[Music] Hi I'm Dustin Abbot and I'm here today To give you my definitive video review Of the new Sony a7c so this is the Second generation of their compact Full-frame a7c series and of course at This point we have a bifurcation of this Line obviously the original a7c was Successful enough that they not not only Are bringing out a Mark I version which I'm reviewing here today but of course There is also an A7c or a high resolution model so two Models in the a7c series now the Original a7c was essentially a matchup Taking the fullframe Sony A7 3s Internals and that included the Autofocus system and the sensor things Like that but then porting that over and Miniaturizing it into a smaller apsc Style Body like say the a A6600 and the combination was a very Compact full-frame camera that allowed For a lot of people whose vision of Mirrorless was to be as small and light As possible it allowed them to achieve That while still getting a great Performance from the sensor the a7c Mark I takes that to the next level in that We have a similar style body with some Minor modifications and improvements but Now we have the internals of an a74 Which it with its 33 megapixel sensor Along with that we have got a host of
Other improvements including Superior Autofocus Superior image stabilization Superior video specs though all of that Does come at a price the new a7c cost $2200 which is about a $400 premium over Where the original Sony a7c debuted so Is it worth the additional money or Worth the upgrade from the original a7c Well we're going to dive into that in Detail right after a word from our Sponsor today's episode is brought to You by Phantom wallet the minimalist Modern wallet that is now even better With the new Phantom X that is crafted From aluminum right here in Canada it is 22% smaller and 35% lighter while still Making it easy to access your cards and Money when you need them thanks to their Unique Fanning mechanism you could even Customize your wallet due to its modular Design with accessories like a money Clip cash holder ID display and even Chipolo and air tag tracking integration Visit store. fanom wallet.com to check Out their unique sizes Styles and Finishes that span from aluminum to Wood To carbon fiber and use code Dustin 15 For 15% off when you're ready to check Out in preparation for this review I Looked back at my original review of the A7c from 3 years ago and what I found is That very quickly when it came to the Ergonomics the handling of the camera That basically my list of top complaints
From the a7c were all addressed here in The a7c Mark I they managed to do that Without growing the camera and that's Really impressive Cons considering that The overall imperative here is to have a Compact camera the camera is still in Terms of its Dimensions it is 4.9 in Wide or 124 mm it is 2.8 in high 71.1 mm Those two dimensions are essentially Identical to the original a7c there's Only a minor change when it comes to the Grip of the or the depth of the grip There which is now 2.5 inches or 63.4 mm So it's grown by a few millimeters to Allow for a little bit more full Featured grip the grip itself feels good For my fingers that are able to go there But with a shorter camera body like this Those that have larger hands like myself Are going to find that this pinky finger Really doesn't have anywhere to go other Than curling up underneath the body they Also managed to to keep the weight down It weighs in at 514 G and that is only 6 G heavier than the 509 G that was the Original a7c that comes out to about 1.1 Lb some of the key things that are Improved here is that I really lamented Not having a front control wheel on the Original a7c we've got that here now and So now we have a total of four different Control Wheels which essentially allows It to handle and to be set up just like Any of other Sony's full frame bodies
Which I definitely prefer I also noted That lamented a lack of customizable Buttons something that Sony has Traditionally done well but thankfully Here they have just redesigned the Cutout for where you can access the flip Out screen and so rather than that being Centered at the top it's now down at the Bottom right on the back and that allows You to have a centered menu button but Also a new C1 button right next to that Now it's not a lot of additional buttons But even having that one add additional Customizable button just means that There is more direct control over the Camera itself and that is furthered by The fact that they now have include Included a secondary switch or dial Underneath the main control dial that Allows you to switch between different Custom setups for Stills for video and Then also for the snq or slow and quick Modes and so particularly for those First first two modes for Stills and Then video you can have a completely Different setup in terms terms of the Menu customizations the custom buttons The the way that the wheels function and So it just allows you to very quickly Switch between two different control Setups making this even more of a hybrid Camera which the a7c definitely became a Good hybrid model for those that wanted A really lightweight option for getting
