Sony A7 II vs Canon 6D II

RecorDingPing

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Hi!

I can´t decide which camera i´m going to buy! I´m stuck between the Canon 6D II and the Sony A7 II.

I shoot mostly landscapes and indoor sports but I also like to shoot some street and night photography.

Video is something that I only do occasionally for fun.

I like the sony because it´s small size , overall good image quality and because I share the opinion that mirrorless is definitively the future. I also prefer electronic viewfinders over optical ones.

But the Canon has some strong points as well so today i went to my local photography store and they told me that , for photos, the Canon 6D II is indisputably better than the Sony A7 II.

What´s your opinion? Do you agree with the guy from the store? What camera do you think i should buy? I'm very undecided.
 
Many/most of the mirrorless don't do sports very well. The issue is the EVF
  • There is a slight lag in the EVF. Some are worse than others.
  • Record display. If you have a display of the image you just shot in the EVF, it will get in the way of you continuing to track the action. Can you turn the record display OFF?
  • AF speed and accuracy on mirrorless lags the dSLR.
Things are getting better with each new generation, but not yet at the level of even the low end consumer dSLRs.

There are exceptions to this, however it is the HIGH END, EXPENSIVE, mirrorless, not the affordable lower and middle level mirrorless.

About size, it is only the camera itself.
FF lens is FF lens.

Canon FF dSLR is not going away for MANY years, so I would not worry about support and the next generation of cameras.

If you want to go mirrorless and EVF, go Sony, but expect to upgrade in maybe two years, to a better model. The mirrorless tecnology is still moving.
 
Many/most of the mirrorless don't do sports very well. The issue is the EVF
  • There is a slight lag in the EVF. Some are worse than others.
  • Record display. If you have a display of the image you just shot in the EVF, it will get in the way of you continuing to track the action. Can you turn the record display OFF?
  • AF speed and accuracy on mirrorless lags the dSLR.
Things are getting better with each new generation, but not yet at the level of even the low end consumer dSLRs.

There are exceptions to this, however it is the HIGH END, EXPENSIVE, mirrorless, not the affordable lower and middle level mirrorless.

About size, it is only the camera itself.
FF lens is FF lens.

Canon FF dSLR is not going away for MANY years, so I would not worry about support and the next generation of cameras.

If you want to go mirrorless and EVF, go Sony, but expect to upgrade in maybe two years, to a better model. The mirrorless tecnology is still moving.

Initially , my plan was to go for the Sony A7 III or the A7R III but , right now, my budget doesnt allow me to go that far , however, my plan is to buy the A7 II right now and upgrade for the A7 III or the A7R III as soon as possible. I´m fine with the electronic viewfinder , it is helpful shooting landscapes because i can see the histogram. My only doubt is in the autofocus performance, is it reasonable enough to shoot indoors sports?

Or maybe i should buy the canon and only a few lens so that in some time i can sell them and change to the sony system with a good expensive camera?
 
Many/most of the mirrorless don't do sports very well. The issue is the EVF
  • There is a slight lag in the EVF. Some are worse than others.
  • Record display. If you have a display of the image you just shot in the EVF, it will get in the way of you continuing to track the action. Can you turn the record display OFF?
  • AF speed and accuracy on mirrorless lags the dSLR.
Things are getting better with each new generation, but not yet at the level of even the low end consumer dSLRs.

There are exceptions to this, however it is the HIGH END, EXPENSIVE, mirrorless, not the affordable lower and middle level mirrorless.

About size, it is only the camera itself.
FF lens is FF lens.

Canon FF dSLR is not going away for MANY years, so I would not worry about support and the next generation of cameras.

If you want to go mirrorless and EVF, go Sony, but expect to upgrade in maybe two years, to a better model. The mirrorless tecnology is still moving.

Initially , my plan was to go for the Sony A7 III or the A7R III but , right now, my budget doesnt allow me to go that far , however, my plan is to buy the A7 II right now and upgrade for the A7 III or the A7R III as soon as possible. I´m fine with the electronic viewfinder , it is helpful shooting landscapes because i can see the histogram. My only doubt is in the autofocus performance, is it reasonable enough to shoot indoors sports?

Or maybe i should buy the canon and only a few lens so that in some time i can sell them and change to the sony system with a good expensive camera?

Just got back from shooting soccer.

My major issue is not AF, but how the EVF functions in continuous mode.
The EM1 shows about a second of the last frame shot. When I am shooting a moving subject, that 1 second of frozen screen prevents me from tracking the player, because I can't see the player. This was not an issue for me on vacation, but vacation was not shooting sports. For sports, the EVF has to show a continuous live feed, not a frozen image.
I tried to duplicate the problem at home, and I could not. I think it needs a moving subject, to properly duplicate the conditions, and expose the problem.​

AF in full daylight was generally OK. There were a few times when the AF went nuts and went totally out of focus. This was disturbing, as full daylight should be the optimal condition for AF. It could be what I focused on confused the CDAF; the solid color jersey, or the mono-tone astroturf.

AF speed seemed fast enough, but as I understand, it is lens specific.

Personal opinion. If the A7II is like my EM1, you may not like it for fast sports.
Again my issue is not the AF, but the EVF operation.

I will be shooting an indoor basketball game on the 2nd, so can give you a report after that game.

