I have the a99ii pre-ordered but I am having second thoughts. Those reasons include A mount's future and lens support.
I shoot portraits, landscape, and sports for hobby. Do I need the camera now? No, but I can put it to use quite fast. I currently do not have any Sony bodies or lenses. It is the ideal camera that I have always wanted Sony to make. If I were to go all in with the A mount system, it would cost me about $10,000 for body and lenses or more to duplicate my current Nikon system.
What if the a99ii is the last flagship A mount or there are no more lens refreshes? What do i do with my A mount lenses? How well will they adapt if I were to switch to a7r2? Or should I invest in a budget a7r2 and build out my lens system until the a9 comes out?
The folks here are very passionate towards A-mount, and with good reason, but they can seem scary at times
I think you express two concerns here, one very valid and another not quite so. On the one hand, the very persistent rumors of the death of the A-mount have made most people wary about it. The A99ii will certainly grant the platform at least three more years of life, but after that...?
Well, I for one wouldn't worry. In a declining market, longer product update cycles are inevitable, and Sony is in an unusually good position to adjust - their A-mount flagships have only been released every four years, when their tech has advanced enough to render the older model completely superfluous, and they also take a "kitchen sink" approach to these cameras, stuffing them with features that often are never imitated or surpassed by competitors. With the way things are looking, I wouldn't doubt that an A99iii will come in 2020, and it'll be every bit as revolutionary as this new model. But if you aren't convinced, I would suggest this: wait until around this time next year, and if the A77iii (or whatever they call it) hasn't been announced, then you should start worrying. The APS-C flagships get updated more frequently, and with all the advances packed into the A99ii, it'd be strange if Sony didn't release a more modern companion for the FF camera.
As for your other point, lenses, especially high-quality ones, don't need updating as frequently. Canon kept their 100-400mm L IS over 16 years in the market, finally replacing it in 2014, for example. The 16-35mm and 24-70mm ZA revamps should stay current for another five years. Also, Tamron has clearly shown that they're willing to continue A-mount support, so there'll be interesting lenses coming from them as well. Sigma is more of a question mark at this point, but it'd surprise me if they didn't release some additional optics for the mount. And Sony should release a couple of lenses as well, even if they're only updates of older designs.
So, all in all, if you don't feel certain that you want to switch, wait for a year. The A99ii won't be readily available until six months from now, at least, so you lose nothing, and can wait to see what happens at CP+. I think that, if Sony wants the A-mount to thrive (and why wouldn't they with the A99ii?), they'll need to show it some more love in the coming months. That's what I'd do in your place, anyway.
