For this week's vlog episode, I'm talking gear. And I'm comparing Sony's A-mount system and the a99 mark II, with Sony's E-mount system, and the Sony a7rII. I'm in Chicago, I'm going to take some pictures with both of these systems, compare the cameras, compare some lenses, and I'm going to have a little bit of fun. [music] [music intensifies] I hesitated doing a gear video. I usually try to focus this vlog on making the actual images. But, before this vlog started I went through kind of an intense challenge trying to figure out what type of camera I wanted to upgrade to. So I wanted to share a little bit of what I learned from that experience.
So in this video I'm talking gear, and I'm going to try and capture some great shots as well. Now there's a bit of a camera rivalry that exists out there. Of course I'm talking about Sony's E-mount versus Sony's A-mount. Sony sells two totally different camera systems each with their own full-frame and APS-C cameras and each with their own lenses. It's been known to cause a lot of confusion, and, definitely, a bit of rivalry between the two camps. There's a similar rivalry here in Chicago between two baseball teams. So I'm actually standing here in front of Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. They're well known, I always run into Cubs fans both here in Chicago and when I travel, they've taken a lot of crap for their legitimacy, or their lack thereof, or what other people consider to be their lack thereof. And they've advanced now to a much more dominant position. For those reasons, they kind of remind me of Sony's E-mount system. But there's another major league ballpark in Chicago, and another Sony mount to talk about.
So I'm going to take a ride to Chicago's South Side. [music] [music intensifies] So, I'm standing in front of an expressway. Sorry about that noise. But I'm also standing in front of the home of the Chicago White Sox, now called Guaranteed Rate Field. The White Sox are the team that everybody forgets about. When the Cubs won the World Series in 2016, I saw national newspapers claim it was the first time a World Series trophy was brought to Chicago in more than a hundred years! The Chicago White Sox actually won the World Series back in 2005 ending a drought of their own. The White Sox weren't always taken seriously either. They've got an intense rivalry with their own hometown, I feel like nobody knows about them, and their a relatively recent world championship team. The Sox remind me of Sony's A-mount system. So I'm here to talk about my experiences with both of these systems, and to share some photos I've taken with both.
I've run into some YouTube videos where people talk about the A-mount versus the E-mount. But only a few who have actually tested both flagship cameras with their native lenses, side by side. So I'm actually going to do both; I'm going to talk about it and I'm going to take some pictures. Personally, I love shooting wide angles. So the E-mount really appeals to me greatly there with all those new lenses. But I also appreciate having dual card slots, and a better AF system. Especially since when I shoot portraits they're often environmental portraits taken during difficult lighting situations like the magic hour or at night, in the city, where I'm using off-camera flashes or softboxes. Comparing the a7rII and the a99II in my hand, I prefer the feel of the a99II, It's easier for me to use with gloves, it feels more stable when I shoot with bigger and bulkier lenses. But, considering how small the a7rII is, uh, relatively, it actually feels really good too. So I can't knock it. The Sony E-mount system is unmatched when it comes to compatibility. you can get autofocus enabled lenses from Nikon, Canon, and other manufacturers on your Sony E-mount cameras.
But people often don't know you can put some Nikon lenses on your Sony A-mount. I've actually been considering shooting with Zeiss's 28mm fOtus lens for the Nikon mount, and then adapting it to the a99II with a little adapter I have. Since the E-mount is new, especially in full-frame, Sony, Zeiss, others, they've released all these fantastic lenses. Sony's [native] A-mount, while its got this great lens lineup, it has lenses that just aren't as new with their designs. So I suspect that the image quality on on the new E-mount lenses will be better. But, I'm just speculating. So, I'm going to do some tests! With the 70-200 fG Master series for the E-mount, and the 70-200 fG series mark II for the A-mount, I'm going to take a few different sets of images with those.
