- This helpful shopping guide is brought
to you by our friends over at Squarespace.
What is going on hypershooters?
This is Jason Wong
and welcome to the ultimate Buying Guide
for full-frame Sony
Alpha mirrorless cameras.
Today, we'll be talking about
several different cameras.
The A7 II, the A7R II, the A7S II, the A9,
the A7 RIII and the A7 III.
That is a hell of a lot
of cameras to go through.
I'm not gonna try to go
into too much details
about this camera.
Rather I'll just go over
what you need to know
to help you make the best decision as to
which camera to get.
And apparently that
One Camera Guy uploaded
a very similar video.
Man I hate that guy.
Na am just messing.
Danny and I are good,
but if you need a second
opinion as to which cam
to get go ahead and check
out his video right up here.
But of course finish watching
this video first before you go
'cos my video is better.
Okay just to reiterate,
this guide is just on
full frame cameras.
Sorry we don't have
enough time to touch up on
APSC bodies.
And what you're gonna notice in this video
is that a lot of the features overlap.
That's because each of these cameras
are an upgrade from the previous ones.
What remains to be consistent is that
all of them have in-body
image stabilization,
a headphone jack, and a mic jack,
which are all uber important
for video shooting.
But don't ,worry we'll
dive into each of the
specific features and how they benefit
certain photographers and
certain videographers.
Oh and one more thing.
If you're buying any of these cameras
during the holiday sale
from an authorized retailer,
you also get a complimentary
three months of
Adobe Creative Cloud photography plan.
So you're getting a subscription,
a three month subscription
of Photoshop and Lightroom for free.
And just really quickly,
if you are a student
make sure you sign up
for the EDU discount.
You get possibly up to 10% off.
I'm not too sure if that was stacked
with the current discount right now
because I'm not a student
but go ahead and check
with B&H and Adorama,
and let me know in the comments down below
if the EDU discount will get honored
with this current holiday sale as well.
So first off we have the
A7 II for $897 body only.
For $100 more you get a
to 20-75 kit lens with it.
In my opinion this camera is better suited
just for photography only
and we'll get into reasons
why that is in just a bit,
but $900 to about $1000,
it's a great price for a full-frame camera
especially to anybody who's looking to
get into the full-frame game on a budget.
First off, this camera has
in-body image stabilization,
and correct me if I'm wrong,
but I do believe the A7 II
was the first full-frame camera
to have in-body image stabilization
built into the camera.
So here's what that means.
I don't have an A7 II personally.
So I'm gonna demonstrate with the A7 III.
How in-body image stabilization helps is
if you are hand holding the
camera trying to take the shot
and you're shooting at
a slower shutter speed
it'll still be able to get a
clear sharp shot of your photo.
The stabilization is also very helpful
for whenever you're
hand-holding to get the shot
and you don't have a tripod or a monopod.
And seriously in-body image stabilization
is a game-changing feature in all of
these full-frame cameras,
and what's cool is that this
feature got carried over to
future generations of
the Sony Alpha cameras.
So I won't be repeating myself too much
when it comes to introducing
the other cameras
having in-body image stabilization.
The A7 II has fast hybrid autofocus,
which uses phase detection autofocus,
and contrast detection autofocus
to achieve focus really quickly.
The camera also has 117 autofocus points.
Now it may seem like I'm just
throwing a number at you,
but we're gonna be talking about why
that is important later
when we talk about the other cameras.
For now what you need to know is that
that's just a small focus area
that your camera seeks focus within.
The A7 II has face detection autofocus.
That means if it detects
a face on the screen,
it will latch focus on to it.
It's also capable of
eye detection autofocus.
That means if it detects
an eye on the screen
it will focus on the eye.
However, the eye autofocus technology is
outdated on the A7 II
because cameras after that are capable
of continuous eye autofocus,
That means whenever,
let's say I move around,
the eye autofocus will track me,
but on the A7 II once
you get the eye autofocus
if I move around that focus is gonna stay
where I grabbed focus on.
Hopefully that makes sense.
Even though it is outdated on the A7 II,
if you're working with static models
or a friend or a family that's
just gonna be posing still,
eye autofocus on the A7
II will work just fine.
