GEAR SONY A7S III
MIRRORLESS MARVEL
Yes, the A7S III really is here and has a spec to satisfy most independent filmmakers SONY’S 4K DREAMMACHINE
WORDS ADAM DUCKWORTH
A fter a five-year wait, the would never actually be launched, as Sony went on its regular upgrade path with all the other models in the Alpha 7 series, but blatantly ignored the S model. While the video-centric A7S stayed with the Mark II version from its launch in September 2015, the rest of the series went on the upgrade path fromMark III to Mark IV, each iteration bringing better ergonomics, battery life, video spec and speed. By comparison, the A7S II looks successor to the popular Sony A7S II is finally here. It’s a camera many believed very old school with its tiny battery that dies very quickly, 30fps max frame rate in 4K, cropped high- speed HD, old-school contrast- detect AF and overcomplicated menu. The basic A7 III outperforms it in terms of video in pretty much every single area, and certainly in handling and AF. It seemed like the A7S line was destined to die. But all of a sudden there is a new A7S IIII, and with spec that has delighted and disappointed in equal measures. Let’s start with the disappointment. While other rivals are now boasting 6K and even 8K video, with internally-recorded Raw files, the Sony still only has 4K as its maximum and no internal Raw. And the resolution of 12.1 megapixels has not changed since the first HD-only A7S of early 2015. If you demand 6K or 8K, or big stills files to crop from, the A7S IIII isn’t for you. For real-world filmmakers, the spec is hugely exciting. There are lots of stunning figures, but the most outstanding are that it shoots 4K at 60p full-frame with no crop, recorded internally, in 10-bit 4:2:2
“The A7S III shoots 4K at 60p full-frame with no crop, recorded internally, in 10-bit 4:2:2”
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