Sony A7III 24MP Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera Review

With Sony as a pioneer in the professional mirrorless camera market, their popular A-series line-up has expanded for consumers who want a camera that delivers speed like the Sony A9, or a camera that can produce sharp resolutions like the Sony A7RIII and the Sony A7R IV cameras, there is a still a huge demand for professional cameras that are affordable and can deliver stellar images. We talk about the Sony A7iii, one of the best affordable all-rounder mirrorless full-frame cameras you can buy today from Sony.

Design

Sony hasn’t done any serious changes with respect to the design for its A7 series of camera and the Sony A7iii is quite similar to the previous models. However, the camera body weighs about 650g with battery included. From the top view, the Sony A7III features the model dial on the right side with functions for Shutter, Aperture, Programmable, Manual, Auto, Scene, Video mode, slow motion and more. There is the exposure mode dial on the right side.

On the backside lies the joystick to change the focus modes or to go through the menu. There are three customizable buttons in which C1 and C2 are located on the top side of the camera and the C3 on the rear left side.  There is a tiltable touchscreen monitor that is 3-inch in size and features 921,600 dots of resolution. The display can be tilted about 107 degrees and photographers can touch to focus on subjects while shooting images or capturing videos.

You also have the usual dial and other buttons for playback, delete timer, burst mode and more. The handgrip has improved and on the right side lies the dual slots for memory cards. These slots offer support for UHS-II SD cards with blazing write speeds. The write speeds are beneficial while shooting continuous bursts or recording 4K videos at a high bit rate.

On the left side, you will see the audio jack, USB Type-C, micro HDMI and micro USB terminal connectors.

Specs and Image Quality

The Sony A7iii has been praised by many for its exceptional image and low light capability, thanks to the 24MP Exmor BSI full-frame image sensor of the camera. While the A7III is the lowest of the lot, the camera boasts some impressive low-light performances. And Sony has aggressively priced the camera for those who want a full-frame camera without spending a lot. While this camera is no Sony A9 when it comes to speedy continuous burst shots, the A7iii still is very capable at 10fps along with a buffer that can hold a lot of JPEG or RAW images. Combined with its 5-axis image stabilization, you can be assured that the camera is capable of blur-free shots and less shaky video captures and this is more useful when using full-frame lenses without any form of built-in image stabilization.

But the 5-axis isn’t the only technology that is there for the perfect shot as Sony has included its advanced autofocus system featuring 693 points of phase-detection for instant focusing and 425 contrast-detection points for better accuracy. It basically almost covers 93% of the sensor area ensuring that you get fast autofocus with the best clarity on both images and video capture.

Sony already has the nifty Eye-AF feature that is just one of the best in the industry when it comes to a human subject/ The company recently rolled out software updates for its latest Sony mirrorless cameras, including the Sony A7iii for the addition of the impressive Animal-eye AF- something that all pet-lovers and wildlife shooters will take advantage. The Sony A7iii can handle ISO for still images ranging from 100- 51200 and still can go in extended mode from 50-204800. The camera allows certain modes that’s optimized for the situation such as the Scene mode that covers Portrait, Sports, Macro, Landscape, Sunset, Night Scene, Night Portrait and so on. You can record clear and crisp 4K videos at 30fps and Full HD videos at 120fps or 60fps modes. Videographers can take advantage of the video recording HDR movie production features such as the S-Log 3 for fine-tuning the content.

We had reviewed the Sony A7iii and shot some images and tried video captures with the Sony 16-35 FE GM lens. As expected, images for both day and night had an amazing IQ for a camera that is priced as low as 6000 AED. While you maybe are missing on the speed or resolution from other models such as the Sony A9ii and Sony A7RIV, you still get amazing images from this device.

Battery and other features

And when it comes to battery life, the Sony A7iii features the NP-FZ100 that can go on for shooting almost 710 images (of course depending on the shooting settings). Users will be able to charge the battery via the USB Type-C port of the camera. For those who want to control the camera remotely, Sony has the Imaging Edge application that transforms any NFC-enabled smartphone or tablet into a viewfinder and remote control. Users will be able to pair the camera with their device by using NFC or by simply scanning a barcode.

Verdict

When it comes to professional mirrorless cameras, there is no doubt that Sony makes some amazing models that actually suit every type of user out there. The fact that the Sony A7iii is not only affordable but also features amazing performance for the price is nothing short of impressive. You’re getting a camera that features an impressive 24MP BSI full-frame sensor with outstanding image and video quality, even on low-light situations.

It’s to say that big company such as Sony has a camera that delivers great images with a full-frame sensor for those who doesn’t want to shell out a lot of cameras that cost twice or trice as much. We are eager to see what Sony has in store for us when the Sony A7 IV comes out soon.