Quick Verdict
The Sony Alpha A7 Mark III is the third version of Sony's 24 megapixel full-frame mirrorless camera, and offers exceptional image quality, high quality 4K video recording, and high speed continuous shooting.
+ Pros
|
- Cons
|
Sony's new Alpha A7 Mark III, has a number of improvements over the Mark II, including 10fps high-speed shooting, 4K HDR video, improved AF, improved battery life, 3inch touch-screen, USB tethering and more. The new Sony Alpha A7 Mark III is available for £2000 body only, or £2200 with 28-70mm lens.
Sony Alpha A7 Mark III Features
The Sony Alpha A7 Mark III features a new full-frame 24mp BSI CMOS sensor, with copper wiring, for improved low-light performance, and faster readout speed. The ISO range goes from ISO50, all the way up to ISO204800. Skin tones are said to be improved, thanks to the BIONZ X image processor. The camera has a number of different options for auto white balance, including standard, ambient, and white.
There are 693 AF points, with phase-detection autofocus (AF), with 93% AF coverage of the full-frame sensor. You can shoot at 10fps in high-speed+ continuous shooting mode, with continuous AF, using either the mechanical shutter or the electronic shutter.
In-camera 5-axis image stabilisation has been improved, to give up to 5-stops compensation (compared to 4.5 stops for the Mark II).
The camera records 4K UHD resolution video internally (at 30/25/24fps), which is downsampled from 6K, to give better detail in video. FullHD video is recorded at 120/100/60/50/30/25/24fps, with built-in stereo microphones. 4K HDR recording can be played back on compatible 4K HDR TVs, without the need to process the video files.
Wi-Fi, NFC, and Bluetooth are built-in. There's a mic and headphone socket on the side, plus HDMI, MicroUSB, and USB Type-C connections. The camera uses the new NP-FZ100 battery from the A9 and A7R Mark III, giving the A7 Mark III an improved battery life rating of 710 shots (using the LCD screen).
Sony Alpha A7 Mark III Key Features
- 24.2mp Full-Frame BSI CMOS sensor
- 693 AF points, -3EV sensitivity, 93% coverage
- Silent (electronic) shutter
- ISO50 to ISO204800 (extended)
- 710 (LCD) shots per charge, 610 (EVF)
- 3inch tilting touch-screen, 921K dots
- 2.36M dot electronic viewfinder (EVF), 0.78x magnification
- Dual SD card slot
- USB3.1 Gen 1 USB Type-C
- 15 stop wide-dynamic range
- 10fps continuous shooting, silent, 177 images, anti-flicker
- 14bit RAW compressed / uncompressed
- Wi-Fi, NFC and Bluetooth built-in
Sony Alpha A7 Mark III Handling
The Sony Alpha A7 Mark III feels extremely well built in the hand, with a large rubber handgrip. The camera is responsive in use, and focus is very quick, with Sony saying that the autofocus (AF) performance of the camera is twice as quick as the A7 Mark II.
With large lenses, the system will seem similar in size to full-frame DSLRs, however, with more compact lenses, the system can be considered quite compact, with the camera body similar in size to an entry level APS-C DSLR.
The top mode dial is not locking and has 2 custom modes, as well as scene modes. The button layout on the back is the same as the A7R Mark III, and the exposure compensation dial is neatly placed to make it easy to change this when needed. It's also firm enough so that you can avoid turning it accidentally. The camera does not feature a flash-sync socket.
The build quality is excellent, with a very similar design and construction as the more expensive A7R III and A9. There are even 6 screws around the lens mount, rather than the 4 found on previous models.
The camera has 2 USB sockets – USB3.1 Type C, and MicroUSB, so you can power or charge the camera via MicroUSB and use remote live view (tethering) via the USB 3.1 Type C connection. There's a microphone socket, a headphone socket, plus HDMI out.
There is side access to the dual SD card slots, with slot 1 supporting high-speed UHS-II cards, and the second slot supports SD or Sony Memory Stick memory cards.
Focus points - There are 693 focus points, covering a wide area of the image area (93% - the same area as the A9), significantly more than you get with most Digital SLR focus systems. Focus tracking is rapid, and face / eye detection ensures that your subjects face and eye are the areas given priority focus. Again, in comparison to DSLR focus systems, this is much more reliable and consistent for portrait shoots. You can use the touch-screen or the joystick on the back to set the focus position.
