Sony/Minolta

Sony Alpha A7r Mark II vs Canon EOS 5DSr RAW noise

Since image quality is what these cameras is all about, I'm skipping JPEG comparisons altogether on this page and jumping straight-in with a RAW comparison. I processed the RAW files from both cameras in Adobe Camera RAW using identical settings: Sharpening at 70 / 0.5 / 36 / 10, Luminance and Colour Noise Reduction both set to zero, and the Process to 2012 with the Adobe Standard profile, and the same interior white balance. Lens Profile Corrections were disabled here.

These settings were chosen to reveal the differences in sensor quality and isolate them from in-camera processing. The high degree of sharpening with a small radius enhances the finest details without causing undesirable artefacts, while the zero noise reduction unveils what's really going on behind the scenes - as such the visible noise levels at higher ISOs will be much greater than you're used to seeing in many comparisons, but again it's an approach that's designed to show the actual detail that's being recorded before you start work on processing and cleaning it up if desired.

Both cameras metered the same exposures, so what you're looking at below is directly comparable in every respect.

In the crops below the first thing you'll see is the slightly larger area captured by the Sony due to its slightly lower resolution. As seen on my previous outdoor resolution test, you'll also notice the Canon EOS 5DSr crops look a little more contrasty when files from both bodies are processed in ACR using the same settings.

Beyond this though, you'll have to really pixel-peep to see any differences. With noise reduction disabled and sharpness turned-up high in this test, there's inevitably a sprinkling of noise textures visible at low ISOs. It's clear from 400 ISO onwards, although with NR enabled and sharpness turned-down somewhat, as you would for normal processing, it doesn't present a problem for either body at this point.

But as explained above, I chose these aggressive settings to see what's going on behind the scenes, and if you look carefully the Canon EOS 5DSr is exhibiting slightly higher chroma noise than the Sony, along with what looks like a coarser grain. This becomes apparent around 3200 ISO and above and while both bodies are still recording similar degrees of real-life detail, you'd need to apply higher NR to the Canon files to achieve a similarly clean result.

Since higher NR comes at the cost of lost detail, this gives the Sony A7r II a small edge over the Canon, although it may not be as significant as many hoped and the extended range up to 102400 ISO inevitably becomes very noisy when viewed up-close.

While some pixel-peepers may see sufficient difference to justify a buying decision, I'd say both the EOS 5DSr and A7r Mark II are delivering very similar results in terms of real-life resolution and noise in my tests. The decision between them should therefore be much more about their design, handling and features along with their overall system.

I'm working on my final review as we speak, but in the meantime check out my Sony A7r Mark II sample images!