Run and Gun video another key complaint Of mine was at the time the a7c continue What was the trend for all Sony cameras And that there was really limited touch Functionality Obviously that status quo has changed Since the original a7c so I'm happy to Say that we have Sony's improved Approach to touch which allows full menu Navigation and a lot of different uh Functionality you can do via touch a More responsive touch screen in general And so that is just another place of Ergonomic control that is significantly Improved here and so the only thing that I would really say that is missing as Far as any kind of control is that there Is no kind of mini joystick or anything Like that but by and large between touch And the added controls here it really Has pretty good navigation and thus I Would say that the ergonomics and the Overall handling are significantly Improved now going back to that touch Screen for a moment it still is the Exact same size 3 Ines as before it's a Very angle or fully articulating screen And so you can put it in a variety of Positions but it is very slightly Improved when it comes to the resolution The a7c had a 921,000 I believe 600 dot 20 or 921,000 dot resolution whereas the New screen is 1.04 million dots so just A little bit more resolution there now
Less of an improvement when it comes to The viewfinder in that it's still the Same size and it is still the same Resolution point which is 2.36 million Dots there are some minor improvements That are there and that is that you have The ability to access a faster refresh Rate up to 120 hertz the actual Magnification of the viewfinder even Though the viewfinder itself is still The same size it does have a little bit Of a higher magnification and so that's An improvement there and then also we Have a longer eye Point as well so a few Minor improvements there I still don't Love the viewfinder um you know if you Shot exclusively on Sony's um apsc Bodies then you're accustomed to that That left sided viewfinder and I Understand if that's what works and Allows it to keep the compact shape I Just don't love the ergonomics of being At the extreme side of the camera for The overall functionality and so still Not probably not my favorite part of the Design but uh there is at least some Minor improvements that have happened There now over on the left side is where All of the ports are and we have all of The basic same things we have a USBC Port we have a uh microphone Jack we Have a headphone monitoring and we have A micro HDMI along with a single SD card Slot so all the same bits there but just
A slight bit of reorganization with the USBC Port moved up to the top to share With the microphone input there on the Note of microphones the uh hot shoe Continues to be Sony's multi- interface And so there are a variety of different Microphones that make use of that and so You can collect digital audio through That hot shoe or that multi- interface As noted we continue to have a single SD Card slot here and I do appreciate the Fact that it's on the side rather than Down in the battery door like some of The apsc bodies that's an improvement However sticking with just a single uhss Or UHS 2 compatible SD card means that That is going to be a bottleneck in Terms of the capture speed and we're Going to see in just a moment that that Does have a downside with an increased Resolution in this particular Camera the other thing that I will point To as a negative particularly since this Is a more enhanced video capture body is The fact that many you dedicated video People would prefer to have a full-size HDMI port as opposed to the micro HDMI There may not be room for that in a Compact camera like this but it is a Flimsier connection point and it just Feels a little bit more fragile likewise We retain the same Npfz100 battery pack which is Sony's Common battery pack across basically all
Of its cameras at this point however Because we have more processing we have More resolution here unfortunately we Have a lower rating for the battery life Whereas the a7c was rated for up to 750 Shots in that range the a7c Mark II is Just at 540 shots so that is one Downside to consider you may be more Likely to need an additional battery With this model now one area of Significant Improvement is when it comes To the inbody image stabilization or Their Ibis system Sony steady shot was Rated at five stops of assistance on the A7 C on this new a7c Mark I it's rated Up to seven stops which is a pretty Significant Improvement also we now have The active stabilization mode in video Capture and so you can get a little bit More stabilization when you're on the Move so obviously that is a a great Improvement that has dividends both for Stills and for video so all in all while We have a very similar looking camera at First glance there are a number of Subtle improvements that just make it Better overall one thing that I did Notice just kind of as an aside is that With the original a7c they experimented Experimented with a different kind of Grip pattern and I noted that it looked Cool but it didn't offer actually as Much grip Sony must have agreed and had Similar feedback elsewhere because they
