Astrophotographer 10

Senior Member
Posts: 6,570
Re: First Move to FF: Sony A7II or Nikon D750.....Thoughts?
In reply to Euell
Feb 23, 2015
6
I see this thread deteriorated quickly into bashing each other.
But the original question is interesting. Arguably the D750 is the best Nikon ca
mera at the moment (D810 may be considered up there also). But D750 would probab
ly appeal to many like the A7ii does.
So its a very topical question.
Nikon does have a mature lens lineup. I had a D800e not so long ago. I loved it.
But I found once I got a Fuji XE1 I pretty much stopped using it because of its
size and weight with a good lens.
Sony native E mount lenses are grwoing with some nice lenses now available that
would satisfy most users with those with specialised lens requirements having to
wait longer.
I am assuming here the D750 is somewhat similar to the D800e so keep that in min
d:
Nikon D750 versus A7ii (I have an A7r by the way).
1. Manual focus - Sony by a mile. Nikon uses this antiquated green dot shows in
the display when its in focus. - Dinosaur and hard to use. Sony has advanced foc
us peaking which means you can focus super fast manually. This ability to manua
lly focus so well plus IBIS means your legacy lenses are brought back to life mo
re than with a Nikon. Nikon has the broader native lenses and other manufacturer
s lenses though.
2. EVF - obviously Sony has a superb EVF which gives you preview of the actual i
mage in real time as you adjust parameters. That means way less chimping as you
would do with a Nikon.
3. Size - now this is personal - some like the heft of a DSLR some hate the weig
ht - you decide which is you.
4. IQ - I am now comparing A7r to D800e and am assuming this carries over to A7
rii and D750.
My D800e seemed good when I used it. But compared to both Fuji and Sony I realis
ed the Nikon white balance engine was a bit crap. I found both Sony and Fuji gav
e me accurate white balance virtually every time and that sometimes the Nikon fa
iled and gave a tint.
5. RAW. - Sony uses a compressed RAW and Nikon offers both - win for Nikon. How
ever the Sony file sizes are quite small even for 36mp which many complain about
with the D810.
6. AF speed - Win for Nikon but I don't find my A7r bad at all and is useable at
least for me in most scenes.
7. General quickness of getting a good shot - Here I find the Sony has better au
to options that nail the image every. I foten use auto on my A7r and it gets the
shot everytime. There's even an intelligent auto. Nikon has an auto as well but
its not as intelligent and fails a bit - backlit subjects etc. I found with my

D800e I would miss shots often because I got caught up in trying to adjust so ma
ny things on the camera to get it ready. The Sony is by far more the quick pick
up and take a shot camera. That was important to me as I got sick of "camera men
u fiddle". The D800 is a very complex camera with in my opinion too many knobs a
nd dials to adjust. I suppose it caters to pros as well who want all that but I
think you'd really have to know your camera to attempt something like a wedding
with it.
8. Video - huge win for Sony. Sony cameras in general are way better for video.
My video on the D800e was a joke - moire, out of focus - AF did not work well a
t all, horrible. A7r - superb. A7ii is even better.
9. IBIS - easy win for Sony as Nikon does not offer it.
10. LCD - compared to D800e A7r LCD is way way better. The D800 had a green cast
to its LCD. I would check Nikon has fixed that for sure. There were a ton of co
mplaints about it.
11. AF - having to tune AF for a particular lens. Not needed with PDAF on the So
ny. Again Nikon had huge trouble with D800 and let side focus issues. Went on fo
r ages before they fixed it.
12. Quality Control - Nikon have had some serious QC issues in the last few mode
ls and in the case of the D600 hado to be threatened with a class action suit be
fore they handled. Extremely poorly done Nikon.
13. Price: Not sure here, I assume its similar.
14. Lenses: Nikon lenses are generally polycarbonate and have a somewhat cheap f
eel unless you get up to the $2000 plus range. A Nikon5 50 1.8G is a piece of pl
astic and whilst very sharp gives a harsh ugly digital rendering. Same with the
85mm F1.8G. Make your own decision but I found som Nikon lenses gave a poor rend
ering. I did love the 24-70 2.8 and I do love my 14-24 though. But again $2000 +
lenses.
15. ISO performance - much the same. The noise pattern between D800e and A7r was
different. A7r is a bit wormy and D800e was more a grain. I prefer the Nikon gr
ain pattern better but Sony has quite bit higher contrast. I think this may even
be a personal preference.
Sony ISO6400 is noticeably brighter than Nikon ISO6400 on D800e. SO Nikon may be
overstating their ISO somewhat.
16. Sony can take APPs Nikon cannot.
17. Iphone remote control - not sure the D750 can do that. Possible Sony win the
re.
I think that summarises it.
Key points for A7ii are smallness EVF, IBIS, better manual focus handling, bette
r for most legacy lenses, good native lenses so far but not a huge range yet.
Nikon - mature, lots of Nikon lenses, faster AF, larger size.
IQ of both should very close. Both use the same Sony sensor although I am not su
re if the D70 utilises the PDAF AF of the sensor.
Greg.
Astrophotographer 10's gear list:

Sony Alpha 7R II Sony FE 55mm F1.8 Zeiss Batis 25mm F2 Zeiss Batis 85mm F1.8 Zei
ss Loxia 21mm F2.8 +4 more