Sony a1 II Flagship vs Sony a7R5 - WHICH TO CHOOSE?

I have owned the A1, sold it looking to buy the A1II in the future(now) . But Nah., the A7RV is all I need so i cancelled the pre-order of the A1II. Over half of the specs are firmware updates the A1 should have had.. Sony fanboi since 2010, but skipping this one.

For me my SONY A7RIII and SONY A7RV are enough

Now, this is what I call a very informative review, you are talking features that are meaningful to make a decision earlier, other your tubers, are just reiterating the obvious without too much meat . Well done !!!, I really enjoy your videos and your enthusiasm for landscape photography, this is what I want to do when I retire.......BTW. that is your favorite lens now for landscape ?, at one point you were using the Tamron 28-200???

I’m going for the a7r5 . I don’t shoot sports and I’d chose the A9iii if I was gonna spend 6k

The 7RV is hands-down the best camera I‘ve ever got my hands on. Coming from an A7II, I was really surprised HOW MUCH better it actually is.

Sony A1II is an underwhelming update, and it still suffers from viewfinder capping. Why would you want a Full HD viewfinder if it goes back to 480p once the camera has to do something else? I would still choose a used A1 over the A7RV. Noise levels are pretty darn bad on R series. I'm happy with the A7IV, but it would have been perfect if they swapped the mode dial to the left and placed a small specs screen. It saves a lot of battery, even if people say these top right screens are outdated. Words that you only would say if you haven't been in the photography business/serious hobby past 4 years which 90 percent of people owning these kinds of cameras ain't.
If I was Sony Alpha CEO i would tell A1 owners to ship their cameras for firmware update and a screen revamp for a small sum.

Loving my A7RV and I cancelled the A1II pre-order after watching Gerald Undone's video and also when I saw the price. Here in Norway it costs a kidney.

You got me excited about the raw stacking for a short moment.. still waiting for update with longer then 30sec shutter speed

Very disappointed with Sony… I was ready to sell my 7RV for the a1 ii…. Instead I’ll keep my RV till the RVI I supposed

I suspect the noise/high ISO performance would essentially be identical, assuming you corrected for noise in post as you normally would.

The A7rV will have more noise, yes, but will also have more detail. If you adjust the luminance the way you normally would to achieve acceptable noise levels, you’d likely get exactly the same noise as the A1 and maybe still a little more detail.

Well said. I agree!

Been waiting for this! Thanks for the vid. I’ll be keeping my R5

Bit of a snooze-fest.

Thanks for the great and detailed video. I shoot wildlife and once my A7M3 broke, I went for a used A9M1 loved it - but another good deal on a like new used A7RM5 came around and I since then I am completely content with the camera. From focus to picture quality - it's a beast. Sure - it could be faster, but for now - I couldn't be happier.

you so damn right about the NR, caped at 1/30 sek. they dont think to the end and thahts why Im switching from sony full frame to fuji

As a wildlife photographer who was extremely pleased with my a1 (switched from Canon 5Dmiv) I was quick to preorder on the 19th, although we take a lot of the advancements for granted a 50% improvement on bird eye auto focus with the new AI chip and pre capture among others are a no brainer I am also taking a long trip next year so I need to have a back in case (knock on wood) anything happens to one camera I have a great backup. I also don’t like switching lenses especially in dusty places even with the curtain that close when off. The connecting port from camera to lens seems a bit weak on Sony compared to Canon

A7R2 owner here. Shutter broke at 35,000 actuations. Now the ribbon cable to the monitor screen has a short at certain angles. Not except able for a $2700. camera at the time of purchase.

if you can get your hands on another a1ii, you can try to circumvent the 1/30 sec limitation in Composite NR shooting by switching to Manual Shutter. I don't know this, but its a past Sony thing.

I will keep my 7R5 and better invest my money traveling to countries where I have never been. Even for Wildlife Photography my 7R5 has everything what I need. I have studied animal behavior a lot and with a bit of knowledge I have rarely missed a shot not having precapture on board or 30 frames per second.

Hey there, I own both an Sony A1 and Sony A7RV. The updates in the A1II are too nice, yet too minor to make me sell my A1 and re-invest. I have the A1 for wild life particularly birds in flight. The A7RV is my mainstay for landscape, astro and architecture.

To use bulb mode, you have to put the camera on mechanical shutter then it works. That’s how it works on my original A1.

A1ii has an amazing new grip design that is more comfortable that any prior Sony camera I've tested. (I've heard the a9iii has same grip.)

What I'd like to know is a video on which camera to choose between the A1 II and the A9 III. I'll be using it mainly for cinematography and some photography, I'd need to buy 2 identical cameras and I must have 4K - 4:2:2 - 120fps 10-bit recording, which the A7R5 does not record 120fps unfortunately otherwise I'd buy the A7R5, which seems like a great camera and more affordable . The A9 III has a global shutter and the A1 II which is $500 more expensive does not. I also heard from many users that having the first A1 is just as good having the A1 II because Sony did not really offer any major new features and has not been delivering firmware updates on time making users really upset. However I'm waiting a little longer for the FX3 II to come out first and then make my decision...