Have gone back to their more traditional You know leather looking grip pattern Here that maybe doesn't look as Contemporary but it actually grips Better and feels better in the hand this Continues to be a aluminum alloy shell Here and it has a number of weather Sealing points and so this is a Professional grade camera with good Weather sealing and good overall Performance as before you have the Option of getting it in either the black Or the silver finish also improved Internally is the autofocus system we Have increased from 693 phase detect autofocus points to 759 also improved is the total sens Sensor coverage with uh autofocus points From 93% to 94% giving you just a little bit more Room for tracking around the sensor low Lights sensitivity remains at a minus 4 Exposure value and I found that I was Able to get good performance in focusing In very dim or low light conditions Probably even more significant than the Autofocus points however is the addition Of the improved processor we have the New Bion Zxr processor but even more so the AI Separate AI processing unit that allows AI tracking to take place and so that Means that not only are there more Things that can be detected but that
Also means that for some of those most Important most common subjects there are Even more tracking methods that are There when it comes to humans there is Uh there's pose detection the ability to Detect subjects whether an eye is Visible or not just a lot of more Options there so now we have the ability To track humans animals Birds insects Cars and trains airplanes all of those Things and this is not just for Stills But also all of that full-time AI Tracking is done also for video as well And I found that video AF is really Fantastic with the camera I did find That it can track action well though There is a limiting principle we'll get To in just a moment you can definitely See that the camera quickly acquires the Subject and you can see it actively Tracking it as you are clicking off Frames the burst rate is still uh 10 Frames per second despite the bump in Resolution from 24 to 33 megapixels but Where the bottleneck happens is when it Comes to the buffer depth and which has Dropped significantly we have less than Half the total number of raw images that You can capture you can capture as many As 44 but if you're shooting in lossless Compressed which I typically do that Drops to just a maximum of 27 and you Hit that limit really quickly as I Discovered during my tracking sequences
If you shoot extra fine jpegs that Number increases to 88 and if you go to Just fine jpegs you can get up to a Th000 plus and so obviously not much of A limit there but that is really the Biggest weakness of the camera relative To the a74 the a74 can record up to over A thousand lossless comp compressed raws You know or jpegs so there's a lot more Flexibility in terms of the buffer depth And that's just lacking here probably Comes down as I said to obviously a Smaller unit but then also having just That SD card as a means of recording all Of that information that's being tracked And so if you're looking for an actual Action camera something for shooting Action the a74 is still going to be a Better choice than the a7c Mark II a7c Mark II is really more about being Compact and it does a lot of things well But it's definitely not as much of a Specialist tool when it comes to action Tracking outside of that however Autofocus is fantastic and I think most Everyone is going to be happy with its Performance there are some core Improvements to the video performance as Well now there is no crop at 4K 30 Before we had I believe a 1.2 times crop At 4K 30 it could shoot 4K uh 24 and 25 Without any kind of crop but at 4K 30 There was a crop and even then there was Some pixel bending that was taking place
Now we're getting not only the full Frame but we're also getting a full Pixel readout no pixel bending as a part Of it it's basically a down sampled 7K And so it's giv you really really great Performance uh good great looking Footage at 4K 30 we now have the ability Also to shoot 4K 60 though like with the A74 that is like a super 35 and so You've got a 1.5 times crop factor when You're shooting at 4K 30 also improved Is while we had a limit of just um 8bit Video internal recording before with the A7c and and your maximum option was uh 100 MBS you now can record 10bit Internal 4.2.0 and you have options all the way Up to 600 MBS in terms of your bit rate So a lot more options in terms of codec And quality of footage that you can Capture if you're shooting in full HD You can shoot up to 120 frames per Second we also have a full gamut of Professional features like SL log 3 S Gamut 3 which both giv over 15 stops of Dynamic range we have the S cotone um Option here we have a wide variety of Creative looks all of which which can be Programmed also in shooting during video On camera you can display Luts including User created Luts lookup tables and so You can see kind of what your if you're Shooting in log you can see what the Footage will look like after the L has
Been applied so all of that can be Really useful for setting up your shot And found that I could get some great Looking footage I as a part of this I've Been reviewing actually an anamorphic Lens and I while I had the a7c Mark I at The same time I thought you know I'm Going to throw that on there and get Some footage with it and I got some Really unique and interesting shots as a Part of that and all captured with this A7c Mark II so this really is a great Little video unit and if you're looking For a compact camera to get run and Gun Footage this is going to be better still And of course I think Sony has made some Amazing choices by opening up this Platform there are so many compact Lenses including what I've got mounted On here and I used a lot during this Review and that's the new vrox AF 20mm F2.8 a really compact wide angle lens That's a great match because it's so Lightweight and small for a body like The a7c Sony's got a lot of great Compact options you've got the samyang Tiny series you've got sigma's I series There's just so many great options to Look to that are very comp compact will Allow you to travel light whether you're Shooting photos and then of course with Lenses like samyang's vaf series you've Got great Sy options there as well that Are nice and Compact and so kudos to
