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The Sony A7S III is the first camera to use two UHS-II SD card slots that also accept the brand new, even more compact CFexpress Type A cards. But if you use very fast V90 SDXC cards, these are fast enough for the majority of codecs. And they are a lot cheaper, as CFexpress Type A cards are only available from Sony at the moment. But if you want to use 4K All-Intra codecs, and some S&Q settings, it’s best to invest in a pair of CFexpress Type A cards and the matching card reader. Even though it’s £400/$400 for a 160GB card and another £130/$120 for the reader. As well as having no worries about codecs, an added benefit of the cards and matching reader mean it’s fast for offloading footage. CARDS ONLY, PLEASE “V90 SDXC cards are fast enough for themajority of codecs”
ABOVE The A7S III takes two cards, either CFexpress Type A or SD. Or you can use one of each, as we have here
STILL A VERY GOOD CAMERA
and also a short blackout period when using fast frame rates. For most mirrorless cameras, this is fine for slower-paced shooting, but a nightmare for trying to keep up with fast action, such as motorcycles. The 20fps Sony A9 and A9 II are the only mirrorless cameras to truly combat this, with totally uninterrupted live view. There is no lag and no blackout. To get the A7S III to offer working continuous AF in full live view and without any interruption, you have to drop the maximum frame rate from 10fps to 8fps. So, it’s still pretty quick, – fast enough to make it useful as an action camera, especially allied to the clever AF system. But it’s no match for an A9 camera that has a stacked sensor to allow this functionality. The A7S III is absolutely a first-class camera designed for video first, with stills capability that is more than enough for many hybrid shooters.
Of course, the Sony A7S III is designed predominantly for video, but hybrid shooters will find it more useful than just a camera that can rattle off the odd BTS shot or picture for a YouTube thumbnail. It’s a 12.1-megapixel full-frame camera, uncompressed Raw files at 10fps for up to 1000 shots. That’s spec to shame many pro sports DSLRs of recent times. But it’s obviously not ideal for pixel-peeping stills snappers who want to do big enlargements or lots of cropping. This posed an interesting conundrum for me. I’ve used a Sony A9 since its launch as I shoot stills content alongside video work. So, I was keen to see whether the A7S III could replace it for video and stills. great for low-light shooting, that can shoot compressed or The big deal with any mirrorless camera used for high-speed stills is the lag between what your eye sees in the electronic viewfinder
ABOVE As well as shooting video of a motocross race, we also shot thousands of stills. The AF is very fast and the image quality is excellent
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