I'm going to use the Sony/Zeiss 35mm ffor the E-mount. And then the Sony 35mm fG series for the A-mount. And, finally, kind of a wildcard match-up where I've picked one of the most revered lenses for each system. For E-mount I'll shoot a portrait photoshoot with the Sony 85mm fG Master series lens. And then I'll shoot for the A-mount, the Sony/Zeiss 135mm flens. I'll test the image quality, I'll look at AF performance shooting cityscapes and then also an environmental portrait shoot using ambient light. I might sneak in some off-camera flash here or there for fun. With the 70-200 lens I'll actually try having the model walk towards me and I'll just hold the shutter button down in continuous autofocus at the highest frame rate per second, in continuous high [mode] (not continuous high plus for your a99II shooters).
And to see how many shots I get in focus and what's the percentage of shots I get in focus. So, let's head out to the first test. [music] I'm excited for this next test. I shoot, obviously, a lot of cityscapes, environmental portraits, I do video. The 35mm focal length, it's an important one for me. And I wanted to test the native 35mm lenses, the flagship 35mm lenses for each system; for the a7rII for the E-mount system and the a99II - the A-mount system. There are some differences that I'm aware of ahead of time before I start testing anything, for both of these lenses.
The 35mm f E-mount lens on the a7rII, it was released in 2015. The A-mount lens was released in 2006. And it actually was just kind of a re-badge of a old Minolta design from the 80s. The A-mount 35mm flens is known for not necessarily being super sharp wide open at f1.4. It also suffers from a bit of chromatic aberration wide open. I've been very happy with the A-mount 35mm f when I'm shooting cityscapes at f- f8. By closing down the aperture it makes the whole image a little bit sharper and cleaner. I've been very happy with those results. But at fI probably wouldn't want to shoot a cityscape like I'm doing here. But, I'm going to test it. We'll see how it works. I'm going to use all the same settings for both of these cameras I'm going to move from fto f2 to fand on and on and on and see how all of these images look.
I'll share with you the best images from this test here in the video, And I'll share all the images on my website; I'll link that below So you can go check those out if you're curious. Let me go ahead and get started with this test. [music] So for this next test, I'm going to be shooting Chicago's lighthouse and the semi-frozen Lake Michigan here in the foreground. I'm going to be using the 70-200mm flenses from each of these systems. I've got the G series mark II attached to the a99 mark II. And I've got the G Master attached to the a7rII.
I'm going to keep the focal length at 200mm for both of these tests. I might even look at some crops to see which one has the better image quality or has better sharpness. So I'm going to flip these cameras around to get my gear setup for this shot. [music] So I have one more shot I want to take before I leave this vantage point. This really isn't a test per se, because I've got two different lenses with two different focal lengths. But I wanted to use the 135mm fon the Sony A-mount system; considered a favorite by many. And then I've got the 85mm G Master f on the Sony a7rII. These are really portrait lenses. But I thought, you know what, why not why not try taking a shot of the buildings here, the skyscrapers of downtown Chicago, and just see how it turns out. See how the image quality compares for a shot like this.
Just for fun. So I'm focused on the John Hancock tower behind me. I'm going to get these shots set up, take this picture, and I'll share this one with you as well. [music] Alright so I'm all wrapped up with testing and taking pictures of this vantage point. Onto the next! [music] So I've just arrived at the location I'm going to use for the portrait shoot tonight I'm going to introduce the lenses I'm going to use in just a few seconds. And I'll introduce Kristie as well. I had a chance to shoot with Kristie in the fall of last year, and we got these amazing shots as a storm was approaching the city. Let me share just a few of those with you. [music] So I'm going to get setup for the test, introduce Kristie to you, and start shooting! Alright so for this next test I'm actually here and I'm going to test the Sony 135mm flens, for the Sony A-mount system, I'm going to test the 85mm fG Master for the Sony E-mount system.
