see also:

• mirrorless camera systems
• Sony NEX E-mount camera system
• Sony FE E-mount full frame lenses
• Legacy lenses on Sony NEX FX full frame mirrorless cameras
• Nikon Z full frame mirrorless system
• Canon R full frame mirrorless camera system

• these are the 1st full frame mirrorless camera systems
• they use the same E-mount as cropped sensor Sony NEX E-mount camera system but require full frame lenses such as Sony FE E-mount full frame lenses for full frame coverage
  • this E-mount is TOO SMALL for full frame:¹⁾
    • the diameter does not allow for optimum sensor movement for IBIS, not edge image quality with wide angle lenses
    • the short flange distance makes extreme wide angle lenses very difficult to engineer and unlikely that they will perform well on the edges
• major selling points of the latest Sony full frame mirrorless cameras:
  • best sensors on the market for dynamic range and high ISO performance
  • best video quality - oversampling of full frame instead of line skipping or pixel binning
  • great video codecs and face autofocus tracking
  • the best Eye AF that even works in continuous AF
  • in camera image stabiliser
  • reasonable AF speed when used with Canon EF lenses and a Sigma or Metabones adapter
• issues with these cameras
  • colour technology and skin tones in particular can be problematic
  • ergonomics and menu system is awkward, front heavy with most pro lenses
  • camera bodies are not fully weathersealed
  • many of the models are not useful for astrophotography due to the “Star-eating” NR algorithms which even affect the RAW files - this seems to be addressed for the Sony a7 III full frame mirrorless camera and later models
  • battery life is extremely poor on the older models
  • Sensor Filter Stack Issues makes it harder to clean sensors
  • Touchscreen has limited functionality
  • Banding with electronic shutter mode and certain lighting
  • High burst mode forces 12bit RAW and not able to shoot in 14 bit RAW
  • Buffer lag prevents use of camera after burst shots
  • No XQD card reader
  • Rack Zoom During Burst: When shooting moving subjects on high frame burst, zooming in causes dropped focus
  • Moiré and Rolling Shutter in videos
  • Overheating during video - this is one of the issues with using full frame sensors for video
  • Compressed RAW format creates posterization effect with green compression blocks between black and white pixels
  • lenses are large (compared with Micro Four Thirds) and very expensive (compared with most other full frame manufacturers)

