Days after our review sample of the Sony Alpha 7 II arrived at the office, a shooting opportunity presented itself. The dark and cold confines of a car park late at night isn\u2019t the usual testing environment for cameras that arrive here at AP, but we couldn\u2019t wait any longer to find out just how well the A7 II\u2019s new 5-axis image stabilization system performs.<\/p>\n
Shooting handheld at ISO 400 with a shutter speed of 1\/4sec \u2013 yes 1\/4sec \u2013 I found myself viewing pin-sharp results on the rear LCD \u2013 view the pictures for yourself above. Low-level shooting was aided by the absolutely superb 3in, 1230k-dot screen. Though this lacks the touch screen functionality we\u2019d hoped for, the improved grip more than makes up for it and transforms the handling and operation over the original.<\/p>\n
There are still a few niggles \u2013 the playback magnification and movie-rec buttons aren\u2019t the easiest to access and the menu system is in need of some streamlining.This is personal opinion of course \u2013 those familiar with Sony\u2019s interface will feel right at home; little has changed.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the case of the shutter. It slaps with a bang \u2013 not quite as loud as the A7R, but nevertheless it\u2019s loud! It immediately has me calling out for some form of dampening device or quiet shooting mode as found on DSLRs such as the Canon EOS 5D Mark III or Nikon D810.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s early days and I\u2019ve only used it for a couple of hours, but the initial results and performance of the Sony Alpha II is extremely impressive \u2013 so much so I\u2019m starting to fall for it already (loud shutter operation and poor positioning of a few buttons aside). We\u2019ll continue to test it with the Sony FE 24-70mm f\/4 ZA OSS Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* and Sony FE 55mm f\/1.8 ZA Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* lens over the coming weeks before bringing you the full review soon.<\/p>\n