Sony A7 II review in 2024

Pros

+ 24MP full frame sensor
+ Often ridiculously cheap
+ 5-axis 4.5-stop IBIS
+ Wide lens choice

Cons

– Only 5fps continuous shooting
– No 4K video only 1080
– Single card slot

Sony A7 II: introduction and context

The Sony A7 II was the second iteration of Sony’s ‘everyday’ Alpha 7. It arrived alongside the 42MP A7R II, which was a more expensive higher-end model but shared the same body. I owned a Sony A7R II for some time, but didn’t get on with it particularly well because I found its small body didn’t balance well with the larger Sony zooms I bought to go with it. The A7 II is the same size, but I bought my sample with different intentions and for use with older, smaller ‘vintage’ lenses via adaptors.

The A7 II was soon superseded by the A7 III, which brought more advanced autofocus, 10fps shooting and faster burst speeds. That too has been superseded, by the 33MP Sony A7 IV, with improved AF and video capabilities. All three, however, share the same ‘all-round everyday’ camera in the Sony line-up, aimed at advanced enthusiasts and professionals.

With some models, Sony keeps them on sale even after they’ve been replaced, and that’s the case with the A7 II. So although I’m reviewing it as a ‘used’ camera choice, you can for now still buy it new. That’s how I got mine, direct from Sony at just £599 in the UK during the Black Friday sales. If you can find it at that price today, go for it, because that undercuts many ‘excellent’ or ‘as new’ used examples.

So is the Sony A7 II still worth buying and using today?

See also
• Best used cameras to buy today
• Are used digital cameras any good for photography today?

Sony A7 II: specifications

• Type: Mirrorless
• Lens mount: Sony FE
• Sensor: Full-frame Exmor CMOS, 24.3MP
• ISO range: 50-25600
• Autofocus: 117-point phase-detect/25-point contrast AF
• Continuous shooting: 5fps
• Video: FHD up to 60p
• Viewfinder: EVF, 2.36m dots, 100% coverage, 0.71x magnification
• Rear screen: 3-inch tilting, 1,229k dots
• Storage: 1x Memory Stick Duo/SD UHS I
• Battery: NP-FW50, 350 shots
• Dimensions: 126.9 x 95.7 x 59.7mm, 599g

Sony A7 II: key features

One of the key features of the Sony A7 II is its in-body stabilization. You won’t find any other full frame cameras with IBIS at this price or anywhere near it, and lower-end Canon mirrorless models don’t have IBIS at all. In this respect at least, the Sony A7 II is very current in its tech. So just for a minute, let’s compare it to the Canon EOS RP. The EOS RP is a perfectly good camera, but it doesn’t have IBIS and, while it does have a 2MP resolution advantage, I find its shadow noise handling and effective dynamic range pretty poor. And although it does shoot 4K video, there are some significant limitations.

So while the Sony A7 II might look like an ‘old’ camera, it still has features we want today and that we still can’t take for granted. The 24MP resolution is not to be sneezed at, either. In fact, it’s still the baseline resolution for full frame mirrorless cameras, and you have to spend a lot more money to improve on it. The ISO 50-25600 ISO range is good too, and while this is an older camera with older sensor tech and noise control, it still produces very good low light image quality – especially with Sony’s Multi Frame NR noise reduction mode, which you don’t hear much about these days.

The A7 II’s 2.36m dot EVF is pretty good, and while its rear screen only tilts – vari-angle screens arrived on Sony cameras much later – it’s crisp and clear with over 1.2 million dots of resolution.

The A7 II does have deficiencies, of course. Its hybrid AF is fast and responsive, but offers a modest 117 AF points and lacks Sony’s latest AF tracking and AI subject recognition features.

The lack of 4K video is a sign of its age, too. You can shoot 1080 FHD up to 60p, and with Sony S-Log2 gamma for that matter, but that’s probably going to be no consolation to filmmakers. 

Action fans will be deeply unimpressed too, as the A7 II can only manage 5fps, when we’ve all got used to Sony cameras shooting at 10fps or more.

So the A7 II has definite deficiencies for video and continuous shooting, but that’s where modern cameras have made real advances and why they cost so much more than this one. The fact is, though, that if you want to shoot top-quality full frame 24MP stills in all sorts of light, and you’re not especially into action photography or filmmaking, then the A7 II is a remarkably relevant and capable camera, even now.

Sony A7 II: build and handling

Sony A7 bodies really are remarkably compact – and that’s both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s good in that it makes them lighter to carry around and supports the (dubious) argument that mirrorless camera systems are smaller, but it’s bad because while the cameras are smaller, full frame lenses can’t be shrunk in the same way. The result is that most otherwise excellent and useful Sony lenses, such as the 24-105mm f/4, for example, just feel too big on these cameras.

The Sony A7 series is, in my opinion, best suited to smaller lenses. I know a lot of Sony users won’t agree, but that’s my feeling.

For a camera with such a small body, though, the Sony A7 II does handle pretty well. There’s not a lot of height in the grip, so you can’t really get all four fingers of your right hand around it for a solid hold, but there are lots of other cameras that are no better. There’s also no focus joystick on the back, and probably no room for one either. But the buttons are very clearly labeled and both these and the twin control dials have a good, solid feel.

A lot of people complain about the ‘old’ Sony menu system used here, saying it’s disorganized and illogical. I can’t really agree. If you use a camera day in and day out you soon remember where to find things, and more recent Sony cameras are so complex that even with the ‘new’ menu system they are hardly a masterpiece of clarity.

As usual with Sony cameras, there’s a heavy reliance on custom buttons – Sony seems to imagine we all have nothing better to do than make its cameras work how we want instead of figuring it out for us – but in general I think the Sony A7 II has good, clear controls and handles quite nicely. When it was launched, this camera cost in the region of $2,000/£2,000 and that’s evident in the materials and the finish and the construction. This is not a cheap camera.

Sony A7 II: performance

I’m judging the Sony A7 II purely as a stills camera for everyday use, and I think in this role it performs extremely well. If you definitely need AI subject detection and Real Time Eye AF and all the rest of Sony’s later AF advances, then this is not the camera for you. The same goes for 4K video, obviously.

But for everyday photography, one shot at a time, the Sony A7 II works very well indeed. Most of the latest advances in camera tech are aimed at very specific and very narrow user case scenarios, and nothing brings that home more effectively than the eminently capable Sony A7 II.

The resolution is as good as that from any other 24MP full frame camera, the high ISO performance might surprise you, and the dynamic range is as good as that of any modern camera. Technologies may have moved on, but basic image quality has changed remarkably little since the Sony A7 II was launched.

Sony A7 II: verdict

I didn’t think I would like the Sony A7 II that much. I had a Sony A7R II previously which I didn’t get on with particularly well, mostly because of its small body and Sony’s big lenses. But I approached the A7 II from a different perspective. I bought it primarily to use with older DSLR lenses via adaptors – the Sony is a terrific platform for this kind of setup, as you can get adaptors to fit almost any kind of lens, and mirrorless cameras work really well with ‘dumb’ manual lenses that lack any kind of electronic connection.

So I bought my A7 II with smaller lenses in mind and with a different shooting perspective, and I’m struck by just how good this camera is, how modern it feels, and how cheap it is to buy. I bought my A7R II for its resolution and then lumbered it with lenses that would do it justice but spoiled the experience. This time, I’ve chosen the A7 II for its cost, its quality and its adaptability, and I think in these areas it still does remarkably well. I deliberately set ultimate resolution aside. But the main thing is the price. It sells for practically nothing, even new.