360Photography

The Sony a7 III is a 24MP full frame mirrorless camera with a BSI CMOS sensor. It’s the third generation of Sony’s entry-level full frame camera but it comes with a significant number of the features and improvements introduced with the pro sports a9 model.

On paper, at least, the specifications look like an impressive all-rounder, with very little in the way of corner-cutting to keep the camera down to a certain price or capabilities omitted to avoid cannibalizing the sales of more expensive models.

Key Features:

• 24MP full frame BSI CMOS sensor
• 93% AF coverage (693 phase detection points, 425 for contrast detection)
• Oversampled 4K/24p video taken from full width 6K (cropped-in 5K for 30p)
• In-body image stabilization
• 10 fps continuous shooting
• 2.36m dot OLED viewfinder
• AF joystick
• Touchscreen
• Larger, ‘Z-type’ battery
• Dual SD card slots
• USB 3.1 Type C

Stills

The move to a BSI CMOS sensor, combined with the adoption of the latest technologies, such as dual gain design promises improved low light performance, compared with the somewhat under-performing chips in the previous models.

The Eye AF function, which finds and focuses on eyes within the scene makes extremely simple to shoot in-focus portraits.

Video

The a7 series is the last in Sony’s lineup to receive 4K video capture, but gets one of the best implementations, as a result. It can read the full width of its sensor (roughly 6000 x 3375 pixels) then process and downsample the footage, resulting in higher detail levels than would be possible shooting with a 3840 x 2160 pixel sensor. This

Beyond this, the a7 III has all the other video support tools and features Sony tends to include: focus peaking to aid manual focus, zebra warnings to help guide exposure and the ability to display a corrected preview when shooting Log footage.

Ergonomics

The a7 III gains the same body as the a7R III, giving it a more substantial grip and an autofocus joystick on the rear plate. There’s also an extra custom button on the left rear shoulder. By default this acts as a ‘Protect’ button for ensuring your favorite images don’t get deleted but there’s also the option to assign it to rate images, with a menu option to select how many rating steps are used.

As with the other recent Sonys, you can assign different functions to each custom button for stills and playback (and video?)

There’s also a touchscreen, primarily used for setting the AF point, either as a touchpad, when the camera is to your eye, or for direct selection when it isn’t.

Compared to its peers:

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)