I'm going to try and make Kristie look fabulous. I'm also going to test the Sony 70-200mm f the one for the E-mount and the one for the A-mount system. We're going to test its autofocus capability. See how the a99II performs. And see how the a7rII performs as well. This should be interesting. [music] Alright, so let's talk about all those results from all those images we took today. First we had that 35mm test. The Sony G lens did better than I expected. They were both at f the 35mm Sony/Zeiss performed better. But they were kind of close at f4, and very, very similar at f8. Between the 85mm G Master f and the Sony/Zeiss 135mm f1.8, very similiar when it comes to acuity. Both of those are amazing lenses wide open. Some folks though consider the fact that the 135mm is a screw drive lens for autofocus to be a bad thing.
I don't consider that to be a bad thing. Screw drive is very reliable for photography. I have had SSM motors fail on me. When I did microadjustments for the 135mm on the a99II it was extremely consistent and reliable. But, if you're using it for autofocus during video, screw drive is going to kill you and you're going to want an SSM lens. Another thing to keep in mind; although the 85mm stops down to f1.4, and the 135mm only stops down to f1.8, the 135mm has a much tighter depth of field capability, because it's a longer telephoto lens. So the 135 wins in that regard or the A-mount does in that regard. Either way, though, both of those are phenomenal lenses, and I got great images with both.
Some might prefer the look of the 135, some might prefer the look of the 85. Both of them looked fantastic. Alright the 200mm lighthouse test. The E-mount 70-200 G Master beat the A-mount 70-200 G mark II for acuity at nearly every aperture when I was looking at a 100% crop in my test. They started getting kind of similar once I was at f8 and up. For AF performance; While the percentage of shots in focus at 200mm were similar between the systems, and that did surprise me, you're going to get way more shots in focus with the a99II simply because it takes more pictures per second.
The a99II took more than twice the number of pictures than the a7rII did in that same time period. Something like that would be very valuable to a sports or a wedding photographer. Alright, so before I show my five favorite images from all of today's shooting - Just so you know, I'm uploading nearly all of my images from today's testing to my website. Link is down below in the description check that out. I also want to thank Kristie for helping me test out the 70-200 lens, and shooting with all those lenses. It was a cold day, and a rapid fire shoot.
And she was just a total pro the entire time. So thanks to Kristie! Alright now finally, this is the A-mount versus E-mount video, right? So, who won? Alright. If extreme sharpness for pixel peeping or heavy cropping is critical for you, E-mount may give you and advantage there. Landscape shooters might gravitate towards the a7rII. If you're a sports, action, or a wedding photographer you're going to appreciate being able to pump out 12 frames of 42mp images per second. And A-mount is the only camera [system] that offers serious telephoto options right now. You'll also probably appreciate having those two card slots. The AF sytem on the a99II does not disappoint. Based on these tests, and my other experience I consider the a99II a bit more reliable for autofocus. But the a7rII kept up considering it doesn't have a dedicated autofocus sensor.
For video, though, E-mount wins. Because Sony locks your aperture and forces an auto shutter speed for A-mount cameras including the a99 mark II. You're just going to have more control with E-mount. I've also had the a99II overheat on me when I was recording 4k video for 30 minutes and longer. Something the a7rII suffered from as well when it was released. But the a99II does offer impressive 4k and 1080p video recording options. And I've got minimal hesitation using the a99II to record my vlogs. So since I'm a cityscape shooter you might wonder why I don't use the E-mount more, since it's a little bit sharper. For me it comes down to having dual card slots, a higher frame [rate] per second, and a little bit better autofocus reliability for my environmental portraits and my tough lighting situations. And I prefer the feel of the a99II a little bit more as well.
And as a landscape or cityscape shooter and a vlogger I also greatly appreciate having that more fully articulated screen. The a7rII screen just feels kind of limiting with what you can do with the a99. And although acuity isn't as good with the wide angle A-mount lenses, I do love the rendering of that old-school Minolta glass. E-mount cameras do have access to a lot of glass on a lot of other mounts including the Sony A-mount.
Alright, so I could keep nitpicking here. But the bottom line is that these are both phenomenal cameras. I hope at least some of my experience provides some help if you're going through this yourself right now. If there is something I did not cover, or if you have a question please leave a comment down below. Thanks for watching. I'm going to stop talking, And finally show you my five favorite shots from all the shots I've taken today. [music].
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