For continuous shooting,
the A7 II is only capable
of five frames per second.
So not very stellar when it
comes to fast-moving objects.
So let's just say if you
have kids that are active
in sports or if you're active in sports
and you just want to shoot a teammate
maybe kicking a ball
or shooting some hoops,
this camera may not be it for you.
Again it's more for things
that are a bit slower pace
or more for static objects or subjects.
In my opinion if you are
a still-life photographer
or if you want to get
into portrait photography,
model photography, family photography,
a little bit of street photography,
architecture photography, even landscape,
the A7 II will be a great camera for you.
Now if you were looking to shoot videos
with the A7 II, I would push you into
a different direction.
Now there's nothing wrong with the A7 II.
It shoots up to 1080p full
HD 60 frames per second
but the market right now has something
that's a lot better
and cheaper for videos.
Plus those newer cameras can shoot in 4K
up to 30 frames per second.
For the same price I would
push you more towards
the A6500 instead.
That one is capable of shooting 4K
up to 30 frames per second,
1080p up to a 120 frames per second
and the video autofocus is much better
on the A6500.
It also has S-Log2 and S-Log3,
two flat color picture profiles
that you can use for cinematic grading.
Whoops, I mentioned that.
I wouldn't be talking about an APSC camera
but I guess I just did.
That will be the only time I would suggest
an APS-C camera over a full-frame camera,
if we're talking about
doing videos between
the A7 II and the A6500.
Alright moving on.
Moving on to the Sony A7RII
and I'm very excited
to talk about this one
just because this is my
first Sony camera ever
and it has my full seal of approval.
This one for the holiday is going for
about a $1598, which is a heck of a deal
for this camera.
I understand it is
significantly more expensive
than the A7II right now,
almost a $700 difference.
This in my opinion is the
best hybrid full-frame camera
that you can get on a budget
because you'll be future proofing yourself
if you get the A7RII.
It's capable of 42 megapixel photos
and 4K videos.
This is a massive upgrade over the A7II.
In addition to having
in-body image stabilization,
fast hybrid autofocus, and
five frames per second,
you're shooting 42 megapixel photos.
Now 42 megapixel is pretty insane.
So you better have the
hard drive space ready
for the A7RII, but there's a lot of
benefits when you're
shooting 42 megapixels,
one of which is cropping.
If you crop heavily before,
you're gonna notice that
your quality of the photo
the resolution of the photo will degrade,
you're gonna notice the
photos not as sharp.
It's a little bit more pixely
but with the 42 megapixel
you have much more room to work with.
You can crop in without
losing too much details.
The second advantage is
heavy post-processing.
There'll be a lot more pixels for you
to sample off of when
you're doing any sort of
heavy alterations like blemish control.
And this has 399 face
detection autofocus points
more than double what the A7II has.
That just means there
are more autofocus points
on the screen, a larger autofocus area
for your camera to see focus within.
The A7RII is capable of
continuous eye autofocus
as opposed to the A7II.
That means if your model is moving around
or your kids are moving
around a lot on the screen
the eye autofocus will
continually track their eyes
to ensure you get a
clear sharp shot of them.
The A7RII has a huge bump
in the video department.
You can shoot in full
frame and cropped frame
4K up to 30 frames per second.
In fact if you shoot 4K in super 35 mode
you get slightly better quality
because the camera will be shooting in 5K
in a 4K composition giving
you a little more details
in your videos.
In terms of HD option,
you still have 1080p up
to 60 frames per second
and you can do 120 frames per second
but only in 720p
and the A7RII has S-Log2
for you cinematic shooters out there.
So my recommendation for the A7RII applies
to the same group of photographers.
Portrait photographers,
family photographers,
landscape and architect photographers.
Yes 42 megapixel may
sound like an overkill
but there's just so many
times that I'm so glad
that I had those extra
megapixels to work with.
But even casual shooters
will find the A7RII
much more beneficial with
that continuous eye autofocus
and the 399 autofocus points.
And I would highly recommend this
for video shooters as well.
The video autofocus on
this camera is superb.
So if you're using it to vlog with,
the face detection
autofocus will work great
or if you put this on a gimbal to do any
sort of tracking shot,
the A7RII is fantastic for that as well.
