Sony Alpha A7II ( ILCE-7M2K/BQ IN5 ) now sells for a much lower price in India online. During the Big Billion Days 2020 sale on Flipkart, it was available for the lowest ever Deal price of Rs 69,999 ( regular selling price is Rs 84,999 ). This is currently the cheapest Full Frame Mirrorless Camera you can buy in India.
This camera has been out for a while now. Sony A7II was launched way back in 2014 and has the same 24MP sensor as the original A7. It is a Full Frame camera and supports E-mount lenses.
Sony A7II – Is it worth buying in 2020 ? Is it better than Sony Alpha A6500 / A6600 ?
There are some Pros and Cons. The main advantage the A7II has over A6000 Series of cameras like A6600, A6500, A6100, etc is the Full Frame Sensor inside. Even though it’s an old sensor, image quality is still good enough, and you get that Full Frame look – better bokeh aka shallow depth of field than the crop sensor A6600 like cameras.
The newer Sony Cameras on the other hand have much better Auto Focus, Eye AF tracking, Fast burst rates, and far better Video recording capabilities.
Which has the better image quality ? A6600 or A7II ?
In General, a Full-Frame Sensor offers better overall image quality and much better performance in low light. However, the A7II sensor is quite old now. 6 years is a long time in the tech industry. The newer sensors with newer tech on the A6600 / A6500 cameras are now on par with the Full Frame sensor on the A7II. In some areas, A7II has a slight edge, offering better color rendition and sharpness. Check out the DPReview comparison tool to see how much close these cameras are in terms of image quality.
Why did i buy A7II over A6600 / A6500 / A6400 etc
During the Flipkart sale, I did get the Sony A7II for the Rs 69,999 offer price. It came with a 28-70mm lens ( quite good quality ) and a 64GB Sdcard. You also get a carry bag with this camera. When I bought it, I thought this would be old stock, but it is very new – Sept 2020 was the date on the box I got.
I am a Hobbyist Landscape photographer, and I only plan to shoot Nature and Landscape. So for me, A7II is a great buy for the price. But it can’t shoot 4K videos or doesn’t have super fast Auto Focus Sony’s new cameras are famous for. The high ISO image quality on this is not that good. A7II is also not idle for sports or action photography. However, for me, all these issues were not deal-breakers.
So if you are like me, wants that Full Frame look and plans to shoot this in good lighting for Landscape, A7II is a fantastic camera to own. It can also shoot great portraits and the AF works well except when you are at high ISO in low light scenarios. A6600 like cameras also have good overall image quality, but they are not as good as the newer A7M3 or A7C cameras when it comes to overall image quality and high ISO performance.
My buying decision was quite simple – I wanted a decent Full Frame Sony Mirrorless Camera with IBIS ( in-body-image-stabilization ) and the A7II is/was the best value for money camera in that category.