Then using the electronic viewfinder (EVF), there is a slight flickering visible when on normal quality - this can be improved by setting the display quality to high and unless you're looking for it, you may not notice it. The EVF may not be to everyone's taste. However, it does offer a high resolution display, and what you see is what you get, so you can adjust settings clearly before taking the photo. The rubber surround makes it comfortable to use, and there is dioptre correction if needed.
You can tilt the screen up and down. The screen looks very good, with good viewing angles, and colour reproduction on both the screen and EVF match.
Menus – There are numerous settings and options spread over a many number of screens. This can make finding the setting you want to change quite time consuming. Once you get used to the layout it will get quicker. Thankfully you can add your favourite settings to the "MyMenu" menu. You can also customise the options that come up when you press the Fn (function) button. You can use the touch-screen to set the focus position, but you can't use the touch-screen to scroll through or set menu options. You can switch on anti-flicker shooting, so that the camera will automatically avoid shooting when it detects flickering caused by fluorescent lighting.
Wi-Fi features - The camera has built-in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC, as well as support for FTP transfer over Wi-Fi. To connect the camera to your smartpyhone you need to installe "Remote app: PlayMemories Mobile" - this can be set up quite quickly using a QR Code displayed on the camera. Alternatively if your smartphone supports it you can use NFC, which can be found on the right hand side of the camera.
Battery life is improved, with up to 710 shots using the LCD screen, and will be a welcome to anyone who's used the previous cameras, thanks to using the A9 battery. The camera is also compatible with the same battery grip and battery accessories as the A9.
Sony Alpha A7 Mark III Performance
The performance section is where we look at the image quality performance of the camera. Additional sample photos and product shots are available in the Equipment Database, where you can add your own review, photos and product ratings.
Speed - We took a number of shots to test the camera's responsiveness, from switch on to first photo, shot to shot, focusing speed etc. We take a number of shots and then use the average to ensure accurate and consistent tests, making it easy to compare with other cameras.
| Shutter Response | 0.05secs |
| Wide - Focus / Shutter Response | 0.25secs |
| Full zoom - Focus / Shutter Response | 0.2secs |
| Switch on Time to Taking a Photo | 2.0secs |
| Shot to Shot without Flash | 0.7secs |
| Shot to Shot with Flash | N/A |
| Continuous Shooting - JPEG (shots before slow down) |
10fps (170 shots) |
| Continuous Shooting - Flash | N/A |
| Continuous Shooting - RAW | 10fps (79 shots) |
Focus speed and shutter response is very quick, and the camera can take a very good number of continuous shots at 10fps before slowing down. Tested with the Sony 24-105mm f/4 GM lens, and a Sony UHS-II SD card.
Sony Alpha 7 III Other sample images
Sample Photos - Images produced by the camera look good straight from the camera, and colour reproduction is good, although may not be to everyone's liking. However, you can easily adjust the colour profile ("Creative Style"), with a number of different presets available. These can be customised with options for contrast, saturation, and sharpness.
Focus performed well even in low-light conditions. Exposure is reliable, with the camera giving a good balance. DRO (Dynamic Range Optimisation) does a good job of recorded dynamic range in photos. You can also shoot HDR images, in-camera, if you want to record more in your photos, to avoid over-exposed highlights, and under exposed shadows. Even if you do end up with under-exposed shadows, it is possible to recover shadow detail even from JPEG images. There is no automatic panoramic mode.
Sony Alpha 7 III Lens test images
Lens Performance - Results from the Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS lens are excellent, with a very sharp and detailed images being produced. The lens is also capable of producing pleasing bokeh (background blur) making it an excellent all-round lens, and far better than we expected. There is some vignetting when shooting at the wide-angle end of the lens, but nothing that can't be easily fixed. The lens is also quite resistant to flare, even when shooting towards the sun. The closest focus distance is 38cm. Lens correction options are built-in to the camera, with options for: shading (vignetting) compensation, chromatic aberration compensation, and distortion compensation - we left these on Auto. Some purple fringing was visible when shooting trees against a bright sky.
The in-camera image stabilisation is designed to work with the lens' optical image stabilisation (if the lens has it), and we found we were able to take some sharp photos at shutter speeds as slow as 1/10s and 1/13s at 70mm.
Sony Alpha 7 III ISO test images
ISO Noise Performance - Noise performance is impressive, from ISO50 all the way up to ISO6400, with detail remaining good. At ISO12800 and ISO25600 there is a slight drop in detail recorded, but the low levels of noise, even at this speed is very impressive. There is more noise visible at ISO51200, however this should still produce usable images (depending on your needs). Noise becomes stronger, again, at ISO102400, and colour saturation drops off. Noise at ISO204800 is high, and we'd avoid using this ISO setting if possible. High ISO NR options of Normal, Low, and Off, the default is Normal. Long exposure NR can be set to On or Off, and the default is On. We took these shots with the default settings.