If you got the money, jump straight to A1 II. I have the A7SIII and A7Rv. A7Rv is an amazing photo camera with mechanical shutter which causes the burst shoots to lose focus a lot in sport and action, and the electronic shutter is useless for having like 99ms rolling shutter, probably the worst in the industry. The only reason to buy A7Rv over A1ii is financial, nothing else.

A GFX.... having used my GFX now for about six months GFX 100S ii which only weighs 800 grams .... I would use that camera first or any of these cameras

Hey Mads. I already have the A1 I. Would You switch to II?

How fast will be 200-600 mm with this camera? I know 300/400/600 will be magic with it, but that's beyond the wallet.
I'd rather want to have A1-2 with 200-600 than A7R-V with 300 mm GM. That's why I am asking.

Sony a1 II is a disappointment for me. I'd rather waith for a cheaper alternative like the Canon eos R5 II or the Nikon z8, with 45mpx. I hope sony will do such bodies in the future, their cameras lack the fun vibe due to the features limitations (a9, a7, a7R series) or the price of the a1 series. Their a7R III was perfect, now R series are slower, and for the price they can't even make wildlife satisfying while the 2 other brands can at this price point.
I'd rather go with the a1, but it has limitations due to the time it came out, however I don't understand the price drop of the a1 now regarding the competition, they should drop it even more like $ 3.2k

well rounded review, thank you 🙏🏼

Love my A7R5. Great review.

Great video. Thanks.

You can stack your photos in Photoshop for denoising fairly easily.

I also had the 1/30 s problem with the mark1 and discovered that the different modes of A=aperture or S=shutter speed limits one. When switching over to M=manual then it was solved. Also, between mechanical shutter and electronical shutter the problem can be seen to limit the maximum shutter.

My question is why not extent the maximum 30second to 999second opening as Nikon has. This was specifically designed for astro photography by Nikon. So yes, I agree that this upgrade is not for the niche landscape/astro photographer.

I'm satisfied with my Sony a7RV for photos and for videos I use my FX30 and the Lumix S5iix, adding the three cameras it's the price of the Sony A1 m2. As I'm not a professional this set is great.

Great video, I'll be keeping my a7RV and pass on the a1ii, but I would like some of those new features in a firmware update to my a7RV, but I don't see that happening.

I have the original A1 and would love for Sony to put Focus Bracketing into that model. There are rumours of a V3.00 for the A1 and hopefully Sony includes this feature as a parting gift for all of the loyal A1 flagship owners that can't afford an upgrade to an A1ii (like me). In fact, it would be cheaper to keep the A1 and buy a second hand RV as a second body!

I love my a7r5 specially its focus stacking capabilities.

Great video and great advice

The Sony A7RV needs this update

I am a 76 year old Australian, a keen Wildlife photographer and yes - a Sony user. I am heavily invested in Sony glass and use the A1 cameras. Like many Sony users I was very disappointed with the firmware fiasco over the past 12 months, but we got there and my camera is now operating the best an A1 can and still streets ahead of my previous Canon DSLR kit.
I have ordered the A1ii body despite the pricing and negative comments. In Australia the recommended retail is A$10,999 - whereas I have been able to pre-order for A$9800 ( approx US$6200). I have no doubt that the price of A1ii will drop in the next six to twelve months, but at my age time is of the essence. This will almost certainly be my last camera body purchase - I just hope the Sony will back up buyers of this flagship model with meaningful software updates and have learned from their bad experiences.

Great video, Mads. I'm curious, what hot shoe cover are you using on the a7RV?

Great review! Honestly I think the NR feature is just a gimmick, was never a fan of their image stacking software. Better to just shoot the images without that mode and stack them in Photoshop or any other software you use for stacking. I have the A7RV now and while it's a great camera I wish it was faster, that's why I pre-ordered the A1II to just get the best of the best. The loss of 10MP is nothing at this point. Also I'm not really pleased with the ISO to Noise ratio on the A7RV and the A1II should be better with that.

… as journalists I preordered the a1 II on day 1 and sold my a1. Got the new camera yesterday (here in Germany). It cost me 2.700 Euro – and the new camera is worth every Euro I spent. 👍🏻😏 Thx for your review!

I‘ll stick to my rV for a couple more years, its so good!

I have a7R2… time for an upgrade. Somehow you mentioned you don’t need this if you own r3 or r4 or so on 😂.. I might just wait for r6..

Thanks for the vid! The A1ii is spectacular, but only a little bit better than the A7RV. The A7RV is definitely far better value for money - probably the best value Sony ff camera on the market at the moment. Maybe this will change when the A7V is released IF it has the 44 megapixel sensor and uncropped 4k60 video. Let’s wait and see

I would just take the combination of speed and mp of the r5ii. The a1ii is too expensive compared to an incredibly similar r5ii, and the a7rv is too slow to do more than landscape photography, thus limiting its abilities to a niche community.

Excuse my ignorance but why does the native high ISO on two of these cameras only go up to 3200? Is that not pretty low before you end up using the less-preferable(?) expansion ISO?

Sony A7RV, higher resolution, better dynamic range and noise control, best of all, half the price o the A1 II !!!