Sony A7R Mark III Preview – A9 features in the A7 series

The camera market is under pressure, but the more expensive segment is still competitive. Consider, for example, the Nikon D850, Canon 6D Mark II and 5D Mark IV, and the Sony A9. The Sony A7R III was announced on Wednesday , which builds on its predecessor, but at the same time does away with some characteristic drawbacks, such as the limited battery life. We were able to get started with the new A7R III for a while and thus got a first impression of the improvements. We also gained more insight into the direction Sony wants to take with the A7 series, which it increasingly promotes as the alternative to the full-frame SLRs from Canon, Nikon and Pentax.

Specifications

The biggest improvement in our opinion is the body, for which the A9 has set the new standard. The new battery is a relief, as is the double card slot, the cover of which is also much more pleasant. The joystick, the touchscreen and the off-on button are also welcome improvements that bring the A7 series closer to the level of DSLRs. It is also great that Sony has managed to cram these improvements into almost the original body, so without the camera becoming larger, which is the case with the A9. What we do regret is that the extra dial on the top left of the body of the A9, which includes the transport and autofocus mode, has not been adopted on the A7R III.

We cannot make a concrete judgment about the image quality in this preview. The time was of course too short for that and the photo opportunities at the location in question, Sony’s headquarters in London, was simply too limited. On paper, the improvements sound interesting, but basically it remains the same sensor as last time, but now with a faster Bionz X processor and the front-end LSI processor. As far as we are concerned, the biggest gain is in the 14-bit raw, which now also remains available in silent mode and at the maximum burst of 10fps. The new mechanical shutter, for which Sony claims a lifespan of 500,000 shots, sounds a bit duller and therefore quieter. The A7R III doesn’t have a stacked sensor, so the A9 remains faster. The dynamic range of the A7R II was already impressive, but the fifteen-stop claim sounds promising. That can make the A7R III an ideal all-round camera for concerts, weddings, landscapes, portraits and architecture, and now even sports.

Based on our experience with the A7R II, it certainly seemed like the autofocus has improved a bit, especially with tracking and with Eye AF, a feature that focuses on the eyes continuously. The speed was already not bad, but its predecessor was a bit less consistent in some situations. Especially in combination with a burst of 10fps, compared to the 5fps of the A7R II, that is a significant improvement. That enormous speed, unique for a camera with such a high resolution, also works with both the mechanical shutter and the silent electronic one, and therefore with 14-bit raw.

The buffer has also increased considerably and can now process 76 RAW photos in a row, instead of 23. Because one of the slots is now UHS-II compatible, the images can also be written a lot faster, so that you can shoot further. With the A7R II, the writing speed was extremely slow in practice: approximately 40MB/s. We have yet to extensively measure the speed of the A7R III, but it had little use for a burst of dozens of raw+jpegs and wrote them fairly smoothly to the UHS-II card. All in all, this has made the A7R III even more all-round, whereby it can also be used for action and sports photography.

Improved in-body stabilization

Just like the A7 II and A7S II, the A7R II is already equipped with five-axis in-body stabilization, or ‘ibis’ for short. While a profit of 4.5 stops was claimed for the A7R II, this has now increased to no less than 5.5 stops, just like with the Panasonic GH5 and Olympus E-M1 II. If true, you can shoot handheld at shutter speeds of several seconds, and it also contributes to smoother video footage, without the use of bulky and expensive gimbals. However, we did not immediately see this gain during our short test series, for example in comparison with our experience with the Panasonic GH5earlier this year. With that we could shoot out of hand with almost no problem at a second. With the A7R III, with a staged situation, where we used a low iso value and a small aperture, we were not able to do this yet. This is something to test more extensively later, preferably in the evening light.

Pixel shift: from 42 to 169 megapixels

The A7R III supports pixel shift, aka multishot, as do some Olympus and Pentax cameras. The stabilized sensor is used to take four photos in succession, with the sensor moving one pixel each time. In theory, this compensates for the negative effect of the Bayer filter. Because of that effect, the detail decreases and that is compensated by interpolation using the RGB filter: 2x green, 1x blue, 1x red. Combining the four images creates a raw photo of 169 monochrome megapixels.

