Is there a compelling case for the A7RII, is it still a good camera, is it worth saving the small amount of money or has the A7RIII removed the case for the RII? Is there any point even considering the A7(not R)II?
I have noticed that there is very little discussion or interest on these boards on the RII these days, and even less for the II, which is leading me to believe that they are now highly out of favor, esp. compared to the RIII.
I had been shooting M43 since the beginning of that system when I noted that the original A7 came out late 2013. I immediately was interested due to the FF sensor and the step up in image quality that should give, but I found that if I compared it to my Olympus camera at the time, the A7 felt like an unpolished product and with too few lenses in the system. It felt almost like rewinding to the beginning of the first M43 cameras from an operational standpoint.
By the time the A7RII came around mid 2015 I noted that it, as a camera, was the first FE body that ticked enough function boxes for me and that the AF speed was also good enough for me so that I could live with it as a camera compared to what I was used to, but with a big jump up in DR and low light capabilities. The lens lineup had also improved enough. So I jumped into the FE camp and bought one.
And I still feel the same today. I wouldn't be happy with either the A7, A7S, A7R or A7II since they lack things I consider valuable to me. You might of course think different depending on your needs.
I can't say anything really about the A7SII, I haven't studied it close enough. I'm a stills shooter mainly, not doing much video at all. The original A7S I looked into due to the low light capabilities but ruled it out due to not having the AF speed I'd like. By the time the A7RII came, the low light capabilities of it was so close to the A7SII that I never consider that one an option for me.
There are things the A7RII is not so good at and speed is the main theme. It is a wonderful camera if you like to work in a slower pace. The A7RIII gives only a slight quality improvement but it improves the speed rather much of basically everything. So one could say that the A7RIII is a turbo charged A7RII with some added on other improvements. Only you can judge if it is worth the money difference.
But then, if speed is what you need and you can live without the R 42 Mpix resolution and come down to 24 Mpix, which I guess you can since you included 24 Mpix cameras in your question, then the A9 is also a candidate to look into. Used ones exists nowadays. Still not what I would cheap, but quite much under list prices.
Sony have kept all FE cameras on the market since they all fill someones needs vs what they cost and they still sell enough of them to keep them in stock.
Which one is for you is really an exercise with listing your needs in terms of must haves, nice to haves and your budget and compare that to the current new (and used prices if that is an option for you) and compare that list to the specs of each model.
The things that isn't in the specs, like how fast a model AFs or operates from a user experience perspective or works from a handling perspective can be found here in previous posts or by asking specifically about something.
Good luck in finding your FE camera!
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Best regards
/Anders
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My wide angle lens has so much field curvature that it bends the space time continuum.
You don't have to like my pictures, but it would help:
http://www.lattermann.com/gallery
Joking aside it is about the slowest digital camera I have used in a number of ways but great image quality trumps all that . Luckily for what I typically shoot the advances of the mk III are largely irrelevant , though I would like the pixel shift mode for certain circumstances
