

Having AF points which cover 88%W and 100%H of the sensor area is truly liberating – the Canon Dual Pixel CMOS AF system tracks your subject with ease, making it excellent for capturing fast-moving action -the only down side is only having 4fps. With its 26 megapixel Full Frame CMOS sensor and up to 4779 selectable AF point positions, the Canon EOS RP wipes the floor with any other full frame camera body in this price bracket. We look forward to Canon plan releasing more ‘appropriate’ lenses later this year. It uses the new RF mount, allowing it to use the new full-frame mirrorless RF lenses… but unfortunately, there are only a few to choose from.Ĭanon RF lenses tend to be big and heavy, so having a lightweight/small camera body like the RP is a bit of a double-edged sword. (I’ve linked to a refurbished model in an attempt to save you some more money – if you want a brand new one, here’s the best option.)Īt just 485g, the EOS RP is the most lightweight and compact Canon mirrorless camera, making it perfect to take travelling.

Hovering around the $1,000 mark, it’s not the cheapest full frame in the list, but for all it offers, you should definitely consider it. Released in 2019, the EOS RP Canon mirrorless full frame camera is the newest addition to this guide, and great value for money. Purchasing the RP is only half the battle – adding in some lenses could really blow your budget!Ĭlick the button above to see the latest price of the a7 ii, which even includes a decent zoom lens! It really is amazing value for money. Since this article is all about saving money, we have to recommend the Sony a7 ii over the RP for this reason. Sony on the other hand offer so many great lenses, several of which are small, light and affordable, and the perfect match for the a7 ii. Sure, you can adapt Canon EF-mount lenses, but it’d be nice to have more native mirrorless lenses available. However, and this is a big one – the only mirrorless Canon lenses currently available are big and expensive, and totally unsuited to a budget body like the RP. The Sony is much cheaper, but the Canon offers more features, a newer sensor, more AF points, better colours/skin tones and better ergonomics. So, how do you decide between the Sony a7 ii and the Canon EOS RP? Both can definitely be labelled ‘affordable full frame cameras’… The a7 ii allows you to pull back about a stop of detail, but that’s about it. Highlight recovery is always more difficult, even for more expensive cameras. You can recover shadow detail from up to 4 stops, without seeing too much file degradation. You can also adapt most other brand lenses to use on the a7 ii, allowing you to take advantage of focus peaking even with vintage lenses which don’t support AF.ĭynamic range performance on the a7 ii is very good, and typical of Sony full frame sensors.

SMALL FULL FRAME CAMERA ISO
(If you need better high ISO performance and have a larger budget, the Sony a7 iii is an excellent choice.) This allows you to shoot at larger apertures even in bright sunshine, meaning you can take advantage of more bokeh and subject separation. The Sony a7 ii can shoot natively at ISO50. Sony a7 ii + Leica 50mm Summilux F/1.4 ASPH | © Jay Cassario In Fast Hybrid AF mode, the a7 ii uses its 117 phase and 25 contrast-detection points to lock onto a subject and never let go – it’s actually the same hybrid system found on the more expensive Sony A7R and A7S mirrorless cameras.ĥfps continuous burst shooting may not sound like much here in 2022, but it allows you to capture enough action, with every shot in sharp focus.

Sony is well-known for its class-leading auto-focus performance, and this holds true on the Sony a7ii, despite its age. What this means in practice is that video shooters don’t need to rely on camera stabilizers when trying to capture footage in slower shutter speeds, and photographers needn’t rely on higher ISOs to capture stills – if you’ve got a steady hand, you can shoot as slow as 1/2 sec and get a sharp shot! The headline image-stabilisation feature brings compensation equivalent to using a 4.5-stop faster shutter speed. The a7 ii is a much more capable camera.) (You can probably find refurbished or second-hand versions of the original Sony a7, but we’d advise against it. Since then, several new Sony alpha camera models have stolen the headlines, but the truth is – the a7 ii is still an excellent camera, and it’s our choice as the number one option of ‘cheapest full-frame camera’. The Sony a7 ii made headlines back in 2014 as being the first mirrorless full frame sensor camera with 5-axis in-body image stabilisation.
