Buying Sony Camera

[Kamera2]

My dear friends,

I hope you are having a good time.

I intend to buy a Sony a7sii camera in the coming days. I'd really appreciate your advice, because I have never actually bought a Sony camera before. There are some official Sony stores where I live, but they don't have this camera. I am going to have to buy this from other stores. So, how can I make sure that the camera I'm buying from an unofficial store "is not used" or "faulty"? I'm really nervous about this.

Also, What is the available space on the camera by default when you buy it? Would I be able to test the 4k filming in the store without a "SD card" and a "lens" on the camera?


What are some of the other things I should test and check in the store before paying for it?

Thank you in advance,

[adwb]

Suggestion one: since you have local stores get one of them to order for you , buy local its always safer.

 

There is no inbuilt memory storage for images unlike smaller bridge or point and shoot cameras. You MUST put a SD card in to capture images.

 

For video you need a specific card type , again the store should have these for you for 4k video.

 

The camera is not supplied with a lens so you must order a lens as well. what lens you decide on is your choice , there is a large range to choose from.

 

For testing just test every thing switches on and works, there is far to much to test in a store , test fully at home, you can always return faulty goods.

[Dollanganger]

Yes, many retail stores do not have higher end items on hand in the store, but they can be ordered for you. It's safer than buying online.

 

Also, consider Best Buy as the ordered items can be returned to ANY store location in the country. Buying online mean doing a return online.

 

I believe you will need a 64G SD car to record 4K video. Most stores will let you test it out.

 

If 4K video is your primary interest I'd also check out the Sony AX53 camcorder. By tax laws camcorders have some features SLRs cannot.

[VTC]

I bought A7SII local from the camera shop around the corner from the studio here. Got to put hands on the actual camera. Took in an SD card, ran some 4K & 1080 slow mo video through it as well as some pics and brought the card back to see how things looked in the editing bay.

 

Had to exchange the camera 27 days later when a strange problem presented on the video side of things that wasn't there when I initially bought it. An area of purple pixels developed on video files that was missing on photo files. Had I bought mail order I'd have to ship back and leg wrestle with the vendor to get a replacement.

 

True, tax laws limit the recording time to 30 minutes on 'picture' cameras but there's an easy-to-apply hack that will allow unlimited (14 hrs.) video recording. Using an auxiliary NPF-550 battery I recorded the entire sets of two bands, warmup @ 53 mins & headliner @1hr 17mins without swapping cards, battery, or stopping.