SONY A7 TESTS
“Such good AF that can be used reliably inmany siutations” really does offer quality that’s not far off the lower-endmedium-format cameras, especially if you team it up with Sony’s pricey GMaster series of high-end lenses. Changes to the in-camera processingmean the quality has been improved with an increase in dynamic range and lower noise. The colours are punchy but not excessively so and the JPEGs aremuch better. But it’s not night- and-day difference. That’s not a bad thing, as the older camera remains truly stunning and the new version improves on that. The A7 III is equally as impressive, although obviously at a lower resolution. The sweet spot of resolution versus noise for still cameras seems to have settled at around 24megapixels –where the A7 III is. It’s great at high-ISO shooting, with very little noise. The A7 III has the slight edge in dynamic range, but it’s very
is the ‘basic’ A7model, but one that shares verymany things with the A7R III including the body design borrowed from the A9, as well as being significantly cheaper. It seems reasonable a video-centric A7S III may join the duo at some point, but until then, theseMark III versions canmakemore sense for shooting video than an A7S II due to the newer tech, speed and usability. In terms of sensors, the R version is the same 42-megapixel unit of the old A7R II, but is now capable of muchmore thanks to improvements to in-camera processing that also apply to the A7 III. The stills frame rate is upped to 10fps, and the R can
record up to 76 compressed Raw files in a continuous burst, while the lower-megapixel version is capable of shooting 89. For the ultimate in stills quality, the R version has pixel shift multi shooting that combines four separate shots froma tripod-mounted camera to give the equivalent of a 169.6-megapixel sensor. This really does improve fine detail and gets rid of nastymoiré, but you have to use Sony’s own software if you want to combine the shots. There was never any doubting the quality of the still images from the backside-illuminated sensors fitted to the Sony. The A7R III
ABOVE It may be the ‘basic’ model, but the A7 III is a real contender, hitting the sweet spot of resolution versus noise.
91
SUMMER 2018 PRO MOVIEMAKER
Powered by FlippingBook