Before we move on to the other cameras
I just wanted to give a quick shoutout
to our friends over at Squarespace.
I'm sure you've heard by now Squarespace
is the all-in-one solution
for anybody looking
to create a beautiful website
without the pain and hassle
of knowing any coding.
Like me, I personally
use Squarespace to house
my portfolio work, that
I can quickly send off
to potential clients where
they can see all of my
most recent wedding films and my best
of the best photos.
With Squarespace's easy to use interface
creating a portfolio is as
simple as click and drag.
Just ask Vivian.
She did this for me actually.
You can choose from there
are many clean templates
to get started.
Check out Squarespace.com for a free trial
and see how easy it is
to set up your website.
And when you're ready to launch.
go to Squarespace.com/Jasonwong,
to save 10% off your first purchase
of a website or domain.
Now back to our regular programming.
Okay moving on to the A7RII's
counterpart, the A7SII.
And I'm just gonna come right out and say
I do not recommend this camera,
not because it's a terrible
camera or anything.
It's a terrific camera.
Unfortunately for the
price it is right now
and what's about to come out,
I would not recommend
picking up the A7SII.
On the internet there are a lot of people
waiting for the A7SIII.
which is rumored to come out early 2019.
So I would suggest to wait for that
However if you need something right now
I would suggest getting the A7III.
The A7III has very similar
low-light performance
to the A7SII, plus it
has a lot of features
that in my opinion are
better than the A7SII,
but if you still want me
to talk about the A7SII,
you can keep on watching.
If not click on this time code right here
to skip to the A7III.
Alright well I gave you a chance to skip
but if you really want to
hear me talk about the A7SII,
here we go, let's do it.
So in my opinion the A7SII
is more of a video camera,
it's very popular amongst the filmmakers.
It's a camera that I used
quite often back when
I work for a production
company a few years ago
and we used it a lot
during our early career
in wedding filmmaking.
It is a 12 megapixel camera
which is half of the A7II
but the reason for the low megapixel
is because it really gives,
it gives that ability for the A7SII
to have that crazy low light sensor
which Sony is famously known for.
There's two things that Sony
cameras are famously known for
is their autofocus and their
insane low light capability.
Unfortunately this camera
only uses one autofocus system
and that's contrast only.
There's no phase detection in the A7SII.
So when you're shooting photos
or when you're shooting videos,
the autofocus is just not on par.
It's not how it is with the A7RII
or the future III series cameras.
Again it's more so of a video camera
and again it's popular amongst filmmakers
and cinematographers is because they're
very used to manually
focusing with their lens
and a lot of people love
adapting Canon lenses
or cinema lenses on the A7SII
just to use it for it's
low light capability,
plus the A7SII is capable of 4K
up to 30 frames per second
but it can shoot a 120
frames per second in 1080p
albeit it crops in.
And another reason why cinematographers
and filmmakers like to use the A7SII
is because it has S-Log3
which introduced a new color science to
the Alpha cameras and it's slightly
better over the S-Log2
in terms of color reproduction
or so I've heard.
I'm not too quite sure about that.
Again if you have your eyes on the A7SIII
I would honestly at this point either wait
for the A7SIII to see what it has to offer
or move on to the A7III
which we'll talk about right now.
Alright moving on to the A7III
the best hybrid camera that you can get
on the market right now.
Unfortunately the A7III
does not have any discount
this Black Friday.
It still has its $2000 price tag
which is still not a bad price
for what it has to offer.
This camera compared to the
A7II a lot has improved.
Of course it's still a 24 megapixel camera
but it has a new processor
built into the camera
that will write the
photos in much quicker.
This next bit here is shocking.
It has 693 autofocus points.
So you remember how I
talked about the A7II
having only 117 autofocus points
and that's considered a very
small area of autofocus.
Well the A7III has 693 autofocus points.
That means it has
autofocus points spread out
across the screen.
So let's say if you're
shooting with the A7III
you got focus on the subject
right here in the middle
of the screen, but they
move too far to the edge,
the camera will still
be able to hold focus
on your subject as opposed to the A7II
if you're grabbing focus on the subject
right in the middle but they
move too far to the edge
of the screen, the camera
is gonna lose focus
on that subject.
