Sony clearly isn’t one to be complacent: its compact mirrorless camera, the A7, launched a year ago, then got a video upgrade just six months later. Now it’s successor — the A7 II — has been announced.
The new camera will be the first to feature Sony’s five-axis in-body stabilisation, which allows it to reduce shake on photographs and video regardless of the lens in use. Even lenses with no stablisation benefit from the sensor being shifted in pitch, roll, yaw, X and Y axis. Fancier lenses can be used of course, and then the body just compensates for whatever the lens can’t do.
Elsewhere, the camera’s autofocus system gets an overhaul, using 117 phase and 25 contrast points to make it 30 per cent faster. The camera also detects motion 50 per cent faster too — which should make snapping objects on the move much easier.
It seems the sensor remains unchanged at 24.3 megapixels, and the body is largely similar too. Other specs are also the same as before: an identical BIONZ X image processor with 14-bit RAW support, max 1/8000 shutter speed, 2.4 million dot finder and a 3-inch 1.2 million pixel display.
Not a huge upgrade then, but some neat new features if you haven’t already bought one. The new camera will initially go on sale in Japan for ¥190,000 — that’s about $$1900. There’s no confirmed date for its arrival internationally. [Engadget]
