Mirrorless Camera Reviews

We got some early hands-on time with the Sony A7S II last night, a full frame, mirrorless camera we have dubbed “the master of the dark arts” for its impressive low light shooting prowess. We shot several images and videos with the A7S II at a dark night club at extraordinarily high ISOs (up to ISO 409,600!) and have included them below in this review at full resolution so you can check them out.

The Sony A7S II is equipped with a special, high sensitivity full-frame CMOS sensor designed for low light shooting. Like its predecessor, the Sony A7S II is fitted with a 35mm-sized 12.2-megapixel imaging chip that can shoot an expanded ISO range of 50-409,600, with the help of the camera’s BIONZ X image processor.

The BIONZ X processor in the A7S II adds an upgraded image processing algorithm that boosts the sensor’s capabilities overall, particularly at the mid-high end of the ISO scale. This is designed to produce more detailed still images and movies with low noise at high ISOs.

The Sony A7S II has added several other key features that should appeal to both photographers and videographers. This new Sony mirrorless camera now offers 5-axis image stabilization, which compensates for camera shake along five axes during shooting, including angular shake (pitch and yaw), which can occur when shooting with a telephoto lens; shift shake (X and Y) axes; and rotational shake (roll), which typically affects video recording. (That feature is also on the Sony A7R II, which we reviewed earlier this week.)

The Sony A7S II is the first camera to add the ability to record full-frame 4K video internally with full pixel readout and no pixel binning. This feature is possible because of the XAVC S codec, which can record at a high bit rate of up to 100 Mbps.

Check out our sample images and videos below to see if its lives up to its promise. (No editing or retouching has been done to the images and video.) Watch for a full review of the Sony A7S II from Shutterbug in the near future.