Sony for creating an awesome ecosystem And of course equipping even these Compact bodies like the A7 C Mark II uh Is just being great hybrid video capture Rigs as well so as mentioned we have the 33 megapixel sensor from the a74 and so Obviously uh moving up a pretty Significant amount of resolution there And I do find just as an aside I find That that 33 megapixels of resolution is Just handy for a lot of things um I have Owned the a74 and currently Craig is Using it and so um you know as as a Byproduct as a camera I'm really Familiar with and I just found that that Resolution point is just really really Useful for a lot of things and with Sony's new updates we now do have the Ability that not only being able to Choose different sizes of jpegs but also You can choose three different sizes of Lossless compressed raw that's more Useful on really high resolution bodies But still useful here as well perhaps For some different applications when you Just don't need all of that resolution So we're going to dive in and take a Closer look at the sensor performance And how it holds up for low light Performance for dynamic range color all Of those things let's take a look Together so we'll start by taking a look At the iso performance of this sens So here is a base exposure here just
Kind of shows us we'll take a quick pan Around as to how things should look you Can see there's no noise at ISO 100 the Blacks are nice and and smooth inside Here you can see no noise all of those Things of course look as they should at ISO 400 things look basically identical And you're not going to see any kind of Real difference there when it comes to The overall noise everything still looks Great ISO 800 look the same here At600 this is kind of the first step Where people are starting to get into What feels like a little bit higher ISO You can see here though it remains Really really nice and clean the blacks You can see are not quite as as dark so You've lost a tiny bit of contrast but They still look uh very even looking Inside the mirror here we can see that There is just the tiniest little bit of Noise there but not much to see and in This area in between everything looks Pretty much the same if we look up at Our color swatches you can see that There is a tiny bit of fine noise there But for the most part everything still Looks really great from 1,600 to 3200 You can see looking in here that there's Just a little bit rougher looking noise Uh looking towards the shadow area I Think with every one of these steps You're going to see that the Shadows are Just not quite as Inky as what they were
But overall everything still looks Pretty clean here no really rough noise Or anything that's disrupting the image If we take it on up to 64 400 you can See that even here in the red there's Just a little bit more of a fine noise That's showing likewise as we look in This area here what should be neutral You can just see a little bit of a Pattern there a little bit more noise You can see just the tiniest bit of a Kind of a grid system that's kind of Showing up in some of these color Swatches you can't see it so much in the Shadows here but what you can see is More and more uneven pixels that are Starting to be lighter that noise that's Showing there that's starting to lift The shadow noise or lift the shadows and Remove that contrast you can see a Little bit more of it showing up here And inside the mirror but overall you Know we still have a really clean Looking image from 6,400 to 12,800 we getting up towards into what's Definitely a higher Zone and so that bit Of a grid pattern I think is just Becoming a little bit more obvious a few More you know varied pixels of noise There that's raising those Shadows Further basically all the same Trends We've seen before are just getting a Little bit more obvious here at ISO 12,800 we move on up 25,600 you can see
That all of that just continues and you Can see now that we're starting to get Some uneven pixels even in there and if We look over at the shadow information You can just see a lot of just kind of Speckle there of the noise pattern that Is showing up likewise here you can see More of that kind of grid look and just The noise pattern in general is getting Rougher and rougher now the upper part Of the natural limit is 51,200 and so We're now definitely in the range where You're starting to push the envelope and So you can see that just show up in a Lot of ways just definitely a lot more Roughness to the noise here you can see There's a little bit of I would say kind Of a greenish discoloration that's Taking place it's still slight at this Point and looking at it at a global it's Not terrible but you're getting to a Place where you probably would not be Comfortable in using the images in a lot Of situations now you have two other Options in the expanded zone so that's 102,400 and then up to 24,800 definitely the 24,800 that is not what I would consider A usable image you can see there's just A green color cast it's pretty obvious You can see there is hardly any Shadows That are left uh there's kind of a just A bit of a grid pattern there in general And uh then if we look even at 102,400 I
