Sony A99 II Image Quality

The 42-megapixel Sony A99 II's resolution advantage over its 24-megapixel predecessor's is easy to see here, as elements in the A99 II image appear larger as well as much more detailed. We do however see more aliasing artifacts from the A99 II such as the much stronger moiré patterns in the red-leaf swatch and elsewhere, though that's no surprise since unlike the A99, the Mark II doesn't have an optical low-pass filter. Also notice that the A99 Mark II's superior sharpening algorithm produces less visible sharpening halos around high-contrast elements than the older camera. The A99 II's image is also much crisper as well as more detailed.

The Sony A99 II and A7R II share similar if not identical sensors, so we wanted to see how they compare in terms of image quality. As expected, image quality is very similar between the two siblings, however the A99 II image is a little crisper at base ISO. We used very sharp prime lenses at f/8 for both cameras (the A-mount Zeiss 85mm f/1.4 for the A99 II and the E-mount Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 for the A7R II) which should perform similarly at f/8, yet the A99 II image appears sharper with slightly better contrast. This is mostly due to differences in processing , though, as unsharpened raw files show little difference.

With a resolution of about 50 megapixels, the Canon 5DS R is the only camera in this comparison to best the Sony A99 II in terms of sensor resolution. And as you'd expect, at base sensitivity the Canon DSLR does indeed resolve a bit more detail than the Sony SLT although contrast is higher from the A99 II. In other respects, the pair show only relatively minor differences. (Note that the Canon was shot with its Fine Detail Picture Style enabled which does a better job at sharpening without producing unsightly halos than its default Picture Style.) Canon has slightly more accurate color though, which coupled with its higher resolution gives it the edge at base sensitivity except in our tricky red-leaf fabric where the Sony retains better detail and contrast.

Placed head to head against the 36-megapixel Nikon D810, the Sony A99 II once again has a noticeable resolution advantage while producing far less obvious sharpening halos. It also handles the difficult red-leaf fabric swatch a bit better than does the D810, which also shows stronger moiré patterns.

The 42-megapixel Sony A99 II is able to capture more detail than the 36-megapixel Pentax K-1 here at base ISO, while at the same time producing fewer sharpening artifacts, lower noise, higher contrast, and more accurate color in the pink fabric. Both show some aliasing artifacts here because of their OLPF-less sensors, but the Pentax has its unique AA-filter Simulator turned off here for maximum sharpness, while the Sony doesn't offer that feature.

Here at ISO 1600, we continue to see the A99 II our-resolve the A99 while also producing less visible noise, better contrast in most areas, and much crisper detail. The A99 does produce slightly better contrast in our tricky red-leaf swatch, however it appears quite soft and blurry in comparison, while the A99 II still manages to resolve some of the fine thread pattern and generate obvious moiré patterns.

Again, very similar image quality here between the two siblings, however the A99 II does better at preserving fine detail in our troublesome red-leaf swatch. This is due to differences in default noise reduction though, as the A7R II's lowest High ISO Noise Reduction setting shows a rendering that is much closer to the A99 II's in the red-leaf fabric, however, as expected it shows much higher noise than the A99 II in flatter areas.

At ISO 1600, the Canon 5DS R still has a slight resolution edge over the Sony A99 II. Its less-aggressive noise reduction doubtless helps out here, but the other side of the coin is that the Canon's image looks noisier with lower contrast while at the same time blurring our red-leaf swatch more than the Sony. Which treatment is better likely depends on your personal tastes and workflow needs, but we're going to give the Sony A99 II the edge here except in terms of color.

Moving on to the Nikon, the D810 shows similar noise levels to the higher-res A99 II, but its noise "grain" is more natural-looking and film-like than the Sony's. There's much more detail in the Sony A99 II's crops, though, and it also better holds onto contrast in the difficult red-leaf swatch.

The Sony A99 II continues to capture more detail than the K-1 here at ISO 1600, with lower noise levels, better contrast and better color as well. The Sony also does much better in our tricky red-leaf fabric while the Pentax smears a lot of detail away.

Once again, the newer Sony A99 II easily out-performs the A99 here at ISO 3200 in term of image quality, with a much crisper, more detailed image, though luminance noise levels appear to be similar if not a bit higher from the newer model.

The A99 II continues to produce a slightly crisper image than the A7R II along with much stronger moiré patterns in the red-leaf fabric, but image quality is otherwise very similar.

The higher-res Canon 5DS R turns in a rather noisier bottle crop than that of the Sony A99 II, but that noise has a more film-like grain that's a bit more natural looking. However, the Canon's resolution advantage has all but vanished here at ISO 3200, and the Sony continues to do better in terms of contrast as well as fine detail in our troublesome red-leaf swatch.

At ISO 3200, these two rivals produce similar noise levels however the Nikon's noise grain continues to be more film-like, but the Sony A99 II's mosaic and fabric swatch crops are crisper with more detail and better contrast than those from the Nikon.

Again, the higher-resolution Sony A99 II continues to capture significantly more detail here at ISO 3200, while producing a crisper image with more accurate colors and lower noise, however noise reduction artifacts are more visible making its noise "grain" look less like film than the K-1's. The Sony does much better in the red-leaf and pink fabrics.