So hopefully that gives
you a better insight
as to why having more autofocus points
can be super beneficial.
And of course the A7III
is capable of continuous
eye autofocus.
On top of that you can now
shoot 10 frames per second now
as opposed to five frames per second
thanks to the new
processor inside the A7III.
So if you're shooting
some pretty actiony stuff
or your kids playing sport,
the A7III is a better camera to get.
And I'm not done here.
The A7III is now rocking
a brand new bigger battery
called the FZ100 battery,
which is significantly
better than these small
little batteries here
that you would have to use
with the II series camera.
This bigger battery here will
allow you to shoot photos
all day and up to two
to two and a half hours
of 4K movie recording.
With the A7RII you'll probably
have to bring at least
a couple of extra batteries
and even more than that if
you're shooting 4K videos.
The bigger battery alone
has what gotten me to
switch out of my II series camera.
These things are seriously awesome.
With the II Series camera,
I have to constantly find chargers,
find plugs to charge my batteries
at weddings whereas the bigger batteries
I don't bring battery chargers anymore.
I'd bring about four to five batteries
and it will last me the entire day.
Plus changing focus on the A7III
is a lot easier now
thanks to the joystick,
and this thing here
will be super important
to a lot of professionals out there.
Dual SD card slots.
If you're making a lot of money
doing a huge client project
or you're shooting weddings,
anything that's once in a lifetime
having dual SD card slots
with redundant recording
can save your life.
I mean your career,
but they're both the same thing,
and video the camera
is capable of shooting
4K up to 30 frames per second
but if you're shooting in full frame
what the camera will actually do
is it's gonna shoot in 6k
but it's gonna down sample
to a 4K composition.
So you're gonna be getting
super crispy detail
in your videos and if you
want to do slow motion
on the A7III you'll be glad to know that
it'll be able to do with 1080p up to 120
frames per second with no cropping.
Just to emphasize that point even further
the A7SII crops when you're
shooting 120 frames per second
in 1080p and the A7RII can
only shoot a 120 frames
per second in 720p only.
So yes that's a big deal,
and the A7III can shoot in S-Log2, 3,
this new picture profile
called Hybrid Log-Gamma.
That's why earlier when I say if you're
planning on getting the A7SII,
forget about it.
Go straight for the A7III
because you still have
all those amazing features
that you would find on the SII
in the III right here
and if you're worried about low-light
there are some tests out
there that actually says
the A7III has very
comparable ISO performance
in low-light when you
compare it to the A7SII.
The A7SII still slightly wins
but unless you're
shooting in pitch darkness
the A7III will still do
a pretty bang-up job.
So the A7III will be great
for a lot of different
types of photographers and
videographers out there.
Portrait photographers,
landscape photographers,
even event photographers
will really love the A7III
just because of the 10 frames per second
and better autofocus.
For videographers, filmmakers,
and cinematographers
they will enjoy using this
camera as it has a lot of
very similar features of the A7SII
but of course getting a slightly better
quality bump in 4K and in 1080p.
Alright moving on to the A7RIII.
This will be a very hard camera to pitch
but I'll do my best anyway.
This is actually my favorite hybrid camera
out of all the ones that I've talked about
and I'll have to make
another video talking about
why that is, but for now
just think of the A7RIII
having very very similar
features of the A7III.
The only difference would be that it is an
R series camera, so it's capable
of shooting 42 megapixels.
Now I already talked about
the benefits of shooting
42 megapixels already.
You can go ahead and
rewind here if you want
to listen to the reasons again.
This has 399 autofocus points,
about 300 points less than the A7III.
However I never thought the A7RIII
was slow at grabbing focus.
If anything the rate at which both
of these cameras grab focus
are very, very similar.
The A7RIII always have done a good job
grabbing focus.
So there's nothing wrong with
having less autofocus points.
If anything the A7III might
perform slightly better
but for the most part it's really hard
to tell between two.
Couple of other small things.
The LCD screen here is a little brighter
over the A7III.
It has a higher resolution
compared to the A7III.
And it actually has a very
unique feature of its own.
It's called pixel shift.
So if you're shooting architecture
or I guess maybe landscape,
I think no only architecture.
