said, if you are looking for the best possible dynamic range, high ISO, and 4K video, there is really nothing like the new A7rii. there is a reason why it's won all these awards, but again you either have to put up with adapters, and if you have screw drive, you're going to take a serious hit on the autofocus in the LAEA4 relative to the native on sensor phase detection in the body. If you want to go with native ecology lenses on that great A7rii body you're going to spend a fortune. So again there are lots of trade-offs to consider.
It may come down to how much money you want to drop on your new gear and whether that new gear really would give you that much of an image quality margin over simply your current A77 or even an A77ii. Those are tougher questions that I cannot answer for you. If you are significantly dissatisfied with your current image quality, then I suspect only full frame will do. If that's the case then you either have a choice to go to E-Mount, get a used A99, wait for an alpha 99ii that may or may not come, or if all these choices are overwhelming, sit on it for a while until a clear winner emerges.
Hope that's helpful
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Sony A77m2-RX1-RX100III
Sony 16-50 2.8, 70-400 f4-5.6 G2, 100 f2.8 Macro
Minolta 600 f4, 300 2.8, 70-210 f4, 28-135 f4-4.5
DFW
