I began shooting with 35mm slr's 50 years ago. Found my way into the air force where I got trained in 4 x 5. Fell in love. I shot a whole bunch of 4 x 5 cameras both in b&w and color for years. Did my own darkroom work. Loved it. Got older and not so strong. Went to Hasselblad, just like Ansel. Loved it. Never lost my preference for German glass. Then digital came along. I was slow to respond. Finally I took the dive. Traded everything film for a Canon system. EOS 5D Mark II with 16-35, 24-70, and 70-200. I thought zooms would make life easier. But I began to lose interest in photography. I'd just grab the camera, zoom, and snap. My photos showed my laziness. With the 4 x 5 and a fixed lens, tripod position was everything. With zooms it didn't matter. Then Sony comes out with this camera. It's magical. Mirrorless. No bypass filter! Incredible low light sensitivity. F**k flash. A body that feels like the Leica M3. A shutter with almost no vibration, but a definite, solid feel. The "program" mode is just like the Hasselblad EV setting. There's a level in the viewfinder. How long did it take to come up with that? On and on. One of the things that slowed my move from film to digital was the difference in dynamic range. No more. You can, in the camera, take bracketed exposures of the same scene exceeding the range of film. For an old dog, this is Nirvana. And German glass. I've gone back to Zeiss prime lenses and I LOVE IT.

I mostly shoot black and white 120 film, and make my living selling big fine-art prints. I returned to film 5 years ago for aesthetic reasons, and tried all kinds of digital cameras and hated them all (5dmkiii, D800E, etc). The Sony A7Rii is the first digital camera I really like and can live with.

For the past year, I've also brought along a Sony A7R (with 16-35 and 24-70 zeiss lenses). It was a slow, clunky focusing camera with an amazing sensor. I liked the mirrorless concept, so I tolerated its faults. The mark ii version is a vast improvement; about 5 generations ahead of the old one. Sony has fixed just about everything about A7R, while adding some unique features.

I am the last person on earth to run out and buy the latest gear. I was lucky enough to walk into a local store who had one for me to try and buy. I was not happy about the price, but I could quickly see why it cost so much. The build quality and speed were terrific. You're definitely paying an early adopter fee for all the R&D. It will be years before all this technology becomes cheaper, so go ahead and buy it now. At least this time Sony includes 2 batteries and a charger.

1) This is the first camera to shoot as unobtrusively as my rangefinder film cameras, except that I get a really nice preview. DSLRs were always old technology slapped onto modern technology. I hate DSLRs because you constantly need to 'chimp' and take your eyes away from the viewfinder to check exposure. With mirrorless, you can get a full what-you-see-is-what-you-get preview before hitting the trigger. No need to review for focus or exposure.

2) The new viewfinder more improved then you can initially tell. When turning a polarizer, for instance, I can see the change in sky much better. The screen is sharper, bigger, and very high resolution. I can distinguish background blur from whats in focus, even with a 16mm at f/4. I can manually focus accurately without focus assist (but I do have very good eyes).

3) DR of the sensor is astounding. I'm considering not using grad nd filters anymore. Ignore people obsessing over lossless RAW.

4) The sensor stabilization really works. Works seamlessly with Zeiss lenses with stabilization (btw, upgrade your 24-70 to v2 firmware, I had already done so. Some people have focus issues, that is why!).

5) Soft shutter finally gets rid of camera shake on long lenses. I repurchased the 70-200 f/4, which works worlds better than on the mk1. Silent shutter allows hand held exposures that are super slow. e-front curtain shutter has a nice quick chirp sound, vs the old clunky a7r that drove me nuts.

6) Lots more settings and customization. I spent a good 4 hours customizing each switch. Then, I programmed the 1 and 2 dial for switching between tripod exposures and hand held. Lots more bracketing options. Bulb mode works better with wireless remote.

7) Focusing is great. Really great, even in low light with the f/4 lenses. My intention is to only use native sony lenses. The real focusing system works much better for closeups with wide angles, and other situations where the a7r struggled. You can disable the video button. The list goes on and on.

8) The camera is now lightning fast and super responsive. This is from the combination of fast shutter and focus.

8) Build quality is terrific. Gone is the twisty, bendable lens mount. Too bad they didn't use real gaskets (although tight build is important for good weather sealing).

9) Light meter. This doesn't get enough attention, but the meter is sooooo more accurate in mirrorless cameras in general, especially with portraits.

10) More lens choices coming soon. Sony and Zeiss are dedicated to the e-mount system.

11) Knock-off accessories are really good, and most from a7r work with a7rii

12) ISO performance is great, but I can't compare since I mostly only use 100-400 iso.

Some Tips:

1) Update September 2015: True 14bit files are now available, which did matter for star trail photography and in some occasions.

2) Silent shutter and/or continuous mode will only give you only 12bit files. Use e-front curtain instead.

3) Spend a good 4 hours customizing all the buttons. Make the camera fit your needs.

4) I set the image review to off, which prevents the photographer from having to chimp, and allows a more subject connected, intuitive style of shooting that I associate with film rangefinder cameras. BTW Film SLRs were always terrible, and not made for fine-art photographers.

5) The Neewer Arca-Swiss Bracket for the A7ii fits the A7ii. Makes the camera a little bit taller, which is good.

Some Drawbacks

1) Sony is still catching up with lens choices. No ultra-super-wide, no fisheye, no wide primes, etc. Some lenses are branded Zeiss, but are made by Sony and cost more for the zeiss name.

2) Battery life still sucks, but Wasabi batteries are cheap and good (easier than carrying film). Turn off the pre-focus, which will save power. Turn off camera when not in use.

3) No gaskets for super-duper weather sealing.

4) Included camera manual is useless. Spends more time on liability stuff than using the camera.

5) Camera is a bit small without a bottom arca swiss plate, even with my small hands.

**Random thought. Wouldn't it be great for Sony to make this into a Nikonos style underwater camera? Just a thought.

Long time Canon user here. Pretty old school lover of the optical viewfinder and non-believer of mirrorless until this beast had surfaced.
My experience does not include the use of Sony/Zeiss since I only have Canon glass to use with my Metabones adapter but the AF on this combination has been fast and accurate so far with the Canon 24-70mm 2.8 Mark II.

Dynamic range is a huge improvement over the Canon systems, along with the AF system. This thing just doesn't know when to stop. The resolution is just ridiculous and is giving my Mac Pro 3.7ghz Quad Core, 32gb ram, 2gb AMD FirePro a run for performance. Luckily I upgraded my computer not too long ago because my old Mac Pro probably would have died.

Anyways without getting into a long review, I am a believer! I will be leaving Canon after 12 years, it's finally time to say goodbye...

Check out my last shoot with this camera:
http://www.andrewmanley.com/blogindex/2015/8/19/creaminz-rwb-widebody-993-in-downtown-los-angeles

and my review using it for the first time:
http://www.andrewmanley.com/blogindex/2015/8/14/dual-white-porsches-in-the-orange-ca