p.2 #1 · Sony A7II in low light? opinions feedback wanted
It still comes down to needs. What are you intending to use the high ISO for?
It's useable up to 6400 for me after cleaning up with LR. But if you are looking for something beyond that, I'd say consider investing into fast lenses instead. Unless DoF is an issue, I'd prefer [email protected] than [email protected].
Heck, a Mitakon 50mm F0.95 can be had for less than $1000
Edit: Just read you need 200mm equivalent. In that case, fast lens really isn't an option. Get the A7S for the absolute upgrade experience that you'd notice.
p.2 #4 · Sony A7II in low light? opinions feedback wanted
I used the A7II inside an antique store during a photo walk last weekend and was pleased with the high ISO performance. It's the first time I've ever shot at 5,000 or 6,400 ISO and felt like the images were usable. In fact, the image I submitted for the contest was at 6,400 and cleaned up very nicely with Noiseware. It really wasn't bad after applying a 25 luminance noise reduction in Lightroom.
p.2 #5 · Sony A7II in low light? opinions feedback wanted
Charlie N wrote:
probably true among the likes of the A7rii, 5Ds, 1Dx, and 6D, however, it's about on par with the 5D3 with no banding penalties.
as bad as it is, it's still significantly better than a smaller sensor.
I don't know, I owned both the original A7 and the 5D3 at the same time and the 5D3 was signficantly better in low light. The A7 suffered from really severe amp glow at higher ISO and I haven't seen anything that indicates the A7II is any different. The DXO data seems to concur as well with the 5D3 being superior to the A7II once you hit ISO 1600. As for banding, that's certainly an issue when pushing shadows at low ISO but there aren't any banding issues with the 5D3 at high ISO.
Charlie N wrote:
as bad as it is, it's still significantly better than a smaller sensor.
Definitely, the X-T1 isn't bad at all but it's basically just par for the course against the other APS-C sensors once you account for Fuji's creative ISO definitions.
p.2 #6 · Sony A7II in low light? opinions feedback wanted
What are you all talking about?
A few things: first, DxO does not put the 5D3 above the A7II in high ISO. In fact, they are very close, but the A7 II has the very slight edge.
Then there's talk about how the A7II is terrible at high ISO and the A7s is amazing. Again, according to DxO, there is literally a half stop advantage to the A7s in print. Now, on screen at 100%, it's a larger lead, but that doesn't account for the resolution lost. Is half a stop really the difference between 'bad' and 'outstanding?'
p.2 #7 · Sony A7II in low light? opinions feedback wanted
Again, according to DxO, this isn't the case. The A7II is almost identical at high ISO in print (normalized for resolution) vs the 6D and 5Ds...and it's better than the 5Ds when not accounting for resolution. (Which I think is important to do).
Charlie N wrote:
probably true among the likes of the A7rii, 5Ds, 1Dx, and 6D, however, it's about on par with the 5D3 with no banding penalties.
as bad as it is, it's still significantly better than a smaller sensor.
p.2 #8 · Sony A7II in low light? opinions feedback wanted
Jman13 wrote:
Again, according to DxO, this isn't the case. The A7II is almost identical at high ISO in print (normalized for resolution) vs the 6D and 5Ds...and it's better than the 5Ds when not accounting for resolution. (Which I think is important to do).
strictly my opinion of course. I'm familiar with what DXO suggests, but I'm not sure that is pure noise test vs end result. I know that the 5D3/6D produce better skin color at all isos (SOOC), and especially the higher isos, however, after white balance corrections, the A7ii would get me more to the level of the 5D3, not quite 6D since the color retention at higher ISO's tends to deteriorate. Not sure that is accounted for with the DXO test but for usability, the canon has the slight edge.
BTW, not saying that I prefer canon for low light either, I definitely prefer the A7ii since it has IBIS. The A7rii is on another level, the color deteriorates a good bit later than the all the canon bodies I've shot with. Truly stunning camera. Good to excellent for anything. The jack of all trades digital back.
p.2 #9 · Sony A7II in low light? opinions feedback wanted
Sorry to disagree with many here...but the only real test is shooting these cameras in real world paying situations. I shoot the canon 6d...but my second camera is an xt1....I had a sony a7II and found it much noiser than the 6d, even in medium iso's like 800-2000, which is where I tend to work with portraits, etc. Also the a7II has very poor af reliablity and I actually lost some important shots because of it. The xt1 focused much better and is a very sharp camera...high iso is not great, but surprisingly good at times.
Get the A7S for the absolute upgrade experience that you'd notice.