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A7ii or wait for A7iii?


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... and even smarter to wait for the A7.IV or the A7.V which undoubtedly will offer great improvements...

 

Seriously :

- If an A7III is a most probable hypothesis, it's not even announced by Sony yet

- if the A7II matches all your need now, it will still do the job perfectly when an hypothetical A7III will appear.

 

If you need it / want it / can offer it, buy it now, then wait and see what Sony and the camera industry will offer in 3 or 4 years. I bet it will be much more than the A7III, whatever this one can be.

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  • 1 month later...

I bought an a7 for 700 USD on eBay, and I use it almost as much as I do the a7ii, which is 1700 USD. Sure, the shutter button is in a less convenient place, the slap is hard and louder, and it has no IBIS, but the sensor is exactly the same. Use a stabilized lens like the Sony 70-200 and the performance difference is minimal.

 

If you're looking to save money and willing to make a few QOL sacrifices, get the a7. If you need all the features of the a7ii, get that. Don't wait for a "what if" camera that might not even be released for quite a long time.

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I'm inclined to agree that waiting for an as-yet-unannounced and unreleased model doesn't make sense, unless you're totally happy with your current equipment (in which case you wouldn't be considering an a7II in the first place).

 

On the other hand, if you go for the a7II and an a7III is released a little way down the track, there will be nothing to stop you selling or trading your a7II to move up to the newer model. You may - or may not - lose a few $$ doing that (as against waiting), but you'll have had many months (possibly more than a year) in return. Assuming your time, productivity and/or enjoyment is worth something, that will be a net benefit!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I purchased a used A7II a few months ago and have to say it was a great move. I am enjoying learning the capabilities, as well as learning from DP and this forum as the user base is solid. I'd absolutely go for it, enjoy it, and when / if the "III" comes out, you can always sell for a small reduction. I think of the "trade up" cost differential  with gear like this as nothing more than a rental fee. So the real question is, would it be worth it to spend $40 a month to rent the A7II for a few to several months?

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I think its better to wait for the A7III (will be

released in Sep 2016). because it has 4k, a better

IBIS and a new HIGHRES mode plus a lot of other

features... maybe more megapixels.

Sometimes you hafta differentiate between useful

and/or necessary improvements and stuff thaz just

piled on to sell more units.

 

But concerning a Sep 2016 a7-three ... thanks for

the heads up about what will be a good time to

buy another a7-two :-)

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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Buying a camera will always be the right time and the wrong time in the same instance. Regarding Sony's refreshment cycle of cameras, they seldom last more than a year before getting replaced with a new model. The flagship cameras - A99 and A7rII at the moment - are exceptions. On behalf of the A7rII, it is also a question of marketing: If a supposed A7III has the same autofocus and many of the other features of the nowadays bigger model (A7rII) - sales for the elder machine will go down rapidly. So they won't introduce the new camera before manufacturing of the A7rII has come to a stop. This will take a time because many reviewers regard A7rII as "nearly perfect".

To compensate the waiting time for the A7III, I recently bought an A6300. Best Autofocus of all mirrorless Alphas, silent shutter, great picture quality. Hope to find all of this in the new A7III...

 

Regards, Hans

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I'm waiting too... I guess they need to be able to differentiate it from the r2 so I'm curious how they're gonna do that.

 

Hope they will add a touchscreen... now that 5d4 finally broke that ice ('pro camera with touch').

I'm sure they need a more responsive OS for that - so here's hoping for a reworked menu system and smoother response in general (pinch to zoom for instance needs a responsive software or the lag just kills it - wouldn't work today where it takes the camera 3 seconds to zoom in...).

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Looking to get an A7RII for the SS, IBIS and 4k.

I assume either an A7III or A9 is next to be released (though likely in April/May?).

 

Will be interesting to see if the A7III is not as "good" as the A7RII ie. whether to wait for the A7III or get the A7RII.

 

Are new cameras supposed to be announced before Photokina?

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  • 1 month later...

Pierre has it right, technology is always a moving target so by what meets your needs and is available.  I have an A7Rii and very happy with the build of the camera and the photographic results.  Price drops mean you can get a great deal on a great camera.

 

 

I don't think you need worry about the A6300/A6500 scenario, I think Sony let us down with that one.

 

 

 

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....., technology is always a moving target so by what meets your

needs and is available.  I have an A7Rii and very happy with the

build of the camera and the photographic results.  Price drops

mean you can get a great deal on a great camera.

..........

      

Since I follow that same philosophy, I therefor always 

recommend to others that they wait and buy the next 

new tech, rather than encouraging them to follow my 

own philosophy. It's simply self serving. If I can get a 

whole lotta users to wait for the new stuff, that would 

lead to slower sales of the current stuff, which brings

about earlier and larger price drops on current stuff, 

which saves me money.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was in the same situation, having a nex 6 but willing to upgrade for a couple of trip (australia, NZ...) to come...

I bought the a7II and do not regret a single second. I doubt the mkIII will bring something I need not already present in the mkII.

 

It's a great piece and my pictures are superb..

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