Mean the noise is just really really Rough here and so that's not something That I would consider usable I would Avoid the expanded range now I find Particularly if you shoot in a Monochrome this is at 12,800 and so the Image is still mostly useful I just do See a little bit of what I call that Kind of grid pattern where this should Be even it's not entirely even here's Another shot here this is all the way up To 51,200 and you can see that you There's decent amount of detail that's There but we can also see that the noise Pattern looks really really rough this Is back down to 20 uh 25,600 and I would say that in color That grid pattern is just a little less Obvious than it is in monochrome but you Can see there's some just even at a Global level there's some obvious noise And if we zoom in there there's Definitely some very obvious noise and Some of that kind of grid pattern that's There so whether or not that's Acceptable is really going to depend on Your tolerance so taking now a quick Look at the dynamic range this is an Area that is actually a slight bit Better than the A7 C I would say that The iso performance on the original a7c Was a little bit better the dynamic Range on the a7c Mark II is a tiny bit Better let's break that down so what
We'll be looking at this series is Starting first with underexposure so the Image on the left is the original where I have purposely underexposed by 1 2 3 Four and five stops and on the right is Going to be the image that's been Recovered in that I have added that Exposure back in in post and so what we Are looking for is that when the the Exposures added back in that the Shadows Uh don't become noisy that there's not Any kind of color shift so obviously in This first stop of Shadow recovery the Recovery is pretty easy and the end Result looks perfectly fine so if I skip Ahead to three stops of underexposure we Can see that in the recovery on the Right number one you can see that we're Recovering now some fairly Deep Shadows You can see that it's recovering well And that we're continuing to have good Contrast textures are good there's not a Color shift The Shadows look as they are and there's Really not hardly any visible noise the Same is largely true at four stops of Underere exposure you can see that now We're recovering some information that Was really really crushed and bringing It back very nicely up here in the color Swatches lot not a lot of visible noise There everything looks as it should and Even with a five-stop shadow recovery I Would say that we are largely successful
If we take a look here on the left side Of the image we can see that this was Was all completely crushed and I I do Think that the colors are not perfect There and there is a little bit of Visible noise that's popping up but we Are recovering something that was Completely lost before and if we look Like in this area here almost all of That strap was basically hardly not Visible and it has been recovered pretty Nicely I do think there's a little bit Of a noise pattern here at five stops in The camera grip a little bit of noise Inside there and once again we can see That there's some uneven pixels and Maybe even a little bit of banding in The shadows but for the most part we're Able to recover that pretty well now if We swap to an overexposure starting by 1 2 3 and four stops of overexposure we Can see that what we're looking is to See these blown out areas where textures Are lost to be recovered also when it Comes to the color palette so look Carefully at that because we're wanting To get back to this proper color as much As possible so with this first just one Stop we can see that everything is Recovering just fine no issue now with Two stops of Overexposed osure we can See that there's a lot of stuff that is Kind of blown out here we've lost the Color information on the timer some of
The swatches are washed out and Obviously there's some hot spots on the Front of the shiny reflective areas so Importantly here we can see that that Texture that's blown out is recovered Fine also on the front of the SLR we can See that some of the colors that were Starting to get washed out are recovered Nicely and so all of that is being Handled pretty well on the timer face Everything is nice and even the color is Very consistent now typically it is Between two and three stops that most Cameras fail on this test and three Stops is typically not usable now we can See that there is fairly good dynamic Range here and that we really haven't Lost everything so for example this area Is recovered almost perfectly on the top Of the SLR here there is a little bit of Loss texture information but for the Most part like over on this Zone it's Been recovered everything's doing fairly Well we can see that at this point if we Look up in the color swatches that on The left side there are colors that have Basically disappeared alt together and We can see that they have come back Pretty nicely there on the right side so With just a few minor exceptions I'll Just take a look in here you can see That our color is still pretty Consistent so overall a good result There where we completely lose things is
