According to the product listings from multiple retailers, the Sony Alpha 7R II has finally been discontinued after six years of production even though it had been technically replaced by both the Alpha 7R III and Alpha 7R IV in recent years.
As noticed by Sony Addict, the camera is now listed as no longer available by, for example, Adorama:
The camera is listed as an active product on Sony’s official website, however, though stock is limited. It is possible that, as was the case with the Alpha 9, dealers have marked the camera as no longer available or discontinued because they are no longer able to purchase additional inventory. If this is the case, any remaining stock of the camera will be the last available as new models.
The Sony Alpha 7R Mark II, which was known as the a7R II at the time before Sony quietly altered its naming conventions in the last year, was originally launched on June 10, 2015. It was the world’s first backside-illuminated 35mm full-frame sensor and was also capable of shooting 4K video.
The company touted that the camera had 399 phase-detection and 25 contrast-detection autofocus points that resulted in up to 40% faster autofocus performance. The updates to the autofocus algorithm made the camera capable of following action and keeping it sharp much better than the original a7R, and while it struggled with processing those high-resolution images without collapsing under the weight of the data and it still had battery life issues, it was still the best camera Sony had ever made.
While Sony would continue to manufacture and sell the Alpha 7R II for six more years, the company would also launch its successor and that camera’s successor in that time.
The Alpha 7R III was announced in 2017 and improved on the formula yet again, this time making long-standing complaints in mirrorless about battery life, processor performance, and autofocus speed completely irrelevant as the camera continues to be one of the better options a photographer can purchase even four years later.
In July of 2019, Sony announced the Alpha 7R IV, the world’s first 61-megapixel full-frame camera that again took everything that the previous model did well and made it even better.
Despite those improvements, it was argued that even though it had been superseded by a newer version, the Alpha 7R III was still the smarter buy. 61-megapixels is a lot, and few photographers need that kind of resolution.
While Sony has a history of maintaining the availability of older camera models at a lower price than new options for years after a replacement has been announced, its relative age and the ongoing parts shortage may have been responsible for Sony finally waving goodbye to the Alpha 7R II. In early August, Sony also discontinued the original Alpha 9.
Should Sony provide more information about the Alpha 7R II, PetaPixel will update this article accordingly.
Author: Jaron Schneider
Source: Petapixel
