A6700 vs A7Cii

[Ruedon]

I like to do a lot of wildlife photography so the 70-350 would be very useful to me.

Cropped sensors are certainly attractive for wildlife, saving a lot of bulk and money for equivalently long lenses -- at the cost of reduced light gathering.

I think if I was into primes more than zoom lenses I would choose the A7CII. Even the 24-70 F4 is a bit bulky for that camera. You could buy the 28-60 but then you'd probably be better off with the A6700 and 18-50 2.8.

I'm too much of a zoom guy to prefer full frame over crop sensors.

Sony shows with A7CII and A6700 that a full frame body can have the same size as a body with cropped sensor. Dimensions of human hands are limiting further miniaturization.

I agree that full frame lenses are typically larger, as they are typically made for quality. If you ever experienced a 24-70/2.8, you know how it just serves in virtually any situation (except wildlife or air shows or anything else requiring longer focal lengths). The 18-50/2.8 is lacking at the wide end and it only gathers half the total amount of light. The 28-60/4-5.6 makes similar compromises and is even smaller, despite of being full frame.

With the A7CII you can swap lenses depending on the use case. With the A6700 you are limited to generally inferior lenses for cropped sensors.

 

[Owlsfan]

My thinking was I'd want the 70-350 for a compact wildlife solution and as I'd probably not want to lump around even the F4 glass I'd be better off with the Sigma 2.8.

No doubting the extra quality of the full frame setup but the faster zooms just don't seem for me.

The 28-60 looks the part but it's two stops slower at 60mm and tbh 60mm is a bit short for me.

So I do think the choice comes down to the glass you want.

 

[Ruedon]

...

No doubting the extra quality of the full frame setup but the faster zooms just don't seem for me.

The 28-60 looks the part but it's two stops slower at 60mm and tbh 60mm is a bit short for me.

Equivalently only one stop slower at the long end and the same at the wide end if you factor in total amount of light on a larger full frame sensor. In return it is smaller and lighter than the Sigma 18-50/2.8.

So I do think the choice comes down to the glass you want.

Sony started an interesting trend towards smaller full frame cameras with the A7C. Meanwhile we are also seeing Panasonic S9, Sigma BF and Sony RX1R III. Glass follows this trend.