[1][2] It was publicly announced on September 11, 2015 (2015-09-11) at a press conference held at the IBC 2015 exhibition in Amsterdam and was released in October 2015 (2015-10) with a suggested retail price of US$3,000 (body only) at the time.

The α7S II features a 35mm (35.6 x 23.8 mm) full-frame Exmor CMOS sensor capable of capturing approximately 12.2 effective megapixels.

For still images or movies on auto setting, the camera's ISO is 100–12800 with selectable lower and upper limits.

[9] In order to mitigate the temperature extremes of outer space, the camera mount is equipped with a heater and radiator.

[10][11] JAXA selected the Sony FE PZ 28-135mm F4 G OSS lens to capture images and record video for the purpose of this assignment.