Between three and four stops so you can See the four stops is just blown out you Wouldn't ever be able to use that Normally and you can see that here on The right side some of it's recovered But it's not recovered in any kind of Credible way and so like the textures And colors on the front of the the timer Face it doesn't look proper oh there's All kinds of blown out textures that are Just not recovered color swatches are Reasonably good but there are some Colors that we had back before that we Have lost and it the whole image just Has somewhat of an unnatural quality and So that is your limit you can get up to About three stops which is really good But anything past that you're going to Have a breakdown So of course that is at base ISO so in This image for example I shot it at ISO 1600 and you don't have near the amount Of dynamic range latitude when you shoot At higher isos so for example here you Can see that I was able to pull open a Lot of that shadow information so that's Great but if we zoom in and we take a Closer look you can see that that Recovery's come at a lot of cost there's A lot of digital noise there there's Some color blotching and banding and and So it's not bad but it's definitely I Wouldn't consider that to be usable now Fortunately there is a tool it's not a
Fast tool but even right here in Lightroom there is a tool that helps With this noise and so I ran it through That and you can see that it comes at The cost of just a little bit of Smoothing of some of these textures but You can see it's a much more usable Image and in many cases I would say that You know that that's probably going to Work just fine for you in most Situations just uh in fair warning it Took about 13 minutes to run that Enhanced uh noise reduction in there and So it's not something you'd want to use All the time so finally let's talk about Color for a moment and so you can see Something that I think that Sony has Always done well is when it comes to Landcape landscape colors this is with The 35mm f1.4 G Master those colors look Really really beautiful this is with That little vroo 20 mm that I was Talking about and again I think that the Colors look really really fantastic this Is with the Tamron 70 to 180 mm G2 lens And once again those colors look really Rich nicely saturated very natural this Is an out-of camera jpeg that has not Been modified at all this is the area However where I think that Sony has Gotten a lot better and that's when it Comes to skin tones and so here you've Got several different skin tones on Screen we can see if we take a closer
Look that even at higher ISO uh this is 3200 I believe you can see that the Various skin textures look good and skin Tones everything looks natural and one Thing that Sony is doing really really Well is their Auto white balance uh Which does really a very good job so one Final thing I want to quickly run Through and that is that Sony has Updated their various creative profiles Here for color and so you can choose This in camera for jpegs but what I'm Going to do here is that you have a Simulation of all of those things in Camera that uh Adobe has so this is just Using adobe's basic color but if I go Down here we have the matching and so First is is the FL this just gives you a Look at the different creative looks That Sony has this is the in profile This is the NT profile this is the Camera PT profile this is the Sh this is the St this is the VV and then now there's Also a vv2 which is a brighter version Of that and then of course there is some Monochrome options and so as a byproduct You have a lot of different ways of Approaching even in camera color they're Not as good as Fuji's film simulations But obviously there are some updated and Interesting options there that allow you To really shoot to a certain look right In camera so color is an area where Sony
Continues to improve and so in Conclusion we can see that we have Another very strong sensor here maybe Not quite as good for low light as the Original a7c but for pretty much Everything else just a little bit better And above all I believe that the A7 C2 It stays true to the purpose of the Series while improving a lot of things It's stays Compact and lightweight but We have improved ergonomics imp improved Controls we have improved autofocus We've improved resolution we have Improved video features now that comes At the cost as we have seen of slightly Poor low light performance a little more Shallow buffers and of course a higher Price point so is it worth $2,200 us Well if you want to travel light this is A lot of camera and it offers a lot of Things that few others do and that we've Got an apsc sized body but with the Ability to use the huge range of Full-frame lenses that are available on Emount and maybe the best selling point For a camera like the a7c Mark II is the Just huge variety of lenses that are Available for it and that makes it a Very compelling option even if you pay a Little bit more for it I'm Dustin Abbott And if you look in the description down Below you can find linkage to my full Text review to an image gallery there There's some buying links please like
And subscribe if you haven't already Thanks for watching have a great day and Let the light [Music] In