In our opinion, there are quite a few snags to the technology and to the implementation by Sony. For example, there is at least half a second between each of the four shots, which makes it unsuitable for most situations. So it only works from a tripod and even then the overlap of small differences can lead to visible problems. Moreover, the raw result is converted back to a 42-megapixel photo, so there is no question of extra resolution, unlike what Olympus, for example, does with multishot. However, there is more sharpness and detail, and a slight decrease in noise, if we have to believe the sample photos from Sony. We can imagine it being useful for the interior design of historic buildings, but otherwise it seems to us to be of little use in practice. In addition, the files are so large that the camera cannot handle them itself. You need special Sony software for that and that costs you extra time afterwards outside your usual workflow. That software is not yet available, even a concrete demonstration was not possible, so we were not yet able to test the merging of images in practice. Still a bit of a missed opportunity.

Other improvements

Of course, there are many more improvements both on the outside and under the hood. Immediately visible and noticeable were the new screen and the electronic viewfinder. The viewfinder is taken directly from the A9 and now has 3.69 million pixels, which equates to a resolution of 1280×960 pixels. The numerical difference with 2.4 million pixels and 1024×720 pixels seems small, but the increase in the detail of the small viewfinder screen was certainly noticeable.

The touch-sensitive layer of the screen is also a welcome improvement in our opinion, which we had actually expected years earlier. This is especially useful for video because you can then very subtly and easily shift the focus point without having to touch any buttons. That also works if you look through the viewfinder with your eye while you select the right subject by touch with your thumb, which can be seen in the viewfinder.

Last but not least, video enhancements are useful. As with the A7R II, no pixel binning is used in Super35 mode, but the image is downsampled from 5176×2924 pixels to 3840×2160 pixels (uhd). Besides some extras, such as filming at 120fps in 1080p, the biggest improvement in our opinion is hybrid log-gamma (hlg), which we also know from the Panasonic GH5. This allows HDR video images to be used in real time without color grading, which benefits the workflow. Something we miss is a 60fps mode in 4k, but the A9 didn’t have that either. Presumably we have to wait for the A7S III for this.

What does this mean for A7 III and A7S III?

As usual with Sony, new features are slowly being introduced to all new models. That clears the way for some speculation about the forthcoming A7 III. The A7 II was announced at the end of 2014 and is therefore really ready for a successor. This model is important because it is the entry-level model of the full-frame A7 line and should entice new users to switch. Logically, this model must remain affordable, so a difference in price will have to be compensated by slightly less rich features. We hope and suspect that the improvements in the body will at least be adopted, so that Sony will draw a line.

That would mean that all Mark III models will soon at least use the larger battery. We will undoubtedly also see the touch-sensitive screen and the joystick on the A7S III and hopefully also on the A7 III, but that remains to be seen. The sensor of the A7 III will probably remain at 24 megapixels, albeit with some improvements and tweaks thanks to a faster processor. We may also see the improved ibis, as well as a 4k video mode, which is fairly standard these days.

The price point remains a bit of a gamble, because the A7R II and A7S II have both become a lot more expensive than their predecessors. It would be nice if the A7 III stays below two thousand euros. It is very conceivable that the A7 II will continue to exist on the market as a cheaper entry-level model. That could also apply to the original A7 and A7R from 2013, although they are now really dated. The A7 II was introduced in December 2014, so there is a serious chance that we will see the A7 III this year. The A7S III is also likely to make its appearance soon. The longer battery life in particular will be a relief for videographers who now sometimes had to change batteries after twenty minutes of 4k video.

What does this mean for the A7R II?

The A7R II will remain for sale for the time being, for a considerable sum less money than the new A7R III. It’s nice that Sony didn’t use the introduction to raise the price further, which has become a bit of a trend in recent years. Quite realistically, the improvements over the A7R II are very welcome, but not revolutionary. Those who can live without a touch-sensitive screen, with a single SD slot and with the smaller battery, good for about three hundred photos, can still get by with that camera. For owners of the A7R II there will therefore be little reason to run to the store, unless a certain new feature is highly personalised.