Noise compared to the competition...
Noise performance is up there with the best, with impressive noise performance even at ISO51200. For similar performance you would need to look at the more expensive Nikon D5, D850, Canon EOS 1DX Mark II. The A7 Mark III gives noticeably better noise performance than the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV. It goes without saying, but we'll say it anyway, that the A7 Mark III gives noticeably better performance than the best APS-C cameras, such as the Nikon D500 and D7500.
Sony Alpha 7 III White-balance test images
White Balance Performance - Auto White Balance (AWB) performs extremely well under fluorescent lighting. The fluorescent presets aren't needed here. AWB performs well under tungsten lighting and you can quickly set up the AWB to perform how you would prefer with options for Standard (which gives a fairly neutral result), Ambient (which gives a warm result), and White (which gives the most accurate result). AWB performs well under mixed lighting.
Video - The camera offers 4K UHD video at 30/25/24fps, with stereo sound at 100mbps or 60mbps. The image is downsized from 6K, giving you very sharp and detailed video footage. Focus performance is very good while recording video, and the camera's sensor based image stabilisation does a good job to keep video steady and stable even when holding the camera handheld. Focus performed well even when using the camera in low-light conditions.
As well as setting a "Creative Style", you can setup "Picture Profiles" specifically for video (these options are in the first set of photo menus), with options to set the black level, gamma, black gamma, knee, colour mode and saturation. In colour mode there are options for: Movie, Still, Cinema, Pro, ITU709 Matrix, Black and White, S-Gamut, S-Gamut3.Cine, and S-Gamut3. There are Time Code options in the Setup menus.
Watch a 4K sample video recorded with the A7 Mark III below, or watch more on the ePHOTOzine YouTube Channel.
Value For Money
The Sony Alpha A7 Mark III is available for £1999 body only. This makes it good value for money, considering the features and speed available from the camera. Here are some of the alternatives that you could look at:
Sony Alpha A7 Mark II, 24mp, 5fps, FullHD video, £1199 body only
Sony Alpha A7R Mark III, 42mp, 10fps, 4K video, £3199 body only
Sony Alpha A9, 24mp, 20fps, 4K video, £4299 body only
Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, 30mp, 7fps, 4K video, £3248 body only
Canon EOS 6D Mark II, 26mp, 6.5fps, FullHD video, £1729 body only
Nikon D850, 45mp, 7fps (9fps with battery grip), 4K video, £3499 body only
Have a look at more compact system cameras in our Top 15 Premium Mirrorless Cameras. You'll also need to buy a memory card and a case or bag to keep your camera safe and protected - have a look at our complete guide to camera bags.
Sony Alpha A7 Mark III Verdict
Announcing the Sony Alpha A7 Mark III - Sony had the clever idea of telling everyone, that this was "the basic model" in the Sony Alpha range, and pretty much everyone published this, because it was quite frankly a little bit ridiculous. The Sony A7 III is anything but basic, easily beating other full-frame DSLRs for specifications and features. But it also means that if this is the "basic" model, then reviewers and customers are going to be comparing everybody else's full-frame cameras against the A7 III, both current, and any future full-frame cameras released. Almost as if calling it the "basic" model has set it up as a standard for everything else to be compared to. Bravo Sony, perhaps one of the most inspired marketing ideas of recent years.
The Sony Alpha A7 Mark III, on specifications alone, offers everything you could possibly want from a camera, including low noise at higher ISO speeds, high-speed continous shooting, rapid focus, and numerous focus points.
Thankfully the camera also performs as well - with excellent image quality, thanks to reliable exposure, excellent lenses, great dynamic range and rapid focus performance. High quality 4K video recording is just icing on the cake.
The camera body offers good handling - although the menus can seem a little long and slightly dis-organised. With a compact prime lens, the camera system can be quite compact, however most lenses, such as the excellent FE 24-105mm f/4 G lens are quite large, which makes the system fairly large.
In terms of this camera being a "basic" model, the Sony Alpha A7 Mark III is hardly what we'd call "basic" - and quite easily makes everything else look slower, larger, heavier, less innovative, and more expensive.
| The Sony Alpha A7 Mark III makes you question why you would buy anything else. |
Own this product? Let us know what you think of it in the EQDB.
Spotted a mistake? Let us know in the EQDB.