 Hello friends, Brandon here with my first ever camera review, the a7S Mark II. Like the original, this camera has had many in the video community talking, but does it stack up to the current camera market? Before I go any further, this camera has stills features, but I will be tackling this review from a video perspective. The original a7S hit the market along with the GH4 about a year ago. The a7S stole the hearts of many shooters with its unbelievable ability to nearly see in the dark. The Mark II looks to add some functionality while maintaining what everyone loved about the Mark I. The body of the camera is very similar to the original design, with only a slightly larger side grip and a few more buttons. The record button is unfortunately still on the far right of the camera above the SD card door and is as awkward to press as ever. You can however remap it to almost any other button on the camera so it becomes much less of an issue. In the box, notably you get two batteries, which is nice since the a7S chews through power, lasting about two to three hours of shooting per battery. Going a step further, Sony has again included the ability to power the camera off of a USB battery bank, as long as you have a battery in the camera. A feature I will definitely be taking advantage of during long shoot days at events like CES. The display on the a7S II composes of a 1.2 million dot 3 inch screen and a 2.3 million dot electronic viewfinder. The 3 inch display is reasonably bright but with a couple of issues. First off, the mechanism for how the monitor articulates, which Sony has still not changed since they got into the mirrorless camera market, is not incredibly useful. It simply tilts up or down and has very insignificant travel. I found it particularly annoying when using it on our tripod at its highest height, making it very difficult for someone at my height to see the shot easily. Coming off of a year of shooting with the GH4, which has many more position options for its display, this took some adjusting on my part. The EVF on the a7S II is very solid and using it as another point of contact when shooting handheld with this camera is great. Until we get into the biggest issue with both displays on the a7S II. Focus. The punch in to check focus and peaking on the a7S II are the worst I've ever used on any camera, especially of this caliber. It is incredibly soft punch all the way in and gives very little confidence for critical focus, particularly when you're in fast moving situations. The peaking is passable but isn't particularly useful on such a small display even on the lowest setting. If you are the type of person who often shoots events or fast-paced documentary work, I would recommend a small and light monitor to add to your rig to combat this issue. Let's get into the a7S II's improved autofocus system. I tested it while walking around the office and the results are disappointing. The autofocus seems to be a bit slow to react and with the lens I tested, Sony's 16-35mm f4, there was weird micro jitter that renders the shot unusable. It's possible the performance issue is due to the lens, however, that does not give me very much confidence to trust the autofocus system in most situations. But your mileage may vary. So what makes this camera so special? DAT sensor. The a7S II sports an effective 12.2 megapixel full-frame sensor that has stolen the title of low-light king from every other camera on the market. So to see proof for myself, I went down to Vancouver's Olympic Village to test out the low light. Here's a shot of some large steps near the area with what my eyes could see. Now here's what I could see with the camera. What sorcery is this? Here's another example of what my eyes can see and what the camera can see. Now you might be thinking, that's great, I'll never have to use lights for videos again. This camera can basically see in the dark. Let me stop you right there. The point of having the ability to use such high ISOs on a camera like this is not simply to crank your ISO to get the exposure for your shot, but to really take advantage of the control you have over your depth of field. You no longer have to expose your shots at f1.4 with a razor thin depth of field for night shots. To me, that is the most powerful part of the low light ability of this camera. You can really think about how shallow or deep you want your focus, and for those of you working in narrative, your focus puller will thank you. The second party trick this camera has is Sony's new in-sensor five-axis stabilization, which again I tested on a Swagway, and I was really surprised with the results. This shot feels to me like it might have been done on a three-axis gimbal, but it was simply me holding the camera while riding forward. For comparison, here's a very similar shot with the stabilization off. This feature is a great addition, but again to truly take advantage of it, you really need to have E-mount lenses. Arguably the most wanted improvement over the Mark 1 is internal 4K, which this camera can do at 30fps and 24fps in the XAVC-S codec at either 100 or 60 megabits per second. This is a very welcomed addition, since it will give you a bit more wiggle room when reframing shots in post. Comparing it to the 1080p, honestly the difference, especially when downscaling the 4K to 1080p, is relatively minor. You can however see the difference when zoomed in all the way at 400%. The last of the recording modes is Sony's two flavors of slow motion. You have the option of 120fps at 100 or 60 megabits per second, which will need to be conformed to your desired frame rate in post. The admittedly more consumer friendly option is to have the footage slowed down for you in camera, however I do not recommend this for pro use since the footage is fairly noisy and soft. So in conclusion, the A7S Mark II is basically everything you could ask for in a small form factor camera. If you can work around the relatively minor issues that I mentioned before, as well as other little things like not being able to control monitor brightness while shooting 4K, and not being able to custom white balance while in manual exposure, really Sony? You'll be looking at one of the best small form factor cameras on the market, and going forward this will be the main camera I use to do B-roll for all of our videos, as I have been since the camera arrived. 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