IMHO, you should really think about an interim system.
Because you will end up spending $$$$ on the Canon, then selling it at a loss when you switch to Sony later.
If you go Canon dSLR, plan on staying with Canon dSLR.
If you go Sony, a body upgrade in a year or two is OK, as you are still in the Sony world, and you don't loose money. And the A7-II would simply be the 2nd camera/backup camera to the A7-III or A7-IV.
 
Many/most of the mirrorless don't do sports very well. The issue is the EVF
  • There is a slight lag in the EVF. Some are worse than others.
  • Record display. If you have a display of the image you just shot in the EVF, it will get in the way of you continuing to track the action. Can you turn the record display OFF?
  • AF speed and accuracy on mirrorless lags the dSLR.
Things are getting better with each new generation, but not yet at the level of even the low end consumer dSLRs.

There are exceptions to this, however it is the HIGH END, EXPENSIVE, mirrorless, not the affordable lower and middle level mirrorless.

About size, it is only the camera itself.
FF lens is FF lens.

Canon FF dSLR is not going away for MANY years, so I would not worry about support and the next generation of cameras.

If you want to go mirrorless and EVF, go Sony, but expect to upgrade in maybe two years, to a better model. The mirrorless tecnology is still moving.

Initially , my plan was to go for the Sony A7 III or the A7R III but , right now, my budget doesnt allow me to go that far , however, my plan is to buy the A7 II right now and upgrade for the A7 III or the A7R III as soon as possible. I´m fine with the electronic viewfinder , it is helpful shooting landscapes because i can see the histogram. My only doubt is in the autofocus performance, is it reasonable enough to shoot indoors sports?

Or maybe i should buy the canon and only a few lens so that in some time i can sell them and change to the sony system with a good expensive camera?

Just got back from shooting soccer.

My major issue is not AF, but how the EVF functions in continuous mode.
The EM1 shows about a second of the last frame shot. When I am shooting a moving subject, that 1 second of frozen screen prevents me from tracking the player, because I can't see the player. This was not an issue for me on vacation, but vacation was not shooting sports. For sports, the EVF has to show a continuous live feed, not a frozen image.
I tried to duplicate the problem at home, and I could not. I think it needs a moving subject, to properly duplicate the conditions, and expose the problem.​

AF in full daylight was generally OK. There were a few times when the AF went nuts and went totally out of focus. This was disturbing, as full daylight should be the optimal condition for AF. It could be what I focused on confused the CDAF; the solid color jersey, or the mono-tone astroturf.

AF speed seemed fast enough, but as I understand, it is lens specific.

Personal opinion. If the A7II is like my EM1, you may not like it for fast sports.
Again my issue is not the AF, but the EVF operation.

I will be shooting an indoor basketball game on the 2nd, so can give you a report after that game.

IMHO, you should really think about an interim system.
Because you will end up spending $$$$ on the Canon, then selling it at a loss when you switch to Sony later.
If you go Canon dSLR, plan on staying with Canon dSLR.
If you go Sony, a body upgrade in a year or two is OK, as you are still in the Sony world, and you don't loose money. And the A7-II would simply be the 2nd camera/backup camera to the A7-III or A7-IV.


As I´ll shoot mostly gymnastics and basketball I´m looking forward to hear your opinion about the basketball game you´re going to photograph!

I plan to stay in sony so i´m leaning towards the A7 II
 
I have the A7ii. There are a couple options for how long the image stays on so you can see what you just shot; including turning it off.

I think the a7ii is a pretty solid camera, but I would get the a7iii if I had the money since it has the af system of their a9 camera which is about as good as they come.
 
I have the A7ii. There are a couple options for how long the image stays on so you can see what you just shot; including turning it off.

I think the a7ii is a pretty solid camera, but I would get the a7iii if I had the money since it has the af system of their a9 camera which is about as good as they come.

The problem is that , right now, my budget does not allow me to buy the A7iii,

However, waiting a few months i could save up for the A7R II.
Would it be worth it in terms of autofocus and functionalities? (because in terms of image quality we all know the A7R II is way better)
 
I have the A7ii. There are a couple options for how long the image stays on so you can see what you just shot; including turning it off.

I think the a7ii is a pretty solid camera, but I would get the a7iii if I had the money since it has the af system of their a9 camera which is about as good as they come.

IF you can really turn OFF the after shot display, that would fix the major problem that I have with my EM1.
Even a 1/2 second EVF freeze will cause me to loose track of fast/erratic moving players.
The problem that I discovered is, I can't test it at home with static objects. I need a moving subject to simulate a moving player, because that is when the problem becomes apparent.
 
I was serious thinking buying a Sony A7 first Gen couple years ago and almost bought the Gen2 when the price came down to less than $1000 w/ a kit lens. And now, I own a Canon 6DII.

One thing kept me from getting the Sony A7 was my lenses. In order to use the Sony, either I need to buy one that works directly on Sony or I need a adapter. I learned that most of the adapters are not 100% compatible with all lenses. And it also cost few hundreds bucks for a good one. On top of that, lens AF maybe affected. Because of that, I did not pull the trigger in the past.

Well, when the price of the 6D2 come down quite a bit and to a point I could not resist, so I bought one right before this Blackfriday.

So if you already own some Canon lenses and on a budget, stay with Canon make more sense. As for the image quality, I am not worry about it too much.
 
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The fact that you think mirrorless is the future and you prefer EVF over an optical, I think you have answered your own question.
 
In fact i currently dont own any lens so i think I´ll choose the Sony.
But i´m looking to upgrade to the A7 III in the future.
 

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