If you're shooting a lot of architecture,
this camera would do a really good job.
Unfortunately I don't do too much of that.
I can't really show you any good samples,
but just know that if you are
an architectural photographer
and you really want to have
that 42 megapixel camera
camera would will have a feature
that might help you out a lot.
Oh right and the price.
So for this holiday season
it's about $400 off.
You can get this camera for about $2800,
which isn't bad at all.
Again if you're looking for something
that's more well-rounded
for a better price,
the A7III is really really hard to beat.
Alright, finally for the last camera,
the Sony A9, the creme de la crème.
The flagship full frame camera from Sony.
Right now you can get it for $1000 off.
The original price is $4500,
but you can now get it for $3500.
And let me just tell you,
the A9 is an absolute insane of a camera.
If you're a sports photographer,
you're an event photographer
especially weddings, or
you're shooting cars,
you're shooting planes,
you're shooting Superman,
this is the camera to get.
It is a 24 megapixel camera.
It has 693 autofocus points,
but it is capable of
shooting 20 frames per second
no blackout, with anti distortion.
That is absolutely bonkers
for a camera like this.
That means if you're
shooting 20 frames per second
and you can shoot 20 frames silently too.
You're not gonna get a blackout screen.
You won't see black at all.
You'll be able to track your subject
as they go by without any interruptions.
That means if you go
out to shoot Tiger Woods
and he's swinging his club,
it's called club right
'cos I don't play golf,
so I'm not too sure,
but when he swings his club,
you're not gonna be distracting him.
You're not getting that
horrible warping of his club.
You're gonna get a perfectly good shot.
How insane is that?
Now I personally have
used it to shoot concerts
and to shoot this air show right here,
and I'm already just like
wow this is like cheating.
I am getting these amazing shots
that is in tack sharp
focus with the Sony A9.
That's something that I don't
think I can really get with
the A7RIII or the A7III.
The A9 is truly an amazing
piece of tech for photography
and you owe it to yourself to get one.
Again if you are a sports photographer,
events photographer, they
seriously market this camera
for sport shooters and wildlife too.
Anything that requires any
sort of high-speed action,
fast pace, get the A9.
Now you might be wondering well Jason
if the A9 is such an
amazing piece of camera,
how come you don't own it?
How come you don't own this camera?
Well I'll tell you I
would love to own the A9.
Unfortunately it does
have an Achilles heel.
No picture profiles,
which a lot of people complain about.
It's a flagship model,
and no picture profile.
I mean I get it, it's not
marketed as a video camera.
It's marketed as an
insane photography camera.
With that said it's
still capable of shooting
4K up to 30 frames per second, 1080p
up to 120 frames per second.
Great autofocus, all that good jazz.
If it had picture profile,
I would have been fine to
drop $4500 for that camera.
Unfortunately nowadays I shoot a lot
with Hybrid Log Gamma,
which is one of the picture profiles
that could be found in the
newer III series cameras.
So if it had that, of course, of course,
I would get the A9.
That would be ultimate, ultimate hybrid
shooting camera like ever.
So hopefully the A9 Mark II
will have picture profiles,
but until then I'm very satisfied
with renting out the A9
for whenever I need that
20 frames per second
because seriously that
20 frames per second,
no joke, no joke at all.
20 frames, oh my god, 20
frames per second Jesus.
Sorry got a little
carried away right there.
Undoubtedly I know I'll be getting
a lot of lens questions.
So I'll tell you what?
Hopefully in the next day or two
I'll have an ultimate buying guide for
full-frame lenses for Sony Alpha cameras,
or somewhere along that line.
It should be coming out a
few days after this video.
But in terms of the
best accessories to get
for your Sony camera, like memory cards,
batteries and straps, camera snaps,
those camera straps are important,
check the description box below.
If I try to detail every
single one of them,
it's just gonna take another 15 minutes.
So check the description box below.
I promise you they're
the best that you can get
for these cameras.
Aside from that, if you are new to Sony
let me know which camera
you'll be picking up
after watching this video
and if you already own a bunch of Sony,
a bunch, a funch, a bunch of Sony cameras,
let me know what you think
of my recommendations.
Guys thank you so much for watching.
I'll see you guys in my next video.
Peace!
