Sony A7 II Review – Image Quality

Colour and White Balance

Subjecting the A7 to a variety of different scenes with different light sources was a good test of the way the Auto White Balance system handles colour. Just the A7, the A7 II delivers no nasty surprises in this respect and with the camera set to its standard mode, colours were accurate and faithful to how we perceived the scene at the point of capture through our eyes. If the colour output of an image isn’t too your liking, you may wish to take advantage of the A7 II’s colour modes, which can boost sharpness, contrast and saturation.

Exposure
On the whole, the A7 II’s 1200-zone evaluative metering system works well and it was only in particularly tough or demanding environments, such as when shooting towards the light, that we had to turn to the camera’s exposure compensation dial to achieve the desired exposure. What’s interesting about the A7 II is the way it offers +/-3EV exposure compensation control via the dial on the top plate and +/-5EV exposure compensation control via the main menu. One improvement we’d like to see in the future is having +/-5EV exposure compensation control directly from the top plate dial.

Resolution

As you might expect for a camera with a high resolution full frame sensor, the A7 II is capable of rendering an impressive amount of detail. Unlike the A7R it does feature an optical low pass filter and as such it can’t quite reach the levels of its stablemate, however the results are still impressive.

At the base ISO setting the A7 II delivers around 3200l/ph on our charts – a level identical to its predecessor and on a par with full frame DSLRs such as the Nikon D750.

Image Noise

Another area of image quality in which the A7 II excels is with regards to noise control throughout the extensive ISO range.

Between the lower ISO settings of 100-1600 it’s almost impossible to tell the difference between images due to the absence of any form of noise or detail compromise. At ISO 3200 luminance noise does start to appear, and at ISO 6400 it becomes more apparent although still not a major factor.

In fact, it’s safe to say that you can bump the ISO right up to 25,600 with little concern as to how image noise will effect image quality on the whole.

Raw vs JPEG

Noise is certainly better controlled in JPEG files, although as you start to increase up the ISO range to ISO 3200 and beyond noise reduction does start to impact on fine detail.

Raw files, on the other hand, do display slightly more noise beyond this level, although this can be easily handled in post production.
Dynamic range

Again, thanks to the full frame sensor the A7 II is capable of delivering some truly impressive results when it comes to the dynamic range on offer. In fact, it’s safe to say that the dynamic range is up there with some of the best we’ve ever seen from a full frame sensor – easily on a par with rivals such as the Nikon D750 and D810.

The dynamic range is well maintained throughout the ISO range as well, only really beginning to fall at ISO 3200 and above.