• Sony a9II
  • announced Oct 2019 same a9 sensor, EVF, and screen, but with significant improvements overall, especially the mechanical shutter and file saving/transfer options, and some of the Sony a7RIV features and ergonomics
  • see Sony a9ii full frame mirrorless camera
• Sony a7R IV
  • see Sony a7R IV
  • announced July 2019, coming Sept 2019
  • 61mp 15 stop dynamic range; 10fps with C-AF; 567 PDAF covering 74% frame; 5.5EV IBIS;
  • 5.76mdot EVF; upgraded grip and weathersealing;
  • 4K video
  • $US3500
• Sony a7S III
  • coming 2019
  • rumoured specs: 36mp multi-aspect 16bit sensor 10fps or 14bit 24fps, 8K 12 bit 30p / 8k 10bit 60p / 1080 240p video
• Sony A7 III:
  • see Sony a7 III full frame mirrorless camera
  • announced Feb 2018
  • 24mp, 5EV IS, 10fps burst, 4K video, many of the features of the a9 (including AF coverage) and a7RIII
  • much improved over the a7II in nearly all aspects
  • $US1999
• Sony a7RIII:
  • see Sony a7R III full frame mirrorless camera
  • announced Oct 2017
  • same 42mp sensor as a7RII but improved circuitry and processing delivers 1EV more dynamic range at low ISO
  • IBIS improved to “5.5EV”
  • 10fps burst rate
  • better mirror shock handling and better shutter shock handling
  • adds HiRes mode (“Pixel Shift Multi Shooting”) similar to Olympus OM-D cameras but delivering 4 pixel shifted RAW images covering 169mp but outputs to a single 42mp RAW with better colour fidelity and texture reproduction than a single shot (ie. much less moire)
  • double the AF speed with low light capability extended down to -3EV and with 425 CDAF pts in addition to 399 phase detect points which provide improved image coverage of 68% of frame (cf 45% in a7II and 93% in the a9)
  • adds the a9's touchscreen focus point control and multi-selector joystick on the back of the body in place of the button-style directional pad as well as anti-flicker ability, a 2nd card slot, larger grip and the larger a9 NP-FZ100 batteries
  • 4K video plus now can do 120fps 1080HD mode
  • USB-C 3.1 connector
  • $US3199
• Sony a9
  • see Sony a9 full frame mirrorless camera, announced April 2017
  • 24.2MP Full-Frame Stacked CMOS Sensor
  • ISO range of 100 – 51200, expandable to 50 – 204800
  • Blackout-Free Quad VGA 3.7m-Dot OLED EVF
  • silent electronic shutter to 1/32,000th sec
  • 3.0″ 1.44m-Dot Tilting Touchscreen LCD
    • touch focusing on the rear LCD screen for easily selecting of and shifting focus towards a desired focus point or subject
  • Internal UHD 4K/30p Video Recording
    • uses full pixel readout without pixel binning to collect 6K of information, oversampling it to produce high quality 4K footage
  • full HD 1080 120p at up to 100mbps with AF Tracking
  • 20 fps Shooting with AF/AE Tracking for up to 241 RAW/ 362 JPEG images
  • 693-Point Phase-Detection AF System with 60 AF/AE tracking calculations per second
    • 25% faster performance when compared with α7R II
  • 5EV 5-Axis SteadyShot INSIDE Stabilization
  • Mag. Alloy Body, Dual SD Card Slots (one for UHS-II media), Ethernet port for file transfer
  • all-new Sony battery (model NP-FZ100) giving double the battery life of a7R II
  • $US4500
  • optional: VG-C3EM Vertical Grip; NPA-MQZ1K Multi-Battery Adaptor Kit; GP-X1EM Grip Extension;BC-QZ1 Battery Charger
• Sony a7S II:
  • 12mp full frame videography oriented mirrorless
  • see Sony a7S II full frame mirrorless camera
  • adds:
    • now has 164 AF points
    • can now record 4K footage internally with full pixel read-out
    • Full HD 120 fps video recording
    • 4/5x slow motion recording internally
    • new S-Gamut3.Cine/S-Log3 and S-Gamut3/S-Log3 profiles
    • a new Gamma Display Assist function and improved Zebra function
    • improved performance of Fast Intelligent AF
    • ISO range of 50 up to 409,600 (100-102,400 native)
    • 5 axis sensor based image stabiliser
  • $US2999 RRP
• Sony a7R II:
  • the best camera of 2015?
  • see Sony a7R II full frame mirrorless camera
  • 42mp, IBIS, 399pt PDAF, faster AF for Canon EF lenses
  • shutter issues addressed, silent shutter mode, 500K shot shutter rating
  • awesome video capabilities including 4K 30p/24p, uncompressed HDMI out
• Sony a7II:
  • see Sony a7 II full frame mirrorless camera
  • announced Nov 2014
  • 24mp, similar to a7 but:
    • 5-axis sensor based IS
    • improved hybrid AF
    • XAVC-S video recording format
    • other minor improvements
  • petapixel preview
  • dpreview preview
  • my blog post
  • http://www.eoshd.com/2014/11/sony-a7-ii-review-5-axis-stabilisation-video-mode/
    • not as good as the Sony a7s for video despite the IS:
      • the 5-axis IS is not as effective in video as it is on the Olympus OM-D E-M1
      • the a7S at ISO 12,800 is as good as the a7II at 3200 which negates much of the IS advantage of the a7II
      • does not have the full pixel readout or 4K HDMI output of the A7S, and gives more moire and anti-aliasing issues in fine detail imagery
    • the EVF is not as good as the Fuji X-T1’s EVF which is much bigger, much brighter and optically stronger
    • still has some ergonomic issues
  • Sony a7II with Tamron 150-600mm lens makes a great combination
• Sony a7S:
  • see Sony a7S full frame mirrorless camera
  • announced Apr 2014
  • newly developed, 12.2 mp 35mm full frame Exmor® CMOS sensor paired with powerful BIONZ X image processor
  • ISO 50 – 4096002
  • 1st full frame camera with full pixel read out in movie mode (ie. no pixel binning) which allows videos with much reduced aliasing, moiré and false color artifacts
  • 4K (QFHD 3840 x 2160 pixels) video using the full width of the sensor, this can be output to a 3rd party external recorder (eg. Atomos Shogun ~$2000) but apparently cannot be saved to a memory card

• Sony a7R
  • see Sony a7R full frame mirrorless camera
  • Oct 2013
  • 36mp sensor, no AA filter (apparently a revised version of the sensor in the Nikon D800 dSLR with new micro-lens design)
  • no phase detect AF on sensor
  • $2299 body only
  • optional vertical grip & 2nd battery holder ~$300

• Sony A7
  • see Sony a7 full frame mirrorless camera
  • Oct 2013
  • same as A7R including the 25 CDAF points but:
    • 24mp sensor with 117 phase detect AF points on sensor and equipped with AA filter
    • 5fps burst with continuous autofocus
  • $1699 body only, $1999 with kit lens