Sony has pulled the covers of its latest a7 series full-frame mirrorless camera – the a7III in Malaysia. The imaging leader humbly calls its newest entry the “basic model,” but let me tell you this, the a7III is anything but.
Here’s why. You’ll find the best features from the speed demon a9 and the amazing a7RIII, neatly packaged into a familiar form factor. And it’s priced right.
With the rising adoption of mirrorless cameras worldwide, the new Sony a7III is an important model for Sony in its prosumer a7 line-up. The great thing is that Sony did not skimp on the a7III’s feature set, considering higher up the food chain, other models cost considerably more.
So, let’s quickly look at what this new baby offers. First up, the guts of the camera: the sensor. The a7III uses a new 24.2MP BSI 35mm Full Frame sensor with a new image processor that promises up to a 1.5-stop improvement.
It offers 14 stops of video dynamic range and 15 stops for still, with an ISO range of 100-51200 (extended mode: 50-204800).
There are 693 Phase Detection AF points covering 93 percent of the sensor, backed by 425 Contrast Detection AF points. As a result, autofocus is fast and accurate AF. Sorry for the language. This AF system is borrowed from the a9 by the way and works all the way down at -3 stops.
It also has an amazing Eye AF which accurately tracks a subject’s eye and keeps the subject in focus. Great for portraiture.
To top it off, it has a five-stop, five-axis in-body image stabilisation (IBIS) system.
Like the a9 and a7RIII it does away with an anti-aliasing/optical low-pass filter.
It’s no a9, but it can still do 10fps continuous stills shooting with active AF/AE and also has a silent mode (like the a9).
In terms of video, it can shoot 4K HDR oversample from 6K, at up to 30fps in S-Log2 and S-Log3; and 1080p up to 120fps at 100Mbps.
The a7III has a familiar weather-sealed body with a similar button layout with the a7RIII. The touchscreen LCD sports 921K dot resolution. It’s no match when compared to the a7RIII’s but it isn’t shabby, either.
Meanwhile, the EVF is a super bright 2.36 million dot XGA Tru-Finder OLED with 100 percent coverage.
In terms of ports and expansion, the a7III offers dual SD card slots (only one high-speed UHS-II), USB-C port, 3.5mm headphone jack, 3.5mm mic jack, HDMI D (micro), USB 2.0 micro-B, USB 3.0.
It also rocks Wi-Fi and NFC, and a big improvement comes in the form of the new NP-FZ100 rechargeable lithium-ion battery rated at 2,280mAh, good for up to 710 still shots via screen (610 with EVF) on a single charge.
Initial impressions
There’s no other way to put this. The a7III is a rock solid package. If you don’t need the big resolution of the a7RIII or the ultimate speed of the a9, the a7III sits nicely in between, without breaking the bank (comparatively speaking). It’s a great all-rounder, and the perfect entry into the a7 full-frame series.
Pricing and availability
The a7III is priced at MYR8,999 (body only) and will be available this month at Sony authorised retailers and resellers nationwide. There’s an option to get one with the new SEL2870 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens, and that goes for MYR9,999.
Hit the link below to check out sample photos from the a7III.
[nextpage title=”Sample photos”]Photos have been lightly tweaked for brightness and contrast, and watermarked. Several have been converted to monochrome.
